Roadside Live: Bridging the Gap Between Online and Internal Marketing

 

Wondering how to make your dental practice stand out from others?

Branding and marketing are two big factors. But possibly the most important is your relationship with your surrounding community, which includes specialists and your patients.

In this Roadside Live, Bridget and Sarah Sherry from BEST Practices DDS… This text opens a new tab to the BEST Practices DDS website… sit down to discuss reverse marketing – the key to:

• Building those wonderful relationships
• Gaining new patients
• Making your business shine

Bridget: Hey everyone. I’m Bridget from Roadside Dental Marketing and I’m honored to have with us Sarah Sherry from BEST Practices DDS, and we are going to talk about branding and some amazing external marketing ideas.

So it looks like BEST Practices was created during the pandemic. So when Ben and Sarah had a little bit of downtime and colleagues kept making the statement, “I need a Sarah, I need a Sarah.”

What a compliment! That’s amazing. So Sarah is the creative half of BEST Practices DDS, and has been working with Ben for many years. Ben being the dentist at Dr. Benjamin Turnwald… This text opens a new tab to Dr. Turnwald’s website…. And over that time, they have worked closely together to develop their extensive professional relationship concierge methods to help other dental practices.

So Sarah’s main expertise is actually hygiene. She’s a licensed dental hygienist, but she’s also the master of all things regarding social media, creativity, and gaining new patients through inventive ways.

I love it. Her creativity over the years, working with Dr. Turnwald, has made the practice that much more special and increased production, and she is ready to share with us. Sarah, it’s so great to have you thank you for joining us.

Sarah: Well, thank you, Bridget! Thanks for talking to me today.

Bridget: Yeah. So tell us a little bit more about what you do.

Sarah: Sure! So we, like you said, are a professional relationship concierge that basically bridges the gap between what Roadside can do for a dental office, your beautiful website. But then what the dental office itself doesn’t necessarily have time or a designated person to do.

It consists of me, Sarah, and my business partner, you mentioned, is Dr. Ben Turnwald. And I am a dental hygienist by trade who has a creative side that I slowly started bringing to Dr. Turnwald’s practice, regardless of if he asked me or not.

Through our creative marketing and colleagues kept saying, “I wish I had a Sarah.” So we put our two brains together and started something that we’re really proud of – BEST Practices, which is a huge compliment. Like you had said, I was so honored when people would say that. “I wish I had a Sarah.” It warms your heart.

Bridget: I know. I bet. I wonder if anyone has said that about me. I’m not sure. Maybe years ago!

So now, tell me what your specific role is, like what you do in BEST Practices. I know you both do a lot with this, but specifically, what is your role?

Sarah: Sure. So Dr. Turnwald handles more of like being a dentist and coaching the dentist for their practice. And my role is more specifically like helping the boots on the ground marketing for dental offices.

So basically creating a relationship with the community that’s surrounding the offices. We do many other things, but one thing that we have focused really heavily on is just creating that relationship, especially with the specialists that you work with.

We like to term our creation “reverse marketing” to our team of specialists. And we had the idea because week after week, we get treats and information from specialists about their practice and why we should choose that, right?

So Dr. Turnwald had the brilliant idea to do the same method of marketing regardless if we were a general dental practice. And that’s where reverse marketing was born, at least to us.

We were basically going to do the same thing and create that relationship, spoil our team of specialists by creating the relationship back to them.

Bridget: I love it. Are they surprised sometimes to see?

Sarah: I think so. Yeah. Like, it’s just like a treat, I think because normally people probably don’t spoil them. They get to do the spoiling, so it’s always fun to see, especially when we walk in with these adorable baskets and gifts.

Bridget: I know! I’ve seen them, and they’re amazing. That’s really cool. That’s always a good thing. I’ve never thought of doing it that way.

Tell me a bit about how BEST Practices can take a practice to the next steps to make your business shine. Like how do you utilize this to really help your branding and help you get out there? How do you help make your business shine?

Sarah: Of course. I kind of briefly mentioned it, but we basically started spoiling our team of specialists with referral baskets to bring to them.

So about once a quarter, we try to do it four times a year, and then some extra ones around Christmas or the holidays.

Or as often as a practice would want if they would love to work with us. But we basically organize and provide the office with supplies and ideas to make these beautiful specialist baskets with all things about their branding.

So how this is done is we create a theme. I create an online list to basically provide you with the things to buy so you don’t have to think of the theme. You don’t have to go out and go buy things.

Everything can be ordered online without even walking into a store because that’s the world we live in now, right? And so the lists would basically be provided to you as part of our subscription service.

I actually made a basket for one of our clients, so I would love to show you one of our special little concoctions that we made lots of little goodies inside. There’s a candle, trail mix, and lifesavers. And of course, you always have to include your brochures.

These are like little chapsticks that have Benjamin Turnwald Dentistry on them.

If we were providing it from our office. But what this basket was, was the dentist wanted to do something – her favorite things to create a basket to give to her favorite specialists.

Bridget: That’s so cool.

Sarah: Yeah, so it’s just those little touches. The colors of her office are purple, so there’s purple tissue paper and purple M&Ms that are in there. And just the little touches. Of course, her brochures and information about her office then would be delivered with the baskets.

Bridget: Yeah!

Sarah: So, and the most important part is the baskets are precious and adorable, but the drop-off and creating that relationship with the specialists are so important too.

We have found that if the doctor delivers the basket, it just creates more of an impact.

And usually, the specialist will stop everything, especially if they can to come and talk to you.

Building relationships one specialist at a time with providing your branding about your practice.

Bridget: That’s amazing because as a marketing company and as a digital marketing company, specifically Roadside, our hands are tied in a way. So I love that. You said you’re bridging that gap because we have so many ideas that we can share.

And there’s a barrier. And a lot of times, that barrier is having someone to do it. And you provide this. This is amazing! So I love that you can provide this service for them and help get it done. It just needs someone to start it; it needs an execution.

So I love this. In what ways have you seen it make a difference? Like what do you see with the practices that you help?

Sarah: That’s why we’re doing it, right?

Bridget: Yeah!

Sarah: It’s basically for new patients, new patients, new patients. And just building that successful practice.

We have found that new patients that come from a referral of a specialist already trust them.

So then they kind of instantly trust you. Like they don’t have to do their own research on Google and click away, and maybe this will be a good choice for them.

And don’t get us wrong, we very strongly believe in our presence on Google, Yelp, and Facebook. It’s very important to us. But the relationships that are established with patients that are invited from specialists are just straight up different.

So the new patient calls, and they say something like, “I know I need veneers after my braces are completed. The orthodontist said that you were great at veneers.”

Already the patient who has conducted their research. They’ve gotten referred by somebody that they trust. And they’re ready to come to you to be your new patient at your practice.

So that’s basically why we started BEST Practices DDS. It’s to scale and share the services of a trained professional relationship concierge with others. And just add those creative juices to the practice that they just don’t have time to. We want to see other dental practices just become as successful as they can.

Bridget: That’s amazing. I love it. What a unique, cutting-edge service that you offer!

You know, I know both of you well. So I know how wonderful and great you are to work with. And so that’s really cool. So I love it. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. I can’t wait to share this with all of our clients. That’s really cool, Sarah.

Sarah: Thank you! Well, I appreciate your kind words. We love working with Roadside and Dr. Turnwald and I are really excited about what we have to offer for BEST Practices DDS. So thank you for talking to me today.

Bridget: Well, it was great to have you. Thanks, everyone for joining us. Stay tuned. We’ve got lots of other great interviews and things with others, so join us again. Take care!