What Worked Last Year, May Not Work Tomorrow
May 7, 2020 (For Immediate Release – Palo Alto) A DMscore™ benchmark study released today finds that independent dental practices face an increasingly competitive marketing challenge post COVID-19.
This is largely due to increased marketing activity by Dental Service Organizations (DSOs) that have bigger marketing budgets. DMscore collects marketing data and analyzes digital marketing efforts nationwide for dental practices and other professionals. This creates a data-driven DMscore, with recommendations for improvement.
“Our unique technology weighs key digital marketing factors, and allows both small and large dental practices to see how effective their digital marketing efforts are,” says DMscore CEO Rand Schulman. “With this data, they can refocus their practice in a changing and competitive environment.”
Any practice can see their DMscore today for free.
Schulman says that independent practices should take key steps now to improve their marketing. “As practices re-open post-COVID,” says Schulman, “they can use DMscore to target their marketing mix, which may include paid search, SEO and digital directory presence.” Like a FICO Score®, local DMscores are constantly changing based on new data. “Dentists may want to emphasize new realities like “Touch-less Dentistry” in a post-COVID world,” says Schulman.
“What worked last year won’t work this year.” That’s the new imperative, according to Brian Colao, Director of Dykema Law’s Dental Service Organizations Industry Group. Colao is one of the foremost authorities in the US on dental practices and DSO formation. DSOs represent the fastest-growing area of the $110 billion-a-year dental industry.
“The growth of the DSO segment is outpacing that of the solo practitioner; and they continue to consolidate through mergers and acquisitions,” says Coalo. However, notes Colao, “digital is becoming more critical for both DSOs and individual practices, requiring appropriate and effective Post COVID-19 communications, and knowing your DMscore can help determine how you compete and the actions you take.”
The DMscore study finds large networks on average 20 times more effective in reaching local markets, but that individual practices can still compete. DMscore ranks the marketing footprint of professional services companies, including DSOs and individual practices. The platform then compares them against their local competitors; and provides specific recommendations to improve their marketing. In addition, DMscore is soon to release DMscore Enterprise for DSO and other multi-practice operations.
Key report findings include:
- Only 1.5% of individual practices have a DMscore of 70 or higher (out of 100).
- Of practices with at least 15 locations, 15% of these have strong enough marketing power to give them DMscores of 70.
- Organizations with more than 25 offices fare best, with 38% of these scoring better than 70.
About DMscore
Palo Alto-based DMscore is built by a team of analytic pioneers from Adobe Analytics® and FICO. We stand behind our products for small practices, or DMscore Enterprise for large organizations–because no matter the size of your practice: what you can measure, you can manage.
