458: Mary Ann Pruitt | Stand Out and Thrive: Expert Tips on Ma…

Can you answer 10 questions about your target audience? This will help narrow down your marketing efforts.
Don’t be the turtle in a recession, do something to stand out from the competition!
Outsourcing to a professional in marketing with save you valuable time and money.
Having a specific strategy partner will help bring your marketing plan together.
Make sure content you put out always speaks to your target audience.
Social media platforms are NOT for targeting, they are for branding!

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Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)

Michael: it's time to talk with our featured guests, Marianne Pruitt. Marianne, how's it going? Great. How are you

Mary Ann: today?

Michael: I'm doing pretty good. Before we pushed record, you were giving us a lesson real quick on where you're located. Where are you?

Mary Ann: Where you from? Yeah, so I live in Anchorage, Alaska.

I'm not originally from there, but I live in Anchorage, Alaska now. We are a media firm that is covers the entire country. It's just, I just have the amazing benefit of being able to live in Alaska.

Michael: I know I got really into Alaska when I was watching Meat Eater. I don't know if that Oh yeah.

Netflix. Yeah. I mean, they're in Alaska all the time. Real quick, if you can let our audience know. Two quick facts about Alaska where

Mary Ann: you're from. Two quick facts. The state of Alaska is almost the same size as the continental us. If you were to take the state of Alaska and put it in the middle of the continental US, it would touch coast to coast.

People do not realize that and top to bottom. Oh wow. So Alaska is huge. Another quick fact. We are the more what number one ice cream consumer per capita. So who knew that? And then one more fact, we have more pilots than any other state per capita as well. Oh, wow. The

Michael: ice cream wine.

Mary Ann: Interesting. The ice cream one. Right. Number one highest consumer of ice cream. So you would think you love our ice cream? I, I think it's the lack of vitamin D in the winter, but maybe not. I don't know. Oh, okay. Maybe this is the theory. I think we just like our ice

Michael: cream. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Awesome, Marianne, I appreciate that.

If you can tell us a little bit about your past, your present, how'd you get to where you are today?

Mary Ann: I'm an East Coast girl originally. But I actually started in marketing and in media at a very young age. So I was 16, 17 years old. I started on the graphic design side, believe it or not.

And this was before everything was digitized, so you had to take an actual picture, scan it in, use it that way. And that's actually how I got into marketing. I worked in a tourism shop for a while designing various gadgets for tourists and various things along those lines. It was a lot of fun, but I fell in love with media at a young age, getting into media and doing media, planning and strategy and all the above, and I was very fortunate to get into it really young.

So I worked my way through college. Was able to find the fact that I loved marketing and economics, and that's amazing how that goes with media and especially in today's world cuz we are all data nerds. When you are into economics and when you are into media, you have to understand and love your data in today's world.

So, the economic side of me definitely in the statistical data and all those things, I'm definitely a stats nerd. I absolutely fell in love with that so, I started my firm a little over 12 years ago and really focus on media. That's all we do. And we got into programmatic media early and that's where we are now of being able to be one of the leaders in programmatic and being able to offer those services to multiple, multiple different brands and multiple verticals.

Michael: Real quick, rewind a little bit. Marketing and economics. Break it down to us. How does that go? Hand

Mary Ann: in hand? It, it's so funny cuz you don't actually think that it does Uhhuh. I did my thesis on recessional recovery. On the economic side. Well, guess what? And the, one of the key things of recovering from and being a company that is recovering from a recession, Is actually your marketing plan and the two go hand in hand, and we don't think of them going hand in hand.

We think, okay, marketing's over here. Economics is over here. Well, both of them are in the business sector and both of them are in that umbrella. If we actually bring them together, the knowledge that you learn in and I, I call marketing the marketing bridge. So we have all of our different pillars, everything from your name, from your website all the different things of your clients being able to find you and your potential clients being able to find you.

That's your marketing bridge. Well, media is one of those pillars and in economics, and if I look at that side of it, statistical data. Is a huge part of economics. That's what you're studying. You're studying statistics, you're studying that, those pieces of, especially in a recession various recoveries, various things that you can do with it and what better to go together.

Media is in marketing and the statistical data falls into economics and marketing as well, and that's where you have that bridge. But you have to have that bridge for you on your marketing has to have all those pillars filled and economically. We need to look at no matter what. And a lot of people are accidental business owners.

They go into a career off of something totally different. They either want to be like you're listeners, they wanna be a dentist, they want to be a medical practice, but they're never taught actually how to be a business owner. And when you think of it as having that. Bridge with all those pillars. The economic piece is there too, because depending on how the economy is doing globally and locally and nationally that's gonna be how your business is gonna do.

So what can you do? What are tactics and strategies that you can do headed into a recessional prospect or something that's gonna take place?

Michael: Oh, so what are some things we can do? Because we're like, in that situation coming in, a

Mary Ann: lot of people are So, key thing first, own your space. What is your, what is your niche?

Where are you, who's, what's your vertical that you're gonna be in? But huge piece of it is also, so know that audience, know your audience and get to know it better. And when you get to know your audience even better to that level where you can list 10 things about who your ideal customer is, and you can have that full line out there to be able to do it, you will be able to strategically build content that will reach them.

You will be able to have your ad buys be more strategically done. One thing that I think is really imperative actually, especially in the dental space, in the dental practice and the medical space, is that we don't actually think of media as being a positive necessarily paid media specifically, because, you know, if I'm good enough as a dentist or if I'm good enough as a doctor, I don't necessarily need to have media.

Right. But no, in reality in today's world, you have to have that presence out there. So how do you, how do you start building everything that you can to recover recession, even before recession starts to happen? Start building content to your, to your audience. So know that audience. Start building content to the audience and strategically start doing paid advertising with it.

I call using the paid portion of it and the paid media side of it as leapfrog. So you're gonna wanna do your ppc. So that you're showing up on searches, you're gonna wanna do some programmatic targeting. So programmatic targeting, cuz a lot of people get confused on what programmatic is. Mm-hmm. But programmatic targeting is it's a bidding process.

When I start in a media, you used to do an R F P and say, okay, TV radio station, gimme what your rates are, put the plan together and go from there. Now it just automates it where now I don't have to get a rate card from a website. I go in and I'm bidding on the individual. That I want to see the ad. So I'm bidding on that impression and I'm able to target that impression based by my audience.

So the more I know my audience, the more I can bid towards that audience and bid for that impression specifically to them. And the more first party data you have, you can also target in that manner. Do you know who, do you have email list? Do you have things that you can really target with? Do you have addresses that then we can do IP targeting with?

There's various things there. So. The one, the very first reaction of recessions are happening and recessions are about to happen. Mm-hmm. Is everybody just retreats back in and is turns into turtles and we're like, we're just gonna hold onto everything. Mm-hmm. And in reality, this is the time that you can play leapfrog and actually go above your competition, stand out a little bit more.

You just have to be strategic at it.

Michael: Gotcha. Okay. So programmatic, you mentioned something called R F P. What

Mary Ann: is that? Yeah, an RFP is request for proposal. So that would be, that was, that's the old school way of doing media. There's still ways that we would do it where you you need your television, you need your radio print, outdoor, but a lot of that's starting to move into programmatic, so you can start bidding outdoor programmatically, some TV and some radio.

You're bidding programmatically as well, but, some of the old school ways of doing it. If you need those traditional platforms, which I'm a big believer that traditional is not dead. Mm-hmm. We have traditional and digital and you ha you just need to know how to do the two together.

Michael: Gotcha. When it comes to traditional marketing, what falls under that

Mary Ann: in your eyes?

So, tv, radio, print, out of home, those are the ca billboards, various things there. Buses that falls into traditional, except for now, programmatic wise, we're able to do a lot more with that, with digital billboards and digital things that are out there that we can bid to be able to actually programmatically bid that as opposed to having to do it on the traditional front.

Michael: So how can we use both?

Mary Ann: here's the key thing. You need to use both. Mm-hmm. So again, I'm gonna go back to get to know your audience. Who is your audience? Who is it exactly that you want to reach? And we're gone in the day of thinking of just a demographic. know in a dental practice and various things that you're thinking, I just, everybody is my.

Ideal client, right? Because everybody has teeth. Well, okay, but who, when you see your patients come in, who do you know is that sweet spot client? Who is that person? That is the individual that you go, okay, that is who I want to duplicate to have in my chair all the time. Somebody who, who is easier going, maybe has a full family, that you're gonna get multiple cleanings a year out of.

What is it that you want to do there? Who is the decision maker in the household? What are the things that are taking place? Identify clearly who you want and then from there you're gonna be able to strategy reaching out into all of these different audiences that you're looking at. But it's not a demographic anymore.

Okay, so we're not looking at adults 18 to 50 fours who are reaching No, because I am gonna reach the 18 year old differently than I am the 54 year old. I'm going to more strategically say I would like to target women who are mothers at the age of 35 to 45, have two plus children in the household who maybe are employed as well have, you're giving those persona.

Identifications as opposed to just a demographic, a wide net, you're actually narrowing it down into a persona and an individual targeting system that you're looking at. So

Michael: can we come up with a plan for, for that, like specifically the example you gave us, like, well, let's just say the patient I want is.

The family, right. But I'm gonna target the, the mom or the woman. Right? And from that point on, she's making maybe like, you know, she's the other working or together as a household. They're making 150 k plus they have two children. What now do I do as far as when it comes to traditional and digital? I.

Mary Ann: So would I would a couple of things here. So unless you as a practice are investing in the multiple tools to know where she is, I would find a great partner. So there's a difference between a partner and a vendor. A vendor would be somebody that really goes into that is a TV station, that is a radio station.

Those are great people. I love 'em. They're great people. Nothing bad there. However, in this type of targeting, You want a partner that is similar to like our, our firm, where you come in and somebody can outline for you and help you. You say, okay, here's my ideal customer, and then. You're looking for a strategic partner at that point that can say, okay, then I can help build out your plan for you, and here's your strategy, here's your plan.

This is where we're going, and we're gonna base it off of what budget you wanna spend. Various things there. So there's that difference. Huge difference between the fact of having A vendor and a strategic partner. Strategic strategic partners are night and day. They're gonna be part of your team.

That's how you should be seeing them as part of your team. So when you're building this, you're looking at, okay, I wanna build my, plan towards a woman that's 35 to 45 years old. So I'm gonna look in that. She has, she's a family, family of. Four plus, you know, hold household. She works, this is her household income.

On the programmatic space. I'm actually going to be able to target based off of her income, based off of family size, based off of which neighborhood she lives in, which neighborhood she doesn't live in, what kind of car she might drive. That might be something I would put in there. Various activities.

Is she a gardener? Is she. Does she like to run as a hobby? Very. Is she outdoors? What types of targets would I look at? That I know her hobbies are you don't have to go that deep. You are fine to not, you want to know who she is for which in which you're trying to target. So the family of four, the age range where she's gonna be.

So I'm gonna actually build a model about this persona. Mm-hmm. Find out where she is, find out where she's going to be, and then from there I'm gonna figure out the programmatic tactics that are gonna work best for her. I'm gonna make sure that we have our p c, our Google and our Bing taken care of there on that front.

So if she's searching for us and she's looking for a new dentist, maybe she's even new to the area. And that's another layer of something that I wanna put in there. And making sure that it, when she's Googling, she's able to find it. And then on the traditional side. So that's all my digital stuff.

I'm gonna look programmatically, where is she? Where is it display? Is it video? Is it connected tv? What is she gonna be on? A lot? And I will tell you right now, she will be on streaming. So look at TV in that manner. And then I'm gonna go over here on the traditional side. Where is she gonna be? Now that's gonna depend on the market that I'm in.

So it's gonna be varied. And this is why a strategic partner is also important because they will have access to ratings. They will have access to information like in your market in Los Angeles. I'm gonna have access. I have access to all the numbers. I have access to all the information that I need to have.

To see who's watching what, who's listening to what, what billboards have the most traffic, what various things, what's the best place for me to place it. So in that sense, depending on the market, TV's probably not going to be your best option unless it's a live event that she's gonna listen to and watch.

Okay. But live events mean local news. It means sporting events, various things. If her kids are gonna be, if if there's a live events that kids are playing or things like that, then she might be a part of that. That's where your TV's gonna come in. When it comes to radio, that's probably where you're actually gonna reach her the most.

So you wanna make sure you have your digital portion. That, that's where you're reaching her the most. But then you're gonna back it up with your radio to make sure that she's getting high frequency over and over and over again. Cuz believe it or not, local radio is still very highly consumed and people listen to it.

People love to, especially women during covid, we saw starting to turn to local radio to find out. what the counts were in their county, what were various things that they needed to know? What were the new regulations? And these are habits that developed over such a quick period of time that kept going, that their habits are still there.

So radio's gonna be your best option. And outdoor, those are gonna be the two key things that you're gonna bring in with that. With that digital plan as well, because you wanna make sure that you have high frequency and that they're seeing, they feel like they're seeing you everywhere and they're hearing you everywhere.

It's an omnichannel approach, but you don't have to have the budget spread so thin that you're just condensing it into one area and you're making sure that your digital and your traditional are working together.

Michael: Hmm. So it feels like, man, they're everywhere, but really it's just targeted. They're going after that specific person now.

Real quick, how do you get that information when it comes to like, oh, okay, everybody in, I know all the ratings and stuff like that. Is there a place or you have to subscribe to 'em,

Mary Ann: you have to pay for 'em. Um, So that's why having a strategic partner is really important because you're having to subscribe, you're having research tools, various things we use and utilize.

This is all we do, right? So just like you would not want me put a filling into your tooth because I'm not a dentist. You don't want me to do that, right? Mm-hmm. So as dental professionals, You guys don't need to do the media. You don't need to think about that side of it or that strategy side of it.

Outsourcing it actually probably will not cost you any extra money to have that portion of it. So if you're looking at having strategy, having various things, your return on investment is so high, but also the actual placement. There's various ways that it's actually not gonna be, it's negligible in comparison to you doing it yourself.

When you think about you, let's say you're a dentist that's owning, that owns a practice, and your time and your team's time, that is going into your marketing or your media. That's a return on investment where they can be in the office doing other things. They can be doing it. They can be in the office focusing on the patients, making sure that that portion is there.

Outsource that part and find a good partner that you can trust and be a part of and work with, because that's where it goes hand in hand. That's where you need to know in today's world, collaborating together is the best way to get the most outta your business plan.

Michael: I like that. So then when it comes down to this, let's just say, Startups, right?

It's like a super lean budget. And then they're like, Marianne, like, you know, I want to, I wanna do this. My budget is like bare, bare minimum. Yeah. Can we still do that or

Mary Ann: no? Absolutely. And you should. So, knowing and starting even with a bare minimum budget, you should be looking at what are my marketing efforts that I'm gonna go into it.

You have to see it as an investment because if you are a startup, your brand recognition is zero. Nobody knows who you are. Nobody knows what you're doing. Nobody knows what your specialty is. Nobody has a clue, right? So you have to identify and know, all right, I'm going into this as a startup, I need to make sure that I am building a plan there.

Even if it's minimal, you'll wanna make sure that you're investing somewhere. So, that's again where a good strategic partner comes in because they'll be able to help you and say, okay, hey, how do I make sure. That I'm doing what I need to do with this budget. Here's this budget, this is what I have set aside.

What can I do with it? But that's where a good strategic partner will be able to say, okay, here's a few options for you. It's not necessarily just cookie cutter. This is the only thing for you. It's making sure that there's a few options.

Michael: Okay. I like that. And now, Maybe this has happened to you before, but you know how sometimes you're like, this is my target, this is who I want to get.

You get them, but then, you know, other people start hearing Yep. Maybe not in that age range or anything like that, and then they, they come in and you're like, oh, I love this type of patient too. Yep. Different generations, right. Is there a specific type of marketing for that? Yes. Or do we have to change it, or how does that

Mary Ann: look?

No, no. In fact, you don't wanna change it. So you want to stay steady where you are. And I called that your baseline plan. So that's your baseline targeter and who you're targeting. So you're, you're gonna target this baseline plan, who is your ideal customer? From there, you can have multiple targets and multiple personas that you're looking at.

So if you start to see, hey, This audience segment is actually influencing the family as well. And now I'm growing as a firm. Now I'm growing as a practice. I actually have a little bit more money that I can invest in this target as well. So it's a layer. So you're gonna start with your foundation, and especially if you're a startup, start with that foundation and then you're building to get to that point, right?

And you're gradually adding things to it. When you're marketing and your media budget start to shrink back. As a practice, no matter how long you've been in, you really need to look at that and assess it and decide why am I wanting to shrink back? Do I think that it's actually because I don't need any more customers, that I don't need any more patients?

Well, in reality, you actually, the longer you've been around, the more you actually are going to have to promote to get new customers and to get new patients. You have to keep it going. It's not something that is a set and forget it, and it's not something that you start and pause. You actually need consistent branding and consistent media out there for you especially in today's world and especially with how many competitors you will have in a market.

Michael: Mm. Gotcha. Okay. I like that. And then I know like a lot of the times we tend to, you've seen it, right? Traditional has been evolving into like what it is now, digital and things like that. People are on social media and you know, all these other platforms and everything like that. Is there a specific one where you're like, Hey, look, you need a focus.

Everybody should be focusing on this media right now, at least, or is there a best one? Worst

Mary Ann: one, each one has its strengths, right? So it depends on its goals. You're looking at traditional, I talked about traditional, a little bit of what the strengths are there. TV you're looking at live events.

That's where your strength is. If your target audience is men, television still is pretty highly consumed by men. Mostly in the live sports arena, and that's where you're gonna be. Although we see an increase in female numbers too with live sports. So across the board, that's where you're gonna see that.

And then in radio it's more informational. So your weather updates, your traffic updates, those types of things that you're gonna see that are key for you to be a part of in radio. Now when it comes to programmatic, right now, you, no matter what, you need to be looking at programmatic, you need to be looking at Google p c being p ppc, very sync.

So, paper per click and seo. That's what you need to be looking at. But programmatic is where that is the future of media. That is the future of how we're consuming when I started my career, well over 20 years ago. Programmatic was not an option. Obviously, it wasn't anything that you could really do.

You had, your f. Few options. It's pretty much four. That's it. And that's what you were gonna buy in every market. Now you have so many options of what you can do and go after and target. So programmatic is definitely something that you need to be looking at. Social platforms, I'm going to say this as loud as I possibly can.

Social platforms are no longer a targeting tool. Social platforms are a branding tool. Overall brand recognition period. Do not try to use it as a targeting tool. There is no longer availability or possibility with cookies, with various things on Facebook that you cannot target the same way you can. We can do lookalike audiences, various things there on social media.

Mm-hmm. But that's not a targeting tool like it used to be. Programmatic is now your targeting tool. That's where you want to use. You're targeting and that's where you wanna use your focus, not social media. So each one has its strength, each area has its strength. But if you're not doing something digitally, you definitely need to refocus and do something digitally.

Hmm.

Michael: Okay. So when people say sometimes, cuz there's a lot of types of like. Influencer marketing on social media, then people I know we, we know a couple dentists who they say like, yeah, you know, my new patients from like Instagram. That's more cuz of like brand awareness

Mary Ann: or It is. It absolutely is. So it, there is nothing wrong with that.

And there is nothing wrong with influencers. We do a lot in the influencer space. There is nothing wrong with that. You just wanna use it correctly. It is not the same targeting tool that it once was, and that's what you need to think about it. If you have first party data, if you have emails, you have various things there.

Algorithms are gonna show how things are targeted to that and what. In that sense where the algorithms are gonna pick it up, but you as a marketer are not gonna be able to use it the same level that you've done before. When and when I'm talking targeting, I'm talking like the multiple layers of targeting of who my ideal customer is.

Not just broad, I'm talking very, very in depth. That's where programmatic comes in space now, and that's where that it's starting to take over in that area. Instagram's a great place for you to be and if that is where you're getting most of your customers, great. keep budget in Instagram, keep budget on Facebook.

However past that, add programmatic for that additional targeting of that customer and where they're gonna go. Again, it's that omnichannel approach cuz now I'm able to actually target them in even further and to be able to go down that path with programmatic.

Michael: Okay, so you said use it correctly. Social.

What, what have you seen where you're like, oh my gosh, you're using it super, not even good. You know what I mean? What are the pros and cons

Mary Ann: of that? So you wanna make sure, again, you're thinking brand recognition more than you are. Very specific. Targeting and who you're, who you're looking at, but your content still needs to be specific to who you wanna talk to.

That's where, so yes, it's overall branding. However, your content needs to be driven to that target audience, no matter what platform you're on, because if they do see it, if they, if it comes across their path, that's where that targeting. Message point comes in. So when it's done poorly is when it's a very broad message.

Mm-hmm. As opposed to a very targeted message, meaning your message itself is talking to a specific person. Even if you're using a broad platform or a branding platform when it's done best videos work really well, more than still images. We know that, we know statistically speaking. And 15 seconds or less is what you wanna do.

And what you can look at too, if you are doing videos, if you have that kind of content that you're putting out there, absolutely. Look at adding a programmatic pre-roll layer to that, or a connected TV layer to that, because that's where you're gonna target your audience. Audience even further.

Michael: Okay?

When it comes to tv, especially streaming, how expensive is that?

Mary Ann: So now programmatically when it comes to streaming, that's how you're getting streaming tv. for the most part, so you do have your local TV vendors that you can still work with that are various things. I would actually suggest not buying programmatic through them.

I would suggest finding a strategic partner to buy it through that has a direct seat on a d s DSP and that you're able to use use that instead. The buying directly through the vendor, your cpm or cost per impression, is usually, typically higher and not necessarily, as quality. It can be, but not necessarily.

So when you're buying it on the programmatic side, you have a little bit more controls of what you can do, but you are buying it by the impression. So it actually buying streaming TV can actually be more affordable than you would think. Specifically. If I'm gonna take a step back and not talk just tv, connected TV or O t t, which is over the top television.

If I'm looking at pre-roll, that's actually more affordable than people realize or recognize. So those are 15 seconds, 15 second ads that are gonna run before another ad or are gonna insert site an ad. Right. So pre or mid-roll. And those are the ones that you also need to think about. It's not as expensive as you would think.

Digital has allowed it to be more affordable that we are able to build budgets based off of what your size is. Based off of what kind of budget you have to actually make it a strategic plan no matter what size the budget is.

Michael: Oh, actually, okay. So that would be like Hulu, places like that, right?

Cause I don't know if, does Netflix even have commercials or no? I don't know.

Mary Ann: Not yet. They'll, they, so you have your Amazon Prime, so you've got your Hulu, you've got your Amazon, but you also then have, if you're a direct seat on A D S P, you have anything that's streaming all the various.

There's tons of streaming outlets that are out there.

Michael: What, what does D S P stand

Mary Ann: for? D S P is demi demand side platform, and that is the bidding capability that takes place. It's literally, software and automation that allows you to bid in the programmatic space. And it's, it's very expensive to be, to don't.

As a dental practice, I would not suggest you trying to do it yourself because, and find a partner that is a direct seat and that's a question that you wanna ask. Are you a direct seat? And that way you have that capability of having that team because it's a good couple million dollar investment to be able to do that.

But you wanna make sure that you have that that capability because then you have somebody, if they've built their team correctly, they're optimizing, they're doing various things for you on your behalf every day.

Michael: Wait, so it's a million dollars for the practice or no. For you,

Mary Ann: for the, like, you, so, so to be a direct seat is not, it's not.

It is not cheap. It is, it's okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. So find a partner that's a direct seat. Mm-hmm. As opposed to you trying to do it yourself. Yeah. I would assume you'll, you'll take advantage of the fact if you don't, if you don't have a large budget, and even if you do have a large budget, but it's not in the millions and we're talking millions, not just a million, we're talking millions.

If it's not in that category, then you need to think about what kind of strategies you wanna have in partnering with. Being able to get that done. Plus you have to have the team on top of it to optimize and to be able to do all the bidding and to be able to do the work.

Michael: Yeah. Yeah. Cause I know, yeah, especially if you're starting up or anything like that, it's not gonna be in the millions, right?

Like the No.

Mary Ann: Correct. And nor should it be. You don't need to be in the millions. Um, So find a partner that is that direct seat for you that is able to, they take their volume. So if you work with us, we take our volume and we, we do. Millions and tens and twenties and you know, we are over a hundred million at times.

That's what, kind of work we do in placement. So take the advantage of our millions and be able to place. Mm-hmm. So take advantage of how much we are placing. On behalf get on our backs of being able to negotiate that for you and use our leverage overall of what we're able to do, as opposed to you trying to spend a couple thousand dollars to be able to get the same kind of leverage, you're not going to.

Michael: Yeah. But I appreciate that, Marianne. I appreciate that. Like we can tell you, this is who my, this is who I wanna see. Right? And then you can kind of create something and then say, this is the routes we need to go through. Instead of me going like, I want. You know, Google ads and then at the same time, I, I want social media marketing and they're like, okay, it's gonna cost you this much and this mu, you know what I mean?

Kind of thing. Yeah. It's a different

Mary Ann: approach. It's very stressful actually. So when you are starting a practice, especially a startup, but even if you're mid practice, if you're a few years in and you're looking, okay, we're about to hit a recession, I need to revamp and rebrand, whatever it is I need to do or just retarget of where I need to be.

Having a strategic partner that can outline all of it for you is better than you going, Hey, social media person. Hey Google person. Hey and hey, programmatic person. Hey TV person. That's stress on you and your staff, where that can be you providing more services to your patients, your staff, providing more services to your patients.

It's more efficient and it's, it's be, it's offering better efficiency for your patients, but it's also a better investment for you to be actually working with a partner to get it done as opposed to distributing it and, Just you trying to keep track of all of it or having your own in-house person. The other piece is having your own in-house marketing person.

That can be a benefit. However, at the same time, you wanna make sure that you're, you're still doing your media practices and the media things that you need to do because you're gonna lose your audience. You need to stay consistent in that, your in-house person needs a strategic partner in media.

Media is very specialized today, and you still need that in-house partner for your media.

Michael: Yeah, I agree. So then what can a dentist do today to improve their marketing?

Mary Ann: So first, evaluate it, look and see where it is. If you're a startup. Make sure that it's included in your plans. Make sure that you market the media portion of your marketing plan is there and make sure that there is budget set aside for it.

But if you're, if you're a practice that's been a practice for a couple of years, make sure that you reevaluate regularly. So look at it and say, okay, every year, what options do I wanna look at? What do I wanna make sure I increase? What do I make sure? Where has my audience shifted? What are various things that I need to, I do, I have my foundational audience and I need to maybe add some layers on top of it.

So reevaluate. Find that partner that can help you evaluate, find that unbiased and treat that partner like they're part of the team. That's the key thing. A lot of times that relationship and where it doesn't go as well is when you're looking at the partner almost like, oh, you're just a check. I have to cut.

Mm-hmm. And in reality, don't think of it as just a check. You have to cut it. Think of it as that's what's getting customers and patients through my door. That is a funnel process that's taking place and. You, if you feel, eh, that's just a partner, that's just, that's not a partner, that's just a check. I have to cut, reevaluate that relationship as well.

Reevaluate. I want a partner, I want somebody who I feel good about it, but also make sure that you have an open heart to have a partner with it. Not to just say, Ugh, you know, and have that, make sure we're your mi your mindset's in the right place. frankly, Dentists have a huge opportunity in their media and their marketing.

Mm-hmm. Huge opportunities because there's a lot of targeting that you can do based off of dental habits based off of various things in the programmatic space that you can look at and say, you know, where are, what are some things that they've done habit wise over the last year, a couple years that we can target.

There's blueprinting where you can even target. Competitors locations for ads to be served about you. When somebody walks through a door you can also use blueprinting to track people coming into your door. How do, how are they coming in? How is that happening? So on the digital side, there's so many options and dentists have huge amounts of options in that space.

Michael: Okay. I like that. It, it is interesting you say that. I, I always wanted to know, like from the agency side, from you, especially working with practices and things like that. Where do you see the ball being dropped when it comes to like, Hey, you know what I, and then they may, I mean, maybe it could be the agency's ball or maybe it not, you know what I mean?

So where do you see the ball being dropped?

Mary Ann: So I think the ball is being dropped when in. I can completely understand this because I'm a business owner, right? And I'm running a business myself, and at times as the business owner, which you as the doctor of the practice, if it is your practice, you're the business owner.

And sometimes we can be distracted by the business portion of it as opposed to, okay, what is our marketing? Which at the end of the day is what drives our sales and gets people in the door. So when you have that meeting with your partner once a month, once a quarter, whatever it is, that's set up for you.

Take advantage of that time. A lot of times where the Dr. Ball is dropped is when the dentists or whoever it is that's marketing just sees it as the marketing meeting for the month where that person is only answering to them of telling them, updating them. No. Take advantage of that partnership time of the, I'm thinking this, I'm thinking this, I'm thinking this.

Take advantage. Have notes. Be prepared yourself, not just them. Be prepared for you. Now that being said, On the other side of it, if they're coming to your marketing meetings and they're not prepared, they're not showing reports, they're not showing insights, they're not showing you things of what's been taking place, you need to evaluate that relationship as well.

So there, it's both sides of the coin here, but you have to do multiple things, um, to be able to do it. You as the doctor, need to be prepared at that marketing meeting to ask tough questions and to write them down, because in between, from meeting to meeting, you will have thoughts, oh, I need to talk to so-and-so about that.

I need to talk to 'em about this. Write them down. Have a marketing list and a media list for your partner and for your team. And then when you're in those meetings and when you're in there, you're prepared, you're ready to go. And you can say, okay, I was thinking this. I was thinking this. I was thinking this.

And you'll get that collaboration back and forth. So where I see the ball drop the most is doctors that are checking the list as opposed to wanting a partner that will collaborate with them. Find that marketing strategic partner that's going to collaborate with you and work with you. Take advantage of that.

When they are sitting there for that meeting with you, take advantage of the fact that they can collaborate with you.

Michael: Okay, I like that. Now these next questions are just to get into the head of someone who isn't totally involved on the clinical side of dentistry. What would you Marianne like to see more from a dentist?

Ooh.

Mary Ann: So I think where I see it go well is where every dentist, I think mm-hmm. Wants it to be, well, I go to Dr. So-and-so and I'm not going anywhere else. That's Dr. So-and-so where you trust them so much that they're not, they are not gonna switch. Mm-hmm. Where they don't wanna see is the sale is hard on them, right?

So they don't wanna see, Hey, you're a new dentist that I've never gone to. I'm here, but now all of a sudden I have. Four cavities and I need a crown. I'm very confused. Where six months ago I didn't need any of that. Can you explain why? So you have to approach if there's a need and if there's something that is there.

Automatically people kind of question things. We are, we as human beings analyze, we overanalyze, hence actually why media consumption is at an all-time high. Because in Covid we analyzed everything and we wanted to gather information. That's what we do to survive, right? Mm-hmm. But in this case, When you, when I can trust my dentist for anything, I don't care what my dentist is like.

I have that kind of a relationship personally with my dentist. Mm-hmm. No matter what he says to do, I will do it. And because he's telling me that, and I've trusted him for years in that, I've had dentists in the past where I'm like, Hmm, I don't trust that. I don't like it. I'm not sure it's there. Right.

Whether or not that was real. But in reality, it's how you talk to your patients and it's how you communicate to your parent patients and explain to your patients what services they need that is gonna build that trust. Don't underestimate the the message when you are talking to your patient when they're in the chair.

Don't underestimate that when your technicians and your hygiene technicians are talking to them in their chair. Don't underestimate that communication and how important that form of communication actually is. Are you, as the, are your hygienists getting to know your patients well? Are they getting to know the personal side of their life?

Are they, they're in the chair for a while? Yes. Your hands are in their mouth, but they're in the chair for a while. There are things you can get to know. The hygienists that AC that usually are the best. Talk about the patient. They don't talk about themselves, they talk about the patient, and then what information is that that can then go to the doctor and then the doctor gets to know the patient.

Right? That's where, on that side of it, don't underestimate the client relation side. Think of your patient as a client, not just a patient that is a client that you wanna have returned customers from. Mm-hmm. Ok. And they're the biggest referral. They're the biggest referrals. They will refer you all day long.

Michael: Yeah. No, I really appreciate that, that that's, that's true. When it comes to the two that you mentioned, like the practices, what were you noticing with the dentist where it's like, I guess the communication was, was completely different.

Mary Ann: So I'll tell you, and my, my dentist now, his name's Dr. Clark, love him.

Love to give him a shout out whenever I possibly can. That's my personal dentist, right? Yeah. And he is a phenomenal communicator, but he tells me, Hey, this is what we're seeing. This is what's going on. This is where things need to be. My whole family, we all trust him in that because of how he honestly communicates, to me, he makes me feel like, okay, I understand, and that's what's really important as opposed to where I've had doctors or dentists.

It's not just in the dental field, it's all across the board. This is what you need and this is why, and it's not even, this is why it's, this is what you need. And a lot of patients are confused because it's not their profession, it's not what they do. And as dentists and as medical professionals, take a step back and remember, your patients are not dentists, your patients are not in the dental practice, they actually don't understand.

Mm-hmm. And nor should they understand they're hiring you for your expertise, for you to explain it to them, for you to tell them why their son has four cavities. It stinks. We've done, we've even done, we've done the fluoride treatments in the past, but this is what's happened. He's six, this is, it's his baby teeth, you know, whatever.

Explain all those things to them. They don't know, and you're assuming that they know they don't remember. You are the one that is the expert in the room at that point. Own that expertise. Just like how when somebody comes to me and they're a dentist and they're a dental practice. Own the fact that in media, you don't have to be the expert in that.

And that's okay. I should be explaining it to you. My team should be explaining it to you in that, and in that mindset. Yeah.

Michael: Okay. Okay. And so the next question is, what do you hate or dislike about dentistry? Ooh.

Mary Ann: Well, nobody likes to get any kind of certain treatments done, but mm-hmm. I'll tell you this though.

I mean, if you've had, and I've been very blessed with good teeth, knock on wood. and still in my forties only have had one cavity, so I'm, I'm happy with that. So, I mean, I'll, I'll be, I, I take that, I'll, I'll wear the little badge of pride, although I'm not as good as my husband who has never had a cavity.

Wow. But whatever. Not fair at all. But anyway, he says it's because of the fluoride and the water in Anchorage. He grew up in Anchorage. But anyway, so that being said, things that you hate, I think it is that bad communication. That's where it's always gone wrong for me with any type of medical practice or any kind of dentist.

And this is me personally, If there's not that good communication, that clear communication that makes me feel safe, that makes me feel like I'm doing the right thing for my health that is clearly communicating that that's what I don't like. That's where, and frankly, that's no patient likes that.

Michael: Okay. Gotcha. So no, kinda like just bland communication where you feel like, all right, we gotta get in, get out, boom. Kind

Mary Ann: of thing. Yeah. You don't wanna feel, you don't want to feel like cattle moving in and out. Mm-hmm. And. There, there are. Now I will say this, there are some dental practices that have worked really well and efficient of getting people in and out, but there's still moments for that personal touch so that you can get people quickly in and out, but them still feel like they're getting that customer service or that attention that they want.

They want that attentive acknowledgement of what they're feeling, what they're seeing, what's going on.

Michael: Gotcha. Okay. And then, so what do you absolutely love about dentistry?

Mary Ann: What do I love about dentistry? Mm-hmm. Actually, the fact that you can build relationships and long-term relationships within dentistry.

So another thing I love about dentistry is the things that you can absolutely find out with the health of the body by finding out what's going on in the mouth and people. Don't. They just underestimate and average patients don't understand that there are so many different things that dentists find and save lives every day, and people forget about that.

They don't know that they don't recognize it, but if you actually get into people's stories with heart disease or various things, they can tell you, and those are stories for you as dentists to be telling of, he saved my life because he saw this. And he saved my life because he saw this. Mm-hmm. That's a big deal.

Those are things, other things that are happening in the body that dentists can actually identify and send them to a great expert outside of that.

Michael: Yeah. Awesome. Wonderful. Maryanne, thank you so much for being with us. It's been a pleasure. But before we say goodbye, can you tell our listeners where they can find you?

Mary Ann: Absolutely. So you can go to our website, which is mosaic.agency/contact. That comes directly to my, to my email. So mosaic.agency/contact. You can find me on Twitter at Medium apps. Follow me. We put out tips every day. And information every week. You can also, if you email, if you go to mosaic.agency/contact, you will be able to get your email added to our email list.

We put out email blasts every week that give information on media and various things that are going on. And then find me on LinkedIn. I love to connect uh, Maryanne Pruit, and you'll find me right there. Mosaic Media. And we, I love to connect. I love to brainstorm. If you have questions in your dental practice of how is your media working, if you want a free assessment, let us know.

Michael: Awesome. So guys, as always, that's gonna be in the show notes below, so definitely go check that out. And Marianne, thank you so much for being with us. It's been a pleasure and we'll hear from you soon.

Mary Ann: Thank you, Michael. I really appreciate it.

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The Dental Marketer Podcast

The Dental Marketer

458: Mary Ann Pruitt | Stand Out and Thrive: Expert Tips on Marketing in Challenging Times

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