When it comes to the success of your dental practice, proper marketing is just as essential as providing high-quality services. In this podcast episode titled ‘Marketing Your Practice Using The Six Fundamental Principles of Dr. Robert Cialdini’, Gary Takacs and Naren Arulrajah discuss these most important marketing concepts and how you can use them to benefit your practice.
Dr. Cialdini, in his book Influence, describes these six fundamentals as
- Reciprocity
- Social proof
- Authority
- Liking
- Commitment and consistency
- Scarcity
The role of marketing in dentistry
We want to use these principles to reduce dentists’ dependency on insurance and make dentistry great again. Marketing plays a vital role in this journey, serving two purposes:
- You will see a reduction in the number of your patients when you move out of network. Marketing will help you replace them.
- Attracting new patients who don’t have dental insurance and are more interested in their health than insurance. (They aren’t worried about all procedures not being covered under insurance but want the best health care instead.)
We believe there will be more independent contractors than regular employees in the future, and they are more likely not to have dental insurance. It’s a market we should try to attract with quality services. Persuading people in advance is three to four times more effective in making them agree to your proposals.
Dr. Cialdini’s Six Fundamental Principles
We use Dr. Cialdini’s principles as effective tools toward this end.
- Reciprocity – Ex. Patients give great reviews to a dentist who has treated them in an exemplary manner. The dentist must grasp this moment to get the maximum benefits.
- Social proof – What others say and think matters to us as human beings.
- Authority – We listen to, accept, and respect words spoken by authoritative figures. So, how can a dentist become an authoritative figure? Check out the Ekwa products – Doctors’ Choice Awards and DoctorandMeTV – to find out more.
- Liking – We like those who are interested in our best interests. It’s important for doctors to create personal relationships with their patients.
- Commitment and consistency – Ex. Patients’ commitment to keeping their appointments can be improved if they are given a choice about their appointment times. This affects consistency too.
- Scarcity – People generally yearn for what is not readily available. If a dentist’s services are booked for months ahead, more people will try to book their services for many more months.
There’s a lot you can achieve by practicing these principles in your dental office.If you want to learn more about marketing for dentists, contact Ekwa Marketing in Mississauga, Ontario, at 855-345-0593 or click on www.rid.academy/marketing-strategy-meeting/ to book a FREE Marketing Strategy Meeting!
