Beyond New Patients: A Strategy for Lasting Success
The concept of “new dentistry” is reshaping how practices achieve sustainable growth, but most dentists and marketing professionals have never heard of it. New dentistry is a strategic shift that focuses on organically expanding your practice by taking full advantage of an often-overlooked resource: existing patients. Rather than focusing solely on attracting new patients, new dentistry aims to nurture relationships with current patients so they will return, accept more treatments, and refer others.
Are You Growing the Way You Want?
If your practice struggles with growth year over year, even a little, look at the schedule. How many returning patients do you see? Most dental practices look to new patients as a primary revenue driver, and their marketing tends to ignore existing patients — a huge source of potential income and new patients. In theory, an existing patient who is satisfied with your practice should come back each time they need something and refer their friends, family members, and coworkers. In practice, this does not happen with regularity because dental practices do not understand the impact of marketing to retain patients. They focus 99% of their efforts on attracting new ones.
The Logic Behind New Dentistry
When a patient returns to your practice, it’s a testament to the quality of care and engagement they experienced. Ideally, they’re so impressed that they become a lifelong patient. When you take the time to nurture a patient relationship, you can suggest a treatment plan or ask for a testimonial, review, or referral, and the patient will do so without hesitation. This type of organic marketing enhances all your other marketing efforts and fosters loyalty.
When an existing patient refers someone to your practice, it is essentially the same as gaining a new patient. A word-of-mouth referral counts as a new patient because that person has never interacted with your practice, making them just as valuable as a patient acquired through an online ad or other marketing strategy. In fact, they could be more valuable because the existing patient has already done some of the marketing for you. A word-of-mouth referral usually implies an existing level of trust in your practice
because that person trusts the source (their friend, family member, or coworker), and it should be easier for your team to convince them to schedule an appointment.
Finding Success with New Dentistry
Marketing is a mixture of tangible and intangible strategies. The tangible strategies are easy to track. For instance, you can run an ad and calculate the number of leads generated from it. The intangibles are more abstract and harder to put into numbers, but they are equally important. An example of an intangible marketing activity is establishing a strong brand identity. While brand recognition is hard to quantify, it undoubtedly strengthens your practice’s reputation and contributes to its success.
Building community awareness and rapport is another intangible strategy that, although difficult to measure, plays a vital role in your practice’s growth. You can foster rapport through various actions, such as social media, monthly blog posts, emails to existing patients, and asking for online reviews. A comprehensive and well-rounded online presence keeps current patients engaged and attracts new ones by making your practice relatable.
While it may be challenging to calculate the impact of monthly emails and social media posts, these activities are no less important than online ads and direct marketing campaigns because they aim to engage existing patients. Giving existing patients multiple opportunities to interact with your practice reinforces the relationship of trust you established in person when they visited the practice, which usually translates into patient loyalty and word-of-mouth referrals. More returning patients and patients who refer means more sustainable growth for the practice.
Should Every Practice Use New Dentistry?
Absolutely! Yes! Definitely! Marketing to existing patients has no downside. When you show your existing patients that you value their loyalty, they will respond in kind. In fact, it takes less effort to retain an existing patient than it does to attract a new one. 1. You don’t have to convince them to abandon another practice for yours. 2. They already know the type and quality of service they can expect from your practice. Therefore, your main marketing objective going forward should be to keep them coming back for all their dental needs. This is much easier than finding a new patient who has never heard of your practice before.
I am a huge proponent of new dentistry and have witnessed its impact time and time again. When practices broaden their focus to include existing patients, they grow faster and more sustainably. They spend less time on patients who simply chase specials and more on patients who value quality dentistry. Their new patient numbers grow organically because existing patients are referring on a regular basis. They create a robust base of high-quality patients that continually provides yearly revenue. In short, new dentistry works, and every practice should incorporate it into its marketing strategy.
