Marketing! Weapon or Threat?

By Christopher Hall / PRDent Ltd

Over the years I have met hundreds of Dentists and very few had a true understanding of Marketing!

Most Dentists want more business but seem to think providing patients is like a tap that you can turn on and off at will.

An ad in the Thomson directory or a leaflet drop is the whole extent of Marketing for some dentists. Often poor results would leave a bad taste in their mouth.

Dentists are very bright people but need to understand the benefits of marketing and make it part of their business. Some dentists know enough about Marketing to understand that it is an essential element of their business and they do well from it. There are also Dentists that are doing nothing in terms of Marketing which is hurtful to their business.

Every day some dentist is fighting for survival, scrabbling for new business. The patients that walk through the door are mainly down to sheer luck which gives the business just enough to survive another day.

For some Dentists, Marketing is the Holy Grail of their business! How can they find it if they do not know what they are looking for? This is perhaps where a professional can help but don’t think that an input from the Dentist is not needed.


Marketing is not a DIY activity and doing it yourself is as bad as your patients getting involved in DIY Dentistry and pulling there own teeth with pliers bought from B&Q.

Just in the same way as patients brush their teeth and do a little flossing, you can execute one or two segments of marketing yourself if you wish but let a professional supervise.
On the other hand you may wish for us to execute everything for you.

Marketing is all about your customers. Unfortunately, it is not about what you want which can be the biggest mistake.

A need a marketing strategy and a formally trained consultant canidentify your target market in depth. Just proclaiming that the over 50's is your TM!

Do you want to aim your efforts at the over 50's with money or without?

You need to find out who will buy from you and why they will buy!

As previously mentioned, Marketing is all about your customer. You need to find out who your customers are and clearly target your message towards them.

Get your marketing right at the beginning of your business or you will be constantly back tracking once you have hit that brick wall.

Don't take a punt on marketing unless it is part of your overall strategy. If you do then you will be constantly chasing after the short term results. Your business needs to gain financial strength which means you need to play out some long term strategies as well. More importantly they need to be the right strategies.

This is just the beginning of what Marketing is all about. Let me tell you that the world is your oyster if you get your Marketing working correctly for you.

This is not the whole story. This is an insight into Marketing!