Orthotown December 2022 - 43

attempt! It may take a couple of tries to be able
to identify the most lucrative partner, initiative,
channel or promotion.
General dentist referrals
Many new patients are still referred to an
orthodontist by a general or pediatric dentist. In
most instances, this happens with relatively little
effort made by the orthodontic practice. The
time and effort it takes to generate new-patient
leads from the dental community is incredibly
small compared with other marketing channels. If
orthodontic practices could get this same " time +
effort + cost : results " ratio on the digital marketing
side, they wouldn't hesitate to invest!
Test out various ways to increase the amount
of dental referrals coming into your practice to see
what works best in your community. Ultimately,
all efforts should be raising the profi le of the doctor(s)
in your community. Concepts to increase
referrals include:
* A quarterly email newsletter to area doctors.
* A collaboration experience with mutual
patients.
* Podcast guest appearances.
* The About Orthodontics coffee table book.
Importance of a CRM
" Half the money I spend on advertising is
wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half. "
- John Wanamaker, retailer and marketing pioneer
Even with the advanced tracking, attribution
models, UTM codes, pixels, Google Analytics,
etc., it can be diffi cult to pinpoint exactly which
campaigns did and did not infl uence your lead
volumes and, ultimately, your starts. Practice management
tools are fantastic for managing patients
in treatment, but they fall short on the sales and
marketing function of the practice.
Customer relationship management (CRM)
systems allow your practice to properly track
incoming leads all the way through to treatment
start. When set up properly, CRM systems can help
you leverage the technology to set up workfl ows,
automation and email marketing campaigns based
on a wide range of variables and data collected:
* At which stage in the new patient funnel
did the patient fall through the cracks?
* What was their objection to starting
treatment?
* Adult versus child.
* Referral source.
* Insurance or private pay.
When looking for a CRM tool, it's important
to fi nd one that allows multiple users, task management,
workfl ow sequencing, automation and
email marketing.
Conclusion
Notice that buzzword marketing trends such
as Instagram Reels, TikTok and virtual consultations
didn't make this list. That's not because they
aren't part of the marketing landscape; they just
don't tend to have an immediate or short-term
impact on practice starts.
For practices looking to grow their business,
be sure you're doing more in marketing than just
posting organically to social media channels. On
the fl ip side, you also can't just throw money at
marketing and expect to win. Set up targets and
proper data tracking, then use that to make datadriven
decisions. Test and adapt. Test and adapt. ■
Whatever your idea is,
be sure you have
a defi ned goal
and it is trackable.
orthotown.com \\ DECEMBER 2022 43
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Orthotown December 2022

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