Latest / The Word of Mouth Podcast / People Over Algorithms: The Referral-First Marketing Framework for Dentists | WOM 026
Transcript
- Jeff: Welcome back to the Word of Mouth Podcast, the dental marketing podcast where old school is the new school. I'm your host, Jeff, and I'm joined today by my co host Troy. Troy: Hey, good to be with you again, Jeff. Jeff: Awesome. So today we are talking a little bit about Sisyphus and the kind of how that Greek story and legend relates to the idea of dental marketing. And something that we've kind of switched up in our messaging and in our beliefs as we've gone through this journey of working with dentists is that marketing begins with people, not algorithms. And that is so true in dentistry. So let's let's talk through those things today about what that means. Why how that relates to Sisyphus and what that looks like for dentists moving forward? Troy: Sure. Well, of course the the myth of of Sisyphus is the idea that that he is condemned to pushing a a rock up a hill, you know, and each day it it starts again at the bottom. And where we see the parallel to to the marketing approach that a lot of dentists take is that paid ads really are are are kind of the they're aligned with what the with the realities of Sisyphus, which is that you stop paying the rocks at the bottom of the hill. You don't have really any opportunity to to reach the other side and create some of that momentum that carries forward without the constant ad spend. And so as we talk about, you know, the notion of are we are we optimizing our marketing or targeting our marketing to to to to people or to algorithms, the the the that's where the interface really is, that we that we came up as or came up with as we discussed this. Jeff: Yeah, I think dentists have often felt like marketing in general is just a sisophean task where you get up, you do it, and you're always chasing the new patients. That you know patients are moving out, you know there's some churn, and so you're always having to chase it. That's that's a new problem for you. It's the same problem that's new for you every day you come into the office. And What we've realized as we've worked with some of the clients we've worked with and as we've watched dentistry generally and some of the trends, and we've talked about this historically, is that the people that you bring into your practice can make it much less Sisyphian. So maybe you push it up to the top of the hill and some of the boulder rolls over. So that tomorrow's task of pushing the boulder over the hill is a smaller boulder. It's there's some erosion on the that goes over to the top of the mountain. It's not necessarily that same giant boulder every single day. Troy: or or maybe said another way, it it you know, we're live here in Utah in the mountains and i if you've hiked many of the higher mountains, you you know there's kind of the false peak where you look up and you say, Once I get to that point, I'm at the top, get there and you're not at the top, but but there is at least some break in it. Maybe that's what we're really talking about with some of the you know, some strategies. But maybe it doesn't really get to the other side where it you know, starts chasing down. But at least we get to a place where there's some some relief from starting over. I we may be carrying the metaphor too far, but but but that's what we're really s you know kind of looking at is when we really are talking about the people, there's an opportunity to organize and focus marketing in a way that that doesn't have that same obligation to pay month in and month out for every single new patient that you're acquiring. Jeff: Yeah, certainly there's not been a single dentist we've spoken to who doesn't recognize the value of referral patients. That is one hundred percent across the board, my best patients come from referrals. And the way to generate more referrals is not ads. That's obviously well known, but it feels like ads are kind of this necessary evil. And because there are tangible numbers, there's some more maybe consistent output of what you put in. That's where a lot of dentists and naturally that's where they tend to focus. But if there's a way to generate more of the kind of referral patients and those high quality patients, the ones that keep coming back, they're not there for the special or whatever kind of hook you're trying to get into with the ads, those are the kinds of patients that if you can generate over and over, you get some of that relief from this. Sisopian task of marketing your practice and acquiring new patients. Troy: Right. And and some of it you know, I I I I think like dentists aren't unique in this. We have been conditioned and Google's gr done a great job because of what they offered, which was a buyable exposure. You could pay a certain amount and get a certain amount of exposure, which you know, was was really an incredible marrying of that kind of thing that existed with yellow pages but with some targeting as well. So It really was a remarkable thing, but I think people have just become so conditioned because it's what's pitched so much to just think, you know, that becomes the default, the lens through which they see marketing. And there really isn't you know, a lot of people don't step back and say, Hey, what am I really trying to accomplish? You know, how do we how do we make sure that we're aiming at the right thing before we shoot? And It's it's really it it manifests in a lot of different ways, Jeff, that that when we're talking to you know a new prospect or or explaining this to some you know to a dentist that reaches out to us, there there is a disconnect between what marketing is and what's it what it's intended to accomplish. And and probably a better way to say it is the the line between marketing and advertising is what so often gets blurred. And advertising, it really is that pushing the rock up, knowing that it it just resets tomorrow. You know, it's not branding. It's not you know, marketing that's intended to create leverage from, you know, existing resources. It really is a, you know, a purely transactional means of getting exposure. And so, Just starting by recognizing, hey, we don't start by talking about Google as marketing. We start by talking about marketing as marketing. And marketing is me getting clear on what message I want to convey and getting clear on who I want to convey it to, and then making sure that those are are aligned. You know, that's that's what marketing is. Advertising. Google Ads is merely a channel and there are a lot of other there's lots of other channels that are available as well. Jeff: Yeah. And one thing I wanted to touch on that you said is that dentists aren't unique in how Google ads and Facebook ads and kind of advertising, the availability of advertising and the ease of advertising has affected their industry. They're not unique in that. But dentists are unique in something else, and that is the size of their footprint. More than any other business I can think of, dentists have a very small geographic footprint. Which allows for neighborhoods to be so much more targetable. If you're a plumber, you can't just say, I'm gonna target this one neighborhood and get 50 new clients. But as a dentist, that is very achievable. That may be vastly undershooting the mark of what the goal of that capturing that neighborhood, depending on your geographic proximity to them. And so while most businesses have of necessity moved to ads because of the way that they're geographically oriented. Dentists have moved away from what made them successful in their tiny geographic areas for decades looking looking historically. And that's becoming kind of a fixture of the neighborhood. We have I have my brother-in-law goes to a dentist in a small town that's growing quite quickly now, but what used to be a small town in Utah here And he said he's never done any advertising or marketing at all because he was the first dentist in there. And he's just managed to maintain that kind of now we're talking about momentum in terms of a s a kind of inertia that he captured that market initially and he's been able to maintain and grow his practice. And he doesn't have to do any marketing because he's captured that small geographic area ahead of other people moving in. And there's of course being first to mover. in sort of that geographic area, but there's also creating your own kind of community within a community. Troy: Right. And and that's what I think that's an important distinction is that it we tend to talk about it as a small geographic area, which yes, there's opportunities to do that and to to be aware that there's going to be plenty of people within, you know, a one or two mile radius of any practice that's in a suburban or urban area, more than enough people to supply a practice. But Geography isn't the only way to constrain that. You know, you can have a small town reality for your practice by getting clear on what communities you connect with and really leveraging them. And there's many people who, you know, they're going to a dentist twice a year. It may be a half an hour or 45 minute drive, you know, in an area where they're passing by 20, 30, 50, 100 other dentists. But if they have that connection with that dentist, you know, if they are part of a shared community, that's okay. They're, you know, they're happy to do it. Just like somebody in a rural area, possibly of necessity or by choice, might drive that 45 or you know, or 50 minutes not passing any dentist to get to a dentist. It it it doesn't have to be geography, it's about connection. And that's why we say, you know, there really is an opportunity. When a a a practice really looks to see who are we the right practice for? How do we leverage the the connections that we already have, whether they be geographic or or some other community connection? There's really opportunities to expand in ways that you have a a clear competitive advantage. And that's part of what marketing, smart marketing is, is not saying how do we yell the loudest? And have that be our only competitive advantage. How do we outspend everybody? But instead, where are there gaps in the marketplace that I do have the competitive advantage? That instead of competing with a list of 50 other dentists on Google Maps, I'm connecting with them where it's me. You know, it's just my practice because of the way that I'm connecting with them and and and how I'm leveraging a relationship, whether it's with them directly or with somebody that they knew know or if it's just, you know, a common interest or or or some other common connection. So that's what smart marketing really is about. It's not gaming Google. It's identifying how do we leverage and create relationships that help us grow in a way that's sustainable. Jeff: Yeah. So I I wanna talk quick and just to give our listeners a little bit of a kind of takeaway from this. What are some communities that you think are areas where people can identify and develop that community? One that popped out immediately to me is family. I drive like twenty-five minutes to our dentist because it's where you go and a bunch of our family goes, and we've just kind of gotten ingratiated with this dentist and he's He's great. another one that I thought about is language. We work with a dentist who is French speaking in Louisiana. He has an opportunity to differentiate and provide an opportunity for maybe immersion programs where the kids speak French and say, come to the dentist and practice your French. Or a Spanish speaking would obviously be the same kind of community where if you become the go to Spanish dentist, you In most communities in the US, you probably have a pretty good market. Troy: For sure. And and and i it there really I mean this is the thing that's interesting, Jeff, is there's almost no limit to the opportunities to find these communities. And what I mean by that is they can be very small. I mean, in an area another dentist that we work with in in in Texas, you know, it's not a small area, but within that area, one of the The specialties that they offer is childhood airway issues, you know, whether that results in sleep apnea or whatever it might be, but they've there there's a lot of research that's finding that there's a connection with some of those airway issues and ADHD. Well, within that within that area, that geography, there are invariably a lot of parents that are trying to figure out These manifestations of ADHD and are trying to see if there's some alternative to, you know, the medication route to treating it. Well, get that message out to those people and that can become a community where they are feeding the practice because they have this common pain point or concern that they're trying to solve. You know, there's something or a lot of other community types where it's just a common interest. if you know one of our dentists is is he he he went to school in in Louisville and kind of got into the the horse racing scene or the horse raising scene I guess it is and you know that's an interest that he has is horses. Well are there going to be opportunities whether it's clubs or or some other groups that that have that interest where you now are able to draw a connection and they say I I I'll go to him because we get to talk about horses. I mean, sure, he's twenty-five minutes away or thirty minutes away, and I pass a lot of other dentists, but we get to talk about horses, and that's a cool thing. So there really there there's not a limitation a limitation on how many different community opportunities there are. You just have to look at, you know, the practice and the the the staff as well as the area that you're in and say, where are those opportunities? And then just consistently reaching out not only to those those communities that you've identified, but just creatively identifying other community outreach opportunities to you know to to connect with. Jeff: Yeah, and just kinda to finish out, I think looking at your staff is another great way to expand your community reach where you may have a staff member who is on a bowling team. They're in a bowling league. Well, they have an opportunity once a month or once a week, however often they're bowling, where they can talk to these people and say, Hey, come if you don't have a dentist, come see me. Like I I'll be your hygienist. And Troy: Well and and and maybe even just to build on that really quick, Jeff, and sorry to cut you off, but it doesn't even need to necessarily be a pitch. Pay attention to what they're saying. And if they're talking about, you know, I'm having tooth pain or I you know, I I have a an old bridge that's failing. I i i i the more aware that we help our staffs to be where they're connected, there's just gonna be even some really organic opportunities to share it that don't make them feel like they have to pitch friends and family, but just they're a resource. Jeff: Yeah, that's a good point. And that's kind of what I meant is that if you're bowling with these people and they know you're a hygienist, th it's just can come up naturally that it doesn't need to be go, hey, you need to go join a club. You need to go join a golf club and we want you to be pitching them every time you see them. But you just develop these things. We went to a dentist for a long time before we moved, but who was in our our church congregation and it was just we knew him. He he's a dentist and he was a little bit further. We passed several dentists to go to him, but it was great to go support the guy that we spend a lot of time with on Sundays and see regularly throughout the week. And so it's it it is really easy when you identify the fact that you are everyone is members of several different communities and it's that community used to be truly just geographic. It's the small town, the dentist owns the city. But we've moved away from that. And community is so much bigger than that with social media, with all of the availability of recreation time and clubs and memberships and hobbies that we all develop. it there's just so many opportunities. And so it's up to the dentist and his staff to identify what is the identity of the practice, what is my identity as a person, where's the overlap, where are the opportunities? And the better the dentists get at that, the better the less they have to rely on ads, and the more that Sisyphian task of of pushing the mountain the rock up the mountain becomes more bearable, if nothing else. Troy: Well, and and you get to a place and there's practices. The the example that you gave in the you know, in Santa Quin, Utah is a great example where it's rolling downhill. I mean he d he he he isn't having to do anything. So there are those opportunities and for sure if you know, if there's any practices out there, it it is a lot of work. We acknowledge that, you know, and and getting that identity clear and everything else and we have some resources available to To help those that are trying to do it themselves, if if you know, anyone that's looking for some help in that, happy to to to discuss and help you know, hopefully help them move that, move down the road or move up and over the hill as the case may be. but Jeff: That's exactly right. Troy: it's i i it we'll we'll be talking a lot more about this because we see this as the real opportunity as we move through the end of twenty twenty six and into twenty twenty seven. Where there's a lot of headwinds blowing against the dental practices, but there's also a lot of real great opportunities for those practices that really you know, d yeah they they make the the the investment in being a people first marketing focused practice as opposed to one that is, you know, still trying to just beat the algorithms and crossing their fingers that things get better. Jeff: Yeah. Yeah. So like Troy mentioned, the there will be resources linked in the description, whether you're on YouTube watching us in person or you're listening to us on your favorite podcast platform. if you could help us out and subscribe, leave a review if you're on podcasts. subscribe on YouTube. We'd love to continue to connect. We have old podcasts that you can go check out that touch on some of these principles. they were great. back then and they what we said is still still true. we'll look forward to talking more about this moving into the future. So please feel free to reach out, connect, comment. We respond to all the comments on YouTube. we if you want to book a call with us, there's no pressure to move forward with any anything we provide, but we'd love to discuss what it looks like for your practice and how to best move your practice forward focusing on people, not algorithms. Thank you for being with us and we look forward to seeing you in the next one.