So we have been running 4 different marketing campaigns for a dental office in Augusta, called WRDC.

We started running these campaigns in October 2018.

One of the campaigns is for 50% OFF teeth whitening sessions, and that campaign has been showing us really good results.

Here are the results:

$2753 in ad spend

334 people showed interest.

82 became patients.

15-17 have already come in more than once for teeth whitening and/or other procedures, adding to revenue.

$12,300+ Revenue generated

$75,000+ in potential long-term Revenue because each dental patient contributes at the very least $5,000 in revenue over 7-10 years if you give them good care.

Here is a visual of the results for this campaign:

By the way, our very engaging marketing campaign on Facebook is going viral in Augusta, GA.

Why?

Well, because it is simple, to-the-point and gives potential patients a lot of value.

Here’s how it looks like in action:

And here is a small section of the comments which this ad is generating:

Here are the “mechanics” behind this marketing campaign which is showing such good results (very important):

1. As soon as someone clicks on the Facebook ad, they are taken to a form where they enter their name, email address and phone number.
2. When they do this, they are shown the thank you page, which asks them to call the dental office ASAP to avail the offer.
3. The system also sends them 2 emails to follow up with them and to remind them to call the dental clinic.
4. However, as soon as the lead is generated, the dental office’s front desk receives an email from us saying they have to call this person immediately.
5. If the front desk calls them within 5 minutes of getting the lead, that person is virtually guaranteed to come in because they are delighted with the quick response time and are willing to give this business a chance.
6. When the lead is called, they verbally confirms the appointment time and date.
7. If no one answers the call, a voice message and a text is sent out to them. The front desk follows up the next day again if there is no answer. Some people are busy or may simply forget about answering calls. Multiple follow-ups are necessary.
8. Most people who confirm show up for the treatment and contribute 50% of the price of the teeth whitening session. This recovers the cost of the marketing campaign and allows them to experience the care they receive.
9. If they love coming to this dental clinic, they keep coming in for the following years.
10. We have other systems in place which keeps patients engaged and gives them multiple reasons to keep coming in, adding to the revenue and increasing profit margins. Some of these include email newsletters, retargeting, personal follow-ups and direct mail.

IMPORTANT: The Lifetime Value (LTV) of a dental patient:

Every single one of the marketing campaigns that we run for dental offices relies on 1 simple thing, namely that each dental patient, if they like your care, will come back multiple times a year and will refer their friends and family to the dentist.

All of this adds to the LTV of the patient and this is the #1 secret of dental offices having 6-figure months.

Here is a rough estimate of the Lifetime Values of dental patients:

1. General Dentist: $5,000 to $8,000
2. Orthodontist: $7,000 to $10,000
3. Cosmetic Dentist: $6,000 to $15,000
4. Specialized Procedures (think Full Mouth Reconstruction): $30,000 to $45,000

Once again, the LTV is based on how long a patient stay with you and how much revenue they contribute to you over that period.

The top dental offices have patients coming in for the last 20-40 years!

Can you see how this dramatically impacts the LTV and allowed them to increase their profit margin?

How LTV helps you create successful marketing campaigns:

Normally, dentists look at the transactional value of a new patient and use that to justify their marketing expenses.

They say “If I spend $300 to get 1 new patient and that patient spends $500 with me when he/she comes in, I have made some money…”

And to be fair, that statement is true.

However, that statement is also misleading in a pretty big way because if you get this wrong, your business model isn’t set up for success.

Here’s why:

Every single dental patient has a chance to come in multiple times over 7-10 or even 30 years IF they have a good experience with you.

All of this adds to the Lifetime Value (LTV) of that particular patient and this directly helps you with your profitability.

Put another way, you paid once to get a patient in who is now a patient for life AND is referring other people to you.

The lesson here is that you should always look at the Lifetime Value of each patient, which is at least $5,000.

Now ask yourself, “Does it make sense to invest $300 to generate $5,000 in revenue, over and over again?”

The answer to that question is always going to be a resounding Yes.

This is exactly what the top dental clinics do.

Key takeaways from this marketing campaign:

Here are some very interesting things we learnt from this (and almost every) marketing campaign that we run for dentists.

1. Not everyone showing interest will come in and spend money with you. In fact, this is far from the case. If you get 25% of the people in the door, you are doing a very good job. Normally the average is around 5-13%.
2. If a campaign goes viral, you might get more patients in than you can handle. This will force you to book them 1-2 months down the road, which can result in disgruntled people and negative reviews.
3. The simpler the ad is, the better it is. Use simple, easy to understand language which people can resonate with.
4. Most people love deals (50% OFF) and lowering price can get more people to come in but this is almost never a good idea. I always tell my clients to increase prices but provide more value. The reason why we are offering a discount in this campaign is to get people to come in for a base offer, after which they will come in for other treatments which are priced higher.
5. The more social proof an ad has (likes, shares, comments), the better it is in terms of the results it generates. This is because its performance allows people to trust it more.
6. A person who comes for a base offer such as teeth whitening and is happy with the care they receive is more than likely to come multiple times AND refer 2.2 people to the practice every single year.
7. Only the top dental offices with expert marketing teams make use of multi-channel marketing strategies such as Facebook, AdWords, Bing and retargeting. Normal dental clinics only send out postcards and have listings on Yellow Pages and Yelp.

The Secret Of The #1 Dental Office In Your City Is That They Know What The Lifetime Values Of Their Patients Is And Marketing To Them Accordingly…