How do I Do Internal Marketing for Dental Offices?

Learn ways to promote your dental practice from within.

When you are running a dental office, numerous internal marketing opportunities are available to you each day you open the doors of your practice for business. External marketing efforts, such as placing an ad in the phone book or on a billboard, can attract new patients, but so can some of the efforts you can take with internal marketing efforts, such as training your staff to help you promote the practice, using patient testimonials or asking for referrals.

Things You'll Need

• Marketing plan

Instructions

1. Train dental employees to promote the business with existing patients. Host a training session where the employees learn about the marketing plan for the practice and teach them specific ways they can promote the practice internally, such as asking patients for referrals.

2. Ask patients for referrals. Remind patients you love to receive referrals by adding a request or a reminder line to each communication you have with the patient. This includes hanging a sign in the waiting room and in each patient room that says something like, "We love your referrals" or "Referrals are your best compliments of our service." You can also include a referral request on invoices or appointment reminder postcards you send to patients.

3. Collect and display patient testimonials. When you ask for or receive feedback from your patients, get the patient's permission to use their testimonial as part of your internal marketing efforts. Print testimonials in the printed communications you have with patients and display the testimonial letters in frames around the lobby and in patient visiting rooms.

4. Host a patient appreciation event. Either once a year or once a quarter, hold a special event like a wine and cheese cocktail party and invite patients to attend. As a simple way to say thank you for being your patient, you are marketing your practice internally in an indirect manner, which helps you to retain your current patients and garner an interest in these patients to refer new patients to you.

5. Send an internal newsletter. Whether you use an email or hard copy format, create a monthly newsletter about your practice and the dental industry in general to share relevant information with your patients. When you share useful information with your patients, they see you as a valuable resource. Monthly communications keep you in the front of your patients' minds for their own dental needs and the dental needs of people they know.

References

• Dental Compare: Dental Practice Marketing--9 Strategies for Internal Marketing