Dental marketing can be a complex puzzle, requiring time, money and effort from your team in order to see success. With all of these resources in short supply, particularly for the smaller practice, you need an automated solution that does all the hard work for you.

With this in mind, 7connections brings you AIM – Automated Intelligent Marketing. 

Capturing the team’s extensive experience and expertise in dental marketing and packaging it into a format designed specifically for smaller practices, AIM is the ideal tool to maximise your marketing activities. 

Once you have determined what you want to do and when, the system will automatically perform tasks as required, taking the stress away from you and your team.

With automated processes to streamline your marketing strategy and enable implementation of effective ideas in a convenient way, discover AIM from 7connections.

For more information about 7connections and AIM, please 

call 01647 478145, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

or visit www.7connections.com.

Looking for innovative and practical marketing ideas? Need inspiration?

7connections could have the answers you’re looking for. With a variety of different avenues from online marketing, patient relationships and referrals, to branding and social media, 7connectinos can help your practice grow and bloom. 

Throughout the year the 7connections coaches host and attend a number of essential educational events, where delegates can learn how to enhance their practice, reach more patients and streamline their business.

Aaron Ferguson from West-End Dental in Colwyn Bay attended the recent 7connections Marketing Roadshow, he says:

“What’s exciting is the fact that 7connections can add so much more to the software and solutions that are available. I would thoroughly recommend that you give them a call.”

If your practice is in need of fresh ideas and inspiration, make sure your explore the options available from 7connections.

For more information about 7connections, please call 01647 478145 or email pThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Alternatively, please visit www.7connections.com.

Running a successful dental practice, like any small business takes time, effort, perseverance and a little luck. It can be a mammoth step-change going from practising as an associate dentist to owning and operating your own dental practice, and without the essential support and guidance of experts, clinicians will be relying on more than just a little luck.

For instance, there can be many reasons why a particular strategy or business approach doesn't garner the results you desire, but without the experienced know-how of business specialists, dentists may find they lack the commercial insight needed for their practice to be a success.

Naturally, such insights are gathered over a long period of experience – lots of trial and error – and are based on seeing first hand what works and what doesn't. Having worked with dental practices for many years, at 7connections we have established the following 7 pain points that at some time every practice will have to overcome in order to succeed.

1. Lack of Balance

In a recent survey that asked what factors are most important to the UK population, 53.7% said work-life balance was the top concern.[i] And yet according to data from the office of national statistics, almost one in two adults report low satisfaction with their work life balance.[ii]

As a practice owner, you can spend 28-35 hours a week performing clinical activity, and then still have to run your business; this can be at least another 10 hours! Achieving a balance therefore requires reducing the time spent working, which means either getting a better team or utilising better systems.

2. Lack of Profitability

When you work hard, you naturally want to see your business making money. However, most practices will suffer at some point from a lack of profitability. In short, if your practice costs more to operate than the amount of revenue generated, then it will soon face real problems. But if you employ the correct model and well-established systems this can easily be avoided.

3. Lack of Growth

Business growth is essential, you should aim for growth to be at least in line with inflation, and more if you want to eventually sell for a profit. Therefore if you experience a drop in turnover or a lack of progress across your business, it’s time to consider a change.

4. Lack of New Patients

A dental practice will always need new patients. To achieve a steady flow, all you need is 20 leads per full time dental surgery per month. Ideally these patients will spend between £1,500 and £1,700 in their first year with you. This will help deliver the sustainable growth required. But bear in mind that every aspect of your practice affects how new patients invest in your services. From your marketing to your systems, to the way your reception looks, it is essential the patient journey reflect the demographic you want to attract.

5. Lack of Team Trust

For any successful business, you need a motivated team who all perform and behave according to your exacting brand standards. However, developing and maintaining a dedicated workforce can be one of the biggest challenges you’ll face. Remember any system you create is only as good as the people you have implementing it.

6. Lack of Systems

We talk a lot about systems, and for any business to be a success it needs well thought out systems that underline everything you do. Every part of your business should have a system that exists in a manual that your team can refer to and implement. To begin with this requires a lot of hard work, but will ensure that later down the line, your business is ready for the future growth and expansion you desire.

7. Lack of Productivity

A key component of success for any dental practice comes down to the individual profitability of every fee-earner in the business. It’s vital to analyse the productivity and profitability of each clinician, and to ensure they are always kept busy – and in order to do that you need leads and conversions.

The Solution

If these pain points are sounding familiar there are solutions that will help to address them all. In order to fix these points and build your business you will need to optimise every part of your practice – both through the right use of human resources, and through implementing efficient systems and protocols.

The best place to start this is in reviewing your Patient Journey and evaluating how you attract and retain new patients. The much discussed seven-step principle known as ‘lifecycle marketing’, can help you to optimise this process, as it effectively encapsulates the process of attracting new patients and retaining them by building and developing long-term relationships.

For more information about 7connections, please call 01647 478145 or email pThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Alternatively, please visit the new website www.7connections.com.

Gone are the days when a website that simply listed your products or services was adequate. Now, with rapidly developing technology, digital advertising and social media you can create an online interactive presence to connect with your existing patients, while also attracting new people to your practice. But what is the best way to boost traffic to your website and convert leads into customers?
 

Until recently, patient use of the internet involved the major search engines, such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. However, now Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have become search engines in their own right[1]. Competition for website surfers looking for information has therefore increased and consumers now have choices they did not have a few years ago. As the online arena becomes more flooded with commerce, buyers have the desire and ability to become familiar with a brand before they purchase. This is changing online buying behaviour and people are opting for two, three or four lead magnets before buying.
 

Traffic platforms are also changing and becoming overcrowded. Take Facebook as an example – previously you could send Facebook traffic to a squeeze page with just a headline and an opt in box, but now it is becoming increasingly strict with what kind of landing pages it allows traffic to be directed to.
 

This crowding of traffic has also caused people to become highly adept at ignoring advertising in all its forms – TV commercials are skipped and emails from unknown senders are left unopened. So although there are various options available to buy advertising, this alone is no longer an effective option for driving traffic to your website. Instead you have to earn traffic by creating valuable content that attracts visitors. Through the development of informative content, you can encourage leads to your site. Reports or webinars, for example, on the latest treatments and oral healthcare advice will engage patients and create interest. More importantly, this information will also allow you to develop a trusted relationship with individuals.
 

Building your content library one piece at a time is an ideal way to start, as this will ensure you have new and interesting topics for patients and potential patients to read and engage with regularly. These could include blog posts, videos, case studies, reports and webinars, and before you know it, you will have a substantial source of work that will help raise the profile of your practice and generate new leads.
 

Having a well-thought-out marketing system in place, such as AIM – Automated Intelligent Marketing – will then allow you to target the information to the correct patients successfully. Developed by 7connections, AIM utilises the lifecycle marketing concept to effectively target communication and create smarter lead management, resulting in enhanced lead conversion rates, increased sales and greater profits.
 

There are many ways to enhance traffic to your website, however just investing time and money on advertising without a clear and structured plan will result in a number of missed opportunities. Developing quality content and then marketing it through an effective proven system will ensure leads are created and converted and patients retained.

For more information about 7connections, please call 01647 478145 or email pThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Alternatively, please visit the new website www.7connections.com.

As with any business, it is essential to have a well-thought-out marketing plan that will allow you to attract, capture and retain patients. Customer value optimisation (CVO) is one system that can be applied to dental practices to aid success. Consisting of seven steps, it can significantly simplify the process and help your practice to grow and prosper.

Step 1: Determine product/ market fit

Dentistry is a well-established sector that will continually be required by patients of all ages. However, it is important to choose the correct product or service for the market. If, for example, you are looking to offer a new orthodontic product or service in your practice, it is worth researching whether the market for the product will be sustainable.

Step 2: Choose a traffic source

Attracting interest from potential patients online will greatly optimise your chances of acquiring new clients, selling more products and services and increasing the frequency of sales.

With a number of options to choose from, it is best to focus on one traffic source, then once mastered add a second and third. The goal throughout is to drive prospects into the CVO funnel. This begins with the lead magnet.

Step 3: Offer a lead magnet

The lead magnet prompts a transaction of information by offering an irresistible bribe that gives a specific chunk of value to a prospect patient in exchange for their contact information. With the lead magnet at the very top of the CVO funnel, increasing opt-ins here will pay dividends throughout the rest of the system and allow you to provide more tripwire offers.

Step 4: Offer a tripwire

Tripwire offers are made to potential patients that have displayed interest through the lead magnet. The main aim of a tripwire is to change the relationship from prospect to customer through offers that individuals are unable to resist.

Step 5: Offer a core product

The core offer relates to your flagship product or service, perhaps implants, orthodontic or whitening treatment. In some cases, the core offer will be profitable, but it does not have to be. If you follow through on the CVO process, you could take everything you make from the core offer and reinvest it to acquire more patients.

Step 6: Offer a profit maximiser

The profit maximiser increases the average transaction value per customer. Through an upsell or cross-sell, patients will spend more during one transaction.

Step 7: Create the return path

The final way to grow your practice is to increase the number of transactions per customer. Having gained their contact information through the initial lead magnet, you will have the ability to continue marketing, offering them new lead magnets, tripwires, core offers and profit maximisers.

Effective email marketing is one way to maintain communication with patients and increase transaction frequency. The experts at 7connections have recently developed AIM – Automated Intelligent Marketing – specifically for small dental practices. Based on proven strategies, such as CVO, AIM can help your practice to reap the rewards of a clear and well-thought-out marketing plan.

Successful marketing systems can enhance a business and allow you to make the most of opportunities. Increase patient numbers, enhance the average transaction value per client and raise the number of transactions per patient with a well-thought-out marketing solution.

For more information about 7connections, please call 01647 478145 or email pThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Alternatively, please visit the new website www.7connections.com.