Mindshare Matters: Why Mental Real Estate Is Priceless and How You Can Own It
By Dr. Greg Grillo
When someone needs dental care in your community, who jumps to the front of their mind? Traditional marketing campaigns often look for an immediate return on dollars spent. But you need more than an ad campaign — you need consumers to connect with your brand. Awareness about you and your brand is known as mindshare .
Consumers gravitate towards products and services they’ve heard about. They may not need a dentist today, but who do they think of when it’s time to make an appointment? Efforts to entrench your brand into people’s minds pay off over time, but it takes persistence and a steady aim.
Google is an iconic example. They’ve captured so much mindshare that when someone needs to know something, they often think to ”Just Google it.” Adding yourself into the mental real estate of your community’s consumers creates similar advantages on a smaller scale. The competition around you may threaten to swallow up attention, but establishing mindshare can keep your practice top-of-mind.
Mindshare may be a little difficult to quantify, but it’s a must for maintaining growth. If it’s so critical, how do you go about putting down stakes? This three-pronged approach will help you win by shaping your consumers’ mindset:
1. Take An Interest In Psychology
Understanding patient behavior, attitude, and decision-making processes eliminates a lot of marketing frustration. Digital media, including video, design, colors, page placement, and dozens of other factors, carries psychological power. If you know how healthcare consumers think, you’ll be in the best position to stay in their awareness.
Big brands in every industry rely on insights from their customers to guide their strategic plans. The best companies know what consumers are thinking by following patterns in reviews, customer surveys, and traffic statistics. Now, you can, too.
KEY TOOL: Did you know that getting patients to answer just one question can deliver deep insights into the health of your practice? Legwork NPS puts the same insights corporations use at your fingertips, using a specially designed one-question survey that tells you exactly what your patients are thinking. Positive, negative, and neutral reviews in one dashboard view offer insights that help you rapidly adjust your mindshare strategies.
2. Drip On Consumers
Direct mail can serve a purpose in marketing campaigns and deliver targeted calls-to-action. But if you put out a mailer, consumers may see your message for only a few seconds…if they read it at all. Developing mindshare relies on steady promotion of your brand and services to consumers. By dripping on their consciousness like a faucet, they don’t see you just once and move on.
Social media sucks up over two hours of the average consumer’s time daily. If you keep an active posting schedule, you’re dripping on them. Posts that educate, inspire, and engage people build relationships by small increments. And steady messaging keeps you from getting drowned out in the market.
Email campaigns and regular blog posts also help you connect with people that trust you for information. If you’re not reaching out, somebody else will be in their ear. Make sure it’s your practice and your message in front of them between visits.
KEY TOOL: Legwork Campaigns puts our drippy marketing faucet to work for you. Our library is packed with patient-friendly, nurturing content from our dental copywriters; you choose what you’d like to use to stay connected to your base. Fresh social media posts help you establish a consistent presence on Facebook, while blog and email content delivers treatment information without drowning readers in clinical jargon. With quality, engaging content like this, you’re sure to grow mindshare!
3. Build Trust Through Experiences
External marketing plays a significant role in how well consumers remember you. But internal marketing drives truly sustainable success. How you make someone feel is immeasurably important, and they should take a positive emotional mark with them when they leave your office.
Look at everything that “touches” your patients as they interact with your office. From your website to a warm towel at the end of a procedure, you should seek to cement relationships with your patients. As the wheel turns, they talk about you to their family and friends, and your mindshare continues to grow.
KEY TOOL: Legwork Comfort enhances your relationships and makes deposits in patients’ emotional bank accounts. An online pre-appointment survey collects vital information about your patients. But it also sends a message that says “We care about YOU.” Your practice gathers information about the amenities they’d like and the fears they have. You also find out beforehand what treatment goals are on their minds.
Value? Priceless.
You’re The Top-Shelf Choice
Mindshare leads to marketshare with the demographic you choose to serve. Put a consistent long-term process into motion, and don’t allow other practices to push you off the top-shelf. Watch your practice grow, your reputation thrive, and the referrals steadily come through the door.
Want more tips on how to make your brand stand out for your dental practice? Download Dr. Grillo’s free eBook, How Good are You at Juggling? 5 Keys to Balancing Your Physical and Digital Brand .