Tips on Branding your Dental Practice from Jerry Jones, The Business Anarchist

According to an old proverb, “Experience is the best teacher,” and when dental marketing expert Jerry Jones began his dental marketing career, he took that advice to heart. Jones, who runs the dental marketing agency Jerry Jones Direct from its headquarters in Salem, Oregon, decided he wanted to make sure his company’s marketing efforts would be designed to meet the needs of real-life dentists. And what better way to understand those needs than to open and manage a dental practice, to see and experience firsthand the tools a practice needs to keep it ahead of the pack?

With that goal in mind, in 2003 Jones opened two dental practices and began actively managing them to directly observe the effects of his marketing programs. Managing the practices gave Jones an opportunity to measure the success of his programs, and to gauge the results in a way he knew would be truly meaningful to his dental marketing clients. What emerged is Jones’ highly successful ClearPath marketing program, as well as a leading dental practice in the Salem community, SofTouch Family Dental, which Jones still manages.
While Jones’ technique may seem unusual, one of his primary goals in coaching dentists is encourage them to take chances and embrace their own interests while promoting their practices. Opening and managing a dental practice to test his own marketing programs was an unusual move in itself, and one which has helped Jones attract clients and grow his own business. Jones says especially in today’s media-saturated society, dong something “out of the ordinary” is often the best way to set yourself, and your practice, apart from the rest. But many dentists find the idea of doing something out-of-the-ordinary a difficult concept to embrace, he notes.

“Advertising is getting more and more prevalent,” he notes. “Consumers cannot escape. It’s on their phones, TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, at the bottom of newscasts, websites, even while sitting in dental chairs, consumers are getting nailed. If you, your business or your service does not offer something unique or different – something that stands apart from the crowd – you’ll get lost in the fray.

To help dental practitioners focus on what they can do to set themselves and their practices apart, and to enable them to tap into the marketing techniques he developed as the result of his own experiences managing a dental practice, Jones’ ClearPath marketing program offers subscription-based services dedicated to helping practitioners develop their own “clear path” to success. Monthly newsletters and special reports, in addition to other services, help dental professionals stay on top of new developments in marketing and practice management.

One of the first steps in determining a “clear path” is to identify what sets an individual practice apart from the rest, Jones says. “That is your USP, or ‘Unique Selling Proposition’ – that one thing that makes you different, or unique, from everyone else in your profession,” he explains.  It takes the commodity of dentistry, and gives you that advantage that the dentist next door doesn’t have. To be successful – really successful – your USP has to be strong.”

While Jones is a strong proponent of drawing attention to one’s practice, he’s also quick to advise dentists to be careful they don’t take their campaigns for attention too far. “There’s always the risk that someone will get carried away with the social media phenomenon and post compromising vacation photos on his or her Twitter or Facebook account,” Jones cautions. “Marketing is a lot about personality at this level of business. YOU are your brand. If you don’t have the ability to get along and adjust the level of communication with others, there’s not much you can do about it. However, if you’re determined to develop a personality, you have to get out from behind the clinician’s jacket, out of the glass bubble and go mingle, meet, and greet the people of your community.

“The friendlier you are, the happier you are, and even if you tell bad jokes, that’s better than staying ‘behind a mask’ all day,” Jones adds. “It’s not an easy transition. The most successful dentists I know are very outgoing people. Their patients are magnetically attracted to strong personalities that also are fun.”

Combining an engaging personality with unusual opportunities or activities is an ideal way to attract the lion’s share of media attention for any practice notes Jones, who points to Virgin Group founder and business tycoon Richard Branson as a case in point.

“In Branson’s case, it’s all about free public relations. The zany stuff he does commands front-page news because he’s partially insane, a trait I admire very much in him,” Jones jokes. “If you ‘brand’ yourself and let your personality do the work for you – meaning you are yourself and quit trying to be something you can’t be – that will eventually shine through.

“Doing unusual stuff is newsworthy,” he continues. “Doing the ‘same ol’, same ‘ol’ is boring, can be seen anywhere, and sparks absolutely no interest whatsoever. Dentists in particular, are not generally viewed as fascinating. So, you have to get out there and tell the public why dentistry is exciting – and specifically why you and your brand are interesting and noteworthy – and why people should care.”

Jones says charity work is one of the prime ways to get publicity, while doing something really worthwhile in the process. And charity work has the added advantage of making the dentist feel good, which Jones cites as a prime factor for any dentists’ success.

Another prime factor: becoming physically fit, he says. “I’ll be blunt: If you’re overweight and lazy, you’re probably not as sharp as you could be. There’s a correlation between physically fit people and success. Being overweight is one more roadblock in life you just don’t need,” Jones notes. “Losing weight may seem easy – eat less, move more, and quit eating junk food. But, it’s very hard to do. I know from personal experience. “Still, that’s no excuse,” Jones adds. “Like anything else in life – or in managing and growing your practice – nothing worth doing is going to be easy.”