A couple of recent marketing surveys bring to mind a crucial missing piece in the marketing plans of many dental specialists. The first survey, conducted by Sagefrog Marketing Group, found that 68% of business-to-business (B2B) companies allocate 5% or less of their revenue to marketing.

Trust is the cornerstone of your dental specialty practice. Patients return to you because they trust your expertise and your treatments. But building trust with patients starts long before they call your practice for an appointment. Here are three ways to build trust among people before they come into your dental office.

Maintaining a steady flow of referrals to your dental specialty practice means keeping in touch with your referral sources. Every time you pick up the phone or stop by unannounced, do you wonder whether you are being annoying? Your referral sources have busy schedules, but maintaining relationships with them is crucial to the success of your practice. Here are four points to consider as you keep in touch with your referral sources.

Increasing the flow of new patients is critical to the success of your dental practice. Most endodontists, periodontists and other dental specialists agree that referrals from other dentists and physicians represent the single most significant source of new patients.

Maintaining a consistent flow of patients to your dental practice is critical to its success. But in this economy, other dentists and physicians that were once steady sources of dental referrals may have retired, closed their doors or defected. Others may be treating cases themselves that they once would have referred to dental specialists. Competition for referrals is more intense, so maintaining that once-steady flow of referred patients may be more challenging than ever.

Endodontists around the country tell us that dentists are making fewer referrals than ever before. Too often, the only cases referred are either very difficult to treat or ones that have “gone wrong.”

When the new year began, you may have made a list of resolutions or goals to expand the number of patients you treat in your dental specialty practice. A few months later, where do you stand with your marketing efforts? If you have not taken steps to meet them— or worse, have forgotten about them—take some time this week to refine your goals and ensure that they are met. It’s not too late to make 2011 a successful year for your dental specialty practice.

For more than 30 years, Dr. Irv Lubis developed a successful periodontal practice and now wants to give back by helping other dental specialists grow their practices. We recently had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Lubis about some of the ways dental specialists can grow their practices during difficult economic times.

A quality newsletter directed to your referring dentists and physicians is probably the single best marketing tool for dental specialists. One often overlooked use of your newsletter program is to encourage other dentists and physicians to suggest new sources of professional referrals.

You may be able to identify your current referring dentists and physicians, but do you know how many other health care professionals in your community could be good referral sources for you? And can you quickly and easily reach them all?