Word-of-mouth recommendations were once literally just that—comments exchanged verbally among acquaintances. Today, those comments are posted on the Internet for the world to see. Positive comments can boost the image of your dental specialty practice, and there’s nothing wrong with asking patients to write a short review about your practice. Whether you’re an endodontist, oral surgeon, orthodontist, pediatric dentist, periodontist or prosthodontist, here are a few tips about how to ask tactfully for online reviews:

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.

The state of health care in the United States is constantly changing, meaning it is more important than ever to market your dental specialty practice. If you are an orthodontist, you might find that Invisalign has eaten into your business. If you are an endodontist or pediatric dentist, chances are that dentists who once referred patients to you now take those cases themselves. Bottom line: Marketing your dental specialty practice is crucial 12 months of the year.

Print will never be dead, but marketers are increasingly using the Internet to market their practices. This includes not only Web sites, YouTube and social media but also electronic newsletters. The following are eight reasons you should consider sending an electronic dental newsletter:

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.

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.”

Having a complete list of every dentist and physician who could make patient referrals is essential if you want to grow your dental specialty practice.

We are in the process of collecting data for the all-new 2011 Dental Marketing Barometer for Dental Specialists and plan to have full survey results and analysis available by February 1, 2011.

USP, an acronym for “Unique Selling Proposition,” is a concept often used in marketing. Your USP is what sets you apart from all other practitioners in your dental specialty.

Referrals are the mother’s milk of many dental specialty practices, especially endodontists and oral surgeons. New patient referrals don’t happen by accident. They require some planning and work.