How to Attract High-Paying Dental Patients With Strategic Messaging

Mel: We need to stop saying, “We treat you like family.”

Dominique: Oh, please, please. We need to put the kibosh on that.

Mel: It’s way overused. It doesn’t resonate with people; every dentist says it, along with [using] generic stock photos.

Dominique: It has no impact anymore. It means nothing anymore.

Mel: Yeah. So, okay, what should we be saying instead? Right?

Dominique: Right, that’s the big question.

Mel: That’s what we’re gonna be talking about today.

Dominique: Yeah.

Mel: What should you be saying instead so you can attract the right patients to your dental practice and where you still feel good about yourself?

Dominique: And something that actually aligns with what you do and attracts the right patients.

Mel: Yeah, and that’s called brand messaging; it’s the clear topic. Basically, so first off, we should probably talk about and say who we are and why we’re qualified to be talking about this. I’ll let you start.

Dominique: So my name is Dominique. I’m the CMO at Marketly, and Mel and I together we’ve put almost probably a quarter of a century between the both of us focused on brand messaging, from working through hundreds of websites for different dental practices across the entire United States as well to running ads for these dentists where you can really see day by day what messaging is working and resonating and what isn’t.

Mel: Yeah, we’ve together tested thousands of hooks and scripts and [spent] lots of knee-to-knee [time] to figure out what is actually resonating with patients and everything. So, I’m really excited. This is probably one of my favorite topics to talk about.

Dominique: definitely. Yeah,

Mel: yeah. So let’s get into exactly what exactly brand messaging is. What does that even mean?

Dominique: Yeah. So, brand messaging is really your alignment with how you’re attracting patients. It’s talking about your story. It’s talking about why you got into what you do, how you help those patients, and being able to really speak to their pain points and desires in a way that attracts them.

How about you? What would you say is brand messaging?

Mel: It’s just how you communicate yourself to the public and how you will solve their problems. And it’s narrowing down exactly how you speak to the patient you want to serve. Not everybody, but that ideal person that you would love to clone over and over again.

Dominique: Yeah, and you said something really important. Speaking to that patient, a lot of doctors get stuck in doctor speak.

Mel: Yes

Dominique: … and their language would actually be attractive to another doctor, right? But patients don’t understand or care about occlusions or detailed technical stuff. So it is about getting a little bit out of your own head, what’s important to you and putting your attention on your patient and what they want to hear.

Mel: Yeah, that’s the first thing you should always do when coming together with your brand messaging is who is that person? And usually start with just imagine one person, that one patient. You’re saying, “I want more of these guys or gals.”

Dominique: Right.

Mel: And then really digging into what were their pain points?
What are their desires? What are their fears? That’s beyond dentistry.

Dominique: No, it is. It’s about honing in on that one patient. And even if you look in the past two or three months, what patients came in that you really fell in love with? You connected with them. They valued what you had to offer. They were financially qualified, and then asking yourself, why did they come in?

What attracted them to us? And maybe even in the future, asking them, “So why were you attracted to us? Was it a video on your website? Was it anything that you’re talking about in terms of qualifications? Or is it how friendly your office was? And that won’t be the entire picture, but it will give you a starting point in terms of how can I attract more of those types of patients.

Mel: Yeah, absolutely. You’re absolutely right.

Dominique: What other gaps would you say that you see with doctors when it comes to their brand messaging?

Mel: Well, you said it before, they get into doctor speak. They focus too much on what they do and not on how they can help. They need to focus more on, “Patients don’t come in for cleanings to get their teeth clean. They come in because they want to be healthy and feel confident.” And that’s the language you need to speak to them.

Dominique: right?

Mel: Saying that you have great customer service is not great.

Dominique: Yeah, one thing to speak to that drives me crazy is when they’ll say, “Hey, we treat you like family,” or “We have great customer service,” or whatever it is, and they don’t qualify that statement. You can’t just say, “We give the highest quality care.” That’s the worst thing to say.

How do you do that? How do you dig in and give detailed examples so that people can visualize it and believe it, understand it, and really qualify those statements? Like, having all these different layers of sedation for each different type [of dental anxiety].

What do you always say about stories?

Mel: That they’re very, very effective. Someone who listens to a story is 22 times more likely to retain that fact versus the fact itself. So if you’re telling someone, “Well, get your teeth clean, we’ll keep your teeth clean,”

Dominique: right?

Mel: For example, if you tell the story of Sally Sue, who had her teeth cleaned and she got out of pain—I understand this is extreme—you’ll remember this more than just the doctor’s words.

Dominique: That’s a crazy stat; 22 times more, right? And the two examples you gave are the same: Get your teeth clean, and you’re out of pain, but tying a person to it and a little bit of a story is like a little triumph.
Why is that so effective?

Mel: Why are stories so effective? Because the human brain is attracted to stories. There was a study done where when someone heard a story, dopamine was released in the brain. It gives you those fuzzy, warm feelings of love and everything.
People are just more attracted to that. If they see themselves in that person, [they think] she can do it, I can do it, too. So maybe this guy is the guy I need to talk to …

Dominique: Right.

Mel: … on there.

Dominique: Does the story always have to be the doctor’s story?

Mel: No, it could be a patient story.
It definitely should be from patient stories. It goes into a marketing psychology of social proof. Because people are more likely to … the more people that say this doctor is the best, the more they will follow the crowd because people are more inclined to follow the crowd.

Dominique: Right. And

Mel: If they see more of that, these patients telling their stories of how doctors so-and-so helped them achieve the desired outcome of being healthy and having a beautiful smile, they’re going to choose them. That’s where you can start with your brand messaging. Find those patients you’ve helped and love to help, and ask what their stories are. [Share] how you overcame their problems.

[Tell] why they decided to move forward and what stopped them from moving forward at first. Use those segments in your messaging because that’s what’s gonna speak to people is when you pull those lines out.

Dominique: Right, so incorporating patient stories. What are some different types of brand messaging doctors typically fall into …
… kind of the different angles that they will focus on?

Mel: There is one common pain point, and it is the anxious pages. So it’s like, “We’re fear-free dentistry.” That could be one segment. Some patients fear that they will be judged because they haven’t seen a dentist in years, so, “No, we’re a non-judgmental office. What matters is that you’re starting today, and we’re just here to get you happy and healthy.”

There’s also the aesthetic side, where they want to feel good about themselves, like a celebrity or star. So that messaging can cater to that, “Get your Hollywood smile, feel confident, feel like yourself again.”

That can be a type of segment. Are there any other segments that you can think of as well?

Dominique: There, there’s quite a few, right? Confidence is one. One starting point I always find is when we’re doing this together; it is really honing in and helping them to hone in on their avatar.
Is it the older patient? [Is is] the boomer patient who has a lot of money to spend, yet they haven’t been taking care of themselves all this time because they’ve been caring for everyone else in their life. Now it’s time to focus on you and self-care, self-love. Is it the young professional trying to come up in their industry, right?

Is it the mom who’s thinking about their three kids and their husband? What’s the best dental care for my family?

So it’s really understanding their specific area, segment, and services they have, and what will be the most effective. One thing you and I have done is test [the messaging]. You always want to go based on data, right?

Everyone can have good ideas, but marketing is about getting data by running different split tests. You know, a simple split test with even $100 behind it on Facebook can give you so much data; real information about what people are clicking on. You simply set it up by having maybe four or five [samples] that Mel and I mentioned; confidence, fixing missing teeth, care for your family, anxiety, judgment-free, for example.

You have a headline for each of those and run them with the same budget, maybe $20 behind, and see which one got the most clicks. Simple tests like that can give you so much actionable data on top of what we talked about, simply asking your patients, “What attracted you to us?

Mel: Yep. The biggest thing to get started with is just talking to your favorite patients and asking them.

Dominique: Mm-hmm.

Mel: What was your problem? Why did you not do anything about it? What made you finally do something about it? What’s life like for you now since you’ve gotten this done?

Dominique: Yep

Mel: Those will help you define not only your brand messaging but what makes you unique that you can really lean into, you feel comfortable with, and just blasting that everywhere, basically.

Dominique: You touched on it a little bit earlier Why is it important to bring in the emotional side, the emotional benefits, versus just the products and services?

Mel: Because people buy from emotion, not from logic. They see something they like. So, “Oh, I need that,” and they buy it. “I probably should not be getting this thing on Amazon that tells me I need it, but I feel like I need it.”
That’s why the more you lean into the emotion, speaking to them from that emotion that makes them think that you’re in their head, the more they’re going to say, “I gotta choose this guy. He gets me, and I don’t even know this guy yet.”

Dominique: Right. And one of the oldest marketing principles, right, is to speak to people and match where they’re at currently in their heads and then bring them to where you want to be. So, if you’re speaking to people only from your perspective, it might not resonate.

If you can have a message that aligns with the problems, the concerns, the hopes, the fears, and the desires of where they’re at on a day-to-day basis, right? Because everyone has a narrative in their head 24/7. If you can match where they’re at, bring them into the solution, which is your dental practice for this specific case; the more effective that brand messaging is …

Mel: Yep.

Dominique: … gonna be.

Mel: Absolutely.

Dominique: So let’s narrow it down. What would you say is one question that every dentist could ask themselves as a starting point to craft their unique brand message?

Mel: Need to pause a minute, [thinking].

Dominique: So, kind of honing this into a starting point, what is one question every dentist should ask themselves when they want to craft their unique brand message?

Mel: I would say there are two. The first one would be, Why did you become a dentist? And the other one would be, What are your core values?
What adjectives really excite you? What are you doing? Whether it’s, you love to help people, health, wellness, and how authentic and edgy are you willing to be to sound different?

Because everyone else is saying we treat you like family, so how can you say that? If you lean into those two questions and really think about it while thinking of your avatar’s desires, their pain points, and what they’re saying, then that will help you resonate, create that messaging, and rise above that noise; we treat you like family.

Dominique: What would you say to a doctor? Let’s say I were a doctor, and I said, “Well, I want to treat all patients. I want to attract all different kinds of patients and kind of hit it from all different types of angles.”

Mel: Well, you do know those people that are on the street shouting at everybody. Do you pay attention to him?

Dominique: Of course not!

Mel: Yeah, that’s what’s happening when you say you want to treat everybody.

Dominique: Mm-hmm.

Mel: They’re just ignoring you. It doesn’t mean you need to ignore everyone else; those people will come. But if you really dial in that avatar and speak to them with your messaging, they will come, and then people will come with them because they’ll bring in their families.

Other people will [come]. Other people who are on the wayside, [who] aren’t your avatar, will like what you’re saying because it’s so dialed in.

Dominique: No, that’s true. What other steps do you think would, would someone need to take to align their message to their ideal patient?

Mel: I mentioned before they need to talk to their patients, and then they need to test that messaging out there and see what is resonating and what’s not. You can say it to your favorite patients, like, How does that make you feel when I say this? Get feedback from that and adjust because you’re always testing your messaging even though he’s[the doctor], “I love this.” You’ve got to make sure people resonate with it, and then you go from there and adjust it till it feels absolutely right.

Dominique: Mm-hmm. Do you think it’s worth running it with your team, and seeing how your team thinks?

Mel: Oh, yeah, absolutely bring your team in. Bring your team in and see what they think. You can even have fun with it if you’re on social media and see what other people are thinking.
Alex Hermosi does this all the time. When he’s talking about new products and stuff, he just says, what do you prefer this or that? And He gets that’s how he gets his data and sees what’s resonating with people.

Dominique: Yeah, and I would just say to anyone who’s a little bit apprehensive about it, our messaging, our mission is that we’re industry disruptors, and we champion heart-centered dental groups so that they can get tangible ROI daily so that they can focus on their community smiles.

And in the very beginning, when we crafted that, it seemed a little bit like fluff. But the more we instilled it, the more we worked it with our team and really started to live it, the more power it had. And it’s really allowed us to attract a different caliber of clients. So it does have an impact on what you’re doing in your brand messaging a lot starts there.

Mel: Yeah, absolutely. And I mentioned core values. That really honed in on our core values, and we live off it, and it is reflected in our messaging: client-focused, results-driven, high energy.

Dominique: It becomes a war cry. It becomes a culture

Mel: Exactly, and when it becomes your war cry other people will follow that war cry.

Dominique: Yeah.

Mel: Yeah, absolutely. So, we talked about having a starting point to get started with your messaging. Are there any other quick wins you can think of that someone can try right away?

Dominique: I would say auditing your website. Your website, it’s more than just a digital brochure; it can be the foundation of your brand messaging. And making sure it is also authentic and reflects your personality. You have to balance your personality with what you do and how you’re trying to serve the personality, desires, and outcomes of your target audience.

So, if you can find that balance with all three, you’ve found your perfect brand messaging. Are you a little bit sassy on your website? Are you a little bit fun? Are you trying to portray an extremely professional environment or really push high technology? And again, as you mentioned, you can’t do everything.

You could sprinkle everything in there, right? Hey, we take care of our patients. We have sedation options. We have blankets. But your brand messaging should be narrowly focused on one while sprinkling in everything else.

Mel: For sure. I would add to the website audit that when you look at your copy on your website, look at the voice.
Is it saying we, or is it saying you? You want it to say you, like you’re talking directly to that one person. That’s a little magic pill that’ll liven up the messaging.

Dominique: Yeah.

Mel: Because we just means you’re talking about yourself, and no one cares. They care about themselves, and how are you gonna help them?

Dominique: That’s absolutely true.

Mel: Yeah.

Dominique: Well, nice. I mean the bottom line; your brand messaging is not just about something that sounds good or pretty. It’s about finding your authentic message that will represent you and your practice but, at the same time, attract the kind of patients, the high-value patients that value what you offer.

Mel: Yep, absolutely. I think we got a lot of good stuff for our doctors today.

Dominique: Yeah, awesome. And if you found this episode helpful, don’t keep it to yourself. Make sure to share it with any colleagues or any other dental offices that need a little help with their messaging.
You know who you are.

Mel: Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel if you want more marketing tips and tricks every week. Thanks so much.

Dominique: Thanks, guys.