Medical or dental marketing, while it involves some of the same assumptions and strategies that go into any other marketing project, has complexities and subtleties that set it apart. You are not selling shoes that a consumer can simply return if they pinch.

• You are selling your reputation as much as your services. You cannot afford a less-than stellar name.
• Your reputation among your colleagues and peers has a greater effect in medical and dental marketing than in almost any other profession.
• There are rules that dictate how you can promote your practice.
• Just as important are the unwritten rules, in general and within specialties.
• Most patients walk in your door already unhappy: much as we would wish it otherwise, not enough people go to the doctor for preventive health care. Few dental patients are overjoyed to even get their teeth cleaned.
• Many patients arrive scared: they are afraid what they will find out, that you will hurt them, that it will be too expensive … the list is endless.
• Most people do not know much about medicine and dentistry or, sometimes worse, they arrive with misconceptions, so you must be an educator as well as a doctor or dentist.

We advise that you rely on people with experience in medical and dental marketing. We can recommend excellent books on the subject if you decide to tackle this important task yourself.