Business Management: What is the Right Marketing Budget?

Dental marketing without advertising expert Helmut Flasch is a dental e-marketing consultant and founder of the award-winning Un-Advertising strategy program. The Un-Advertising program is an effective dental marketing strategy used by non-profit organizations, businesses, and media entities. Individuals will market for you for free consistently and continuously instead of you having to advertise for yourself or seek another dental PR company for additional dental newspaper advertisements services. Mr. Flasch, the dental advertising strategy expert, speaks about how being a “jolly good fellow” can help business owners such as dentists or doctors, attract more new patients in a very inexpensive way by getting the community and community leaders to promote (refer) your practice without ever having been patients themselves.

Something that is relatively new to the scene is the social media network. Let’s gear it towards public relations and how to get press releases. As you probably saw on the video on my site, media is not the almighty advertising source for your dental advertising . It is true, media is powerful and getting media is something you want. . But do not put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to getting your own free press, there are many other community leaders who can give you publicity without going directly through media sources. Social networks are one of those other options . How do you make use of social media to add more to your internet dental marketing?

Previously, one would need to find a reporter and try to get an article out of a local newspaper. Now, reporters are actually disappearing. I personally think that there is a chance that in our lifetime, reporters will have more or less disappeared.

Either way, they are less important now. Why? You can go directly to the public through online social media networks and it is as powerful as a press release printed by another paper. I am not saying that this trend of online exposure can replace the New York Times, but most likely if you are for instance, a dentist, you are not getting into the New York Times anyhow for your local community news. It is more the smaller papers in your area that will print your story and they are still important, in spite of more news being ‘reported’ on the internet. .

The social media, however, gets you directly to the customer. How is that happening? There are many social media websites. Facebook and Twitter are just two and there are hundreds of other ones that are broadcast and are basically syndicated radio stations, only on the internet. When you go and put your information on these social media sites, it travels by itself without any real ‘reporters’ needed to pass on your information. Social media sites are even where today’s reporters are going to look for information Even if the main stream media don’t pick you up, there are key players in these communities and in many fields. These key players are bloggers and you will be going on those sites, with a blog and they distribute your information through their own community of followers which could be hundreds or thousands. Also, the public at large goes there. This new way of internet public relations doesn’t mean the old way is gone but the reporters are going to those sites to look for what is “cool” right now, and that makes sense. Instead of getting a sales pitch from a public relations agent, they are using social media to see what the community is beating the drums for these days.

Whether you are a dentist and would like to use free resources for your dental marketing, or a restaurant owner wanting to get your news to more people in your local community, use social media sites ( videos, articles sites etc) to publish your news.

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Business Management: What is the Right Marketing Budget?

Dental marketing without advertising expert Helmut Flasch is a dental direct marketing specialist and founder of the award-winning Un-Advertising strategy. The Un-Advertising strategy is an effective dental affiliate marketing technique used by non-profit organizations, businesses, and media entities. Individuals will market for you for free consistently and continuously instead of you having to advertise for yourself or seek another dental PR company for additional dental SEO services. Mr. Helmut Flasch, the dental web advertising consultant, speaks about how being a “jolly good fellow” can help business owners such as dentists, attract more new patients in a very inexpensive way by getting the community and community leaders to promote (refer) your practice without ever having been patients themselves.

A question many of my clients ask is “How much of my particular income should go over to marketing? What is a standard marketing budget?” Experts are constantly researching and analyzing what the standard is. Where they get their data about what is ‘right’, I don’t know and 99.9% is incorrect. How much do you spend on marketing? How much do you spend on dental website marketing? Answer: As much as it takes to get your business to move up!

Even if it costs you six times what you are making now, you need to market. Am I joking? I am absolutely not joking. Do you usually need that? No, not really. But then again maybe yes especially if you are making little money right now. That is what it will take.

Several times, I have been around the world and studied some business while working for other companies. I realized that the successful companies do not ask what their budget for advertising should be.

The point is, the successful people just market more. It’s a little bit like when you are sick. How much of the doctor’s bill should you pay? When I started my business, how much money did I make? Zero. How much did I spend on marketing? It didn’t matter, whether I spent $400 or $4000 it was more than what I made because I made nothing.

I had a client, a dentist in Los Angeles who spent a tremendous amount on marketing when he started off.

Flyers, coupons, internet dental marketing, stuff like that. He became my client 12 or 13 years later.

At that point in time, he was no longer sending out any flyers, coupons etc. So I asked him why he had stopped and whether the advertising was not effective. He said that it was effective and it had brought new customers in.

He said that he did it in the beginning to get people in but then he gave reasons why he shouldn’t be spending so much on advertising anymore and he heard from other “experts” on what to spend on dental marketing and that is how he adjusted it. He then paid for my help and I had him start marketing again.

There are, however, tremendous amount of ways out there for dental advertising and internet dental marketing where the cost is so little that anybody can afford it. You can inch your way up.

To Market or Not – Fear of Dental Marketing Failures

Let’s talk about how to guarantee that your marketing will work because after all, we don’t all have ‘extra money to burn.’  This is a question I get quite often from clients who want to do everything they can to make sure their dental marketing strategy works.  There is nothing wrong with wanting to make sure your marketing strategy works except that it will put you in a defensive state.  A state of inaction.  Anything you do is better than nothing even though the short term might not suggest that.

As Bill Gates said in his book, “Business at the Speed of Thought”, people always hugely overestimate the short term result of everything they do and underestimate the long term result.  So people put their money into marketing strategies and complain that they didn’t work.  Most of the time, they don’t work because people didn’t keep them going.

Also, many of people’s strategies do not work because they try them one strategy at a time.  Then, when the marketing strategies they tried do not work, they become gun shy and do nothing.

Let’s scratch that and start from the beginning.  No war general’s strategy will be to first send in troops and wait until they are dead, then to send in the tanks and planes. Most small business’ marketing approach is like that though.  There is no synergy, no systematic approach and no strategy.  So what are some of the most cost effective strategies?  There are some things people need to have in mind before beginning their approach.

I understand that no one wants to lose too much when it comes to marketing.  But even the biggest marketing minds in the world lose some of what they put into marketing.  Not everything works, that is why we try different things and that is the point of a systematic strategy.  It is a little bit like a first love.  We try something thinking that it will last forever.   The realization that it won’t is a big part in growing up.

In internet dental marketing strategies, some dentists put out web sites alone and thought that that is all that is needed to be ‘found’ in the world wide web. Yet they failed to explore other strategies like social network media.   It is very inexpensive and should be a part of your dental marketing approach.  You should also approach public relations, getting the community leaders involved and most importantly, getting them to market for you.  This works through approaching a few people (via social media) who then approach other people (through their community of people) who approach other people (family, friends, etc.).  This can be done without spending thousands and thousands of dollars in one shot leaving you to hope your strategy works.

Remember: Never put your marketing in one basket. Don’t place all your hopes on one single dental advertising method alone. It is necessary to have multiple marketing sources

Dental Advertising Budget: How Much is Right and How Much is Wrong?


A question many of my clients ask is “How much of my particular income should go over to marketing?  What is a standard marketing budget?”  Accountants and other analysts out there are always analyzing what is standard and what is good.  Where they get their data about what is ‘right’, I don’t know and 99.9% is incorrect.  How much do you spend on marketing?  How much do you spend on dental website marketing?  Answer: As much as it takes to get your business to move up!

If that is six times what you are making now, so be it.  Am I joking?  I am absolutely not joking.  Do you usually need that?  No, not really, but then again maybe yes especially if you are making little money right now.  That is what it will take.

Several times, I have been around the world and studied some business while working for other companies.  I realized that the successful companies do not ask what their budget for advertising should be.

The point is, the successful people just market more.  It’s a little bit like when you are sick.  How much of the doctor’s bill should you pay?  It is very important.  When I started my business, how much money did I make?  Zero.  How much did I spend on marketing?  It didn’t matter, whether I spent $400 or $4000 it was more than what I made because I made nothing.  I had a client, a dentist in Los Angeles who spent a tremendous amount on marketing when he started off.  Flyers, coupons, internet dental marketing, stuff like that.  He became my client 12 or 13 years later.

At that point in time he no longer did any of those types of things.  I asked him, ” Why did you stop, did it not work?”  He said no, it worked, it brought people in.

He said that he did it in the beginning to get people in but then he gave reasons why he shouldn’t be spending so much on advertising anymore and he heard from other  “expert” on what to spend on dental marketing and that is how he adjusted it.  Then he paid me to tell him to start marketing again, which he did.

There are, however, tremendous amount of ways out there for dental advertising and internet dental marketing where the cost is so little that anybody can afford it.  You can inch your way up.

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Dental Public Relations: How to Use Social Media to Publish Your News

Something that is relatively new to the scene is the social media network.  Let’s gear it towards public relations and how to get press releases.  As you probably saw on the video on my site, media is not the almighty advertising source for your dental advertising. Media is powerful, the power of the press is phenomenal and you want media, yes.  But do not put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to getting your own free press, there are many other community leaders who can give you publicity without going directly through media sources.  Social networks are one of those other options.  So what is social media?  How do you make use of social media to add more to your internet dental market?

In the old days, you used to need to go for a reporter and try to get an article out of a local newspaper.  Now, reporters are actually disappearing.  I personally think that there is a chance that in our lifetime, reporters will have more or less disappeared.

Either way, they are less important now.  Why?  You can go directly to the public through online social media networks and it is as powerful as a press release printed by another paper.  I am  not saying that this trend of online exposure  can replace the New York Times, but most likely if you are for instance, a dentist, you are not getting into the New York Times anyhow for your local community news. It is more the smaller papers in your area that will print your story and they are still important, in spite of more news being ‘reported’ on the internet. .

The social media, however, gets you directly to the customer.  How is that happening?  There are many social media websites.  Facebook and Twitter are just two and there are hundreds of other ones that are broadcast and are basically syndicated radio stations, only on the internet.  When you go and put your information on these social media sites, it travels by itself without any real ‘reporters’ needed to pass on your information. Social media sites are even  where today’s reporters are going to look for information Even if the main stream media don’t pick you up, there are key players in these communities and in many fields.  These key players are bloggers and you will be going on those sites, with a blog and they distribute your information through their own community of followers which could be hundreds or thousands.  Also, the public at large goes there.  This new way of internet public relations doesn’t mean the old way is gone but the reporters are going to those sites to look for what is “cool” right now, and that makes sense.  Instead of getting a sales pitch from a public relations agent, they are using social media to see what the community is beating the drums for these days.

If you are a dentist and would like to use free resources for your dental marketing, explore publishing your press releases online.

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Healthcare & Dental Marketing: How to Increase New Patients without Wasting Money on Advertising

Successful healthcare and dental practice improvement has to include marketing methods that can get lots of good patients into the door without expensive advertisement. Traditional healthcare and dental marketing tends to be restricted by only internal marketing or external advertising.

Yet, it is more and more true that most health care and dental practices that do advertising exclusively are throwing their hard-earned money out the window. They might increase the total collection but virtually never the bottom line.

The reason is plain : advertising is hardly noticed and definitely not believed. The amount of advertising in this and other countries is way up, but for most small business owners it means less and less profits.

Here are some of the roadblocks you will need to overcome while advertising:

1) If your advertising message only talks about the benefits of your services and your experience and which school you went to, you will sound alike with your competitors’ messages. Patients cannot choose easily among services which are similar.

2) . People do not find ads credible . Your prospects already expect you to say, “We have the latest technology”, “We are service-orientated”, etc.

3) Ads have little staying power in creating deep impressions. The next month you stop advertising, no one will remember you. Out-of-sight means out-of-mind fairly swiftly.

4) Your prospects are bombarded by 5000 advertising appeals a day. You are attempting to get your message heard in an overcrowded marketing environment. Thus advertising cost goes up and ROIs go down.

Problems of dependence of customer referrals and networking:

5) Many offices depend on patient referrals as their primary source of new patients, but depending only on internal marketing alone could not help you to break through business income plateaus. Especially in a bad economy, most offices find their new patient referrals going down or at best staying below a ceiling. Patients are dropping doctors due to loss of jobs and insurances.

6) Networking meetings and luncheons to stimulate patient referrals from other doctors and related businesses are too time-consuming. You can send your staff to bring small gifts to another doctor’s office to thank them for referrals but how many ‘let’s-bring-em-bagel’ trips can you make to ALL the possible referral sources? This time-consuming and costly ‘gift-giving’ will eventually dead-end for most – due to not enough time for the doctor and for the staff to do.

What is the solution? ‘Un-Advertising’ resolves the above problems.

Un-Advertising is about getting other organizations, media, business owners and health care professionals etc in your community to say how good you are, instead of you having to promote yourself.

Piggyback your messages onto other organizations’ existing communication lines to their public. It is like hooking onto a high speed train to travel to your destination rather than trying to build your own railroad and train!

This strategy builds trust and reputation very quickly in the community without advertising and the best of all, it does not require the budget as in traditional advertising.

To get your prospects to see you, you need a ‘spark’ – something that makes your prospects noticing you instead of your competitors.

Without this spark, there is no fire that could ignite – thus no wind can spread this non-existing fire! Advertising is the wind and doing advertising without first establishing a position or perception which was put in people’s minds by other sources than you will be a waste of dollars.

Your message must be believed, it must build trust, increase customer loyalty and make your practice stand out from your competition, especially in bad economic times.

Remember: Healthcare and dental advertising can help get new patients and grow your business but if you do not wish to waste money in your healthcare and dental marketing efforts, you must include establishing trust and reputation in a broader and cheaper way. And that method is called ‘Un-advertising’. There are numerous articles on this subject.

Un-Advertising: Cost-Effective Dental Practice Marketing

The assumed goal of the dentist:

You want to double your dental practice and double your net income without spending an arm and a leg on expensive dental practice marketing, you also want to have a bit more time for yourself and family and overall get some satisfaction and recognition out of being a doctor! Maybe you want to create some residual income which continues whether you practice or not and which will continue for your children or grandchildren!!

The Number One problem which prevents that:

A large, steady stream of new qualified dental patients!

But dental practice marketing that is needed to create such a large, steady stream of new qualified patients presents a major problem because marketing cost are so high that sufficient marketing is usually not possible for most doctors or any small business:

“One must market to make money but one does not have money to market!”

(It is a perfect catch 22!)

UN–ADVERTISING and all its unique dental marketing components are the SOLUTION:

UN–Advertising reaches the exact people or group of people you want to reach! We set you up with a turnkey Infrastructure which keeps working year in and out!

After being able to contact hundreds of thousand of people over and over again, then there is however another challenge:

And that is that one’s message must stick out. One must be able to differentiate one self from the competition, who all sound/look disgustingly alike.

Differentiation is a task which cannot possibly be achieved with a message which says, “ I am a good doctor, I have new machinery, I graduated in this or that great college, I perform this and that service” etc. Every doctor blows that horn – no doctor ever says he has bad education, bad and out-dated equipment etc. Besides people cannot evaluate the expertise of a doctor just as you the doctor has a problem evaluating an accountant, lawyer, business consultant, car mechanic etc. People also do not, as doctors think, value or appreciate or understand this new machinery you have just bought and are the “only” one in the city or state with it. No they don’t!

The solution is a humanitarian message of being a person first and then a doctor:

A message which builds the image of a lovable, caring person whom one can trust with any issues and subsequently with issues of health.

Patients do not have as much distrust of whether a doctor knows what he is doing professionally  (he is after all licensed) but they do wonder whether he cares, or whether he recommends treatment best for them or best for the doctor’s pocket. (Yes, you have the same trust issues than evaluating the car mechanics – like it, believe it or don’t – you do have ‘trust issues’, created by the sensation-hungry media & the sue-hungry lawyers!)

Un–Advertising will build the trust needed for potential dental patients to remember your name in a positive way long before they ever had a need for your service:

The Seven Un–Advertising Dental Marketing Strategies which accomplish the above: [Read more...]

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The Most Effective Dental Marketing Plan: Un-Advertising

UN-Advertising is a new-wave dental marketing plan whereby human relationships are built automatically and whereby ‘other people’ will toot the horn for you consistently and continuously FOR FREE. You will increase trust, recognition and best of all, business and referrals from both patients and from people who are not even your patients yet!

Benefits

  • Un-Advertising makes you unforgettable in the public’s eye.
  • It gets you FREE publicity.
  • Your message is remembered.
  • It increases doctors’ and dental patients’ referrals.
  • You stand out from your competition.
  • Your patient base is of a higher quality.
  • You get so much business that you no longer need to be a  “solo” practitioner that is handcuffed to your business

Traditional Dental Patient Marketing Approaches Do Help A Business But Are You Also Running Into the Following 7 Roadblocks? [Read more...]

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The Most Effective Marketing For Dentists

Un-advertising is the most comprehensive dental practice marketing plan available.

Below are the dental office marketing strategies that you must use, especially if a dental office wants to thrive and succeed despite a down-turning economy:

  1. Get Your Business Published As News in the Press –
    • Make the newspapers, magazines, TV and Radio  ‘curious’ about your practice and what you are doing.
    • Doing this exactly the way as we show you in your Un-Advertising program, you will get about 6-20 press exposures a year.
    • TV, radio and newspapers will start to feature your dental office more often, attracted by the news release samples that we have included for you in this package.
    • The media are also surprised to learn that key community leaders and other health care professionals also support your activities.
    • They start seeing you as a local VIP and write even more often about your business.
    • Any media exposure, and especially the huge quantity that you will achieved with our program, will make ANY advertising you do work 2 to 3 times better
  2. Get Patient Referrals from Community Leaders –
    • You will get referrals from influential people in your community whether they are your patients or not!
    • Key community leaders like mayors, church leaders, educators, police chiefs, fire chiefs etc will start paying attention to your message – they start to trust you as a good person.
    • They are impressed that you are a person who is actively supporting the community. They love you for it, because doing good things in the community is what they pride themselves of doing everyday via their job.
    • They start to weave you into their everyday communication to the public.
    • Community leaders also see that you are featured repeatedly in the news.
    • Community leaders now casually mention your practice name and your name to the public they meet. This is normally something they cannot do in any official position – which is to endorse a private business. But since Un-Advertising is not about selling your services as in advertising, OH BOY, would those community leaders love to say: “Dr XYZ is doing his bit for the community. We should have more doctors like Dr XYZ!”
  3. Doctors Referral Program — [Read more...]

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