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ALL STAR DENTISTRYALL-STARDENTALMARKETINGAlex Nottingham, J.D., M.B.A.Founder & CEOAll-Star Dental Academy

All-Star Dental MarketingTM // Alex Nottingham // www.allstardentalacademy.comCopyright 2013 by All-Star Dental Academy, LLC.Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported LicenseWe encourage you to share this publication with all interested parties. The contentwithin may be excerpted and/or reproduced for non-commercial projects as longas you attribute the content to All-Star Dental Academy and link to our websitewww.allstardentalacademy.comAll-Star Dental Academy1844 N. Nob Hill Road, Suite #175Plantation, FL 33322www.allstardentalacademy.comEdited by Heather Nottingham and Tom WightDesigned by Tom Wight

All-Star Dental MarketingTM // Alex Nottingham // www.allstardentalacademy.comAll-Star Dental MarketingTMDear Friend,All-Star Dental MarketingTM is part of The All-Star Dental TrifectaTMeBook Series and also a stand-alone eBook.This means that you will gain valuable insights in becoming an AllStar at dental marketing and will gain insight on how to exponentiallyimprove results by mastering the All-Star Dental TrifectaTM. TheTrifectaTM will be discussed briefly in this eBook and in the others inthe series.All-Star Dental MarketingTM is the first of three in the dental TrifectaTMnot because it is better or in any particular order. Each part of theAll-Star Dental TrifectaTM, whether it is marketing, management, ormindset could be read in any order.All-Star Marketing Precept: Without internal and external marketing,you don’t have patients, and therefore no business.The biggest threat with respect to dental marketing is MARKETINGCLUTTER.More and more money is being spent. Traditional advertising methods,like TV and yellow pages, are becoming less and less effective, andeven newer strategies, such as search engine optimization, are morepopular, making it tougher to stand out. And patients are gettingsmarter and more selective in their dental choices.Overwhelmed by marketing?3

All-Star Dental MarketingTM // Alex Nottingham // www.allstardentalacademy.comMany of my dental friends and clients just want to throw money atthe problem, hoping that it will fix itself. Obviously, that does notwork, but when there is pressure, it seems to be the only thing to do.This eBook will help you stand above the clutter. You will learn: Why marketing to more people actually gets you fewer patients How to get more patients without selling How to get marketing partners to put “skin in the game”CAVEAT: All eBooks in The All-Star Dental Trifecta eBook Series aremeant to be primers, not silver bullets. The reality is that successcomes from knowledge, application, and persistence. That said, I amgoing to give you my best stuff. I am going to give you a foundationupon which you can build.HOW-I-DO IT: My marketing experience goes back a ways. I’m formallytrained as a legal and business consultant and have been an executivecoach for Tony Robbins and Chet Holmes, but circumstances gaveme the opportunity to take a dental practice from near bankruptcyto making millions in only 18 months. That practice is now regardedas one of the top dental practices in the country.I trust the information you find in this book will help bring you a newhope and understanding.Sincerely,Alex Nottingham, J.D., M.B.A.Founder and CEO of All-Star Dental Academy4

All-Star Dental MarketingTM // Alex Nottingham // www.allstardentalacademy.comThe Dental TrifectaTMIf you have ever seen a horse race, usually you will see eight horsesrun around the racing circle at incredible speed. Now, I’m not muchof a gambler, but one of the toughest bets to make is the trifecta. Thisis where you pick the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd horses in order of place. Animpressive achievement!This is where I came up with the All-Star Dental TrifectaTM. To be aDental All-Star, you need to master each of the TrifectaTM’s three corecompetencies: an All-Star Mindset, All-Star Marketing, and All-StarManagement. Each competency affects the others. Following theprocess will help you attain not just excellent results, but exponentialresults!All-Star MindsetTMdsetMinRASUCCESSA LLS TARMan a g e e ntm5Having an All-Star Mindset is the most important of the three areasto master. It is fundamental. Without mastering the psychologicalstate, one will fail to fully develop the other two areas. Thosein the know (professional athletes, top salespeople, worldleaders) testify that mental fitness and being in the right stateof mind is 90% of success. But it is probably the skillset thatprofessionals, dentists or other, work on the least. Committingto improving your mindset is the beginning of your journey tosuccess.TAR MARKETINL-SGALALL-STTo master an All-Star Mindset, you must know your purpose inbecoming a dentist. Those in it for the money, or because your parentswanted you to become a dentist, are not doing it for the right reasons.This is a serious obstacle to becoming truly successful. You’ll seewhy as we cover mindset in more detail. But even for those who startoff with a passion for helping people, there are five key elements toachieving peak performance. Mastering the five elements puts you inthe right state to be able to craft and execute on your vision.

All-Star Dental MarketingTM // Alex Nottingham // www.allstardentalacademy.comAll-Star MarketingTMMarketing is the place where people typically want to start, becauseit is so accessible. You are reading about the TrifectaTM right nowbecause you are interested in improving your approach to marketing.But without the skills you develop mastering the All-Star MindsetTM,even a successful change in your marketing will still not accomplishall you want. Try this: Stand on one leg. Difficult to keep your balance?Now close your eyes. I hope you don’t hurt yourself when you fall over.Marketing without the proper Mindset is like standing on one legwith your eyes closed. The All-Star MindsetTM is crucial in developingstrategies that will enable you to find balance in your practice andtruly rise above the crowded marketplace. With careful planning,targeting and patient education, you can leverage an optimizedwebsite that converts leads developed from social media, emailmarketing, referral generation, and proper tracking and split testing.But generating healthy leads isn’t the only goal. You must convertthose leads into patients, and then know how to treat those patientswith such care and respect that they keep coming back.All-Star ManagementTMIn addition to the proper Mindset and mastering Marketing, you mustdevelop patient-centered processes and systems that maintain yourresults and leverage your team. It may seem obvious, but examinethe typical practice, even a decently performing one, and you will seethat the systems are designed for the dentist and the staff, not thepatient. All-Star ManagementTM is accomplished through goal setting,planning, establishing clear expectations, hiring the right people, and6

All-Star Dental MarketingTM // Alex Nottingham // www.allstardentalacademy.comleading them through the sales cycle, training and improving phoneskills, and then optimizing your practice’s processes and systems insuch a way that the patient is so delighted with their experience theywill not only come back, but will transform into raving fans.The All-Star TrifectaTM may sound overwhelming, but it isn’t. It is a lotof hard work, but anyone with the right motivation will succeed. Andthe reward is huge, not just financially, but in the improvement inyour life and the happiness of your patients.One Step at a TimeThere is a saying, “How do you eat an elephant? You start with thetail.” Others say “One bite at a time.” You achieve mastery by takingone step at a time, being diligent, being patient with the process,and improving over time. And sooner, rather than later, you achieveexponential results. You become an All-Star!The All-Star Dental AcademyTM is committed to providing our dentalteams with the resources, products, and services to become an AllStar and Master of the Dental TrifectaTM process.7

All-Star Dental MarketingTM // Alex Nottingham // www.allstardentalacademy.comStop Trying to Market To EveryoneA copywriter colleague of mine who works for Fortune 500 companiessays, “If you try to market to everyone, you get no one.”A common mistake for dentists (and really, for most businesses) isthat they choose marketing tactics that target everyone. Successfuldental businesses narrow their marketing focus to attract targetedmarket segments instead of shooting for mass appeal. Focusingresults in streamlined marketing efforts, and increases the return onthe marketing investment.Dental professionals are bombarded by marketing agencies askingthem to invest money in their programs, and those programs typicallyare not focused in any way.Have you heard these pitches? “We have a readership of 200,000 people ” “Our TV station reaches 1,000,000 viewers ” “If you use our radio station, we will get you exposure in threecounties ” “ You will be the only dentist in our program ”On the surface, these numbers may sound very impressive. Butit’s not 1970. First, your potential patient’s attention is amazinglyfractured, split between TV, radio, the web, Facebook, Twitter, etc.But more importantly, in my experience, around 90% of thosepeople you are advertising to are not even interested in dentistry,and certainly not cosmetic dentistry.8

All-Star Dental MarketingTM // Alex Nottingham // www.allstardentalacademy.comYour audience IS NOT listening. Why not?Think about it. Many people already have a dentist, they could bescared of the dentist, or they are not even thinking about seeing thedentist, or about their dental health at all.I have experimented with broad-appeal marketing tactics, as I’m sureyou have. And they just don’t work. If you market at a mass scale, youwill be competing with everyone else, and therefore, you get whateveryone else gets nothing.Mass Marketing: Wasteful and IneffectiveGraphic 1 illustrates the ineffectiveness ofmarketing to everyone: if you mass market, youspend tons of money for a small return. Anotherway of looking at this is what I call “Pay andPray.” This means that you pay your money onadvertising and pray that you get patients.Sound familiar? There is no ability to see whatGraphic 1 - Big Money, small returnis working. You can’t track results, split test, oradjust your campaign (more about this later). Youjust have to rely on faith that these strategies (and the marketers thatuse them) will deliver.Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure most marketing companies have thebest intentions, but it’s not their enthusiasm that is failing you, butrather that they are trying to get a needle (great patient) out of ahaystack (all potential patients).Granted, if you spend enough money, you will get some return. But,breaking even is not success. Later, in All-Star ManagementTM, we’lldiscuss my definition of “success,” and how economists and businesspeople use metrics to help guide investment in marketing. But9