5+ Reasons Brand Matters & What You Should Do!
The immeasurable impact of branding for a dental office
Did you know that approximately 60% of consumers opt to buy from companies they recognize via marketing and advertising initiatives and are far less likely to invest in an unknown?
This makes increasing your brand visibility via a variety of promotional mediums paramount to practice success. Make 2021 the year to focus on brand and increasing awareness with your intended audience. And do it across all channels. Presenting your brand consistently across all platforms can increase revenue by up to 23%!
How you approach your brand, on a consistent basis, is what will actively impact how your target audience perceives your dental office – and how they interact with you. Do new patients flock? Are active patients connected? Is production on the upward trend? This is one of the beauties of working with Patient NEWS – we make certain that our clients’ brand images are consistent on all channels from print to digital – to in-office – professionally and positively, and we provide easy and convenient visibility to the actionable insights you want.
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When you think about your practice brand, from the direct mail that hits area households, to your website, your paid media campaigns, your automated patient communications like reviews, appointment reminders, reactivations, patient newsletters … are you happy with the consistency patients are experiencing?
Is your brand recognizable? Do area residents know you’re there?
I can’t remember how many times new clients have said to us over the years, we needed a way to get our name into the homes around our practice. Too many new patients came in and said, “I didn’t even know you were here.” Does that sound like your office?
Here are some fun consumer & brand stats dental offices should consider:
It takes 5-7 impressions for people to remember a brand
Color improves brand recognition by up to 80%
A third of the world’s top brands include the color blue in their logos
89% of consumers stay loyal to brands that share their values*
82% of consumers feel more positive about a brand after reading customized content.
Branding builds revenue. Dental offices can strengthen their brand and practice awareness with a:
Focus on sharing values in marketing to strengthen trust
Increase in positive reviews with word-of-mouth campaigns
Positive focus on social media & in-person connections.
For a local business, like a dental office, building brand awareness starts with core activities; distinguishable name/logo – visible signage (does your street front sign say “dentist” – so do 100s of others), direct mail to targeted households, paid media, community events, and strong word-of-mouth from existing patients.
Our team can help your dental office do all this, easily, to enhance your brand in a way that gets the positive attention of patients and area residents, to help your office be more known, more trusted, and to be the preferred choice. And despite my subtitle, this is all very measurable!
Another statistic that I’m sure we’ll all agree on is the power of positivity and its impact on who we choose to do business with. Your brand is made up of all the experiences patients have with your brand, from an exceptional introduction from your content rich direct-mail newsletter, or referral from a friend to the kind and helpful service patients receive when they’re in contact with your dental office – the first time and every time after that. Phone Power telephone training from Patient NEWS supports your marketing efforts. Phone Power provides dental teams with the supports they want to improve call handling and convert more new patients. 73% of us love a brand with helpful service – I bet it’s even higher than that, with brand experience taking over as the number-one expectation of consumers in 2021/22.
Almost 90% of consumers say authenticity is important when deciding on brands they like and support. What better way to share exactly who you are with your target audience than customized neighborhood newsletters? Direct mail from dentists resonates with all important buying groups: Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and even Gen Z! Millennials prefer direct mail over email and are more engaged with their mail and like to actually read it, and this demographic is moving into the phase where elective dentistry is becoming more important. Boomers, of course, long-time high-value patients, like digital advertising, but print influences their behavior more strongly.
Mail is a powerful way to do so many positive things for your dental office. It educates, it influences, it’s memorable, you can mold it to say exactly what you want to say about your practice, and it’s trusted. Consumers welcome direct mail as a reliable source of information. For sure you want your direct mail to be a customized newsletter format from Patient NEWS – the larger format, high-quality FSC approved paper stock, brilliant print quality – wham – puts you well ahead of competitors using postcards (although, we do those too, they work in some markets and can look beautiful when well designed).
And if you’re building your brand, you must focus on your online reputation. Social proofing involves increasing positive reviews and managing your online reputation, particularly important when new patients look to your brand and are in the decision-making mode.
Generating patient reviews is a given – you must do it, and it works so well to incorporate an automated review tool into your marketing plan. Clients using our solution, Review BOOSTER, gain well over double, almost triple, the amount of reviews after activating the automated cadence. It’s one of the best solutions in the industry and is just one single tiny part of Practice ZEBRA, our dental software, so you get it at a fraction of the cost of some of the other services out there. Check it out. 90% of consumers read reviews before purchasing, and the same won’t take action without reading them.
Using social media to further your branding efforts can seem like a pain, but it’s something we all need to incorporate. Our WebLift program has a great system for dental offices to keep it simple, while keeping it custom and personal. As a local business, dental teams have a great opportunity to build a nice little social community that will enhance positive practice branding. Not only does social media help show “behind-the-scenes” to prospective patients, it reaffirms to existing patients that they have made a good choice, increasing their likelihood to return and refer, a positive social presence will help you attract good team members who like the culture your practice reflects.
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So that’s part of the immeasurable impact of branding. More new patients. More quality active patients. More great team members. This all equals increased production, practice security, and long-term valuation.
Before I end, I’m circling back to 89% of consumers stay loyal to a brand that shares their values, so let me remind you of ours at Patient NEWS. We committed these to paper back in the year 2000 and they have guided the way we do business.
Excellence in innovation and product quality
Service with honesty, integrity and professionalism
Our corporate culture, that intangible spirit, supported by our working and living environment, and through the respect and empowerment of employees as a team and individuals
The environment and green business practices
Our fun, positive, creative, and energizing workplace
Community involvement and contribution at the employee and corporate level.
We are a great company to work with! If you’re a solo dentist, dental office manager, dental consultant, dental marketing or operations manager, group or DSO CEO and you like and respect those values, we’d love to connect. Call in today!