Dental lab marketing has been forever transformed - Dental Lab Marketing Strategy

Dental lab marketing has been forever transformed.?Over the past 15-20 years, the ever-increasing influence of the Internet on how people get information and consume media has caused a sea change that has slowly but surely trickled down to the dental profession. Dental lab owners hear buzzwords like social media, search engine optimization, and online communication at every turn.?

Dental lab marketing has been forever transformed.?

Over the past 15-20 years, the ever-increasing influence of the Internet on how people get information and consume media has caused a sea change that has slowly but surely trickled down to the dental profession. Dental lab owners hear buzzwords like social media, search engine optimization, and online communication at every turn.?

Suddenly, lab owners are forced to not only familiarize themselves with a new repertoire of methods to promote their labs, but also an entirely new vocabulary of terms including Likes, Tweets, blogs, and online reviews. It’s a challenge for seasoned marketing experts to stay on top of the latest metrics and trends, and even more difficult for lab owners to keep up with while also running and managing a busy dental lab.

Developing a marketing strategy is vital for any dental laboratory. Without one, your efforts to attract customers are likely to be haphazard and inefficient.

The focus of your strategy should be making sure that your products and services meet customer needs and developing long-term and profitable relationships with those customers. To achieve this, you will need to create a flexible strategy that can respond to changes in customer perceptions and demand. It may also help you identify whole new markets that you can successfully target.

The purpose of your marketing strategy should be to identify and then communicate the benefits of your dental lab offering to your target market.

Once you have created and implemented your strategy, monitor its effectiveness and make any adjustments required to maintain its success.

This guide helps you identify which customers to focus on and your key objectives in reaching them. It explains what to include in your dental lab marketing strategy and how it can be used as the basis for effective action.

·???????Key elements of a successful marketing strategy

·???????Understanding your strengths and weaknesses

·???????Developing your marketing strategy

·???????Tips and pitfalls

KEY ELEMENTS OF A SUCCESSFUL MARKETING STRATEGY

?One of the key elements of a successful marketing strategy is the acknowledgment that you’re existing, and potential customers will fall into groups?or?segments, characterized by their "needs". Identifying these groups and their needs through market research, and then addressing them more successfully than your competitors, should be the focus of your strategy.

You can then create a marketing strategy that makes the most of your strengths and matches them to the needs of the customers you want to target. For example, if a particular group of customers is looking for quality first and foremost, then any marketing activity aimed at them should draw attention to the high-quality service you can provide.

Once this has been completed, decide on the best marketing activity that will ensure your target market knows about the products or services you offer, and why they meet their needs.

This could be achieved through various forms of advertising, exhibitions, public relations initiatives, Internet activity, and by creating an effective "point of sale" strategy if you rely on others to actually sell your products. Limit your activities to those methods you think will work best, avoiding spreading your budget too thinly.

A key element often overlooked is that of monitoring and evaluating how effective your strategy has been. This control element not only helps you see how the strategy is performing in practice, it can also help inform your future marketing strategy. A simple device is to ask each new customer how they heard about your dental lab.

Once you have decided on your marketing strategy, draw up a marketing plan to set out how you plan to execute and evaluate the success of that strategy. The plan should be constantly reviewed so it can respond quickly to changes in customer needs and attitudes in your industry, and in the broader economic climate.

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UNDERSTANDING YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Your strategy must take account of how your dental lab' strengths and weaknesses will affect your marketing.

Begin your marketing strategy document with an honest and rigorous?SWOT?analysis, looking at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is a good idea to conduct some market research on your existing customers at this point, as it will help you to build a more honest picture of your reputation in the marketplace.

Strengths?could include:

·???????personal and flexible customer service

·???????special features or benefits that your product offers

·???????specialist knowledge or skills

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Weaknesses?could include:

·???????limited financial resources

·???????lack of an established reputation

·???????inefficient accounting systems

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Opportunities?could include:

·???????increased demand from a particular market sector

·???????using the Internet to reach new markets

·???????new technologies that allow you to improve product quality

Threats?could include:

·??????the emergence of a new competitor

·??????more sophisticated, attractive, or cheaper versions of your product or service

·??????new legislation increasing your costs

·??????a downturn in the economy, reducing overall demand

Having done your analysis, you can then measure the potential effects each element may have on your marketing strategy.

For example, if new regulations will increase the cost of competing in a market where you're already weak, you might want to look for other opportunities. On the other hand, if you have a good reputation and your key competitor is struggling, the regulations might present the opportunity to push aggressively for new customers.

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DEVELOPING YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY

With an understanding of your dental lab's internal strengths and weaknesses and the external opportunities and threats, you can develop a strategy that plays to your own strengths and matches them to the emerging opportunities. You can also identify your weaknesses and try to minimize them.

The next step is to draw up a detailed marketing plan that sets out the specific actions to put that strategy into practice.

Questions to ask when developing your strategy

·???????What changes are taking place in our dental lab environment? Are these opportunities or threats?

·???????What are our strengths and weaknesses?

·???????What do I want to achieve? Set clear, realistic objectives.

·???????What are customers looking for? What are their needs?

·???????Which customers are the most profitable?

·???????How will I target the right potential customers? Are there groups that I can target effectively?

·???????What's the best way of communicating with them?

·???????Could I improve my customer service? This can be a low-cost way of gaining a competitive advantage over rivals, keeping customers, boosting sales, and building a good reputation.

·???????Could be changing my products or services increase sales and profitability? Most products need to be continuously updated to maintain competitiveness.

·???????Could be extending my product list or service provision meet existing customers' needs more effectively? Remember that selling to existing customers is generally more cost-effective than continually trying to find new ones.

·???????How will I price my product or service? Although prices need to be competitive, most dental labs?find that trying to compete on price alone is a poor strategy. What else are my customers interested in? Quality? Reliability? Efficiency? Value for money?

·???????What is the best way of distributing and selling my products?

·???????How can I best promote my products? Options might include advertising, direct marketing, exhibiting at trade fairs, PR or marketing on the web.

·???????How can I tell if my marketing is effective? Check how your customers find out about your dental lab. A small-scale trial can be a good way of testing a marketing strategy without committing to excessive costs.

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TIPS AND PITFALLS

Before looking at new markets, think about how you can get the most out of your existing customer base - it's usually more economical and quicker than finding new customers.

Consider whether you can sell more to your existing customers or look at ways of improving the retention of key customers.

Focus on the market

Your marketing strategy document should:

·???????Analyze the different needs of different groups of customers

·???????Focus on a market niche where you can be the best

·???????Aim to put most of your efforts into the 20 per cent of customers who provide 80 per cent of profits

·???????Don't forget the follow-up

·???????Approach a third party for feedback about your strategy - they may be able to spot any gaps or weaknesses that you can't see.

·???????Put your marketing strategy into effect with a marketing plan that sets out the aims, actions, dates, costs, resources and effective selling programmes.

·???????Measure the effectiveness of what you do. Be prepared to change things that aren't working.

·???????Pitfalls to avoid

·???????Making assumptions about what customers want.

·???????Ignoring the competition.

·???????Trying to compete on price alone.

·???????Relying on too few customers.

·???????Trying to grow too quickly.

·???????Becoming complacent about what you offer and failing to innovate.

But these new tactics have proven themselves to be more than just trends-now, they are valuable staples of the marketing plan for any dental lab. The lab’s website and the ubiquitous Facebook business page has supplanted the all-important ad in the phone book. Having a presence on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, revamping an outdated website, writing a blog and asking dentists to post online reviews are all critical components of a marketing communication plan that can reach today’s target dentist client.

Professionals in general-and those of us in the dental industry in particular - are sometimes hesitant to make the leap from old school tactics to new school methods. Venturing into the unknown can be overwhelming, especially when valuable marketing dollars are on the line. However, doing so can be well worth the trouble.

Ongoing client connections

One of the most meaningful advantages of many online and modern marketing methods is the countless opportunities to connect with both active and prospective clients every day of the year. In addition to providing continuous opportunities to engage with clients, these new marketing methods encourage dentists to share their positive experiences with others.?

While word of mouth marketing always has been a critical component of any dental lab’s marketing strategy, social media and review sites such as Facebook, Yelp, Angie’s List and Google+ Local take the word of mouth to the next level, providing “social proof” about the lab on third-party websites. These sites tend to have more credibility than the testimonials page of the lab’s website, and also allow positive reviews to live on in perpetuity.?

Measurable results

Gone are the days of writing a check and hoping the advertising pays off later. Online tools that provide real-time tracking and ROI metrics are now available. Website tracking technology makes it painless for lab owners to see how many people have visited their website at any given time, the amount of time each visitor stays on the site, how people arrived at the site and which pages are most viewed.?

Email platforms are used to send promotional email messages and electronic newsletters to large numbers of clients simply by hitting the?Send?button. These systems also provide details such as the number of people who received the email, as well as any who have opened and read the message. Lab owners can monitor their email lists to determine which information most appeals to their client base, giving them priceless insight into what their dentist clients are looking for from their lab.

Moving forward

While new media marketing is what everyone is talking and blogging about, there is still a case to be made for traditional marketing mediums. It is important for labs to take their client profiles into consideration, and to use the marketing efforts that most effectively reach their target clients.?

Most importantly, effectively and consistently tracking the results of all marketing methods, both old school and new school, is essential. With objective analysis of the return on investment for every marketing dollar spent, it is possible to determine what has actually been successful-whether it is traditional or modern

There are lots of different ways a marketing company for dentists can help you. But, you are the one who needs to decide which service is the best for you.

Some final words

Most professionals have limited knowledge regarding these particular services, so this list might sound a bit strange. Nevertheless, it is recommended that you learn more about each one of them as you will probably have to start using these processes in the future.

Of course, Leads can help you with each one!

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