Orthodontists Discover Marketing

At the AAO in Denver in 2008, the marketing suppliers were a sorry and lonely bunch.  They could not scream loud enough to get the attention of orthodontists and their staff.   What a difference a year can make, in Boston marketing companies were swamped and most wished they had brought more staff.

What orthodontist have learned in a year?

Orthodontics are learning that they are in a competitive profession — there used to be plenty of patients to pass around.   Now they not only compete with each other, but with the GPs that used to be their primary marketing engine.

Orthodontists are trying all sorts of marketing tactics and both Betty Zuelke and Charlene White responded to the profession’s call for help by publishing comprehensive and practical books to help practices get up to speed quickly.

A year or so ago I met MaryKay Miller — the Orthopreneur — alone at her booth at an AAO regional trade show.  She was offering doctors help with their web marketing… and judging by how lonely she was in her booth — doctors didn’t realize the web existed.   In Boston, I tried to talk with Mary Kay on multiple occasions about our efforts to launch the Orthodontic Training Center (a project we’ve been working on together) and I could never find her alone.

Orthodontists are realizing that most of their new patients check the web before they pick up the phone.  They are also discovering that all of the flashy websites created for them by the common website suppliers look great — but they are invisible to search engines that can’t read FLASH.

Marketing is here to stay in orthodontics — but there remains a significant amount of research (learn as you go research) to be done to figure out what will work in the future.  Orthodontic suppliers should take a page from Invisalign’s play book and realize that much can be done with a marketing budget and thoughtful campaign.  I often wonder where OraMetrix would be today if they raised money for marketing and focused on building a brand around their impressive results.

If your website has flash on the front page and your main marketing is via GPs — book your ticket to this falls AAO regional meetings and plan on spending some time on the show floor.

Be Smart!
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