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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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.

First let me share with you my fundamental belief:

When a person observes an incorrect matter — regardless whether it is just his viewpoint — he better makes his observation known and put his energy towards righting the wrong.

Commonly this can only be done by making the rest of the group aware of what is happening and help them fixing the situation for them.

One should also simply not support the entities who have caused the wrong.

This is what Gandhi did – just stop playing “those people’s games”. Don’t participate, don’t support what you do not wish to support and the situation will right itself eventually.

I believe that one must stand up for such things regardless of immediate personal or family danger.

Does it sound radical and dangerous?

Of course, one could lose it all – especially financially — as for instance some doctors, who have disagreed with the FDA and started treating patients with holistic or alternative medicine, have had their licenses being revoked.

The current attempt to hijack the country – even the world – and its people in it – is modern financial slavery and lives will be destroyed by those who are doing the destroying. This is far more devastating than any bad FDA regulations or any bad government insurance regulations even though those things are part of the hijacking and are forerunners.

To survive, perhaps only survive in a literal sense, you will need a lot of cash.

I did not quite believe I would ever say such a thing so heavy, but there are huge economic indications that the dollar will collapse, your real-estate will be worthless and if you have loans on it you better make truckloads of money to keep it or let it go and buy – with cash — a new one.

The U.S. is in such bad financial shape that we currently have a deficit of 13.3 trillion! If Americans were taxed 100% of their income it still wouldn’t be enough to balance the budget. With the so-called ‘economic recovery’ beginning to lose steam, Americans will soon experience a major decline in the purchasing ability of their savings and income.

What can a small business owner do?

Sell a lot more of what you have to the people (about 15 – 25 % who will still be able to purchase your services.) and sell a lot more NOW.

Now, actually if you think about it – making money – selling your services or products when others can’t always has and always will be the most important thing.

Economics at any level is simple – make more than you spend.

Even though cutting back on expenses has its value at times, but at any times you MUST – absolutely MUST — know how to set yourself apart from the competition in a big way, shine more than the competition, shout louder than the competition, – in short be seen better than the competition, be perceived better and more likable than the competition.

Especially in the period of this great economic recession, making your products and services well-known and well-accepted is the most important factor of surviving financially well.

These principles are always at play to determine who are winners in the business world – but they are paramount when times are real hard.

Building a better mousetrap – meaning providing better service as a doctor or in any field — is NOT what will achieve domination of your business sector.

Being seen, liked, trusted, and thus being endorsed by the community at large whether they have ever been clients or patients, will be just about the ONLY thing you can do to insure the survival in the next two to eight years.

Stop thinking that there is nothing you can do and that you have NO choice but can only make money when times are good (most people never do as you might see yourself that after the last best decade of economical advancement, most people – doctors included – have not achieved superlative financial wealth).

Please also do not think that you must also suffer in your business because your peers are telling how their new customers are down.

History has shown that during hard times, huge amount of super rich people and companies have been created.

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going is something you will have to do – if you wish to survive. Get on the ball!

Only 2 – 5 % of people business owners or doctors will ‘do something about it’ as is shown in history.

Again, the best asset anyone can have is not real estate, stocks, 401k’s, health insurances – not even gold (even though better than the previous items) – the best asset is your ability to produce something and have the ability to sell it well to your prospects.

Whether you are a business owner or a dentist, smart business and dental practice management begin with knowing how to get lots of people buying from you with smart marketing strategies that are fitting for the slow economy.

The power of the press is phenomenal and can hugely benefit your dental marketing strategy.  I have noticed that some of my clients, however, put too much attention on the press and it’s probably because of what I have said about it (that it is very important).  The press is important, yes, but there are other activities that are just as important.

No matter what, the press is only a small cog in the clock that is the marketing world.  A clock missing one cog (or gear) cannot run, meaning press is still very important.  However, when I mention the ‘press’, what I am referring to is more like common people spreading your messages in your local area.  This is just as important and involves community leaders spreading your word for you.  This is powerful!  You will get picked up by the media press when you have community leaders spread your word for you sooner or later, no doubt. This method can prove to be an excellent way of promoting your dental advertising.

If you write a press release or something of that nature and it does not get published, do not despair.  It is a little bit like success in general, if you solely chase success, it will be hard for you to reach it.  However, if your focus is geared more towards the quality of your product and providing phenomenal service, you are much more likely to become successful.  It is the same when it comes to getting press from the media.  Do not worry about getting the press, focus on what you need to get it but concentrate on doing it the right way.

Press is very important but it is not the almighty when it comes to marketing methods.  Getting the hundreds or thousands of community leaders in your area to talk about you is huge!  That is where your method of approaching the press correctly comes in.  Whether through internet dental marketing or just word of mouth in the community, you will need to show the community leaders that your news are of high value to be talked about and thus they would be more than happy to spread your messages for you.

One question that constantly comes up is “How long should it take for my marketing to start working?”  Here’s the short answer:  It doesn’t matter.  You just need to market.  The worst thing you can do is to add worry about how long your marketing takes to work and what it costs.  You can’t go into a marriage expecting it to wait a certain amount of time before it “works”.  You have to go in knowing that it will work.  Marketing is the same way.  You have to go into it knowing that you will have to market, market, market.  Then, you will have to market some more!

That does not mean to just market in one place and not look at all available options and move things around as you find what works for you.  Read books and internet postings on dental marketing, there are loads of things out there to help.  Most importantly, you have to find marketing that costs little or nothing to you.  Don’t stick to dental advertising that costs you a lot of money, i.e. coupons, flyers, etc.  There are things like internet dental marketing available and other ways of marketing that other people pay for.  There are all kinds of activities like these out there.  You have got to get the internet community involved and this means you will probably have to learn and study a little bit about it.

I started my medical and dental practice management consulting business in 1991 and four months into it, I still hadn’t made any money.  Seven months later, it was the same scenario.  I was getting close to caving in but my wife insisted I keep going.  Today, 19 years later, we have made it and made it well.  That is what comes from not putting any pre-conceived notions of how long my success should take.  Persistence doesn’t mean trying things the same way if it fails the first time.  Persistence is exploring all the options and finding out what works for you.  Don’t keep asking yourself “Will it work?”  Just keep trying.

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