When you started your practice, you may have quickly put up a website and opened social media accounts to have a presence—any presence. You may have covered significant ground on that site, highlighting every service you offer. But you may be missing the real “beating heart,” which differentiates you from the other dentists in your neighbourhood, community, and target region. This is your unique value or selling proposition. Once you get in touch with that, there is no limit to your ability to carve out a distinctive and competitive edge, grow your unique “brand,” and to even command a higher price on your services due to the costs aligning with the elements that really distinguish your practice from others—such as the quality of your care and the advanced expertise and technological capabilities that you may have on site.
How to begin differentiating your business
Dental practices and other medical offices are largely not inventing the wheel. Dental technology firms with completely new types of products might be; they already have a “readymade” differentiator in the form of their never-before-seen tech. However, due to the nature of healthcare services, there is already an established market of practices offering the same types of services you do. In turn, you must identify and market what makes you different, gives you a competitive edge, and plays to your office’s and team’s strengths. Differentiators are generally categorized as:
- Pricing
- Features
- Quality
- Design
Regarding pricing, we know that when it comes to dental care, patients should not be exclusively selecting providers based on the lowest cost. So, we like to reframe this differentiator as “value.” When you zero in on what gives your services value and communicate that, you can also potentially command a higher price for your procedures and treatments, as patients understand and embrace that your office is “worth it.” Features in our world refer to your practice’s unique onsite capabilities and expertise, which distinguish you from your competitors. Quality speaks to that personal touch, the level of service (not just services) you provide. In our context, design can refer to anything innovative, whether that be special in-office amenities to put your patients and visitors at ease, or advancements in the types of technologies that you use to support the best treatment and the best patient experience.
Having these four categories or elements as a foundation for conversations and brainstorming around your unique value proposition is helpful. Beyond this starting point, the following steps can also help you to home in on what is truly distinctive and will make a positive impression on your target patients:
Step 1: Go beyond the products, materials, technologies, and services you offer. Think about the strengths associated with your team that intersect with these offerings. This is what distinguishes you from other dentists who provide similar services. The exception is any services that are different from those offered by competitors. For instance, you may provide advanced bone grafting and complete implants services in-house that your competition must refer out to other offices or specialty centres.
Step 2: Consider what inspires and motivates your team. Ask them! Survey your associates and staff to see what they think makes the office special to patients, and what drives them to come to work every day. You may need to return to Day No. 1, your ambitions when you first started or acquired the practice. What did you want to do differently? What gaps or shortfalls did you see in the dental community, and how did you think you could do them better? Get in touch with your fundamental vision, values, and mission.
Step 3: Just as you survey your employees, draw insights from your patients. Find out what drew them to your practice in the first place and what keeps them coming back. While self-awareness is essential during this process, external feedback and insights from your most important stakeholders are vital, too. Their input and responses may uncover new differentiators or themes that further reinforce some of the distinctive factors you identified in the earlier steps mentioned above.
Walking the talk
By understanding what allows you to stand head and shoulders above the competition, you provide structure to the process and the action items that then turn this understanding into real benefits and draws to your practice. It helps to inventory or audit all content you may have on various online channels, sites, and platforms. You need to audit this content to see if and how it is highlighting or marketing to these differentiators, as well as the value that you provide to your target demographics and community.
Provide details. Do not be nebulous or make broad generalizations. For example, no one ever says, “We provide poor patient care. Our service is lacking. We barely know your name. We ‘drill-fill-bill.’” You get the picture. All too often, content takes the easy way out. “Our care is personalized.” “We provide top-notch service.” “We know you as more than a number.” “We don’t rush you through our office.” These statements do not really say anything at all. In fact, they have risen to the level of empty tropes.
Identify what really makes you stand out and what you have to offer to your patients that truly separates you from the pack. It is more than your “exceptional service” or “considerable expertise.” It is your “welcome kit,” provided to every new patient. It is the aromatherapy, fluffy pillows, cushy chairs, and other specific amenities. It is your advanced certification in specific areas like sleep dentistry or sedation dentistry. If someone else is writing this content on your behalf, ensure they know these details and can write to such specifics, too. This method creates a more engaging and meaningful reading experience that reflects your unique identity.
Lastly, ensure that these differentiators translate over in everything you do, including in the “company that you keep” and the mutually-beneficial partnerships you forge. When you say that certain things are offered that distinguish you from the rest, ensure you deliver on those promises as part of your “quality control” process. After all, your patients expect these things and saying nothing at all is truly better than falling short of those promises from the outset. The first big step is understanding what distinguishes your office and team, and then ensuring that those differentiators live and breathe and are not simply words on a screen or piece of paper.
About the author
Naren Arulrajah, President and CEO of Ekwa Marketing, has been a leader in medical marketing for over a decade. Ekwa provides comprehensive marketing solutions for busy dentists, with a team of more than 180 full time professionals, providing web design, hosting, content creation, social media, reputation management, SEO, and more. If you’re looking for ways to boost your marketing results, call 855-598-3320 for a free strategy session with Naren. You may also schedule a session at your convenience with the Senior Director of Marketing – Lila, by clicking https://www.ekwa.com/msm/.