Chris Pistorius (00:02.104)
Hi everybody and welcome to the No BS Dental Growth Podcast. I’m your host, Chris Pistorius, founder of Kickstart Dental Marketing. On this show, we cut through the noise and talk about what really works and what doesn’t when it comes to growing your dental practice. No fluff, no fancy jargon, just real honest conversations that help you grow your practice, your team and your profits. Let’s get into it.
Today, I want to talk about those of you who may have been burned by a marketing agency in the past. Now I’m going to explain why it happens and how to fix it going forward. If you’ve ever spent money on marketing and felt like it just poof evaporated, this episode is for you. I talk with Dennis and orthodontist every week who’ve been burned by marketing agencies. It’s actually one of the number one things I have to overcome here. They’ve been promised big things.
guaranteed new patients, instant Google domination, five to one ROI in 30 days or higher, and what do they actually get? A few generic Facebook ads, some canned posts, and a monthly report, that doesn’t really mean much. It’s frustrating, and honestly, I get it. And it’s no wonder so many doctors like you are very skeptical of marketing. So today, I’m not here to sell you anything.
I just want to unpack why this happens so often from an insider’s view and what you can do to protect yourself and actually make marketing work the way it should. So let’s start with why so many dental practices do get burned by marketing agencies. One reason is simple. The agency is just too big or it’s getting too big too fast. Once a marketing agency hits a certain size, it stops being about helping individual clients.
It’s about scaling and scaling can mean automation and cutting corners. So these types of agencies, rely on templates, pre-built campaigns, automated everything, which sounds efficient. But the problem is your practice isn’t a template. Your market isn’t the same as everyone else’s, but works in Dallas doesn’t work in New York city. Right. So.
Chris Pistorius (02:20.886)
you end up with this cookie cutter marketing campaign. You have the same ads, the same website as maybe your competitors down the street. And everything is kind of the same. It’s like they took their dental marketing campaign off the shelf and they use that for every dentist that comes in. They switch out some colors, the name, that’s about it. And we call it set it and forget it type marketing. It’s not that these agencies are evil.
It’s that they literally can’t afford to customize, not in a money way, but they’ve got hundreds or even thousands of clients and limited time. So they automate the creativity right out of the process. Now, the second biggest reason I see the dentist gets burned is that they hire a generalist agency and they just don’t get dental. Right? So dentistry is not like, you know, an e-commerce company or restaurants or a plumber. you’re dealing with HIPAA.
patient psychology, insurance language, and a very personal trust factor. Patients aren’t buying a t-shirt. They’re trusting someone with their health. So the marketing has to reflect that. It has to build trust, not just attention. Now I’ve seen campaigns from generalist agencies where they use fake stock photos and push ridiculous $39 new patient specials.
these ads that attract kind of the one-time coupon chasers who never wind up coming back. Now that kind of marketing doesn’t work because it doesn’t understand why, the why behind the patient’s decision. Now the third reason is misaligned incentives. Most agencies celebrate these clicks, impressions and reach because they’re quite frankly pretty easy for an agency to measure. But dentists care about more than that.
They care about new patients, production, profit. These are two completely different scoreboards. So you may end up with these fancy reports showing how great the agency is. 10,000 impressions, this many clicks, but not a single new patient can be scheduled or is seen to be scheduled. And that’s what matters, right? And clicks and impressions don’t pay the bills.
Chris Pistorius (04:42.23)
And the cherry on top is poor communication. Most agencies take your money, disappear for a month, and then show up when you call and say, hey, something’s not right. And then they hit you with this glossy report full of buzzwords. You have no idea what’s actually happening or why. The lack of transparency kills trust. And once that happens, it’s really hard to recover. Now let’s talk about what happens after you’ve been burnt.
When a marketing agency over promises and under live under delivers, it doesn’t just hurt your wallet. It messes with your confidence. I had dentists, I had a dentist even just last week say we’re done with marketing. It never works. And that’s kind of like hearing a patient tell you I had a bad dental experience or even two. So I’m never going back. Dentistry doesn’t work, but you can’t let one, even two or three bad experiences define your future.
But I do understand it. It’s understandable why dentists do that. The real danger is that while you’re sitting on the sidelines doing nothing, your competitors are still out there. They’re showing up online, they’re investing in their visibility and they’re building momentum. And the longer you wait, it’s just the harder it becomes to catch up. So before you give up on marketing altogether, realize this, it’s not that marketing doesn’t work. It’s that you were given the wrong system.
Now let’s talk what real marketing should look like and why I mentioned the word system. Real marketing isn’t a one-off campaign. It is a system. Don’t think of a system as a bad thing or like automation. It’s not a true marketing system actually supports your practice from the very first impression all the way down to the long-term loyalty of the patient and everything in between. There’s four key stages attract, engage,
Convert and Delight. My favorite.
Chris Pistorius (06:51.734)
Attract means showing up where people are actually looking. Google, social media, YouTube, referrals, community searches, and now AI-related searches. But focusing on quality leads, not just quantity, right? Engage is about what happens once they find you. It’s your website, your reviews, your videos, your story. It’s about helping people like, how do I put it?
It’s like helping people feel like you’re the one that they can trust. And convert is where most agencies drop the ball. You get the phone call to ring, they get the phone call to ring, but there’s nothing there to help you convert. You see, if the front desk isn’t trained to handle new patient inquiries, which are way different than referrals, or if no one follows up when someone answered, when somebody calls you, then that’s a problem. You know, it’s,
It’s just, it’s not, I guess the best way it’s, you know, how the calls are answered, how quickly you respond, how easy it is for you to book online. It’s all about that. And finally, delight. Once you’ve learned that patience, once you’ve earned that patient, your marketing system should help keep them happy. That’s your reviews, your referral process, your reactivation campaigns. All of it builds long-term momentum. When all four parts work together,
You’ve got a machine that consistently attracts, nurtures, and converts ideal patients. But that kind of system takes real experience. It’s built from years of testing, refining, and understanding what truly moves the needle for dental practices. That’s not something you get from an entry-level account manager who’s juggling 60 clients and reading from a checklist.
Marketing that works is alive. It evolves. It’s liquid. It needs strategy, creativity, and human oversight. Now, let’s talk about some red flags to look for before you hire your next agency. If they want to lock you into a long-term contract with no escape clause, that’s a red flag. If they can’t explain their strategy in plain English and all you hear are buzzwords, another red flag.
Chris Pistorius (09:12.064)
If they won’t show you where your money’s going or what it’s doing, walk away. And if they never once talk about your patient journey, meaning how that lead becomes a patient and how that patient becomes a loyal fan, then you’re probably in for the same disappointment all over again. You deserve better than that. So here’s the bottom line. Marketing absolutely works when it’s done right.
But it only works when you have a customized transparent system run by people who actually understand your business and your patients. If you’ve been burned before, don’t give up on marketing. Marketing’s been around for a thousand years or more. Just give up on the wrong kind of marketing. You built your practice by helping people. The right marketing system should help more people
Find you, trust you and choose you. That’s what growth really looks like. So thanks for listening to the No BS Dental Growth podcast. If you’ve ever been frustrated with marketing that didn’t quite live up to the hype, I hope this episode gave you some clarity on why that happens and how to make sure it doesn’t happen again. If you enjoyed the show, hit subscribe wherever the button is or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you
Know another dentist maybe who’s been burned by a bad marketing experience? Share this episode with them. I’m Chris Pistorius and remember growth isn’t luck, it’s strategy, consistency, and doing the right things the right way. See you next time.
