If you are just starting out, you need to build up your patient base. If you’ve been in practice for a while, you still need to keep your name out there, bring in referrals and assure a steady stream of patients. It’s possible that you’re not happy with the number of patients you have, the types of patients you have, or the insurance base of your patients. Perhaps you hope to bring on a partner and want to increase your numbers, or maybe you’re thinking of retiring and want to have a strong client base in order to bolster the value of your practice. Whatever the reason and exact nature of your marketing requirements, nothing beats referrals from existing patients. The extraordinary internal marketer gets talked about in an evangelistic way by patients. They don’t wait for somebody to say, ‘Oh, my tooth hurts.’ They say, ‘You know, if you ever need a good dentist, you should go see mine.” Turning patients into walking advertising campaigns is what a good internal marketing strategy does. When you talk to your patients, your patients talk about you.
