Activate! Your image

There are a number of pre-designed marketing packages available, mainly from the United States, but none of these packages reflects your practice and your dentistry. So when it comes to patient education, websites and advertising, a totally individually designed and professionally written marketing plan is the best solution, according to Australia’s foremost dental marketing expert Mr Carl Burroughs, managing director of IDM.
“I am constantly frustrated when visiting dental practices and seeing marketing collateral that simply has nothing to do with the practice I am in. The photo’s used are usually of American families and simply do not relate to Australians, the language and spelling used is clearly not written for us and much of this collateral is designed to sell or support the products of the company supplying the brochures and not enhance the individual practice it is displayed in.

I have resisted creating competing pre-designed products, as I believe that an individually designed solution will achieve better results for the practice, however not every practice has the budget for such a solution, yet every practice does have a need for marketing. Patient education is the key, making sure that every patient knows exactly what you provide; not only for their own needs but so they can tell their family and friends. I have written many times before that a practice brochure and brochures on each of the procedures you provide increases referrals and case acceptance significantly. Websites used correctly will bring in new patients and help with patient education and referrals and the overall branding, look and presentation of your marketing collateral has become more and more important in recent years.

If I have learnt one thing in my life, it would be that there is always a solution to the problem if you look hard enough. My dilemma was I did not want an impersonal pre-designed marketing range, yet some of the doctors I meet could not justify a fully individually designed marketing solution. My problem was solved by recent advancements in the printing industry. Variable printing is the latest development in the printing world and allows short print runs to happen, incorporating personalised information within them. For instance, we can now print a brochure on crown and bridge and print it with your logo, contact details and other personalised information without all the costs normally associated with an individually designed product.

We have been working on this technology for the past 18 months and are just about to launch a comprehensive, variable data product range called Activate! Already extensive, the range includes 86 procedure brochures incorporating standard topics such as oral hygiene and teeth whitening to more specialised brochures outlining the treatment solutions for TMJ, gum lifts and snoring and sleep apnoea. It is not only brochures; we have applied this same technology to web design, stationery and external advertising. So, you can now have a comprehensive marketing solution personalised to your practice at a low cost and very, very quickly.”