Thanks for clicking through to find out more about advertising your course, conference or website on GDPUK.com.

Get noticed by the thousands of Dentists on GDPUK every month.

Below we have put some excellent pricing for advertising on the site from April 16 onwards. We believe the site is an exceptional place to attract dentists who are interested in learning on your course or conference in 2016.

Advertise your course one month at a time, improved pricing offered for 2 or more months booked. Please get in touch for more information.

All advertising includes 2 PR pieces per month published on the site, which we share on social media to our 5,000 + followers.

Advertising Options start from £250+vat for the month

All banners appear in rotation with other banner ads throughout the month you book.

Email banner - appears on our daily digest emails - 468x60px

Usual Price …. £395 + vat  …….Special offer - £250 + vat

Forum banner Spot 2 - appears on forum pages on left hand side of page - approx 30,000 impressions per month - 300x250px

Usual Price - £475 + vat ……. Special offer - £325 + vat

Forum banner Spot 1 - appears on forum pages on left hand side of page, above Spot 2 - approx 30,000 impressions per month - 300x250px

Usual Price - £550 + vat ……. Special offer - £395 + vat

Leaderboard Banner - available from May onwards, appears on all pages of the site at the top, 728x90px

Usual Price - £950 + vat ……. Special offer - £750 + vat

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to book your space on the site and

get your course advertised in front of your target audience.

How can we help you?

First week back in the office has flown by and like everyone else involved in the world of sales, we have all been working hard on following up leads, arranging meetings and even closing some deals! (always be closing)

There has been a recurring theme this week in my small dental related bubble and that is clients or prospects asking how we can help them in 2016?

We see GDPUK as an integral part of a dental companies opportunity to market themselves to dentists in the UK. We believe we have a large, active and engaged audience on the site, which we are very proud of. This is important because dental professionals in the UK are using social media more than ever and GDPUK is at the centre of that. For example many of the signatures for the letter published in the Daily Telegraph came from GDPUK. NHS unfit for purpose.

So we have put together a short list of the ways in which we can help our clients engage with potential customers.

1. Banner Ads - We offer a range of banner ads on the site and our daily digest emails. Further info can be found in our media pack here

2. Product Spotlights - New for 2016, the product spotlight will appear on the frontpage of the site, with a promotion of your new service / product or special offer.

3. Product / Service Launches - We can help launch a new product into the market, with blogs, news articles and banner ads.

4. Special Offers - Entice new or old customers with a special offer / or sample offer

5. Case Studies - We can publish case studies for you of products that are working for patients in dental practices. A case study can be a great way of demonstrating how your product works and how it will help the dentist improve his or her skills.

6. Forum Reviews / Tests - Put your product to the test, use members of the GDPUK forum to test your product and receive honest reviews that can be shared on the forum and published as a blog post.

7. Surveys - Run a survey, which can be hosted by our site or your site. Use it to do product research etc

8. Social Media Competitions - Combining promotion on GDPUK and other social media channels, we can run a competition that helps collect data and potential new users of your product.

9. Promotion of Courses / Events - There are a large number of events, meetings, courses that are scheduled in the UK dental calendar on an annual basis, we can help with promotion and even the sale of the tickets.

We hope everyone out there has also had an insightful start to the year and like ourselves are always thinking about how they can improve what they offer to their customers. If you would like to try any other marketing ideas on our site, we are always interested in new methods and always looking to learn. Look forward to hearing from you soon.

Thanks for reading. 

Our latest media pack can be found by clicking on this link

Look at some of our amazing numbers that GDPUK produces - GDPUK in Numbers

On Wednesday the 7th of October, GDPUK were invited to the launch of Denplan’s new TV advert which will air on our screens from Saturday night (10th Oct) and will run for approximately 3 weeks.

The campaign demonstrates Denplan’s huge investment and commitment to dentistry and the dental practices that they work with. An impressive £1.2 million has been spent on this campaign.

After a short consultation period, Denplan have used the advertising agency “brothers and sisters” to design the advert. Established since 2008, they have a number of famous campaigns in their portfolio including the Thierry Henry advert that aired this year which can be viewed below. Great advert, especially the part when he joins Alex Ferguson and Brian Kidd on the Old Trafford turf!

The Denplan advert

So what does the advert entail? It shows a young man taking a selfie on a day out but everytime he smiles, he snaps his horrendous teeth. These teeth are obviously quite extreme to get the message across and were created by the special effects team at Fangs Fx. (If you click on the link, it gives you a great idea of what they are capable of!) So the bloke starts coming up with ways to cover his teeth, eg putting his cat in front of his mouth or putting his hand in front of his teeth. The producers behind the advert have gone for something that will make the viewers smile and also gets people interacting, which seems to be the current trend for TV adverts, as exposure is limited with the way we all watch TV these days. Let us know what you think, when the advert airs over the weekend? Does it make you smile?

The aim

Denplan would like to increase brand awareness, plus of course help Denplan’s member practices stand out in the competitive market of attracting / retaining patients. Practices have been sent a large amount of marketing material that will be used to engage with patients, so in conjunction with the advert, it will provide excellent opportunities to talk to their patients and forms a part of their practice marketing.

Denplan conducted some selfie research which gives further credence to the campaign. A YouGov survey revealed that a staggering 5.6 million selfies are taken in an average day by adults online which equates to an incredible 2 billion plus per year!  Three quarters (74%) of adults have worried about how their teeth look in photographs and a third of adults (33%) have smiled but purposely not shown their teeth due to being embarrassed by them, so selfies and smiles was an easy place for Denplan to focus their efforts. 

The Impact

So from a dental perspective, what impact will this bring on UK Dentistry? A few thoughts to consider:-

1. Obviously there will be a huge impact for Denplan dental practices but will other dental plan providers also receive a boost? I believe it gets people thinking about their teeth and their dentist, so its a positive piece of marketing for all dental practices.

2. It is fantastic to move away from traditional tv dental advertising and instead Denplan have embraced a modern and fresh approach…. Everyone at the event agreed that this was a brave move and the small crowd were certainly positive about the message that Denplan are hoping to achieve.

3. The use of social media and a hashtag #doitforyourselfie taps nicely into a younger, celebrity obsessed crowd but if it gets the public visiting the dentist on a more frequent basis and talking about dentistry in a positive light, then surely this is a good thing? Dr Roger Matthews (Chief Dental Officer) of Denplan mentioned that motivation is key with patients and he believes that running this campaign could be a great way of motivating patients to visit their dentist on a regular basis and that is obviously the overall aim of the campaign.

4. Dentists are often negatively portrayed in the media but I believe it is refreshing to see a slightly humorous take on the Dental world but with a positive message that people in Britain our proud of their smiles and possibly the work dentists have done on their teeth? This will hopefully be demonstrated over the next few days, as the public share their selfies on www.doitforyourselfie.co.uk. Already a number of selfies have been uploaded!

Unfortunately I can't provide a copy of the advert just yet but I will update this blog with the advert once it has had its premiere. Over the next few days we will be keeping a close eye on the microsite, to see whether it captures the public imagination and the general reaction from the dental community on social media. We certainly hope it does capture the imagination and as stated previously, it achieves the positive message that Denplan are striving for. Please let us know what you think and how the advert will be received?

** Blog now updated**

The advert is due to be shown at 15:28 on ITV1 on Saturday afternoon.

#doitforyourselfie

www.doitforyourselfie.co.uk

The issue of waiting times is a common problem for dental practices. Although we may not be able to be give all of our patients what they want, all of the time, we can strive to ensure that waiting times are not at an unacceptable level.

Having to wait for an appointment is often the reason behind a patient choosing to go private, rather than have treatment through the NHS. A recent report in The Telegraph looked at claims that NHS doctors may be driving up waiting times in order to attract more private patients.[1] Controversial and unethical, definitely, and – just like in dentistry – paying to jump the queue does not guarantee a better standard of care.

However, the fact remains that when a dental patient is choosing where to have their treatment, waiting time could be a big part of that decision. Patients not only have high expectations, but they are savvy and organised. They may call you directly, or use online forums to find out the information they need. Loyalty to one’s dentist is an alien concept to many, particularly with a more itinerant population, and convenience is often King.

Being in control of your waiting times is the key to providing consistently excellent customer service. To be a successful, thriving practice in this competitive environment, customer service needs to be impeccable from the minute a patient makes contact. If a patient does not feel valued, they may not return even if the treatment was successful:  if you go to a restaurant and are served fantastic food by a bad waiter, the poor service is what will stay with you. Also, people have busy lives. If you schedule a follow-up months into the future, something more urgent may come up at a later date. Many are reluctant to book an appointment too far in advance, because they are unsure about their upcoming commitments and do not want the hassle of having to change it.

Having ‘acceptable’ or ‘reasonable’ waiting times means treatment plans have more chance of being completed. It also gives you the chance to develop a dialogue with patients and build on positive communication. You can give people oral healthcare tips and discuss how they have been working at home when you see them often enough; this also encourages trust, particularly if they want to discuss an issue that has been troubling them. If you are able to give an accurate timescale for their treatment, this is great for compliance.

A streamlined approach to waiting times will reduce stress for everyone who works at your practice; there will be less unhappy patients to deal with for one! To set reasonable waiting times as standard, you have to be ruthlessly efficient about how you organise appointments. Online booking platforms are fantastic tools for achieving this: for example, Zesty lets you upload only the appointments you want to fill, for your patients to browse and book. This allows you to keep your daily and weekly workload at manageable levels and gives you space for emergencies and routine follow-ups. Online booking will take some pressure off your reception staff too, so they can deal with people who come into the practice to arrange their care. Your elderly patients may prefer to discuss their needs in person, for example. As part of your ongoing commitment to excellent customer service and treating every patient with respect, you should give them this option. Online booking is a not quite a virtual reception area, more it is a conduit that will enhance what you already offer.

So many people still approach a visit to the dentist with negativity; they are worried about painful and/or lengthy treatment, are unsure about what they are entitled to on the NHS or how to get a good deal from a private practitioner. On top of all this, there is frustration about having to wait for an appointment and then being offered one that is inconvenient. Reducing wait times will help you work towards a more streamlined approach to your customer service. When this is improved, this will certainly go part of the way towards allaying your patients’ common fears and strengthening the relationship that you have with them. Look for tools that can help you set reasonable waiting times: they allow people to get actively involved in making decisions about their care and get the most out of their dentist, which, ultimately is what we should all be aiming for.

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. visit www.zesty.co.uk or call 0203 287 5416.

Principal and Founder of AURA Centre of Dental Excellence and Facial Aesthetics in Kingston upon Thames, Dr Nadine Skipp asks, ‘Where to begin?’ when taking up the provision of facial aesthetics.

It’s exciting times for dentistry. We have all seen the growing interest and popularity in non-surgical cosmetic anti-ageing treatments in recent years. But how do we make the most of this in our dental practices?

There is no doubt that the provision of facial aesthetics is perfect for dental practitioners looking to expand their practice and develop their businesses. It stands to reason that dentists are particularly suited to offering this, especially when you consider the years of training and experience in facial anatomy and familiarity with various injection techniques.

Of course, many dentists recognise the enhanced opportunities available through expanding into this growing lucrative market, but do not know how to bring this into their practice. It all begins with training and building up confidence. The first thing would be to explore the entire range of treatments available, considering all the areas and fields that initially appeal to you. From Botulinum Toxin and Dermal Fillers to Dermaroller (microneedling) and Chemical Peels, there are a wealth of options available and the more disciplines you can learn, the more likely you will be able to accommodate all your patients’ potential needs and requirements.

In any dental clinic, unless you’re performing a specific procedure all the time, it will take a while to build up your competence. Following my own initial training, a dental colleague told me that a great way to gain practical experience, increase my confidence and build upon the foundations of my education was to work for a larger provider of facial cosmetic treatments. So that’s exactly what I did. I worked part-time as a sessional non-surgical practitioner at a leading facial aesthetic clinic. It was perfect for building up my skill levels and completing a diversity of facial aesthetic treatments throughout each day.

Of course, it’s not always possible or practical to move into such an environment, especially if you already work in a demanding dental practice, but it is crucial to get as much experience early on as possible. This really helps to cement what you have learnt and build up your confidence.

Regardless of where you apply your newfound talents, the ideal starting point is to undergo the procedures yourself. After all, you can’t expect to be able to adequately explain, understand or empathise with your patients, unless you have experienced the procedures first hand. In fact, I still have my ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures prior to embarking on my very first treatments, and I regularly use these for educating patients and marketing. This has a real wow factor for my patients and builds valuable confidence in my skills.

Also essential is to ensure that every member of staff is well educated in the treatments being offered. To help with this, it is worth encouraging staff members to undergo various treatments, where appropriate, and to use the products themselves. Your practice team can be the ultimate advert for your services and this will help to increase their knowledge and familiarity with the processes. It will also allow them to provide reliable, honest advice and assurance to patients, while also promoting the excellent results on offer.

Encouraging interest in your facial aesthetics offering is all down to your marketing and the way you spread the word about the fantastic treatments you provide. Using e-shots and leaflets that detail the procedures and outcomes patients could expect, as well as offering promotions on certain treatments will help to do this. As will talking about it during routine dental appointments. It is important not to be afraid to mention these or to hesitate when suggesting a facial aesthetic treatment to your patients. There’s nothing wrong with saying, “Have you ever thought about having this done?”

Ultimately, the best way to advertise is by ensuring the provision of high quality services. Patients that are happy at your clinic will always promote you to other people, so it’s crucial to show each patient consistently high standards of care and support to encourage this right from the start. As important as any marketing technique is, a lot of the early interest comes from word of mouth. So, by nurturing existing patient relationships and with the support from your whole practice team, you can be sure to get your facial aesthetics practice off to a great start. 

To find out more visit www.auradental.co.uk, call 020 8549 5710, or contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

As we approach the final month of 2014, people start to wind down for the year and we all start looking at the year ahead. We focus on setting targets, goals, wishes and budgets for the year ahead.

Before you start looking too far into the future we thought we would let you know, that we have a small number of advertising opportunities on GDPUK in December.

Do you have a course you are looking to promote in early 2015?

A new product you have launched and you would like some extra promotion?

You may have December offers of your own that need a push?

Whatever your reason, we have a few spaces left on the site in December. Please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we may even surprise you with a festive price!

Did you know?

December has always been one of the busiest months on gdpuk. Dentists constantly use the forum and share expertise throughout the holiday period, which even includes Christmas day for some!

We have put together an infographic which shows how UK Dentists are using the internet. We have included some of the stats that were produced from the recent August 2014 GDPUK Survey. Thanks to all that took part. We have also added in some statistics from We Are Social which shows how addicted we are becoming to our smartphones  and social media in general! Thanks for reading.

Thanks to our friends Stockdale Martin for sending over some of the statistics. They are a healthcare marketing agency. Ed Stockdale can be contacted via email on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or followed on twitter.

If you are looking to reach thousands of dentists on a daily basis, our new GDPUK Media Pack for 2015 is now available! Please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will send it straight over. 

Your Dental Website, What’s Important?

The answer to this question “Dental Website, What’s Important?” is incredibly simple really and it’s this: (1) You need to attract as much traffic to your site as possible (2) You need to convert as much of that traffic as possible.

Most businesses view their website as something that they have to tick the box and can say, yes we now have a website. The fact that the only people who know it exists is themselves, friends and family never seems to come into the equation.

Having a dental website built can cost many thousands of pounds and take up a great deal of your time and effort, only for it to lurk in the shadows never being seen by anyone. It’s a little like setting up a new dental practice in the middle of a field and wondering why nobody is coming!

The best and most reliable way to drive traffic to your website is to use Google Adwords. This will take you to the top of page one of Google in most instances or at worst you’ll be over on the right hand side of the first page see below.

When someone looks for your site on a mobile device this is even more important as normally you’ll only ever see the websites that are using Google Adwords advertising or pay per click (PPC).

Google normally allocates the top three slots for paid advertising which means that if you don’t advertise your website with them the best you can ever hope for is position number four and to get to this position you have to be very, very, very good at optimising your dental website.

So let’s assume you’ve decided to pay Google an amount each day to display your dental website and people are landing on the particular page you want them to land on. You now have to convert them from browsers to buyers.

Take a look at the two websites below:

I’m sure you’ll think that the page on the right is much prettier than my page and you’d probably be right, but my page will outrank the other page in Google rankings and also out convert the one on the right by a factor of 1000% here’s why.

On the left of my page is a video which automatically starts running when someone lands on the page, this immediately gets and keeps their attention. On the page on the right is a nice photograph.

On the right hand side of my page is a picture of my book, and a line saying click here to download my book or have one sent in the post for free. However to actually get the book you have to give me your email address and name and this is key.

If you are selling anything that is of a higher value such as an implant on your dental website, invariably people will not just pick up the phone and book an appointment now, simply because whenever we buy things of a higher value we want more information and this is where the email comes into play.

When someone gives you their email address it is placed in what we call an auto responder, this does exactly what the name implies, it automatically responds. So you can have a series of emails spaced out over the next three or four months that will automatically be sent to your subscriber.

This means that when they do eventually decide to have that implant or have their teeth straightened or have a smile makeover, invariably they will choose you because you have been sending them information for that last three months.

That’s how we convert browsers into paying patients on your dental website.

If you would like to know more about our website service, with video and auto responders built in, call me on 01767 626 398 or email me a This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit the website www.dentalmarketingexpert.co.uk

Start Using Facebook For Research

Neil Sanderson

It wasn’t so long ago whenever you took to the high street or went to the supermarket that there was a nice lady or gentleman with a clip board who would ask you if you had a few minutes spare to answer a few questions was it?

It seemed that they were everywhere asking you questions on every subject from which biscuits you prefer to where you go on holiday or what car you drive etc. etc.

But now you barely ever see one of these people, because the smart corporations have started to use Social Media or more particularly Facebook for Research.

Using Facebook for research is not only a lot cheaper but it is much more accurate too. So what do you need to do to use Facebook for research in your dental practice?

Once you have a couple of hundred fans of your page you can start to see patterns. The best tool for this is the insight tool under people, which gives you just about every bit of information you can think of about the people who “like” your page.

You can see the split between gender, how many people fit into particular age groups, when people are online and looking at what you do, the information is invaluable to build your audience and communicate with them, Facebook for research purposes really has no rivals at all.

If you are thinking of launching some sort of promotion or launch a new product or service, you can test this out on Facebook before you invest your time and effort into it.

There are several aps you can run on Facebook that will let you run surveys. So for instance one of my clients was thinking of changing his opening hours and offering late opening or weekends. We ran a survey for him on Facebook and it turned out that most people didn’t actually want late evenings they wanted to come to the dentist before work e.g. early mornings.

A section of Facebook insights

You might think of going on a course for straightening or offer a new type of whitening, so run a survey with your likes and find out if there is a ready market waiting to take your new products or services.

But you don’t really have to go to the time and effort of running a survey if you don’t want to, simply ask your fans what they would like to have on your page.

Facebook is a very interactive medium and is ideal for simply asking your audience questions. So once you have decided that you are going to launch a particular service or you are going to make a special offer Facebook is also great for telling you how large your market is too.

First you create an advert for something like teeth whitening, you can then target it at exactly the audience you want and Facebook will tell you how many people fit that profile. Let’s say you are going to launch straightening and your Facebook research told you that the best age group for this would be 30-40 year olds.

You can specify that you want to just target this age group in your area and Facebook will tell you exactly how many people your advert will reach. As far as I know there is nothing that comes close to this type of market information and how this can give you laser focus with your advertising.

If you would like more information on Facebook for research or any other type of Dental marketing information, call me on 01767626398 or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit the website www.dentalmarketingexpert.co.uk

In part 1 of this series, I wrote about the importance of an effective landing page and how it helps to attract new customers to your business. We are now going to look at the key features of an effective landing page. What will make visitors give you the information or business you desire? Below are 6 key attributes of an effective landing page. Please feel free to add other attributes you believe would be effective. 

1. USP – Unique Selling Point

For our clients, they are looking to offer dentists a product or service that sets it apart from the competition. The client needs to break down what they are offering to the customer and when successful, it should be clear and attract attention. The first headline used needs to clearly describe what your product or service can offer and why they should be interested.

2. Picture or video

A picture or even better a video of someone using the product or service gives the users the feeling of what it is or what it looks like. This gets the customers thinking how they could use the product or service in their everyday life and how it would benefit them. A dental example;  A new dental handpiece being shown in a video being used by a dentist, gets the reader thinking about them using it in their practice and how it will benefit them.

3. The benefits of what you offer.

After the USP, you now need to give your reader a few more details. So how will the product or service benefit the reader? You need to think from the customer’s point of view. How will the new handpiece (for example) benefit the dentist, what features or advantages can you prove over your competitors?

4. Keep it simple

You want your reader to make a decision, for a decision to be more likely, the clearer and simpler your page needs to be.  As well as your landing pages, this also applies to a homepage. Traffic will often hit your homepage, so it should be treated like sales specific landing pages; keep your offer and strategy simple. Only offer a few places that can be clicked, keep the reader focused on the reason they clicked through to your landing page in the first place!

5. Testimonials / Proof

You want to show that your product is being utilised by other people in the field. People are more likely to use something that they can see is being used by others. If a product has excellent reviews or testimonials, then you need to shout about it. Other ways of demonstrating that the product is the best; Number of customers, organisations that you count as customers or awards received for your product or service. If you can provide evidence of testimonials, reviews or awards you will build trust and then sales!

6. CTA - Call to Action

CTA or call to action is incredibly important. You need to incorporate a bold, clear call to action into the design of the landing page. This could take a number of different forms, phone number, email address, contact form, social media links. The key is to think like the customer, make it as easy and straightforward as possible. The call to action details should be displayed a number of times on the page if possible.

We are constantly adapting and changing our own website and this is the huge advantage of being an online publication. Pages you create can be changed at anytime, so experiment with what works and what doesn’t and don’t be scared to try out different tactics or marketing plans.

If you would like to discuss how to market your brand or product on GDPUK.com, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We can organise a marketing strategy that will work for your business needs. 

Landing Pages

Part1...The importance of an effective landing page

GDPUK.com earns revenue from banner ads, we display adverts from companies looking to attract dentists as customers. The most successful banners, direct the user to a specific landing page. A good landing page should be seen as a part of your sales team, in the first part of this series I have listed some thoughts on the importance of an effective landing page.

A landing page is a web page that allows you to capture a visitor’s information through a lead-capture form. These are often known as a conversion form.

Landing pages are created to convert traffic into qualified leads. If you can focus on converting visitors into leads, landing pages are all about positive ROI. This is where a good landing page can make all the difference.

So why are landing pages important?

• They help you focus on conversion. The focus has to be on converting visitors into leads. A few simple ideas could be contact details for a free white paper, or contact details for a sample of your product.
• Direct. By using a landing page you will start to find that a landing page can be more effective than just directing traffic to a homepage, which is likely to be a waste of time. Once someone makes the effort to click on a banner, if the landing page matches what is on the banner, the odds of converting the click into a lead will increase dramatically.
• Generation of leads. If an effective page is created, it is suddenly a lot easier to capture leads. Every time a lead completes a conversion form on a landing page your sales team collects valuable information. Obviously this is a great for the sales team, as they are receiving warm leads to target.
• The more the better. Once you start creating a range of landing pages for different offers, the more opportunities you will create to convert visitors into leads.
• Makes the expenditure on advertising worthwhile. The landing page should sell your product; the language on the landing page needs to be customised and persuasive to your target audience. If you are creating specific ads (which many GDPUK clients do) then it is pointless if you’re only going to send potential customers in the direction of your homepage.

I hope this blog gives you an idea of the importance of a landing page and how getting it right can lead to an increase in revenue. Advertising online is something we are all still learning about, but we believe by investing in your landing page, it is a great start to achieving a return from your online advertising.

For further information on how we can help with the marketing of your brand or product or to learn how we can help with a landing page for your advert, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

We will publish part two of this series next week, which will give you some ideas of the key features of an effective landing page. 

What Can Happen When You Do No Marketing

Neil Sanderson

Oh the perils of not marketing yourself. I had my first customer default on me this week, apparently he is ceasing to trade from next month. I took on this customer in good faith just before Christmas.

The customer called me early January to say that he was in financial trouble and that his creditors were letting him continue to trade, (I know its strange that he would take my services in December and then tell me he is struggling to pay creditors in January.)

Strangely I had gone to see this dentist nearly two years earlier and he had decided not to proceed with any marketing at that time as he was doing lots of other things to his practice and taking on new staff etc. etc.

I could see at that time, that this practice was in trouble and needed help. The first thing that struck me as odd was the fact that he had a practice management system that had 18,000+ patients on it of which only 3,000 were active.

Now it could be that this guy might be a rubbish dentist and just loses patients, I have no idea of that and can’t comment, but whilst I was there, patients were coming into the waiting room and he was speaking with them as friends so I have to assume that he got on well with his patients.

The second thing that made alarm bells go off was the fact that he’d done little or no marketing whatsoever over the past five years, not to existing or new patients.

Whenever I write these columns I stress the importance of saying that as part of your marketing you have to communicate regularly with your existing patients to make them feel loved, just as much as you spend time trying to get new ones. It’s absolutely imperative.

Time and again I see potential customers and they tell me that they can’t afford marketing, whilst at the same time telling me that they don’t have enough patients and the patients they have aren’t spending enough with them.

I hear this statement over and over again, don’t you think that there is a certain irony, “I don’t have enough business, but I don’t want to spend any more money getting any”. Let me say to everyone reading this now. If you continue to do what you’ve always done that’s what you’ll always get. Or even more to the point, doing nothing gets you exactly nothing.

The economy may be coming out of recession but very few of the people I deal with feel that way and patients aren’t just going to start queuing up at your door waiting for your services. Sorry I have to say this, but if you want more patients or you want to sell the higher end services you offer you have to spend money marketing them.

The problem is that most businesses view marketing as a cost not an investment. This week I am spending £3,000 on a 3 x 2 stand for two days at the Dentistry Show. But I know that this will generate me business (without fail).

Unless you start to look at marketing as an investment and not a cost your practice will continue to perform exactly the way it is. Here’s another saying I love to quote “If I gave you £10.00 for every £5.00 you gave me at which point would you like me to stop?”

This is effectively what marketing is about, if you don’t do it, don’t expect your business to grow.

If you would like help marketing your dental practice, call me on 01767 626 398 or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit my website, www.dentalmarketingexpert.co.uk

Facebook Advertising For Your Practice

Neil Sanderson

I’m sure when you think of Facebook Advertising you probably think of having to post all the time and interact with your friends or the people who have liked your Facebook page, which by and large it is, but there is another way to manage Facebook Advertising.

As I mentioned in a recent blog, Facebook recently became a publicly listed company, which means that is now has to answer to its share holders, and they are interested in just two things (a) increasing their share value and/or (b) getting a regular dividend.

In order to satisfy this requirement, Facebook has suddenly become very business minded and they now offer a wide range of advertising opportunities for the likes of you and I and Facebook Advertising has become a very good and relatively cheap way to get your message out there.

To advertise on Facebook you have to have a Facebook page and of course be the administrator of it, but you don’t have to post regularly on it, the advert will do the job for you. Facebook Advertising works very similarly to Google PPC (per per click). This means that whenever someone clicks on your advert and is taken either to your website or to your Facebook page you are charged a fee.

Compared to Google this fee is very reasonable (usually about a quarter of the price), however it has to be said, it will never be as targeted as Google is simply because there is nothing that is as targeted as Google Adwords.

However if you are trying to reach a particular group of people with a particular profile, Facebook advertising (PPC) is very, very good.

With Facebook advertising you can not only decide which area you want to aim at e.g. your postcode but you can also target whether the person who sees your advert is female or male, what age group they are, what is their marital status (even if they are engaged). You can specify particular interests they may have.

So for instance you could run an advert that will only be shown to someone who is female, who is between 25 and 35, who is engaged, who likes dogs, who likes going on holiday etc. etc.

There are no other platforms that will  let you get down to this level of detail for display advertising (Google is search advertising). You can set up a Facebook Advertising campaign for just a couple of pounds per day and so long as you get your targeting correct it will almost certainly pay for its self.

Facebook advertising is also the quickest way to get people to like your Facebook page and the best part is that you will only be getting likes from the people you are directly targeting, as opposed to buying likes from disreputable sources (don’t touch them).

The best thing about Facebook advertising is that you can send traffic from Social Media to your website with is where you ideally want people to go.

If you need help and advice with Facebook advertising, call me on 01767 626 398 or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit my website www.dentalmarketingexpert.co.uk

What is the best marketing plan for your practice?

Neil Sanderson

I’m often asked what is the best marketing I can buy or do. Let’s face it there are now dozens of ways to market you and your practice.

Not very long ago you really only had two choices 1. You could place an advert in the Yellow Pages or 2. You could send out a mail shot. Those of you who were a bit more ambitious might try telesales too.

Today you have literally dozens of ways to market your practice, but which is the best marketing?

But out of all these different types of marketing e.g. Direct Mail, Social Media, Posters, Leaflets, Text Messaging, Email what really is the best marketing?

So if you said to me I can only do one form of marketing which would you choose, the answer would be Google Adwords (or pay per click). This is without doubt the most cost effective and best marketing for  you and your practice.

Why do I say this. Because unlike Search Engine Optimisation which may or may not get your website to the top of Google rankings. Google Adwords can pretty much guarantee this.

What makes this even more the best marketing, it that Google will only show your ads when someone searches for it. So just think of it this way. If you could place an advert in a local newspaper and only pay when someone looked at your advert and took action would you buy that ad, you bet your life you would.

Google Adwords does exactly this, they only show your advert when someone searches for whatever it is you are advertising e.g. implants or teeth whitening etc. But you don’t pay anything to Google until someone actually clicks on your advert and goes through to your website.

It is the ultimate form of “best marketing” and Google gives you hundreds of tools to test and hone your marketing. They are the only advertising provider that encourages you to get better at your advertising, and rewards you with cheaper ads and better rankings.

Quite literally the better you become at pay per click, the less you can spend and the more your ad will be shown. That’s why we spend so much of our time at Dental Marketing Expert, making sure that we are the ultimate experts in Google Adwords pay per click.

On average all our clients are normally in position 1 or 2 on the search and the amount we are paying Google for the ads is a fraction of what people who don’t know what they are doing are paying.

If you don’t understand how wot work Google Adwords, you can spend an awful lot of money for very little reward. In fact Google’s default settings are generally design to get you to pay them as much as possible. This is why they are now the second biggest company by value in the world.

I have spent the last two years honing my skills the best marketing (Google Adwords) and as a result I would say that I probably know more about this form of marketing than anyone in the dental profession.

I have personally spent thousands of pounds with Google, but last year I grew my business by 100% and this year we are aiming for 400% growth, using this best marketing technique.

So if you want to make a massive difference to your dental practice’s fortunes and start to benefit from the best marketing on the planet, call me on 01767 626 398 or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit my website www.dentalmarketingexpert.co.uk

10 Ways To Get A Patient Referral

Neil Sanderson

I think just about everyone is in agreement that a patient referral is the best way to get new patients, even I as a marketeer would have to agree with that, however you can only get so many new patients by referral only, so I would still recommend a proper marketing strategy. That said if you are going to increase the number of referrals you get, here are a few hints and do’s and don’ts.

Most dental practices have no patient referral strategy in place at all, getting patient referrals has to be ingrained into the philosophy of the practice, you should view every single patient you see as someone who is going to recommend your practice and services to someone else.

Obviously to do that you have to offer great dentistry, that goes without saying but simply doing this isn’t good enough, because you patients expect you do deliver that anyway. Your services are no different to any other service or product that they are willing to spend their money on, you simply have to deliver quality.

So now we have that part out of the way how can you increase the number of patients who are willing to give you a patient referral?

1. Strange as it may sound Social Media is becoming more and more important in this area. Quite literally social media is the new “word of mouth” marketing, so if you have an active Facebook and/or Twitter account which has lots of interesting content on it you are likely to increase the number of referrals you get.
2. The appearance of your practice is incredibly important. If you have a practice that looks shabby, do you really think that your patients are going to refer you to their friends and relatives, I don’t think so.
3. Don’t think that only long term patients will refer you, in fact quite the opposite is the case. You are just as likely to get a patient referral from a new patient than you are from someone who has been using you for years.
4. You don’t have to deliver fantastic results to get a patient referral either. Courtesy, smart appearance and attention to detail and giving them exactly what they want is just, if not more important.
5. Just because a patient has referred you once don’t think that they won’t do it again, you should encourage your patients to refer you as often as possible and reward them for doing it.
6. Your staff are incredibly important in getting patient referrals, you might be the best dentist in the world and offer a fantastic service, but if your patients don’t have a great experience on reception, you won’t get those much needed patient referrals, reception staff have to be well trained, just as you do.
7. Communicate regularly with your patients, a newsletter is a great way to share things with your patients along with social media. It’s not rocket science, the better they think they know you the more they’ll give you a patient referral.
8. Market your referral program everywhere in your practice. Tell them what you are prepared to offer in return for a patient referral, it could be a bottle of wine or a big thank you, but you need to have a rewards system of place and tell everyone about it.
9. Every new patient that comes to your practice should be given a welcome pack and that should include information about your patient referral program and the benefits they can achieve if they refer a friend or relative to you.
10. Finally and here’s the real big one. ASK FOR THEM you’ll be astounded the difference this simple little thing does.

If you would like more information on implementing a patient referral program or how to promote this using your social media or training your reception staff, call me on 01767 626 398 or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit the website www.dentalmarketingexpert.co.uk

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Impressed by the numbers? Get in touch to find out how we can work together.

Advertising on GDPUK.com starts from £300 + vat

For further information email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 0161 270 0453

www.gdpuk.com/web

Blogging Is Essential To Promote Your Dental Practice or Business

For those of you who are not quite sure what a blog is, you are reading one right now and blogging is becoming more and more an essential part of any dental practice’smarketing strategy.

Why I can hear you all saying? Well hopefully you recently read my series of articles on search engine optimisation which over the three articles outlined what you need to be doing to raise your website’s ranking on Google. One of the things I mentioned was that you need to add new original content to your website, and the best way to do that is blogging.

Blogging is effectively you writing anything you like on any subject really. Because it is your ideas and your thoughts, you can write on any subject and be an forthright is you wish. Ideally you need to make it interesting to your public. So for instance if you are a dentist the subjects you might want to cover would be around oral hygiene etc.

Having said all that don’t make your blogs too serious or technical as you’ll just lose your audience, they have to understand what it is you are trying to convey to them, equally don’t use jargon, or scientific dental terms.

Blogging is one of the best ways to increase the rankings in the natural Google search. As I mentioned in my earlier articles, Google wants to present websites to their audience that are fresh and have new original content on them. Blogging is the most natural place to put this new original content. It will quite literally do wonders for your rankings, quite often my blogs out rank my overall website.

Blogging also has the effect of ranking you for many subjects too so for instance you might want to highlight that you offer implants in your practice, well the best way to do this is to write articles on the subject, use slightly different headlines and titles for the blog and you can start to rank for implants as well as general dentistry etc.

Blogging should also be part of your social media strategy. Every time you write your blog you should be promoting this with both Facebook and Twitter, not to mention Google Circles, this again helps immensely with your Google rankings.

Being seen to be an expert in your specialist field is essential if you are to sell at premium prices. For instance if you are regularly blogging on a  particular subject and your patients and potential patients read them, it is highly likely that when they actually want to use this service that they will turn to you rather than your competitors and they will pay a higher fee because of this too.

We call this in the industry “being the trusted expert”. The down side of this is that you have to give lots of information freely and regularly, which of course takes time and effort. But you’ll see that in the long run you will gain from it immensely, the other way to achieve this of course is to have someone else write them for you and this is one the services I offer my clients.

If you want to increase your revenues and profits, increase the number of new patients and encourage existing patients to spend more with you, call me on 01767 626 398, email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit my website

www.dentalmarketingexpert.co.uk

Blogging Is Essential To Promote Your Dental Practice or Business

For those of you who are not quite sure what a blog is, you are reading one right now and blogging is becoming more and more an essential part of any dental practice’smarketing strategy.

Why I can hear you all saying? Well hopefully you recently read my series of articles on search engine optimisation which over the three articles outlined what you need to be doing to raise your website’s ranking on Google. One of the things I mentioned was that you need to add new original content to your website, and the best way to do that is blogging.

Blogging is effectively you writing anything you like on any subject really. Because it is your ideas and your thoughts, you can write on any subject and be an forthright is you wish. Ideally you need to make it interesting to your public. So for instance if you are a dentist the subjects you might want to cover would be around oral hygiene etc.

Having said all that don’t make your blogs too serious or technical as you’ll just lose your audience, they have to understand what it is you are trying to convey to them, equally don’t use jargon, or scientific dental terms.

Blogging is one of the best ways to increase the rankings in the natural Google search. As I mentioned in my earlier articles, Google wants to present websites to their audience that are fresh and have new original content on them. Blogging is the most natural place to put this new original content. It will quite literally do wonders for your rankings, quite often my blogs out rank my overall website.

Blogging also has the effect of ranking you for many subjects too so for instance you might want to highlight that you offer implants in your practice, well the best way to do this is to write articles on the subject, use slightly different headlines and titles for the blog and you can start to rank for implants as well as general dentistry etc.

Blogging should also be part of your social media strategy. Every time you write your blog you should be promoting this with both Facebook and Twitter, not to mention Google Circles, this again helps immensely with your Google rankings.

Being seen to be an expert in your specialist field is essential if you are to sell at premium prices. For instance if you are regularly blogging on a  particular subject and your patients and potential patients read them, it is highly likely that when they actually want to use this service that they will turn to you rather than your competitors and they will pay a higher fee because of this too.

We call this in the industry “being the trusted expert”. The down side of this is that you have to give lots of information freely and regularly, which of course takes time and effort. But you’ll see that in the long run you will gain from it immensely, the other way to achieve this of course is to have someone else write them for you and this is one the services I offer my clients.

If you want to increase your revenues and profits, increase the number of new patients and encourage existing patients to spend more with you, call me on 01767 626 398, email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit my website

www.dentalmarketingexpert.co.uk

At the recent BDTA Showcase, we had some great meetings with potential advertisers. The GDPUK Team really enjoyed exhibiting at the show, it was a great experience, something we would like to repeat.

Last week, I sent a number of follow up emails after the Show and made phone calls. By the end of the busy week, I started thinking about why companies from the dental trade should advertise with GDPUK and why we should be part of their marketing plan. I have to admit, it is not a question I have thought enough about but over the weekend, I got my thinking cap on.

So this weekend, after my feet and body had recovered from Showcase, I started to think about the question in the subject line, below are 8 reasons that GDPUK can be used as an effective marketing tool, please feel free to add to them and hopefully we can get a feel for what we are doing well or not offering enough of! All feedback would be appreciated!

1.    We have thousands of members using the site every day – GDPUK is the largest online community of dentists in the UK. Dentists proactively look for information on GDPUK to inform their decisions.

2.    Target Audience – If you want Dentists as customers, we can prove that your target audience is using the GDPUK site every day

3.    Helps your budget work harder when marketing to Dentists – Reach the dentists on their network at exactly the point when they are actively seeking advice / guidance to make an important decision for their practice or career. 

4.    Word of Mouth. The UK’s most influential dentists will talk about your brand on the forum – Create the right message on GDPUK and this will spread to other social media sites, creating improved awareness and recognition of your brand.

5.    Benefit from our knowledge of the Dental Profession – We’ve been around for over 15 years, we understand how dentists think and react, this means we are well placed to support you with your aims and we can share our insight into the dental profession.

6.    Marketing on the site can be done in a number of ways; introduce a new product, improve brand awareness, special "GDPUK" offers, data collection, sample requests, focus groups

7.    Accountability. We give our partners, a full report on the number of clicks received every week, plus the number of impressions the ad receives. This is an effective way to see how the ad performs.

8.    Adaptability. Unlike in the printed media, ads can be changed; partners can experiment with a number of messages over the period they have booked.

No matter what business or industry you’re in, if you deal with Dentists, then GDPUK has to be part of your marketing plan. Social Media is now part of the dental landscape and it’s important that you can get your message across and be part of the discussion.

By reading this, we hope you now get a better understanding of how we can help with your marketing plans, if you would like to know more, please get in This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call Jonny on 07786571547. 

Toothpick.com has recently been announced as one of this year’s entries in the Smarta Top 100 Business Awards. Launched in November 2012, the company has been acknowledged within the Top 10 ‘Most Innovative Businesses’ category.

In partnership with O2, The Smarta 100 Awards (http://www.smarta.com) aims to celebrate innovation and finds the best 100 businesses in the UK. This year’s entrepreneur judges of the Top 100 include Ben Dowd (Business Director, O2), Holly Tucket MBE (Co-Founder and CEO, Notonthehighstreet.com) and Piers Linney (Dragons’ Den and CEO, Outsourcery).

As the only dental-focused business to be included within this category, Toothpick.com has been recognised for strongly supporting the growth of dental practices within the UK with an aim to provide transparent access to patients with a live online booking system.

All the winners of Smarta 100 have been invited to the awards ceremony, taking place in central London mid-November. The overall Business of the Year and winner of the £10,000 grand prize will be announced on the night alongside the winners of each category.

To put online dental appointment booking on the map place your vote here http://www.smarta.com/smarta100/2013/toothpick/

For more information about Toothpick visit www.toothpick.com/get-listed, call 020 77681851 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Facebook: /ToothpickDental

Twitter: @toothpick

Food for thought from the Bank of England:

In the week where the UK dental industry was tied up at the NEC, the Chief Economist of the Bank of England gave a question and answer session to the world using the medium of Twitter. It appears he made a good job of it. Some commentators criticised the fact that the answers were standard PR fare, but others realised he did, in fact, release some crucial financial information.

Other companies in the world of high finance feel forced by their regulators to only release critical news via official channels. Twitter does not count as "official".

So did the Bank of England break its own and other regulator's rules? Newspapers were once new, as were radio and TV, the world realised these were tools of communication, and engaged with those media.

Let's turn to the consumer field, where large retail and customer facing companies use Twitter and other social media to enhance their customer service operations. They have teams of people, sometimes responding 24/7, to show that they are giving the best customer service and that they are listening. Ask a few people at Dental Showcase, I did, and they all have a story. "My train was cancelled, I had paid through the nose in advance, and I missed a very important meeting, what will the railway operator do about it?" Or " My heating is broken, we have a small baby, an engineer to fix our heating in seven days time is not good enough".

Do have a look in the social media - those two comments are only a small example of the complaints aired daily, and addressed to the relevant companies. In those cases Virgin Trains and British Gas did reply, and fixed the problems rapidly. The responding company hopes the complainant returns to the same social medium to say how great the service recovery was.

So, back to dentistry.

Dental practices and their teams do face the social media and partake, they take the risk that a complaint may be aired, but they know they must respond to this, and respond seriously.

However, some of the dental industry are scared of GDPUK, on whose website you are reading this blog. GDPUK gives dental professionals a platform to tell their colleagues [and only that limited group]  when they have had great service, and that sort of comment is rewarded by a magnified, greater uptake of that service. I know this is a true fact.

As well as sharing all sorts of news, information, questions and experiences, some dental professionals use GDPUK to tell their colleagues when they feel they have had bad service. Sometimes the complaint is only about what is perceived as poor service. The effect of this can be magnified, in the world of the isolated dental professional, when two or three other fellow professionals appear and confirm they too have had the same less than perfect experience. This is the power of the internet in the modern world, we all know it allows us to rapidly compare prices, compare services, and read reviews. Surely the winning technique for the dental companies, and other small businesses the world over, is to monitor those media, and if a problem occurs, respond in that medium, and try your best to give the best service possible. This could be a winning formula and may lead to positive results, and positive feedback, which in turn will create more sales.

I am convinced the modern companies who adopt this approach will be the winners in the long term. Censorship cannot win, but open-ness will.

Refs:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/bank-of-england/10388036/Bank-of-Englands-chief-economist-says-2014-rate-rise-very-unlikely-in-AskBoE-Twitter-chat.htm

Blog image by Gord Fynes, @gordasm. With thanks.

Since starting as a mailing list in 1997, GDPUK has evolved into one of the major digital publishers of Dental content in the UK. With around 6000 members regularly using the dental forum, plus a range of dentals news and blogs constantly being published, I want to look at the advantages of digital publishing, why we enjoy it so much and how the UK Dental profession is benefitting.

Instant news

As written in a previous blog, we have all become addicted to the latest news and information. As I write this blog, the football transfer deadline is looming with fans hoping their team will sign players or hold on to players. Fans follow the transfers on social media, through TV and on their phones either reading mobile sites or communicating with their friends. News is constant and moves at a quicker pace than ever before and dentistry is no different. GDPUK often publishes content in a matter of minutes, like yesterdays exclusive UK Graduate news. Publishing everything online means we have no print deadlines and can publish articles within a few minutes.

Content

A unique advantage of digital publishing is that you can constantly produce content. We do this through the news, blogs and forum. The forum has over 500 different contributors a month, which means that a range of opinions are expressed throughout the day and some fantastic, well informed debates take place. We have a number of bloggers as well, who write dental focused content for the site and this produces insightful, humorous and thought provoking blogs for the site. We also constantly publish dental news, with a number of exclusives pieces of news a year. This means that the content on the site is consistently evolving and staying fresh.

Interaction

GDPUK members’ interacting with each other is the lifeblood of the forum. Members enjoy engaging with each other on a regular basis, sometimes giving useful information, sometimes being critical, sometimes being provocative but all this interaction creates a sense of community. Members who read but do not post (lurkers) still get the feeling of being part of the community and read the posts on the forum with interest. Dentists are gaining information, insight, advice and education from the forum; we believe the ever increasing interaction between the members is great for the dentists and the profession.

Accessibility

As a digital platform the site can be accessed from anywhere. August a traditional holiday month in the UK was the busiest month in the history of the site, with our members accessing the forum from all corners of the world on a range of mediums. The eagerly awaited GDPUK app is nearly close to completion and this will give further accessibility to dentists who are looking for regular dental news & opinion on a tablet device. We believe that the site has become a central part of our member’s daily lives; they will check general news, social media and then GDPUK. This can be confirmed by a recent GDC report on Standards with the paragraph reading as follows on social media, “Social media covers a number of internet based tools which allow people to create and exchange content. It includes blogs, internet forums, content communities and social networking sites such as Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, LinkedIn, GDPUK, Instagram and Pinterest.” This small sentence from the GDC is a great example of how information is being accessed, 24 hours a day an this is certainly something the dental profession is embracing. Interacting with colleagues, suppliers and customers now happens through a number of mediums.

Numbers Show Interest

At GDPUK we are known for reciting stats and we pride ourselves on offering up to date numbers on how often the site is being used. We prefer to focus on unique visitors and number of visitors because they are seen as a great indicator of traffic to a website and that the content is interesting. The last 8 months has seen a huge rise in these numbers. Each unique visitor in the month is from a single IP address, the total visits in August show that each visitor makes an average of more than 4 visits per month, at an average greater than 4,000 per day. These stats show GDPUK has further cemented its place in the UK Dentistry landscape. We offer a unique place to receive news, information and opinion on the constantly changing world of UK Dentistry. The table below shows that the site has seen some great growth and we appreciate everyone’s support from the dental community. Keep spreading the word and we will continue to grow the resource and community together.

Passion!

As you can probably tell the GDPUK team is passionate about digital publishing and embracing the advantages I have listed above. Digital publishing is still evolving and that is why it is exciting to be part of. In the last few weeks we have improved the site further with a new modern template, plus introducing fresher advertising banners that give greater exposure to our advertising partners. As mentioned earlier in this blog we also hope to introduce a GDPUK App which further enhances our digital publishing pedigree.

How has digital publishing helped your dental business or dental practice? Maybe you do a regular blog or email newsletter? Do you agree that it has helped dentistry? I would love to hear your thoughts and how you see dental publishing evolving?

As I have mentioned in my previous digital dentistry blogs, online marketing is a growing industry, with companies investing in a number of different digital formats: Search, Video, Rich Media, Social Media, Mobile and Display. One of the areas that digital marketers still spend their advertising budget in is Email Marketing. Email Marketing sounds like it is old fashioned but if done correctly it is still well and truly alive!

Email marketing is directly marketing a commercial message to a group of people using email. Email marketing in dentistry terms is used in a number of ways. Companies will email current or previous customers to encourage brand loyalty and hopefully win or repeat business. Companies will also send emails in the hope of acquiring new customers. The third way is companies will add advertisements to email messages sent by other companies to their customers. Recent research has suggested that conservative estimates of US companies alone spent US $1.51 billion on email marketing in 2011 and will grow to $2.468 billion by 2016. Amazingly still a growing market.

We now need to look at how email marketing can be used in terms of the dental profession whether you have a new product that you would like dentists to look at, or you would like to attract more patients to your practice. Below are 4 A* reasons (in celebration of exam results) we can still use email marketing to benefit your business and hopefully it will give you some inspiration to revisit your email marketing campaign!

1.    Addiction

After I hit the snooze button for the third time at about 7:30am, I reach for my phone half awake and peruse my emails. We all love to check our emails and unlike other mediums, virtually everyone uses email. Many of us will check email first thing and see what emails we could have been sent in the 7 and a half hours since we last checked! Recent studies have suggested that reading emails consumes 28% of the average workers week and we each send or receive over 112 emails a day! Those stats suggest we keep a close eye on our email inbox. We all have accounts on social media and many of us also check them with regularity but one thing we all have in common is that we all check the email inbox constantly. This means that if you are looking to promote a new product or service, you need to be in your customers email inbox. Email should therefore not be ignored.  

2.    Automated

Auto-responders can easily be set up, which allows you to write and schedule a series of emails that will be sent at regular intervals to any potential customers. They immediately provide information to your prospective customers and then will follow up over a set period. This means that over an example 6 month period you have sent a number of emails and engaged with your customers. Mail Chimp and other email marketing companies offer an auto responder service, which is easy to setup and simple to put in practice. Patients could be sent regular special offers for example over a set period.

3.    Accountability and Value

An exact return on investment (ROI) can be tracked because you will know how many people have received the email, how many people have opened and what the click rate to your message is. This gives you wonderful accountability and value for money. You will also get results instantly. For example with GDPUK when companies advertise in our daily emails or on the website we provide full stats for our customers once a week and even more if they request it. This means that the customer can see what kind of return they are receiving from their digital campaign, with the opportunity to change the banner or message as the campaign progresses.

4.    Aggressive

After we build up a decent list of contacts, prospects and customers, sometimes we can then be cautious with the list. In my previous employment we very rarely sent out email campaigns because we were afraid of appearing too spammy or aggressive but I believe that was a mistake. Please don’t take this advice and send out hundreds of emails a month but if you have something to say or announce, make sure your email list knows about it. (your competitors will be doing the same) There is nothing wrong with sharing information and showing you are doing a good job or can offer excellent value, you want to stay in front of your customer’s eyes as well as plant your brand in the customers mind! Email marketing needs to be constant, well thought out and engaging.

So how can we use email marketing in dentistry?

At GDPUK we keep our members engaged on the site by sending daily digest emails, 3 times a day. This sounds like a lot but these emails all contain different content and contain the latest dental news and the most recent forum posts of the day. This gives our members a chance to check their email inboxes and then click on subjects that interest them. The emails are certainly popular because in an average month they get opened and read 130,000 times. These emails also contain banner ads, which often get excellent click through rates for our customers because our members want to read the emails and the advertisers are reaching a target audience of engaged dentists.

In a dental practice you could send special offers to your patients or an interesting newsletter every few weeks. It means you are proactively communicating with your existing and potential patients instead of hoping they will call or walk in. This will hopefully increase business and develop further patient loyalty. If you send a good offer for “teeth whitening” for example, you could also invite your patients to forward the email offer to their friends or colleagues who might have interest in the offer. So once organised, a few minutes of work every couple of weeks will hopefully fill an empty one or two appointment spaces in the practice!