Note:  Dental and other health care professionals would be wise to seek out Public Relations opportunity as a tool to increase new patients. This strategy will reduce your advertising cost tremendously and increase your bottom line in your practice.

It is quite amazing how many business owners are found in total apathy on the subject of how to convince their potential customers to buy from them. These businessmen usually try to sell to the very few who walk in their businesses, or they bang their heads (knuckles actually) against doors that never quite open. “Do it the hard way” seems to be the motto!!!
Well, if you belong to the crowd I just described then you will be relieved to hear that there is a thing called Public Relations.

Public Relations is what handles the barrier of non-trust from your prospects, which is a barrier to production.

Just look at your customers who are indecisive. They are full of mixed emotions, have no trust, and walk away not buying anything.

Yes, non-trust has just cost you but how much?
Now it starts even earlier than that with the shopper who is in your practice and wants reassurance and security – the one who has been cheated (by someone else, of course) and does not trust anyone. Or does he?

What if he got overwhelming reports that you are honest, inexpensive, have high quality products, and are an outstanding man of some sort or another!! Would he at least include you in his shopping?

Public Relations makes a man drool over your product or service. Rightly used it gets your key message across and believed (we, of course, understand that you always tell the truth). The truth does not have to be boring, no, no! With PR you make it exciting and attractive. And that’s what you want, isn’t it? With PR you make it more exciting. There is always a way to make your message better — always!!

PR can and will put you in the big league. PR is not limited to appearance in the newspaper, radio and TV, but starts with any and all of your employees, how your employees act and speak.

It is built from the ground, and at every opportunity, up to TV. Oh yes, it is hard work which must be learned like any other field such as engineering and doctoring.

What do you get in return? An overwhelming popularity. PR attracts attention which, in fact, puts you miles ahead of any competition regardless of the current economy.

You don’t believe me? Look at celebrities for example, Madonna, how much attention does she attract? How did we vote for our presidential candidate? We see them portrayed as a ‘nice person’ in the media. The last presidential candidates exhibited their best in PR, Remember, Mr Bill Clinton? He attracted attention (played saxophone on MTV, etc.); he got his message across well. He is an expert in PR and did, as far as I know, major in PR before he majored in law.

What about Starbucks and all the goodwill PR they are putting out? Starbucks have spent very little in advertising. Yet they grew from one store in Seattle to an international phenomena.

If you combine PR (which costs next to nothing) with correct marketing, you get nothing less than a controlled explosion of quite some magnitude.
I dare you to try this simple approach. Learn something about PR and reach for the stars – you just might get a bunch of them!

Remember: In order to get new patients in your medical or dental practice you must establish a successful new patient marketing campaign and this can be done so for close to no money with public relations!

Helmut Flasch
Author and Founder
Un-Advertising Marketing Strategies

Tags: Dental Practice Management, Medical Practice Management, New Patient Marketing, New Patients, Public Relations, un-advertising

 

Category: Healthcare Marketing.