Not unlike dental patient who puts off a visit until pain finally exceeds that which he associates with dental work, dentists all too often try to build their practices using off-the-shelf dental practice marketing solutions that over long run don’t provide desired result. "Affiliate programs, business-to-business relationships, yellow page advertising, weekly throwaway ads, newspaper inserts, hit and miss mailers, and large investments in websites aren’t any more effective than at-home-dental-repair kits you see in your local drug store," Ninh says. "They may be less painful to administer but they don’t produce desired results."

According to this dental practice marketing expert and business professor, Ninh states that all of aforementioned marketing methods have one common problem. "While they may generate a few new clients, number provided isn’t enough to build a successful practice," he says.

While Ninh acknowledges that full and half page yellow page display ads produce a predictable number of inquires each month, number of new clients a practitioner generates from those calls doesn’t normally justify expense. "Our research shows that long term yellow page display advertising programs for most are, at best, break even propositions," he says. "If you’re spending $5,000 on a full-page ad in yellow pages and get 5 new patients a month, then your cost of getting that patient is $1,000. This is just not an effective method of advertising."

Ninh attributes this to one major factor. "Like internet search results, value of an ad decreases as consumer has to turn more than a page or two to see it. If you don’t have a full page ad in first place, and if name of your practice doesn’t start with ‘AAA’, and if you are not paying an exorbitant premium for first placement, odds are consumer isn’t going even going to see advertising you spend thousands of dollars on every month," he says. "The same holds true for ads placed in throwaways like Pennysaver, newspaper inserts, and websites."

The funny thing is that I don’t have much time, and my clients are fighting for a minute of my valuable time. And that’s way I like it! Yes, my clients want me and only me to do their jobs. They will pay huge amounts of money to get advice or help from me.

Of course, you want that too, don’t you?

Well here is what I did to claim my authority position in my market. These are just some simple strategies you could use, but when you’re creative you can make an even bigger impact on your market. The more special and radical your techniques are, more effect they have on people you are aiming at. The people that are interested in your knowledge, and are ready to give you their money!