By Chris Barrow on 18 March 2010

A grumpy client emails me this morning as follows:
OK.
So the ad “Attention Denture Wearers” went in for 2 consecutive weeks in the local paper and the local freebie.
3 replies in total so 3 reports sent out. Nobody has taken up the free consultation offer.
So what do I do?
Run it again with a bigger ad in more papers? Maybe change the ad a bit?
or
Forget it and add it to yet another complete and utter waste of time, money and effort?
Advertising – you take a look at the numbers after a minimum of 12 weeks exposure – and then decide if it has worked or not and move on.
Look at the experience of another client in a City Centre:
what worked:
- radio
- SOE
- word of mouth
- open days and evenings
what didn’t work so well:
- skins on taxis
- posters in stations
- adverts in the Echo
- adverts in magazines
- signage on tube stations
- Chamber of Commerce
- and quite a few other things!
I could go on…..
You have to try different things – but as the marketing sage Jay Abraham said many years ago – 7 things, 7 times in 7 places.
Posted in Marketing |
About the Author
18 March 2010 by Chris Barrow
Chris Barrow is co-founder of Barrow Kwong Hing Group of Companies, a private dental corporate active in independent and retail dentistry and post-graduate dental education, operating in the UK and Canada.
Chris has been active as a consultant, trainer and coach to the UK dental profession for over 15 years. As a speaker he is dynamic, energetic and charismatic. In 1993 Chris moved into business coaching and became one of the first UK students at Coach University, from where he graduated as a certified coach. In 1997, he created The Dental Business School (DBS) and the development of a 12-month business coaching programme for dental practice owners and their teams, delivered to over 400 UK dental practices in the following 10 years.
In the last 5 years Chris has acted as a Non-Executive Director, Director and Consultant to a number of dental corporates, whilst maintaining his freelance activity as a dental business coach for independent practice owners. BKH is the culmination of his past experience in the business of UK dentistry
Find me on Facebook
|
How many existing patients in the practice wear dentures?
Thats the place to start.
You’re spot on Chris, you need to try different things, and repeat them for a while. Unfortunately many people think that an advert is like a magic wand, and will attract hundreds of new clients immediately. Sadly it doesn’t work like that. Marketing has a “drip drip” effect. Not many people will need your services when they see an ad/piece of direct mail.whatever. But if you keep in touch with them, regularly reminding them of how you can help them, then when they do need your services your company will be the first one they think of.
Hi, I am a clinical dental technician with 17 years of huge experience and success in marketing denture clinics on a national basis. There are a number of important factors to take into consideration for advertising to denture wearers, you must know your market place, know your demographics, how big is the advert and most important point is, repetition, repetition, repetition.
I have heard in the past, that consumers/patients/customers need to hear of the business name 3 times, before they recognise the name again, and perhaps remember the services provided for their future use. I don’t know if this is true or not, but our practice has been ‘putting ourselves out there’ for the past 3 years, and although initial uptake of offers and procedures was a little slow after the marketing events, the past 9 months have seen many more new patients through the door who were initially made aware of us all those years ago. However, we keep track of our referral sources, and Word Of Mouth and recommendations the most popular.