If you are like me and observe dentists advertising messages that I find when searching Google, you will know there are 83,400 dental practices who claim to be the “friendliest” practice around.
In the same vein, there are 3,340,000 dentists who pride themselves on being “gentle” and 23,900,000 who offer “great customer service”.
How are you supposed to stand out in a crowd where almost everyone is offering the same thing?
Determining your USP (Unique Selling Proposition), POD (Point Of Difference) or UPB (Unique Perceived Benefit) can be a challenge. Being the cheapest, offering the most services and having the latest technology are all commonly promoted benefits. However, to effectively promote your practice, you need to offer something that your colleagues don’t.
In today’s competitive dental market, how do you find something to offer that your colleagues don’t, and yet is consistent with who you are and your philosophy of dental practice?
The answer is: stop trying to appeal to everyone.
Appealing to the majority of the population is where ‘cheapest, best, fastest and easiest’ benefits are identified. Your marketing becomes generic and ineffective. In order to be seen as unique, you must become more specialised in what you offer.
Narrow your focus to what you consider to be your ideal patient and research what that patient wants from their dental practice. Make THAT your point of difference. Become THAT practice.
Determining your ideal patient, or ‘customer avatar’, and establishing the following framework will form the basis for all of your successful marketing and promotion.
The key is to be specific. You want your ideal patient to come across your website, advertising and social media sites and feel you are reading their mind. You do this by identifying their goals, values, fears and dreams.
Identifying your patient avatar reveals what your unique message can be. It also directs where and how to promote your message for greatest impact.
Becoming unique in a crowd where everyone is offering the same thing is easy when you find the unique element within your market.
Julie was the first non-dentist to own and manage a dental practice in Australia. Julie’s experiences during her ten years of practice ownership developed a unique perspective on how to achieve great success by empowering dental teams and practice owners. Practices that apply Julie’s insights gain high levels of control over their practice destiny.