Effective Practice Marketing Tools - Part 1 Your Yellow Pages Ad Effective practice marketing continues to be an important issue for every dental practice. But if you’re like many practitioners, you may not have given much thought to marketing strategies in recent years. Take some time to revisit your yellow pages advertising, your patient information booklet and other marketing tools. This article marks the first of a series on practice marketing and how you can develop practice building concepts that will attract today’s busy consumers and tell your current practice story. Review Your Current Ad Likely, you’ve been renewing your Yellow Pages year after year, but when was the last time you looked at the content? Is your current ad attracting the types of patients you want to add to your practice? How many new patients find your practice through your ad? What Makes an Effective Ad Take some time to do through the dental section of your phone directory. What ads attract your attention? Why do some ads turn you off? Look how the use of bold print type and contrasting ink colors are used to gain the readers’ attention. See how sufficient white space is used to make effective ads uncluttered and easy to read. Some listings are of larger size or boxed to make them stand out on the page. Phrases such as “Special Attention to Emergencies,” “We welcome New Patients,” “Evening Hours Available” are used to motivate prospective patients. Be sure to use a typeface that is easily read. Avoid using all caps and small font sizes. Older patients, particularly, find them harder to read. Information describing the type of practice is also beneficial, but be sure to describe your services in language understood by the average layman. But you don’t have to squeeze every selling point about your practice into your ad. Pick the item or two you feel are most important to the patients you want to attract. A primary reason patients refer to dental directory listings is to find a practice in a convenient location. Your current ad likely contains your street address and/or building name. But what about folks new to the community who may not easily recognize that location. Be sure your ad prominently displays your area of the city. Some dentists feel with their participation in various dental plans, that they no longer have to invest in Yellow Pages advertising. Actually, the reverse is true. Patients new to a plan still need to find out about doctors on the panel, while the plans themselves want their participating practices to appear accessible and convenient to find for their members. Discuss possible ad changes with your management consultant, to help you develop effective ads to motivate prospective patients to your practice.