Hexagon Dental Marketing

Are you careful when choosing your words when speaking with patients or marketing your practice? Sometimes, it’s easy to let technical dental language creep into coversations or social media posts.

Like when I visited my dentist years ago.

My usual dentist was unavailable, so I saw the Associate instead.

We had never met and she proceded with the routine check-up.

Unaware of my background, she then opened the door to Invisalign braces, something I know I could benefit from, just haven’t got to yet.

I let her carry on with her elevator pitch for treatment, what it could do for me, the benefits etc, as I was open to treatment.

She had me nodding in agreement, until she mentioned an impression, not a digital one mind you, and then wanted to charge me £200 for a ClinCheck, and that’s where she lost me.

My interest faded when I knew I was going to revisit my gag reflex from the last impressions I had, some 25+ years ago when I was first getting traditional orthodontic braces fitted. I remember it being hell on earth where I nearly choked from being overloaded with alginate, then nearly getting whiplash from where the dentist had to remove the tray, nearly resorting to a foot on my chest to aid in its removal.

I couldn’t think of anything worse.

Then the dentist wanted to charge me £200 for a Clin-what? I had never heard of it. I didn’t know what it was or how it could benefit me.

This was before I was working with dentists directly, so was unfamiliar of the process of actually going through with treatment.

It was a definite no from me.

When talking to patients, make sure you use simple, clear language when explaining the treatment. They will be less confused, as I was, and will understand the treatment you are looking to prescribe.

If she had actually told me, in basic terms (for my simple mind), what a ClinCheck actually is, I probably would have considered it all those years ago.

So, next time you see a patient or post on social media, make sure what you’re offering is clear and simple.

A confused mind will always say no.

How do you know where a new patient heard about you? Do you even ask them?

It’s always helpful to understand how patients first notice you, then decide to choose you over other practices in the area.

Sooner or later you’ll spot trends.

Spending money on advertising your practice? If you can’t measure how effective your advertising is, how do you know it’s working?

When paying for advertising online, it’s usually possible to track these things when they submit their details for more information on cosmetic services, or call the practice.

It gets a little bit more tricky with offline advertising. Yes, you can add specific codes to quote etc, but sometimes, patients may just say they saw your social media posts - hoorah! Which platform? Facebook? Instagram? Linkedin? TikTok? Or was it a referral from a friend or family member?

No matter which it is, be sure to ask them when they come in. It may be from an ad, it may not.

You may feel awkward, or nosey, but it’s actually a great icebreaker and conversation starter. You can then delve deeper with them with an inquisitive mind. Were they looking for a new dentist, as they are unhappy with their current one? Have they just moved to the area? Have they been thinking about a cosmetic procedure for a while and have been shopping around?

Once you get an idea, it’s a nice segue (seg-way) into the reason why they are there. Are they unhappy with their smile? Do they have any oral health concerns? Did they want to discuss anything specific?

Taking the time to get to know your new patient in this way helps to build rapport with them, lowers their defenses, and they are more likely to be open to your suggestions for further treatment - and you won’t feel like you are ‘selling.’ Win-Win.

How do your patients hear about you?

As marketers, we do a lot of babbling in our own lingo. Other marketers understand, while people who are not familiar with marketing, look dazed and confused.

It’s the same if you were to speak medical dentistry to me — my undergrad degree could only take me so far without dusting decades of cobwebs away, and I’d look dazed and confused at you! I just don’t speak that language.

So let’s break down some common marketing techno jargon and make them simpler.

Starting with CONTENT.

You may have been told you need to produce content to market your practice?

But what the heck is CONTENT?

Before I studied marketing, if you were to mention the word CONTENT to me, I would anticipate you were talking about the contents within its’ container. Water in a bottle for example.

CONTENT in a marketing sense, is anything you create on your website or social media accounts, for example. It can mean anything your followers ‘consume’ and is a generic term.

There’s another weird word. CONSUME. Like kicking back and CONSUMING a whole family pack of crisps in half an hour without realising.

Ooops.

Well there goes that New Year’s healthy eating resolution out the window.

But that’s what we do online right? We may multitask, watching tv while scrolling through our feeds. We are CONSUMING CONTENT.

Watching videos, catching up on the latest news, gossip and trends. Seeing what photos your mate has posted from their amazing holiday last week.

The CONTENT is what you’re looking at.

Could be images, video, stories, someone’s caption, your colleagues’ before and after photos, a blog post. It’s all content.

So with that said, do you produce/create CONTENT for your followers (aka audience), or do you mostly *CONSUME* it?

Do you know what the 2nd largest search engine is? It often catches a few people out... expand the comments to find out...
5️⃣
4️⃣
3️⃣
2️⃣
1️⃣
*YouTube* - Google is the #1 search engine, however it (parent company Alphabet Inc.) also owns YouTube. Alphabet purchased YouTube back in 2006 for a cool $1.65bn. What a bargain 😂

If you're posting on social media to grow your business or your brand, it's really important to ask yourself 'why'?

Simon Sinek took us all through a mindset shift during his Tedx talk, more than 13 years ago, explaining The Golden Circle, which later became a global bestselling book.

However, do you ever question why you are posting on social media? Is it just because? Is it because you're told to? Is it because that's what everyone else is doing?

Well, to be successful in the social media game, you have to go a little deeper.

Posting on social media can help raise awareness, generate new patients and deepen a connection with your local community but to be effective at that, you have to question every post.

Each post should have it's own purpose. Why are you posting this today? What do you hope this post will achieve?

🤔 Does it EDUCATE?
🤔 Does it ENTERTAIN?
🤔 Does it INSPIRE?

What will it encourage the viewer to do? How will it make them feel?

Those that are successful in marketing their business have this dialled in.

Does it have to be complicated? Absolutely not. You may already do this, albeit subconsciously.

We all know posting before and after photos will help showcase what an amazing dentist you are, how you can transform lives, how patients who share similar dental concerns can also experience life-changing treatments.

But what about all the other 'stuff'?

Do you give surgery tours? Even through a series of photos? Do you introduce your team and share behind the scenes photos?

Lots of people are already scared to death of the mere thought of going to the dentist, but if you showcase what a warm and friendly team you are, how relaxing and professional your practice is, you will bring a sense of familiarity and trust for the patient, before they even set through the door.

So before you post on social media, ask yourself what you want to achieve for you and your practice.

Are you posting with purpose?

TIP: Keep your social media handles short, sweet and memorable. If you ever ask a patient to tag you in a post on social media, make it easy for them to do.

Having too many special characters causes friction. The easier it is for them to do, the more likely they are to say yes - and follow through.

This goes hand in hand with keeping your social media usernames (aka handles) consistent. If you change your handle in 12 months' time, you lose all links to anyone who tagged you previously, and it also confuses your followers. I learnt this hard way when I rebranded my business. Learn from my mistakes.

Choose a username that you can remember (for login and sharing purposes too!), stick to it and don't look back.

Happy New Year to all you beautiful people.

I hope your 2023 brings you everything you hope for and more!

Wishing you and your families health and happiness 🤗

Incredibly honoured to be asked to present in this exclusive 3-part webinar series with

Join .gambold and me () where we share our combined 115 years’ experience 🤯, exploring Leadership, Practice Management, and Marketing concepts, to help you to engage more effectively, deliver better care, and attract new patients.

These no fluff sessions will give you practical tips and exercises to help move your practice forward, with complimentary toolkits available to download each week.

Also, don’t miss the opportunity to earn 1 hour of verifiable CPD each week thanks to the folks at and

To find out more information and secure your spot, please see the link in the comments below.

See you there? 😃💙

I have been away for a few years and while many of you may not have noticed, I definitely had a few questions from my peers as to what was going on and where I had gone.

Unfortunately, my father became extremely ill and I put a hold on Hexagon Marketing Solutions. It’s been a long 3 years and my own mental health had suffered as a result, but family.comes.first. With that in mind, I returned to a 9-5 that was not making me happy and I worked hard on getting my own mental health back in order.

Yes there was medication, yes there was therapy, yes there was insomnia, yes there was severe weight loss (due to stress) and yes there were many, many, many hospital visits (though not my own).

Meditation became my life savour and I became the biggest chocoholic I had ever known. I also learned that it’s ok to not be ok and talking about it is extremely important. Friends are crucial in the tough times and I can never thank them for the support they gave me during this tough time. I’m looking at you , and .

The timing of my father’s illness was unfortunate. I had already signed my first few clients and we were ready to start working together but I thought it unfair to charge clients for my time when I didn’t have the mental capacity to deliver the service they deserve. I had to let them go.

Those clients know who they are, and I apologise for letting you down but thank you for your understanding during these difficult times.

While Corona is a scary time and the wartime story of our generation, there’s always a silver lining. As cliché as that sounds, it still rings true. So, while your practice may have been losing money during lockdown, what else did you gain?

So, for me, it was my father’s illness that made me step back to look at the big picture, for you it may have been the global pandemic and the obligatory lockdown. What lessons did you learn, or things did you notice that you were otherwise too busy, or not able to pay attention to before it all kicked off? I’m genuinely intrigued to know.