Heart-Centered Dental Marketing: Attract Patients Without Feeling Salesy
Arron: The days of traditional marketing are over. Being on page one in Google, irrelevant. Relying solely on your paid ads. Most of that’s money down the drain these days, guys. And counting on word-of-mouth referrals. I’m sure you agree, Shannon. It’s not really profitable anymore, is it?
Shannon: They’re just concentrating on that.
Arron: So I think it’s time for us to introduce a fresh approach to 2025. What do you think? I love it. So, for the next 15 minutes, we’ll dive into a transformative strategy that will help you have consistent patient flow, stand out in your market, and just generally smash it in the dental industry.
So, my name’s Arron. I’m the COO at Marketly Digital, and I’m here with the wonderful Shannon. Want to introduce yourself to the fans?
Shannon: The CEO and co-founder of Marketly Digital. And just really the … What am I?
Arron: The cheerleader.
Shannon: I’m the cheerleader. The guru. I’m the psychologist. I’m the mama, the janitor.
Arron: Whatever she needs to be, she is. Absolutely. Today, we’re going to be talking about a new strategy: Marketing with Love. We’ve introduced that you wear many hats, but maybe you could just talk about who you are and why it’s relevant that you’re talking about this subject with dental practices today.
Shannon: Yeah, I was thinking about that. It started back in 1987. I started in the dental industry and I started marketing all of the doctors I worked for. I loved it. I love dental. I love marketing. I’m just weird like that.
So here I am still [doing that] in 2025. I worked for some of the top doctors, just cutting-edge doctors. And in ’99, we started this agency for dentistry; really nice websites and a little bit of SEO was our shtick.
I have never witnessed a change in marketing technology like we saw following COVID, and really, the past five years. In terms of AI and human psychology, and then social media channels have doubled. The days of traditional marketing are long gone, right? We really dove into strategy before tactics, all the things, but ultimately, I kept coming back to what was working—that was building up a strong mission, caring for our clients, and going outside of dentistry marketing gurus to business gurus to sit around those tables. What are small businesses doing to survive this? It was interesting because it was all about people.
Arron: Yeah,
Shannon: It’s all about people. We have, what, 45 employees, right?
People were losing their businesses. They were losing their jobs. They didn’t want to go back to work. Patients were having a hard time finding the doctors. That human psyche aspect intrigued me on what we have to cultivate.
Arron: Yeah.
Shannon: Doctors, you need to look at your team. You need to take care of yourself, but it’s your team—your people.
When we talk about our hashtag being Marketing with Love, and here I am wearing this fluffy little shirt, “I’m so cute and fluffy.” It’s not fluffy, it’s science. Because when you’re looking at the energy scale, because we’re all energy beings and marketing is energy, it’s the laws of attraction.
You want to attract people you love. We talk about avatars; we talk about brand messaging; it’s you! Getting butts in the seat is no longer your goal. If you’re only pursuing outdated methods and tactics, it’s not profitable, and it’s impossible for you.
What does “marketing with love” actually mean?
It is first loving yourself and what you’re doing, loving your team, and building up that team culture so you and the patients love being there.
Now, let’s put a little pedal to the metal. Let’s spend some money on it: Marketing. Because now we have a foundation that will attract the right kind of patients. And that’s why we do Marketing with Love.
People are so attracted to it. They see and say, “Oh, he’s not judgmental. He can fix my mouth. I can get these holes in my teeth fixed, right?” They’re moved to invest in themselves because they feel seen and valued. They’ll spend five, ten, fifteen, twenty thousand dollars because now they trust this doctor who has poured his heart out to them by educating them and saying why he became a dentist.
It’s a mix of all of the marketing tools. But it’s the overarching strategy that pulls it all together. How do we go after the strategy? How do we build the strategy to, therefore build the doctor up with this brand messaging? And build his team up, support his team so they can bring in the patients, and they’re happy. The team’s happy, and the patients are happy.
Then the doctors are really happy because we’re building a practice they love. They have patients that they love. They love us because we have honest conversations with them. Because we’re helping them dig deep to ask, who are you really?
Arron: Yeah.
Shannon: What kind of practice do you really want to be?
Arron: I like it. Is there anything else you would add because you’ve seen the growth of this marketing with love?
Backtracking to why you’re the authority is that you’ve been there. You’ve been in the dental practice. You’ve seen it. And this is a game changer.
And you know, you’re not only someone who has been in the industry since 1987, you understand the marketing side. That’s why you started your agency, right?
You naturally gravitated toward it. I love it. Even back then, you were a bit of a trendsetter because you understood that marketing is not merely ads, SEO, or websites. Those are all your tactics. marketing is building a connection, authenticity, and trust, yes? Those tactics, once you have them in place, are great, like the website, but if you don’t have an authentic message, if you don’t have a why, a real clear mission to why you’re doing something, it gets lost.
It’s just another thing on the interweb, as it were. So, I think Marketing with Love is really about honing in on that psychological side of things.
Shannon: Absolutely.
Arron: Something that we definitely believe in is the idea of that heart-centered approach. It’s one of our core values.
With Marketing with Love, you are focusing on your why. You’re focusing on what it means to be a dentist to the right audience you want to attract in a way that attracts them; you exude that naturally.
Your team then naturally radiates that. As a result, marketing strategies become super easy. Because now you’re just putting that out into the world. It’s a much easier way.
Shannon: That’s such a good point. You know what I love about us talking about this? How we’re trying to teach the dental world to go down this path? We’re attracting doctors who are like, “Where have you been all my life?”
“This is what I want to do.” They are so heart-centered. They’re the most beautiful practices, and we’re so privileged to be a part of their growth and fun. It’s so fun when you’re connecting on that level, isn’t it?
Arron: It is. Let’s give some examples. Let’s give some real-world examples of doctors. Because you see, you’re the front-facing person, so you talk a lot with our doctors.
Who are your example doctors who’ve embraced this Marketing with Love? philosophy, strategy? Who pops into your mind?
Shannon: Yes. Oh, my gosh. Just off the top of my head, I have so many. The one who really trusted and said, “Let’s just put our heart out there, our messaging out there,” is Brad Highland and his team.
He brought a huge team; I think it was seven doctors, into the peer space for the photos and the videos. He wanted them to be a part of it, along with his wife and daughter. They had never experienced anything like that before. Now, they have so much ownership in all three locations.
They’re getting a fourth location faster than they ever planned to. Brad and I have become close friends. I would vacation with Brad and his family. He wants to go to St. John’s. It’s like I’m in. I’m in, Brad. Let’s do it.
Shannon: It’s because we’re winning, and it’s all about high vibe and reminding each other to stay high vibe. I’m really strong about hitting the targets and looking at real numbers.
It’s not about just fluffy stuff. We’re driving a very important part of their life. This is their legacy. These are their practices. This is of the utmost importance, but we want them to have fun. A lot of doctors come to us very dejected, and I’ll give you more examples.
They’re exhausted. They don’t even know if they want to do it anymore. When we can turn around and get them excited about it again and build up the practice with the messaging, like you said, when it’s with love and in your heart and soul, it now becomes easy. And that’s one of the funniest things.
Arron: A doctor I think of that way is Ron Sherman.
Shannon: Yes. He was very dejected. It was about what was happening in his area. He was there for 30 years, and he was just disappearing. No one was getting his personality, and he really has a lot of personality! Other agencies he’d used just couldn’t grab onto it and harness it to give it to audiences that love him.
How could you not love him? Working with us, they can now see from his videos and website to him on all the [social media] channels that he’s so authentic. He’s sober, and he’s solving problems. He’s so honest and transparent that we love him.
I also think of Brush365 founder Sarah Mahmood. She has three locations and was doing it all on her own. She was too exhausted to do everything, so she stepped back and allowed us to help her find what she loved and her core values and mission.
She was just all about it, all in.
Shannon: Our account managers are strategists and they really do care. I’ll give an example. We have a very global team. We have people from London to Mexico, Canada to the U.S. to Ukraine and the Dominican Republic, and everybody gets on the call every morning at 8 o’clock, Pacific Standard Time, My time zone, of course. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Sorry, suckers. But it’s all about wins. It’s all about how our clients are winning, and they fall in love with our clients over and over and over again. There was this one doctor in a smaller, more rural area., Gallery B Smiles. The team just created wins for him, and now he has a second location. Oh my god, I want to talk to him. I’m so excited for him. What is going on over there? And so we’re really into loving our clients. I mean, we are celebrating. Celebration and fun, that is key.
Arron: It is, and what’s really nice about, Marketing with Love as our slogan is it’s something we believe in. It’s not just, oooh, it’s all about relationships. It’s all about the front-facing stuff. You mentioned when you can show people who you truly are, and identify who your audience is, the ROI (return on investment) and the metrics follow.
So it’s not just like, Oh, cool, “I’m really nice. Let people like me.” If they like you, then good things will happen. People buy from those whom they know, like, and trust. That’s within that Marketing with Love, strategy that we look into. Another of our core values is results-driven.
We make sure that after the marketing efforts are out there, everything is pretty with beautiful designs that you’re getting the patients you want. We carefully measure new patients coming in, making sure you’re achieving the goals that you want to achieve and setting the right expectations.
It’s strategic—strategic growth for dental. Even though it sounds a little happy-go-lucky, it’s really a strategic, well-thought-out process that is fun and moves the needle.
Shannon: Look where love, joy, and fun are on the energy scale.
It’s how we were built. Honestly, everybody wants to smile. Everybody wants to laugh. In the little bloopers in the videos that we’re making, that’s what makes them fall in love with the doctors. Is the blooper reel right? It’s like, “Oh, they’re real. They’re funny.” Look at social media.
Everybody wants to connect on this different level. It’s authentic. It’s fun. It’s joy. So, you also have to relax a little bit, even with your brand messaging.
“I’m a doctor.” Yes, everybody knows that. We want to see the technology and know you’re good at what you do. Let’s show the before-and-afters. That [being a doctor] is a given. It’s this dance, this delicate dance of professionalism and showing this [fun side].
[We want them] to be like, “Man, I really like this guy. I’m gonna say yes to this. I wanna have a beer with this guy. I’m gonna trust everything [dental work] to this practice.
It’s a big decision. And, when they find the right doctor, they usually stay with them for years. It’s like, “Okay, that’s off my to-do list. Thank you.” I mean, people move, they’ll travel an hour, an hour and a half to a dentist that they like, because they don’t want to find a new dentist.
That’s how hard it is to connect and find a new dentist. So, help those people that are an hour and a half away. And the ones who are 10 minutes away will find you because you have great videos.
Arron: No, I love it. And just with that in mind, when you’re thinking of whether it be dental practices you’ve worked with or ones that we’ll work with in the future, what’s one step you think they could take today to start Marketing with Love, like within that?
Shannon: I think the best thing they could do is sit down and relook at their mission and their core values with their team, because it starts in the home.
If they can do that, sit and get excited about that. It’s not just a plaque on the wall. It really is how you hire. It’s how you fire. It’s how you love on them. It’s how you grow your practice, and I’m talking multi-location. I’m talking multi-associate. Not much energy is given to the associates in the team because they’re so busy growing.
Typically, they have so many different other operations going on. Understand, it’s not fluffy stuff to concentrate on your team. There is a book, TeamworkThis link opens a new tab to Amazon, by Natalie Dawson. That [book] will help you with Marketing with Love because it helps with the core branding, and we can start there.
Then, once you are confident with that, is to get videos out. Get photos out that show your love and that you are Marketing with Love. Because they have to meet YOU. They have to fall in love with YOU.
Arron: One hundred percent! It’s all about making connections. We talked about that today. That’s kind of the main takeaway: Patients choose [dentists] who they have an authentic connection with, whose they can trust, and who also communicate with them in an authentic way.
That’s why like you talked about video. Video is so much easier when you have a clear message of exactly where you are. You’re confident in it.
When you know what your why is, you speak it, and the more you repeat it, the more you speak it. Like you said, we have it in our all-team [meetings]. We start with our mission every single time.
Shannon: Absolutely. Fighting for our docs [doctors]!
Arron: Thank you so much. I love it. Thank you so Shannon for kind of explaining that.
Shannon: Yeah.
Arron: You know, if you want to embrace this approach, if you want to learn more about it and get it tailored to your practice, we are 100 percent happy to help. Especially Shannon, who you can schedule a free call with to go over your strategy and talk about how we can help transform your marketing and really dig into that message of Marketing with Love and make it core to your dental practice.
So thank you so much. Let’s do it.
Shannon: Let’s GOOOO!