Dental marketing planning

Successful dental practices establish clear short-term and long-term goals before establishing detailed and incremental plans to achieve those goals. Without clear goals, progress and success cannot be measured. What are the goals for your dental practice?

The aim of your dental marketing plan is to achieve the goals set by your business. Critical to your practice success is to have your business, financial, and marketing goals in alignment. The perfect scenario for practice success is when your business coach and dental marketing coach or consultant works in close collaboration with you.

Identifying your dental practice’s growth needs

The first thing to do is identify your desired growth goals. Most dental practices fit within three specific growth models:

1. Rapid Growth – This is generally for new dental practices, recently purchased practices, or practices that experience high turnover. The aim is to bring in a lot of new patients
2. Sustained Growth – The majority of dental practices fit within this category. Growth is important, but not too fast. The goal is about steady, controlled
3. Patient Retention – This is for dental practices who are in the enviable position of not needing new patients and simply want to retain the patients they

Setting SMART goals

The key to successful planning is to set goals that are SMART:

• Specific – Your goal needs to be well defined and be clear to anyone that has a basic knowledge of the
• Measurable – You need to be able to track whether your goal is being
• Agreed Upon – There should be agreement with the staff involved as to what your goal should
• Realistic – Your goal must be achievable, with regards availability of resources, knowledge, and
• Time-Based – Your goal should have an element of time, whether it be an established frequency (daily/weekly) or deadline (a certain date).

Example: SMART Goal

To get forty-five new patients by running a promotion for the months of June and July offering free take-home teeth-whitening kits for all new patients.

Carolyn Dean

Carolyn Dean is the author of ‘Fully booked – Dental marketing secrets for a full appointment book’ and is the managing director at My Dental Marketing. Carolyn is a widely known seminar speaker and dental marketing consultant working with over twenty-five years’ experience in sales and marketing, working with some of the largest global IT organisations.