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| practice management marketing mistakes 08 CAD/CAM 2 2016 refining the campaign. This will always end in failure. It has been shown that it can take between six and eleven repetitions for patients to see or hear a mes- sage before they act on it. Do you know how many ways and how many times you communicate with your patients? 5. Doing it all by yourself You have to remember that patients are more savvy than ever before. They are constantly exposed to a huge amount of marketing and their expectations of what is and is not professional are continually in- creasing. The reality is that when you are competing against the corporates, you need to ensure that your marketing is up to scratch. Itisverycommonforpracticestohavetheirbranding and logo professionally designed and then decide to take it over, producing home-made brochures and other marketing collateral that use different colours, fonts and even versions of the logo. If you are not consistent,yourattemptsatestablishingabrandwill be ineffective. 6. Procrastinating There are just so many things for you to think about when it comes to your dental marketing. How can you fix your website that is not effective? Should you be engaging with your patients on social media and howtostart?Youknowthatyouneedtoeducateyour patientsonaregularbasis,butwhatarethebestways to do this? You need reactivation and referral cam- paigns,butyouhavenoideahowtocarrythisoutina professional and consistent manner. It is not uncom- mon to be so confused and overwhelmed that you spend your time procrastinating and doing nothing. 7. Not getting the right advice When you own or run a dental practice, in fact any kind of business, there is no shortage of marketing advicetofollow;thereisanoverwhelmingamountof adviceoutthere.Youmayhavehadtheexperienceof wasting time or money on poor advice. The problem is that many dentists are not getting the right dental marketing advice. They may listen to many different sourcesandformopinionsbasedonadvicefrompeo- plewhomaynotunderstandthebusinessofdentistry. 8. Summary There is no magic when it comes to marketing your practice successfully. Quite simply, it comes down to: · picking the aspects of marketing you want to use, wisely and with due care and thought, · ensuring that, whatever marketing activities you decide to undertake, you perform to the best of your ability and budget, · being consistent, · tracking your results—setting your goals and re- viewing or refining them on a regular basis, · getting good advice from trusted experts in the area of marketing you are undertaking. It takes time, but the effort that you put in will be re- warded by more patients, increased production, bet- ter relationships with your team and patients, and a sense of control when it comes to your marketing. It is now time for you to focus on your marketing. By marketing well, doing it consistently, and avoiding the scatter-gun approach, you can avoid making the common mistakes that many practices make._ There are just so many things to think about when it comes to successful dental marketing. about Carolyn S. Dean is a dental marketing and communications specialist and seminar speaker. As Managing Director of My Dental Marketing, she works with practitioners throughout New Zealand and Australia on enhancing websites, improving branding and growing dental practices. Her book Fully Booked: Dental Marketing Secrets for a Full Appointment Book was published in March. Recently, Carolyn presented three different lectures on the importance of marketing for dental practices as part of the ADX16 continuing professional development programme in Sydney in Australia. 22016