How to Build a Lead Infrastructure and Grow Your Dental Lab With Email Marketing

Email marketing remains one of the most effective and least complex digital channels for dental labs of any size. So naturally, small dental labs look for the tool to help them grow and expand their customer base.

But here is the problem: in isolation, email may not be successful in helping you accomplish that goal. If you want to grow your dental lab with email marketing, you have to build a reliable infrastructure around it.

Focus on Organic Leads

The success of your email marketing efforts only goes as far as your audience. If you send even the greatest emails to recipients who simply don't care or who your selling proposition doesn't apply to, you may as well never hit the 'send' button.

But how do you reach this type of audience? Despite conventional wisdom, buying lists of recipients within your industry is not the answer. Instead, focus on a marketing strategy that helps you grow your leads organically. If you only add contacts into your email software who have actually stated their interest in your company, you know that your emails will reach the most relevant audience possible.

Define and Segment Your Audiences

Of course, even using the above strategy, not every email will be relevant for every member of your contact database. That's why contact management and segmentation is absolute key for successful email marketing.

Instead of sending email blasts to every member of your database, consider segmenting your contacts into relatively homogenous groups. For example, for a local dental lab, you may want to consider separating your recipients into groups that might be interested in specific products, or live in individual neighborhoods. That way, you can design emails that are more uniquely relevant to these audience segments.

Build Beautiful Emails

Speaking of which: at the core of every email marketing strategy is the actual message. We now receive more than 100 emails every single day, which means that your emails absolutely have to stand out from the crowd in order for your audience to actually pay attention.

A beautiful email starts with the subject line, but it certainly doesn't end there. The best marketing emails are short, to the point, and actually valuable. They're also designed with at least one visual, and attractive enough to be readable (and enjoyable) on any screen.

Automate Your Lead Nurturing Flows

Finally, consider building a framework that doesn't rely on you sending individual emails out each time you want to reach your audience. Instead, build an automated lead nurturing workflow that sends emails to your target audience in pre-defined intervals to slowly nudge them toward the sale.

We've discussed lead nurturing in this space, and the core benefits remain the same. If you can build an automated flow of relevant emails to your current contact, you can build credibility and make sure that when your leads are ready to become customers, they'll remember you.

Find the Right CRM

All of the above tips can help you integrate email marketing into your dental lab promotional strategy. But we have not yet discussed the final step of building a consistent and reliable email infrastructure: your customer relationship management (CRM) software.

Here's the thing: your CRM can make or break the success of your email marketing. Choose the right one, and you can easily implement all of the above initiatives without significant external help or budget. Choose the wrong one, and you complicate the issue to a point where successful email marketing is difficult or impossible to accomplish.

That's why we'd love for you to give us a shot. DentalLabSupport.com offers an affordable email and contact management solution that's specifically designed for dental labs To learn more about how we can help you successfully use email marketing to grow your dental lab, contact us.

Engage Your Clients

Strengthen and maximize current relationships with a variety of strategies

By David H. Khalili

For many dental laboratory owners, marketing campaigns focus primarily on seeking out new dental offices and engaging them to try the laboratory’s work for the first time. The belief is that the key to growing the business lies in accruing as many new clients as possible and convincing them to send in cases. However, this type of front-end marketing strategy overlooks several key factors for sustained revenue growth.

New Client Engagement

One restoration created by an unfamiliar laboratory is only the first step to building a client relationship based on trust, loyalty, and communication; it is not enough to convince a dentist that your laboratory is the best choice for serving the patient’s needs. However, through well-thought-out protocols and built-in incentives, new clients can be encouraged to try multiple cases while getting to know the laboratory’s range of products, service standards, and company culture. Once dentists get in the habit of sending cases to the new laboratory, they are more likely to continue.

Re-engaging Lapsed Clients

A mid-sized laboratory with a client base of 60-80 dentists may have serviced hundreds of individual clients over its lifetime. These former clients may have tapered off for a number of correctable reasons, including: dissatisfaction with a laboratory practice that has since been improved, the lack of a product or service that has since been added, a perceived indifference to their needs that can be remedied through communication, or a better offer by another laboratory that may no longer be in business. Reaching out to these former clients and letting them know how the laboratory has improved since they last sent cases will often persuade them to give it another try.

Incentivizing Low-Volume Clients

The Pareto Principle, commonly known as the 80/20 rule, when applied to business predicts that 80% of a company’s sales come from only 20% of its clients. This rule rings true for dental laboratories. The vast majority of an average laboratory’s monthly sales volume comes from just 20% of its dentists. This means there is an opportunity to increase case volume from the 80% of existing clients through marketing efforts. Learning more about these under-producing clients and targeting messaging to address their specific concerns or needs can quickly boost sales and develop high-quality client relationships.

Cross-Selling Limited-Service Clients

Most dentists use multiple laboratories. For example, they will use one laboratory for removable cases, another for fixed restorations, and a third for implant work. Without research and communication, a laboratory producing PFMs for one of these dentists might assume that the practice does not need denture services. It is important to let existing clients know about all products and services the laboratory provides, including material options, special offers, and new improvements.

Strategies for Engagement

Client engagement is a long-term marketing strategy designed to build brand loyalty, instill trust and confidence, increase order frequency, and address issues efficiently. The goal of client engagement is constant communication to make dentists feel understood, appreciated, informed, and sympathetic.

The first step to client engagement is segregating clients based on categories to focus marketing efforts—for example, New, Lapsed, Low, or Limited. These categories can be further refined to provide a tailored marketing experience designed specifically to the target audience. Each group of clients then must be entered into a marketing contact list for efficient tracking and communication. This list can be a Word document, spreadsheet, or client relationship management (CRM) tool. Next, as much information as possible should be gathered about each client in the list. Record staff names, complete contact information, websites, social media, hours of operation, average monthly case volumes, types of cases ordered, lengths of client relationships, and other information that will be useful for targeting communication. Update these records each time the dental office is contacted, and add notes that will inform future communication. Use the laboratory case management software to track order trends. What types of cases are most popular with this group? What underused case types could benefit them?

Listen and Encourage Feedback

Often, dentists consider switching laboratories when they feel their current laboratory is not meeting their needs or is indifferent to their feedback. Providing dentists with ample opportunities for feedback and making changes based on the feedback will make your clients feel understood and in control. This strategy will encourage dentists to work with you to correct shortfalls, rather than look around for another laboratory.

Effective client feedback requires an organized approach. As a first step, include a survey card with each case that has both multiple-choice and open-ended questions. Be prepared to receive more negative feedback than positive; volunteer response bias tends to highlight shortfalls over strengths. It is important to not react emotionally to negative feedback; taking things personally will not help the laboratory grow.

Identify one staff member as the feedback liaison who collects the feedback, analyzes it to identify trends, and makes recommendations to the rest of the dental laboratory team. The feedback liaison should regularly call clients to ask how things are going and relate the trends back to the team. When dentists contact the laboratory to complain or comment about a case, this information should be tracked and routed to the feedback liaison.

Once an effective feedback system is in place, dentists will feel more comfortable sharing their perceptions about the work they receive, and the laboratory will have an opportunity to make adjustments before the dentist begins to consider using another laboratory. When dentists are encouraged to provide feedback and feel that their concerns are taken seriously, they feel a sense of ownership in the laboratory and thus become more loyal.

Develop Protocols and Open Lines of Communication

Regular communication builds strong client relationships. Stay in touch with clients through phone calls, social media, email newsletters, mailings, case stuffers, or a blog. These methods remind dentists that the laboratory is available to meet their needs and are a constant reminder that your business is a go-to for services and information.

Most dental offices have their own website and social media page. They are very appreciative when a laboratory “likes” and “shares” their pages and content, provides positive reviews, and engages by leaving friendly comments. This will encourage the dental office to reciprocate by “liking” and “sharing” your laboratory’s content.

Any client marketing campaign, whether by phone, web, mail, or email, should be tracked to gauge effectiveness. Analytical software can help gauge how dentists engage with your content and what piques their interest.

Inform and Educate

The dental laboratory industry is in a constant state of flux with new technologies, materials, and technical processes debuting routinely. Dentists rely on their laboratories for information on these new products, their indications, and applications. When the laboratory proactively provides dentists with valuable information about these new restorative offerings, dentists will feel more confident prescribing them. This strategy will also help establish the laboratory’s image as one of expertise, confidence, and reliability.

David H. Khalili is CEO of DentalLabSupport.com, Inc. in Los Angeles, California.

See more at: http://www.dentalaegis.com/idt/2017/02/engage-your-clients#sthash.o3CHH9ZR.dpuf

Email Headlines targeted to Dentists

How to Make the Most of your headlines to Optimize Your Email Marketing

For many dental laboratories, picking the most relevant and successful digital marketing channel is a crucial step to achieving sustainable success. Limited budgets and time means not being able to accomplish a 'blanket approach'; instead, you have to find the channels that work best for your needs.

But in most cases, growing your dental lab is still most effective through email marketing. That is only true, of course, if you get the subject line right.

Maximizing Your Open Rates

What makes your audience decide to actually open your email? Given that the average Dentist now receives more than 30-45 emails every single day, that question is central to determine your email marketing success. 

The answer is obvious: your subject line. While other factors, such as the 'From' name and email, also play into the equation, the subject gives your recipients a distinct idea of what the email is about, and whether they will derive any value from reading it. If the answer is no, your message never even stands a chance.

Conveying Value

Given the importance of your subject line on audience attention and open rates, your subject line has to convey the tangible value that your recipients get from actually opening it. In other words, you need to explain exactly what the email is about, and why your audience will not regret the read.

One way to convey value without getting into too many specifics is to personalize your email. If you can give your audience the idea that they're being spoken with rather than marketed to, your open rates will increase drastically. In fact, personalized subject lines provide a significant lift in open rates regardless of industry.

Technical Best Practices

The above tip sounds obvious - until you realize your restrictions. Especially as more of your readers will view your emails on mobile devices, you absolutely need to keep your subject lines short. Research shows that on average, subject lines between 61 and 70 characters in length receive the highest open rates.

Avoiding Spam Filters

Your subject line can also make a crucial difference in whether or not your email message lands in your recipients' spam folders. Email clients keep a list of so-called trigger words, which tell them that a message is too promotional and probably not relevant or honest. Avoid these trigger words at all costs.

But don't forget about manual spam filters, either. if your subject line seems overly promotional, or the body of your email does not follow up on the promise your subject makes, your audience could report the message as spam. Make sure that both your subjects and the actual messages are consistent and relevant to your audience.

Testing to Achieve Success

Finally, email subject lines offer a perfect opportunity for A/B testing. All of the above best practices apply to most industries - but who's to say that your audience behaves exactly the same way? The only way to find out is to try two variations, and send them to two random segments of your intended audience. Depending on which of these audiences opens more emails, you know which subject line worked, and can use it (or learn from it) in future messages.

For more info visit DentalLabSupport.com or call 1.888.715.9099

Email Marketing: Key Performance Indicators to Watch

Email offers a cost-effective marketing solution for dental laboratories. Some dental labs even claim that it's 20x more cost effective than traditional advertising. But if you're looking to capitalize on this promotional method, you'll need to watch the following email marketing key performance indicators (KPIs).

Bounce Rate

Wouldn't it be great if every email you sent ended up in the recipient's inbox box? Assuming you have a decent number of subscribers, this typically won't happen. Some of your emails will reach the recipient, while others "bounce." The recipient's email server rejects these bounced emails, returning them to the sender. Conventional wisdom should tell you that a high bounce rate indicates a more serious underlying problem, such as poor delivery practices, irrelevant content, technical errors, etc.

There are two primary types of email bounces:

1. Hard bounce -- occurs when the email address is either invalid or doesn't exist.
2. Soft bounce -- occurs when the recipient's inbox was full, email server was down, or the message file size was too large.

Open Rate

Arguably, one of the most important email marketing KPIs to watch is open rate. Just because your email reaches the intended recipient doesn't necessarily mean that he or she will open it. If the recipient doesn't recognize your email, or if he or she isn't interested in your message, it can count against your campaign's open rate. For instance, if you send an email to 1,000 recipients, 75 of whom open it, your campaign's open rate is 75%.

Subscriber Growth Rate

Are you gaining or losing subscribers to your email newsletter? Monitoring your campaign's subscriber growth rate answers this question, allowing you to further optimize your emails and attract more subscribers.

To calculate your subscriber growth rate, take your total number of news subscribers, subtract it by your number of unsubscribes, and divide this number by the total number of email address in your list.

For instance, if you have 100 new subscribers, with 10 unsubscribes and 1,000 total email addresses in your list, your growth rate would be 9% (note: the actual total for the equation is 0.09; you need to multiply this number by 10).

Click-Through Rate

Click-through rate (CTR) is another email marketing KPI to watch. This is the percentage of recipients who click on the promotional link in your email.

CTR is calculated by taking the total number of recipients and diving by your unique clicks originating from the email campaign. If 800 prospects received your email and 160 clicked the link, your CTR is 20%. Maintaining a high CTR is essential for a successful email marketing campaign.

Here are some tips to improve your email CTRs:

• Split test different call-to-action (CTA) placements in your emails to see what works and what doesn't.
• Use a responsive design, ensuring your emails load on both desktop and mobile devices.
• Segment your email list based on user demographic. Doing so allows you to personalize your messages for a higher CTRs.
• Keep it short. Long emails tend to suffer from low CTRs.
• Include social media sharing buttons. According to a study conducted by eConsultancy, this alone can increase email CTRs by as much as 30%.

Conversion Rate

Of course, you should also monitor your emails' conversion rate. Conversion rate, as you already know, the percentage of recipients who not only click your promotional link but also follow through by taking direct action. For some marketers, a conversion occurs when the recipient buys a product or service. For others, a conversion occurs when the recipient inputs his or her personal information.

These are just a few of the most important metrics to watch with your email marketing campaigns.

To learn more about email and other digital marketing strategies for small businesses, contact us today 1-888-715-9099 or info@dentallabsupport.com. DentalLabSupport.com offers Email Marketing Management solutions for Dental Labs of all shapes and sizes.

Improve Customer Retention with Personalization, Content & Surveys

It's impossible to understate the importance of customer retention. Not only are returning dentists cheaper than new ones, but they also represent long-term success in regard to your dental lab. Building customer loyalty isn't easy, but you can get started with these techniques:

Send personalized emails 

Email is the most effective platform when it comes to improving customer retention. Unlike social media, you can send personalized messages to individual users based on their order history and preferences. 

The mistake most dental labs make is sending cookie cutter messages out to the entire subscriber list. Dentists can spot these emails from a mile away, and most won't even open them.  

This recent Iamwire article talks about the strategy of personalizing emails. According to the article, just sending a simple birthday message can lay the foundation for customer loyalty: 

"Most marketing emails begin with the standard robotic messages that don’t involve any amount of personalization. Starting emails by addressing the person with his/her name not only creates a higher recall value for the customer but also shows them how much the brand cares about/ remembers them. Wishing customers on special occasions such as their birthdays or gently reminding them when they have not checked out from their cart and the likes is a great way to keep them engaged with an eCommerce platform."

Personalization makes all the difference in regard to email marketing. While robotic messages will inspire users to unsubscribe from your campaign, individualized ones will stand out to users and increase engagement. 

Create content that doesn't directly promote your dental lab

Promotion usually does more harm than good in the context of online marketing. The general rule of thumb is that if it's not on your website, then the content shouldn't directly promote your business. 

In regard to customer retention, you shouldn't even come close to promoting your products. Instead, you should create content with the goal of engaging and informing your customers. This Forbes article explains how relevant content balances your marketing efforts and build customer retention: 

"On our blog, we share content that reflects what our values are as a brand. This gives us credibility on a range of topics that goes beyond our product. New product announcements, employee features, and event recaps aren’t enough. That’s still relevant content to share, but to build retention and bring balance, it’s important that we publish articles that go beyond promoting our company directly."

This is the type of content you should share on social media and in your marketing emails. It should educate customers about your industry so they can get more out of their products and services. The better their understanding, the more likely they'll return to your business. 

Create customer surveys 

Customer surveys serve two important purposes in regard to customer retention. For one, they remind customers of your business relationship. If nothing else, they'll at least keep you in contact with your target audience. 

In addition, customer surveys also demonstrate that you're serious about your brand experience. You're asking customers for feedback with the intention of improving your business operations. If you actually take the steps to incorporate their suggestions in your strategy, then they'll see your dedication to customers first-hand. 

Creating customer surveys is fast and easy. You can include a link in your emails and on your social media profiles. The more exposure you give your surveys the better, since you want to get as many responses as possible. 

Improving customer retention takes years of patience, practice, and planning. You won't build customer loyalty overnight, but you can make great progress by executing the techniques mentioned here. To talk more about customer retention, or anything else, contact us today 1.888.715.9099 or visit DentalLabSupport.com 

Our Partners: