Want patients? Here's who you need to impress.

In today’s exciting Marketing Monday installment, we discuss a fundamental concept underlying your marketing and how you design the business side of your practice.  You cannot advertise, market or effectively do business without knowing to whom you are directing your marketing or your services.  In sum, who is your target market?  Who will be the people that make decisions about whether or not to utilize your service and what factors push them to selecting one service provider over another?  This doesn’t affect just marketing.  I taught a small business startup class and in the 10 week period covering a broad range of topics, we discussed knowing the target market in about 8 of them.

In today’s post, we answer the question, “Who is my target market?”

This is an important concept.  Giant brands like Coca-Cola, Unilever and the like invest tremendous resources in determining who comprises their target market and what the target market responds to.  For example, take Unilever’s Axe Body Spray and the related products.  The target market for that product are generally males in their early 20’s.  So, the marketing is directed at what those people do for a living.  So while you won’t see Axe commercials during an episode of Fareed Zakaria GPS, you will see plenty of them during televised college basketball games.

So what is the target market for the orthodontic market?  Who makes the decisions regarding whether or not everyone in a family will come to you for treatment versus another practitioner?  Here is the general profile of the decision maker (this comes from several national focus groups and not the wild guessing of your local blogger or the opinions of a localized individual) when it comes to family orthodontic and dental care:

Working mothers aged 35-45 years old.  The work that these mothers do generally allows them to spend time with their children so the work day for them frequently ends earlier than 5 pm.  

Of that group, a certain subset of mothers comprises the main decision makers.  You need to know what  mothers are listening to, watching and reading about so that you know where to place your advertising.   It should go without writing that you should advertise in spaces that they frequent.  Here are some characteristics:

What they listen to: when it comes to radio, these moms frequent country, soft hits and Christian stations.  Yes, there are some hardcore metal and hip-hop moms, but when you are looking to go to the market, the largest numbers are in the first set of mentioned stations.

What they watch: In the morning, when getting everyone ready for work and school, the TV is frequently tuned to morning talk like the Today show and Good Morning America.  Now, keep in mind that even though the TV may be on, the mom’s focus may be consumed by getting kids dressed, fed, organized and out the door.  Greater focus tends to come with afternoon shows like Dr. Phil and Ellen.  Kids are back home from school and settling into the late afternoon/evening routine.

What they read: Within newspapers, you’ll see some news section reading and a lot of reading of the Living and/or Entertainment sections.  Planning the weekend activities is important and these sections provide good sources.  Within magazines, you see a lot of local interest and entertainment type of readership.

What they do online: When it comes to social media, Facebook and Pinterest dominate among women.  Pinterest tends to skew a bit older than Facebook so this may be ideal.  With all of the beautiful smiles you are creating, it is not hard to see the fit between what you do and the image-based nature of Pinterest.  Other than that, check out the popular mom blogs like Babble and advice-oriented areas for women.  

Beyond that, there are things that working moms like to do for fun, both individually and as a family, that represent myriad marketing opportunities.  So instead of scheduling the same old, same old open house, find out what the moms in your local market like to do, and build your marketing around that.

Now, as you go through these characteristics, keep relative popularity of each media in mind.  At a later date, we’ll get deeper into media advertising, but for now, understand what is popular and not in your specific market.  Newspapers have generally experienced declining readership, but in your market, your local paper may be thriving.  The Today Show may dominate one market, but have tiny ratings in another.  Popularity can vary wildly between markets so understand how things work in your specific market before committing one way or the other.

Also, you may have committed your practice toward servicing a certain niche outside of what we have described here.  You may have a cosmetic dentistry practice dedicated to older individuals or an adult-based orthodontic practice.  If so, the exercise is still the same.  Know exactly who the decision makers are for the service and what kinds of media and entertainment they enjoy.  Then, you go to the same place.

Follow up.  Minoa Marketing did a nice piece along the same lines with some additional support for the power of moms in treatment decisions.  Check it out here.

Would you like to discuss any of these topics more in depth?  Have questions specific to your local market?  Contact us.