External and Internal Marketing in Your Dental Practice

Marketing is something most dental and orthodontic practices didn’t have to worry about 20 years ago. Today, the only practices that survive and thrive are those who prioritize and invest in effective marketing strategies.

There are 2 categories of marketing for your dental practice: internal and external. Internal is what you do inside of the practice to market to your patients. This might include things like patient communication, pass-off strategies between team members, promoting an internal referral program, or telling patients about services and promotions in the office. External is what you do outside of the practice. This might include building or updating your website, social media marketing, direct mail campaigns, or print advertising.

Both types of marketing are important, and you can maximize all your marketing efforts when you use the 2 types together. Keep reading to find out how!

Using Internal Strategies to Maximize your External Marketing

What you do inside your dental practice can make your external marketing efforts significantly more effective. Here are a few examples:

Online reviews are a critical part of attracting new patients and protecting your online reputation. Even though online reviews are part of your external marketing, it actually takes an internal strategy to ask happy patients to write reviews for you. Without a specific plan to ask patients for reviews, it is extremely difficult to build positive online reviews. Every practice you see who has stellar online reviews is asking patients regularly for them.
You can also support building your Facebook following by routinely asking patients in your practice to “Like” your Facebook page – especially those patients who are on their phone during their whole appointment!
Gathering unique, personalized content from your patients is also a great to way to link your internal and external marketing strategies. Ask a happy patient to allow you to film a short video testimonial about their experience – this is especially effective for patients finishing procedures that you’re working on promoting. Take pictures of patients who have finished a treatment with visible results, and ask if you can post it on social media and tag them.

Implementing Successful Internal Marketing in Your Dental Practice

Any dental practice business owner knows, the toughest part about running a dental practice is getting your team on board with your initiatives – especially when it comes to internal marketing strategies.

Many dentists and orthodontists would love if their team were more proactive in marketing their practice. Here are some tips on how to do this:

Hold regular meetings with your team to update them on your goals, direction and strategy for the practice. Help them feel like they’re a part of this process, and let them know you can’t do it without their help. Focus on inspiration versus management. One of the best books I’ve read on this concept is Developing the Leader Within You by John Maxwell – a must for anyone leading a business!
Set goals for your team for internal marketing initiatives such as 2 new online reviews per month, or 1 video testimonial per month. Hold the team accountable for these goals, and reward the team members who are active in meeting them.
Be the best example yourself! I can’t emphasize this enough. If you’re not marketing your practice internally every day – why would your team do this for you? You must lead the way and show them 1^st that this is a priority.
Be consistent, bring up your initiatives every meeting, and keep working at it until it sticks. Adjust your approach slightly if you find it’s not working, and be persistent about making this a priority in your practice.

Creating the Perfect Internal and External Marketing Strategy

At ClearEdge, we’re not only experts in unique, customized online marketing, we also understand the business of dentistry inside and out. We can help you create the perfect mix of internal and external marketing strategies to help you achieve your business growth goals.