Online Dental Marketing - How Much Should I Spend?

Internet Marketing for Dentists is heating up and really becoming competitive. Online Marketing is skyrocketing allowing the “average dentist” to compete with the big guns of dentistry.

One of the hot topics is always “How much should I spend on Internet marketing?”

It’s amazing the variations of opinions that come up as you discuss this topic. Some dentists swear by Internet marketing spending thousands and thousands each month, while others can’t quite understand the hoopla of marketing online.

What I decided to do is start searching the Internet on forums and blogs and do some research on what people are saying about online marketing budgets and their results.

The answers that I found weren’t shocking at all, just reaffirmed the answers I already knew. However, what was shocking is how undervalued new patients are. The figures I received blew me away.

I gathered some quotes from a variety of blogs and forums that disclosed the budgets that dentists are paying for their Internet marketing.

Here are some quotes I gathered from dentists online and before I disclose how much they are spending take a wild guess at what you think their online budget is.

Ready? Ok, let’s play…

First up, a dentist from Mississippi says…

“Great concept, but I just haven’t seen much results.” (Mississippi dentist spending $(guess) monthly)”

So what do you think he’s spending every month? $100? $200? $500? $1000?

Answer… $30! That’s right, $30 per month. I don’t think I need to say anymore on that. I think you can see why he’s not “seen much results”.

Next up, a New York Dentist says…

“I believe that you need to have a single dedicated person handling all Internet marketing functions in order to make it profitable. This person should be like a dental marketing IT person.” (New York dentist spending $(guess) monthly)

This is a pretty positive one… what’s your guess on his monthly online budget? $50? $200? $800? $1200? $2000?

Answer… $175 per month!

Now, even though his budget is still remarkably low, he hit the nail right on the head when he said “you need to have a single dedicated person handling all Internet marketing functions in order to make it profitable.”

There are a couple of reasons for this;

Let the Experts do what they know best! People come to you for their dental needs because you are the expert. Last time I checked bankers didn’t make good dentists! Get my point? Why do you feel like you need to do your own online marketing campaigns? There are Internet experts that do this stuff 24/7, why not let them take care of it for you and do it right?
When your budget increases for marketing it usually means more work on your part to keep a handle on things. If you are doing AdWords, video marketing, social networking, newsletters etc etc etc, that is a lot to keep track of. Don’t you think your time is better spend treating patients and making money then dealing with the hours and hours it takes to market online properly? Think of it this way, let’s say you spend 1 hour a day on your online marketing and your spending $400 per month on ads etc. Guess what? Your spending a lot more than $400 a month. Let’s assume you make $100 per hour doing dentistry. You work 4 days a week which means you are spending $400 a week on Internet marketing just from your time alone. Times that by 4 ($400 x 4) and that’s a whopping $1600 per month plus the actual $400 on marketing bringing your Internet marketing budget total to a whopping $2000 per month!!! Now, since you are losing $1600 from your time and not bringing that in your dental practice is actually losing $3200 per month. What does that equal in production? Maybe $4000? $5000? $10,000? As you can see your marketing budget just tripled if not quadrupled in cost.

Next up, a South Carolina Dentist says…

“Even without my picture loaded on the website, it generates 4-5 new high-value patients monthly!! The most recent patient needed $19,500 in restorative treatment of which he has already paid half BEFORE treatment begins…that’s 32.5 more months of Internet marketing from just one patient!” (South Carolina dentist spending $(guess) monthly)

So what’s your guess on this one?? $200? $600? $1000? $2000?

Actually, he gave you a clue in his statement that gave it away if you did the math.

Answer… $600 monthly budget!

The best part about this situation is the dentist gets how this all works! I love it! He brings in $19,500 and he’s already turning that money back into marketing dollars. See how powerful this can be? One patient brings in $19,500 all from $600 being spent on his online marketing. What do you think, was that a good investment? I think everyone agrees it was, if not then go drink another cup of coffee because your a little drowsy this morning.

Now, does this happen all the time? Well, actually it does, but does it happen every time you get a new patient? Of course not. That would be to easy. I think this is one of the reasons dentists get depressed about their marketing and quit, or lower their budgets. One or two bad months and they think online marketing is dead or something so they pull their add or campaign. That’s one of the worst things you can do.

Now, let’s bump up the marketing budget and double it from the dentist above to $1200 per month and every month you bring in one or two new patients that get just the basics done. So let’s say that would be 24 new patients a year. Not that great right? I’m sure right now most of you are getting that on a monthly basis through referrals and everything else. So, let’s assume you are profiting a measly $200 from each patient which brings the total to $4,800. Now, let’s say out of those 24 new patients you get 1 “golden nugget” patient. They need all kinds of work done bringing their total bill to $15,000.

So now your total income from those 24 new patients for the year is $19,800. Total spent on marketing was $1200 x 12 = $14,400 profiting $5,400. Is it worth it? Absolutely!

Some of you might be saying “It’s only $5,400, what’s the big deal?” What’s the big deal? What happens when you get two “golden nugget” patients? or three? What about the other 23 new patients that you now have on your books that in another six months want Invisalign? Or need Dentures?

The value of your patient doesn’t stop after their first appointment. This is greatly misunderstood by most dentists and businesses around the globe.

That is why it is so vital that you track your new patients and keep tracking their productions years to come. It will surprise you months down the road how much money you brought in from those measly 1-2 new patients a month. Initially it might not sound like much, but be patient. Chances are they are just getting to know you and getting their feet wet. Give it some time and things will begin to blossom.

Okay, let’s move on to the next quote on our list…

This comes from a dentist in California that says…

“The younger generation is 100% all about the Internet. I don’t think kids these days even know what a phone book is. From what I’m seeing this is starting to rub off onto the parents. It seems that being 50 is the new 30. Parents love all the new technology that is available today which they didn’t have back in their childhood or even in their 20’s, 30’s or even 40’s. Baby boomers are in full swing and using the computer more than ever. Dentures and Implants will be the next big thing for 30+ years. Internet = More Patients = More Revenue = Me Retiring!” (California dentist spending $ ? monthly)

So true… Okay, what do you think his advertising budget is? $100? $500? $800? $1000? $1500? $2500?

Answer … Which is not surprising … $1500!!

I can see it now, some of you need to pick your jaw up off the floor. Some of you can’t even imagine spending $1500 a month on Internet marketing. Is it common? More than you think.

It sounds to me that he is targeting the older generation, baby boomers, needing dentures and implants. Okay, so let’s say his budget brings him 4-5 new patients and 1-2 new implant/denture cases per month. Do you really need me to do the math on this one? No…okay, I will anyways…

If the average dental implant case is $3000 and he’s getting two cases per month that’s $6 grand! $1500 isn’t looking so steep after all is it? So $3000 x 24 = $72,000 per year of New Income! We didn’t even add the other new patients or what they bring in a few months down the road. So let’s just call it a even $80,000 a year of income. He’s spending $1500 x 12 = $18,000 a year in online marketing and profiting $62,000 from that marketing. Not to shabby!

So how many of you would like those type of numbers?? We all would!

So let ’s take a look at what just happened over the course of this article. If you noticed, the ones with negative attitudes and no results were the ones spending hardly anything. The first guy spent what, $30 a month? As the price increased so did the production.

Let me ask you this, if someone came to you right now and said “If you give me $1 I will give you $2 back.” Would you do it? Of course you would, you just made 100% profit and an easy buck!

So let’s up the aunty, if someone said “I’ll give you $40 if you give me $20 in return” would you do it? No brainer right? You would have to be crazy not to right?

Now look at this, if someone said “You pay me $2000 and I’ll give you $2500 in return” would you do it? Are you actually having to think about this? Why? Your making $500 which is 25 times more than the example above which you were pretty willing to do.

For whatever reason, when you start to add some zero’s onto the end of numbers people start to freak out a little bit. For whatever reason, the return just doesn’t seem as good. Be honest, which example seemed like the best deal?

$1 for $2?
$20 for $40, or
$2000 for $2500?

For whatever reason the $20 for $40 wins every time. I can’t quite figure out why that is. If you said the third option then give yourself a pat on the back because most people don’t consider that to be a great value.

If you did that on a monthly basis then you would be up $6,000 each year! That’s a pretty good investment if you ask me.

How many of you are making $500 profit every month from only $2000 in the stock market? Or any other investment? I can pretty much say no one, but in the rare case someone is please send me your stockbrokers number!

Why are you willing to invest $100,000, $200,000, $500,000 on the stock market or any other form of investments? Because you want to grow your money right? Everyone does. If you make a 10% return for the year your looking pretty good right? ($500,000 x .10 = $50,000)

The dentist above pulling in $80,000 a year from his measly $1500 monthly investment is raking in 4.44 Times his investment ($1500 x 4.44 = $6666 x 12 = $80,000)

My conclusion is this…

You need to look at Internet marketing as an investment. Spending $30 a month isn’t an investment. If you told your stockbroker to invest $30 he would laugh at you all the way out his door.

If you have one or two or three or 10 bad months, don’t take it personally or pull your marketing. That “golden nugget” patient is just around the corner. Be patient and stop checking your stats every two seconds.

Leave the Marketing to the Experts just like we all leave our dental needs to the dental experts.

As usual, for those of you who read my posts I like to hand out bonuses.

Copy this promotional code, 12350, and I will take $100 off of our Xtreme Pro Internet marketing package for you. Just click this dental marketing link and paste the code in the promotion box and click redeem. It’s that simple. If we are running any other promotions that are lower you will get the lowest one out of the two. So in other words, no matter what you will save $100 if not more!

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See you all next time,

J. King
Guru Mania!
Smile America Dental Marketing