Marketing Your Lab

[Wyolab]

What methods have you used to market your lab? Is anyone doing a social media campaign? I have started an e-mail campaign through constant contact, and it seems to be raising awareness of my lab among dentists here in the state. I am just curious to know what techniques people have had success with, and what seemed to be a waste of funds.

 

[Mark Jackson]

Our marketing person has a couple SN accounts but we don't use them much. My experience has been that that is a lot like fishing for carp. Throw a breadball out and wait. And wait and wait.

I prefer stalking and hunting. We set our sites on the audience we want and go after them more aggressively.

Everything we read says that SN should be part of every marketing plan, but I think that applies to consumer advertising and not so much niche to marketing to professionals, but that may change. For now, we are keeping our toe in that water but not throwing a lot of resouces at it.

Direct mail, display advertising and study clubs seem to be most productive for us. We did add a couple more booths at trade shows this year, though we have not had a good ROI on those in the past. Just because we didn't find anything last time we turned over that rock doesn't mean it won't be productive today.

 

[amadent]

marketing your lab is a very interesting-I think it is something we all neeed help with, for starters there are so many more docs then labs, yet for some reason we all like to try to go after the same accounts.2
our lab has been very fortunate that for years we relied on word of mouth, witch worked well for a long time. we are going back to old school ways, knocking on doors

a few years back,we did try a brouchere mailing from someone allegedly specializes in our feild, it did not generate the buzz we had hoped for and that is being kind

 

[rkm rdt]

I find the patients are my best advocates.They are the ones who will promote both the dentist and me to their friends.
Rather than look for more dentists, I prefer to work with my clients on joint marketing strategies.This in turn strengthens the team approach and gives the Dr a value added service beyond the traditional manufacturing lab model.

 

[Wyolab]

This is all great input. Nothing beats word of mouth, for sure. I am coming up on my first year as a lab owner, and I am looking at growing. Coming up with a marketing budget got me thinking about effective techniques and ineffective techniques. A lot of things sound like great ideas, until you try them and find out you have wasted time and/or money. I have google analytics on my web-site and Constant Contact has tracking metrics so it is handy to see the numbers behind things. After I sent out the e-mail I had a phone call within ten minutes. Now I only e-mailed the Dentists in Wyoming, and of course only the ones I had addresses for. Basically out of 179 e-mails I had 24 bad addresses. So of the 155 remaining e-mails sent 42 people opened their e-mails and one called me. 10 people clicked through to my web-site, and a few visited several times. It costs about $15 to $20 for a month, depending on what options you go with and for 500 or fewer e-mail addresses. I was thinking about doing a newsletter once a month, but was just a promotional e-mail to let people know who I was and where I am. I always do follow ups on phone calls requesting info, so we will see what happens. The other things I have done were attending the state dental meeting, and Christmas cards. I received a few calls from the cards as well. Now that people are aware of me I will start visiting offices. I will keep everyone posted, and I really am glad people are willing to share their ideas.

 

[Kate]

Hi,
we are a small lab in Sydney with a branch in Brisbane. My role within the company is partly marketing, partly courier and admin, so I'm afraid I don't have much in the way of technical knowledge, and stumbled across this page whilst searching for Lab Marketing ideas. I like this mention of study groups; we'd considered approaching young graduate dentists and giving them a Lab Pack; info on who we are, offer them a first free crown.. that type of thing. Is this similar to your approach to study groups? You mentioned some success with this.
We've just started dabbling in the SNing pool. It hasnt' done much for us at all so far. Emailing only raised awareness with very little follow through. We've sent information packs to specific practices/doctors with no orders. The only thing that has been effective has been door-knocking - and after visiting over 2000 individual dentists, we've about 70 who us. Brochures / flyers, calenders, magnets, pens... none of this did anything. Value add products; small packets of gum and tooth flossers (white glo) were absorbed without a word.
Does anyone know a good place to get information regarding new and up-coming products? Any help / advice would be greatly appreciated and I am happy to share the exact figures / response received from our (rather inexpensive) marketing campaigns, though I understand the Australian market is quite different from the American!
Thanks again,
Kate

Our marketing person has a couple SN accounts but we don't use them much. My experience has been that that is a lot like fishing for carp. Throw a breadball out and wait. And wait and wait.

I prefer stalking and hunting. We set our sites on the audience we want and go after them more aggressively.

Everything we read says that SN should be part of every marketing plan, but I think that applies to consumer advertising and not so much niche to marketing to professionals, but that may change. For now, we are keeping our toe in that water but not throwing a lot of resouces at it.

Direct mail, display advertising and study clubs seem to be most productive for us. We did add a couple more booths at trade shows this year, though we have not had a good ROI on those in the past. Just because we didn't find anything last time we turned over that rock doesn't mean it won't be productive today.

 

[green916]

I do monthly direct mailing of letters (no postcards, they go in garbage bin). Best one thus far is try 10 emax crowns and get a free ipad. Figure out what is your break even point on number of cases doctor need to send to cover the ipad costs and emax materials/labor/mailing. Doctor need to try 10 cases to experience quality of lab/products.

 

[Mark Jackson]

Hi Kate, WELCOME!

I like this mention of study groups; we'd considered approaching young graduate dentists and giving them a Lab Pack; info on who we are, offer them a first free crown.. that type of thing. Is this similar to your approach to study groups?

Actually, I don't solicit any business at at these meetings, though I do carry cards. If anybody asks for information, I offer to bring it by their office and drop it off in person which is a much better environment to do a sales pitch.
I also, do not like young dentists as clients. I prefer them to cut their teeth and learn a little humility working with someone else. Once they hit their wealth building years, that's when I go after them. I buy mailing lists sorted specifically by age.

We've sent information packs to specific practices/doctors with no orders. The only thing that has been effective has been door-knocking - and after visiting over 2000 individual dentists, we've about 70 who us. Brochures / flyers, calenders, magnets, pens... none of this did anything.

Typical response is .2% Sounds to me like you are doing just fine! Maybe your expectations are too high?

Any help / advice would be greatly appreciated and I am happy to share the exact figures / response received from our (rather inexpensive) marketing campaigns, though I understand the Australian market is quite different from the American!
Thanks again,

Kate, the key to any marketing plan is to NEVER STOP! You have to keep it going, for ever and ever. You really need to estanlish some kind of message, and image and stay with it. If you jump all over the place (I'm not saying you did),it makes you look unpredictable, and nobody wants that in a lab!

Subscribe to magazines from other countries, always make time for sales people and pick their brains, and write letters to companies and ask them if they have anything new for you to talk about. It's the best way to find new products in my experienece.

Sounds like you are doing the right things, just keep your chin up, don't get discouraged and don't ever slow down, not even for a second. Persistence will pay off I promise you.Kate

.

 

[Smilewire]

Play all your angles..I make fun business postcards that get attention and send out a nice yearly christmas cards. Don't let them forget about you, I've gotten phone calls from people saying heh weve held onto your postcard after 7 months can you send us some info. Most of all! Take care of your clients that you do have, referrals are also another angle.

 

[Kate]

Hi everyone,
Thank you so much for the great advice and encouragement! My husband and I are new to the industry and yes, it is likely our expectations may be a bit high. We are working with my partners father who is the real 'product' behind the face- we are just finding clients for him.
Interestingly, I placed an add on facebook, and since the 10th of feb, we've had 21 clicks through to our website. Generally, we get 2-4 clicks through to the website a month and most of these, I suspect, are existing clients getting emergency copies of our lab sheet.

We've also just started mentioning to a select few of our clients a combined marketing campaign; e.g if they wish to offer 10% off veneers to their patients, we will support them by offering 10% off their price for veneers. This is a new idea, with which we will be offering email marketing with statistical data as support. Its tricky coming up with ideas, and I love the idea of writing to companies to see what ideas and new products they have; I'm still finding it hard to determine what products are suitable (and in some cases, even what they are). It can be hard to maintain motivation, your kind words have given me an extra breath of wind in my sails. Are there any new products you could recommend to me that have been viable?

I like the idea of cards. I might consider a mid-year xmas or some such thing, or an April Fools of some type. Dissolvable teeth ... and volume discounts / rewards is something I think we will revisit.
Thanks again everyone, you've been wonderful! Can't wait to get on next time and see what new ideas are being thrown around.
Kate

 

[Wyolab]

I am doing a monthly e-newsletter through constant contact. It is pretty easy to set-up, and has lots of metrics for tracking. February is issue one, I will let you know how it goes.

 

[rkm rdt]

 

[Darren S]

I'm with Mark on the, "I will come to your office with some information and price list" approach. Direct mailers for a small lab like mine never seems to work out well. Last one we did, got no response from anyone. Ran an ad in the back of LMT for a few months for lab2lab and got nothing from it. Which was rather unusual for that publication. Definately the face to face works. Figure out what I call the 30 second elevator speech, hand them a card, then go by their office.
Just picked up a new dentist locally that low balled me. Claiming he was paying 80$ for High Noble PFM's. Took a pile of price lists from Chinese labs that didn't break below 150$. Put a magnet next to one of the HN crowns and watched it stick. Suggested he sue the lab and turn them in for fraud. No standards or GMP's in place. Will probably bring it up next weekend at the FDLA meeting when I'm in the same room with them getting "educated". Those kind of guys give our industry a real black eye. If he won't do, it I will.

 

[AJEL]

Hi everyone,

We've also just started mentioning to a select few of our clients a combined marketing campaign; e.g if they wish to offer 10% off veneers to their patients, we will support them by offering 10% off their price for veneers. This is a new idea, with which we will be offering email marketing with statistical data as support. Its tricky coming up with ideas, and I love the idea of writing to companies to see what ideas and new products they have; I'm still finding it hard to determine what products are suitable (and in some cases, even what they are). It can be hard to maintain motivation, your kind words have given me an extra breath of wind in my sails. Are there any new products you could recommend to me that have been viable?

This might work but 10% of the lab bill is only 1-3% to the patient, the DDS is a business person first, and would probably want U to give 40-50% off to cover his 10% loss. Labs that do this will get accounts that may not pay their bill, or be cheap and extremely difficult to collect from. As U have just lowered your value to them ( they now perceive U as worth only what U have displayed U can discount).
I would stay away from pens, calendars, novelty junk, gets tossed or lost quickly. The only exception has been those zippy letter openers, I still see some I gave out 10 years ago in use, and office personnel take them home so I keep giving them out. I put some glue on the window to keep the DDS from taking my card out and putting his in and giving it to a patient. As teh office personnel take them home I have actually gotten 2 accounts when they moved on to another DDS. My number is not in the phone book (in IL we are not supposed to do word directly for patients) when I was in the phone book the only 4 accounts I got turned out to be court collections, just my experience.

 

[araucaria]

I'm with Mark on the, "I will come to your office with some information and price list" approach. Direct mailers for a small lab like mine never seems to work out well. Last one we did, got no response from anyone. Ran an ad in the back of LMT for a few months for lab2lab and got nothing from it. Which was rather unusual for that publication. Definately the face to face works. Figure out what I call the 30 second elevator speech, hand them a card, then go by their office.
Just picked up a new dentist locally that low balled me. Claiming he was paying 80$ for High Noble PFM's. Took a pile of price lists from Chinese labs that didn't break below 150$. Put a magnet next to one of the HN crowns and watched it stick. Suggested he sue the lab and turn them in for fraud. No standards or GMP's in place. Will probably bring it up next weekend at the FDLA meeting when I'm in the same room with them getting "educated". Those kind of guys give our industry a real black eye. If he won't do, it I will.

That's an interesting development. Hope it's followed up.

 

[kcdt]

when I was in the phone book the only 4 accounts I got turned out to be court collections, just my experience.

Funny you should say that. I've had a long standing rule never to accept a client that just found me in the book.
My rationale is that if they can't get a referral from a peer, something's not right....

 

[Darren S]

I have found that some docs are afraid that you might get to busy with someone elses work to get theirs done. I'm working with one doc in Tampa who has a brother in St. Petersburg, just across the bridge and he won't give me a referral. Don't get it.

 

[Bobby Orr ceramics]

Funny you should say that. I've had a long standing rule never to accept a client that just found me in the book.
My rationale is that if they can't get a referral from a peer, something's not right....

AMEN!!!

My Dad taught me along time ago that the easier they come, the easier they go......and, they come easy for a wrong reason.

We find that the more we advertise how we can solve their problems, the more doctors come to us to help them get on with good business.

Tell them there is 3 things that create Win-Win relationships...... meeting a clients needs of Quality, Service, and Price.

All too often, labs think that only 2 should complete the sale. Big Mistake. You have to interview a prospect, and build a relationship by asking them what their definition is for each category.

Take a doctor or office manager to lunch and ask them their opinion on how they would define each of those areas.

Public Relations Principle: everyone loves to be asked for their "opinion". It's respectful.

Have some fun with your marketing and this energy will be attractive.

, James

 

[JohnWilson]

Your right the small boutique lab is an asset to the client and most are selfish and feel that you are an artist rather than a business man. I for one am delighted when a good client refers. Its by far the easiest way when they realize that things are not going to change if they spread the word.

What I often do is remind them that the life blood of the lab is reliant upon growth and for you to stay around and continue to service them in the manner that you have that you need to constantly find similar minded/talented clients. This always illicitness at least one call to a colleague.

 

[MagicMo]

The biggest marketing tool we have in our Lab is our Seminar Room for CE. Our clients can use this room for study clubs and CE courses. Even without fully utilizing the potential with our Seminar/Education Room we have grown 25% (within the past year)directly from Dentists that have come to a 3rd party Seminar at our facility. We understand that it is not only the Seminar room itself, it is also the person from our Lab that interact with potential clients as well. I run the CE program at our Lab and I know first-hand that having a friendly personality, smiling face along with the service we provide can go a long way. To me it's as simple as flying........ first class or coach? And, as funny as it sounds, I feel like a flight attendant during these seminars. "Can I get you another?" "Are you finished with that?"
I know that most Labs are not equipped with the space for a seminar room but keep in mind who is interacting with potential clients. We want our clients to think that what we provide them is just what their patient is looking for when they are looking for a dentist. As a patient, I would pay more if I walked in the front door and felt a sense of confidence and was treated like a member of the family.
As far as pricing goes, we can not compete with the cheaper Labs and the growth we have had in the past year tells us Drs. will pay for the quality they get.
25 years in this business has given us the experience to confidently price our services. Simply stated, we deliver exceptional value for the fees we charge.
The only difficulty we are having now is handling the growth. It's a sweet, hot spot to be in, no complaints here. It's just time to buckle down and evaulate things which takes time and as we all know....its hard to find it!