At one level, marketing is EVERYTHING.

The way you do the thing you do.

Seth Godin has been reminding us of this in recent weeks – that every interaction that the patient has with you and your team – every experience that you deliver – from first contact to treatment completion – its all marketing, even your building and your paperwork.

You could perhaps say that the definition of “brand” is simply the way that your marketing makes people feel.

I was asked this week “what are the absolute must do’s on lead generation?”

1. Create curiosity – your message has to be bold, outrageous and provocative (BOP) and stimulate people to ask questions. Most dental practice marketing is boring. Deploying MagicBox for Marketing, Karl Taylor-Knight has created some stunning visuals – they are working;
2. Capture email addresses and permission to alert people when you have something to say. We are busy developing a turnkey solution for dental practices using Infusionsoft;
3. Hand out referral business cards – all day, every day, without exception. Make this a mission – with the appropriate conversation;
4. Tell stories. Tell stories about patients whose lives you have changed.  It doesn’t matter whether they are “anon” or named – the fact is that nobody (apart from dentists) is interested in dentistry – but everybody is interested in everybody else’s story

Marketing is like breathing – its not an option.