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On this week's Monday Morning Marketing episode, I'm putting the focus on how to excel at a your ground marketing events as a pediatric dentist! I'm running through several tips, including spacing out your freebie materials, greeting everyone who walks by, adding fun to your booth with balloons, and providing an easy signup sheet or iPad for signups. The most important thing to remember when setting up a booth at a local event is that YOU are the most important aspect of your booth. The fact that you are present at the event, showing your face, and representing your brand is everything. I even dive into some strategies around how to market to other booths, break out of your shell, and so much more.
To hear about these tips in action and learn how to conquer your next ground marketing event, listen in to this week's episode!
Mentions and Links:
Ground Marketing Events Script
The Pediatric Dental Marketing Course Enrollment
Target
Walmart
Dr. Cassandre Joseph - Odyssey Dental of Summerfield
iPad
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Michael: Hey, what's up guys? So as pediatric dental, uh, practices, I know a lot of the times you guys are out in event. Doing presentations, lunch and learns, maybe talking to the kids, at the health fairs, right? You're just at, at an events. Um, and if you're in, in the pediatric dental marketing course, then you're in the ground marketing section and you're getting a lot of yeses to set up your booth at events, right?
Or the businesses and which is fantastic. So in this episode, I wanna talk to you about how to perform your best at in-person ground marketing event. Okay, getting your foot in the door is just the first step, right? Once you got in there, you, they said, yeah, you know, you can come on in, come on by.
Maybe you went to an apartment complex. In the apartment complex. By the way, if you don't know this, a lot of apartment complexes do events for their residents. at the same time, they do like specific children's things for the residents there. It's really, really great for the parents, uh, who are residents there.
And then they, bring their kid, the parents coming on and. You got the yes. Now you need to know how to perform your best at an in-person ground marketing event so that you can capture more leads and convert more people into loyal patients. So that's what we're gonna be talking about in this episode.
Now, performing your best at in-person ground marketing events is the key to gaining your prospect's trust. If you don't make an excellent first impression, chances are probably not gonna want to do business with you. They probably just want that free stuff that you're having at the booth, right? In order to put your best foot forward at an in-person ground marketing event, you need to know how to strategically set up your booth, how to act, and what to say, how to speak.
Now I'm gonna break these steps down for you, okay? Starting with setting up your booth strategically now. A big mistake that I see most people make is setting up their booth with all their freebies and goodies in a grab bag. people can just walk right up to their booth, say, Hey, how come you gonna take one of these by and leave with no trace?
Right? What happened to that bag? That's not what I want you to do. In that situation, your potential. Just grabbed a goodie bag and left without leaving any way for you to contact them. So when it comes to setting up your booth strategically, the name of the game is not convenience. Instead, you want people to stop by your booth.
Shop around, spend more time at your booth. You can do this by simply deconstructing your hygiene kit or whatever it is you're giving away in your giddy. And place each item that you would like to give away side by side. So, uh, you can say, here's a baggie, here's some toothbrushes, here's some floss, here's some toothpaste, maybe some stickers, flyers, um, maybe a balloon if they want a balloon, right?
Boom. Like that. Now, once they do that, once you have the booth just like that, They're gonna be shopping around a little bit, right? This will give you maximum time to talk to them about your offers, services, and your practices. Hey, the business and I, it's the apartment complex. The apartment complex, or the residents or whoever, right?
If you're at a daycare, the daycare and I decided to partner up this month and we're giving you, boom. An incentive, right? It can be, Hey, we're giving you a free first exam. We're giving your child a free whatever, right? Or we're, you're not doing anything for free, right? You can just say, Hey, we're doing a new patient exam This.
Or free office tour, however you wanna do it, right? Whatever incentive you wanna offer, that's what you want to mention. Now, remember, once they show up, you're like, hi, grab whatever you want, it's free. Just grab a little baggy, put one of each and that's it. Then they're like, oh, okay. Right? They grab their baggy and they start putting their toothbrush loss.
They might ask you, oh, what kind of toothpaste is blah, blah, right? Or create conversation with you. You'll create conversation with them. That's your time to speak. Build rapport, be super friendly, but build rapport and at the same time, that's when you can offer your incentive. Seeing all of your freebies laid out in this way also peaks the person's curiosity with so much in front of them.
They're gonna want to take some time to take in that situation. Once they're stopped at your booth, you can let them know that everything they see is free. Tell them. If they like to, they can grab a bag and shop around for whatever they like. Right? As they're shopping around, that's what you'll want to converse with them and let them know about your offers and promotions.
The only thing you wanna put in the baggie from the start is your business card. So make sure each baggie has a business card in there. Right. Or maybe a flyer or something right in there. and that's basically it. Yeah. Tell them that, you know, they like, you can grab whatever you wanna have in there Like I said, have the business card from the start and allow them to shop around just in case they don't pick up a business card at the very and or something like that.
If you don't want them to grab five toothbrushes at once, cuz this can happen. You need to set the boundary straight from the get-go. Tell them, feel free to grab a bag and grab one of each item. It's as simple as that. Now here's like an asterisk quick. You will get someone who says, oh, can I get one from my other child?
They don't. They're not here. They're sick or whatever, up to you. But if it's just one other person, I'm like, yeah, sure, go ahead. Of course, of course. Yeah. You can grab another thing, especially if they signed up. Of course you can grab whatever you want. Now they're like, oh, can I also grab another one for my four other children or whatever?
No, you're not Target, you're not Walmart, right? You can say, Ooh, you. We need to have enough for everyone. But if you'd like, when you come to visit us, we're more than happy to give them their toothbrush that they need. And then they're gonna be cool with that. Right? They're not gonna be like, what?
Oh my gosh, no. I don't care about anybody else. Just gimme my stuff. No, they're gonna be cool with that. So that's what you wanna do, right? Maximum just give out two. to a family if, especially if the two kids are there. But if they're not just two. And then that's. So that's how you wanna strategically set up your booth, right?
Nothing fancy. You don't have to have like a spin the wheel. Do all these things that you've been seeing a lot of people on social media. No, because the more important person is gonna be you, right? The person at the booth. Um, it doesn't matter what you have going on, if you're just there behind the booth, just like, and it's, none of that's gonna matter.
So basically you wanna have a table, maybe a tablecloth, so it won't look tacky. Uh, tablecloth can have your, your branding on it, right? Um, your logo and. Have a deconstructed hygiene kit and then your information, and then have a pen and paper, a signup sheet. or if you want, you can have an iPad where they can actually physically put their appointment time in the practice management software, whichever one of those two you want to do, and then sign people up, right?
But that's how you want strategically your thing, to have nothing in baggies where they can grab it and go, everything's laid out. Now that you know how to set up your booth strategically, it's time to know how to act, speak, and perform at an in-person ground marketing events so that you can capture more leads and grow your practice.
So first and foremost, it's crucial that you greet and say hi to everyone who passes by your booth. Everyone, guys, even if they aren't stopping, say hi to everyone. This will create as much opportunity for you and your. It's also a great opportunity for you to lower your, what I call shy shield. Now, no matter how extroverted or introverted you are performing at these events can feel a little unnatural to you in the beginning, but getting in the habit of greeting everyone who walks by your booth will help you slowly lower your shy shield, getting you more in the groove of communication and networking confide.
Once you say hi, like, Hey, how's it going? And your prospect stops by your booth, you can proceed to tell them that they can grab one of each item for free. Then if you're ground marketing outta business, you can even tell them that your dental practice and be sure to say the name of your practice, right?
As partnered up with the business, this daycare, to give their customers an incentive, right? Or to give you parents an incentive. Of course, you need to make sure that the incentive you're offering is enticing enough for your prospects. So if you're ground marketing at a daycare, you could offer them something specific, right?
Uh, for them. Make sure it's, very, very enticive uh, the incentive. what you can do is simply just make a poll on Instagram and your Facebook, right? And say like, what would you guys prefer, this or that, right? And then continue with. Offering that right? Or it can be a new patient exam. After sharing the incentive, the prospect will either show interest or say no thank you.
If they show interest, You'll want them to leave their contact information on your sign of sheet, but if they say No, don't worry. It happens, but feel free to tell them. No worries. Do you have any friends or family who could benefit from this if they say, Ask them for their family members or friend's name.
It's not unnatural guys. I know. You're like, I'm gonna ask them for their friend. Nope. Nope. It's not natural. This works so much when they're like, oh no, I already got a dentist. Thank you so much. Do you have any friends or families that would like to benefit from this new patient exam? You know what? Yeah.
My neighbor does. Uh, kid was playing with them the other day and he like busted his tooth, man. And, um, I know they were looking for a dentist. I, I'll give them your information, right. Or I'll take some of your information and give it to them. It's just like that, right? Um, so make sure you ask that question.
If they say no, if they're like, no, I'm, I'm okay. Right? If they happen to say no to both, if they're like no to the. I don't want any of the, the incentive you're offering and no, I don't have anybody that can benefit from Go in the show notes below and we have a script to help you navigate through that conversation.
All you need to do is enter your email address in that little thing and that the email address is just for us to know who to send it to, to be honest with you. So we have a script in case you get on those. I got your back. Don't worry about it. But that's basically how you're gonna perform. And I say perform at an.
Because sometimes, like I said, we're just not feeling it that day, but when you get to that event, you better turn it on. You have to turn it on for those three, four hour after that. Man, you cannot say a word to anybody and I don't care. But when you're at that event, pre-game it, drink some coffee, drink, whatever.
If you're at the booth, have that energy. Turn it. Hi, how's it going? It's free if you want any of it. Hi, how's it going? It's free. Even if you are at a gym, let's just say LA Fitness or a gym, and these gyms, believe it or not, uh, you get a lot of patients there because there's daycares in there, right? So parents are dropping off their kid near the daycare section.
You can set up near the daycare section and then just, Hey, how's it going? It's free. Do you want any B, when you come, when you're done with your workout, feel free to grab whatever you want, right? And blah, blah, blah. And even if they're wearing their headphones while they're walking in, still say, hi, how you doing with everyone?
Right? I can't tell you how many times it's happened to me long, long time ago when I first started. I mean, there'd be some good days where I'm like, Hey, how's it going? Hey, how's it going? And then there'd be some days where they'd be walking by and I'm like, uh, you know, I'll say hi to the next person.
You know, I'll say, and if I start off that way, it's not gonna end good. So immediately, even if I'm still setting up that. I'll be like, Hey, how's it going? Yeah, it's free. Well, I'm gonna put some stuff out right now. It's free. If you want any of it, um, feel free to grab whatever you want. They'll wait.
They'll wait and see what you got going on. But you wanna have that tone of voice, that personality. You wanna turn it on every single time you are at these events, we're doing a presentation or setting up a booth, right? even so, if you have two people there. One person's behind the booth, they gotta be doing the same thing.
And you can be out in the front saying, Hey, how's it going? Hey, you can be going to other, vendors doors and, and businesses who have booths and talking to them. And with your signup you'd be like, Hey, how's it going guys? Can I have some of your information? Oh my God, this is so cool. Can we put some of your information in our dental practice?
You know, where the pediatric practice right down the street from you guys and you know, actually if you guys have any children that need patients, we're actually offering this. But we can give you, cuz you're part of a, a community and the business, a specific incentive. Just put your name and number down and then what?
And boom. You know what I mean? There's one person attacking the vendors. There's another person at the booth saying, Hey, hi to everyone. You're doing fantastic at this health. So that's what you gotta do. You gotta turn it on for that time when it comes to setting up, and performing at these booths. Now, when it comes to performing your best at these in-person ground marketing events, a lot of it comes down to common sense, tone of voice and a smile.
Remember, be present and engage with those who are around. Be present, guys, don't be on your phone. Um, a lot of the people in the pediatric dental marketing course, when they're going to ground marketing events, I tell them, Hey guys, if you can, if it's possible, stand up as much as you can. Sitting down is great, but it's gonna promote, like, to me at least, I'm, I'm a lazy guy, so like, sometimes I'm like, I gotta stand up for, I gotta stand up, you know?
But if I'm already up, man, I'm active. I'm going, I'm going. Right? So I tell people the same. Just stand up. Don't be on your phone. If you're gonna be on your phone. It's for like a Facebook Live, Instagram live, taking pictures of the event, people doing things right, stuff that can help your social media.
But um, other than that, don't be, you know, on the phone talk and texting, you're gonna see other people like that. The best thing you can have at that booth is you okay the. Thing, person, whatever you can have at that booth is you remember that? Nobody's you. So you're bringing that personality, that brand to that event.
Thank you. Thank you for being here and making this event even more special. That's what the event's saying to you, right? So being the in-person, ground marketer at these events means you need to entice and invite these prospects, be personable, approachable, and friendly. Even if you get a.
Everyone who walks by is an opportunity, whether they sign up for your incentive or not. So at the end of the day, they're leaving with your freebie and your business card inside of the freebie. You never know when they'll give you a call in the future, but the main thing you want is you want them to sign up.
You are gonna get their name and information down, and you will give them a call later on that day or the next day, early the next day. So that's basically it, guys. That's how you're gonna set up your booth and that's how you're gonna. At these events and much more, much, much more information along with exactly what to have and specific type of, um, things to have at the booth is found in the pediatric dental marketing course.
One quick tip I wanna give you guys, when you're thinking about what to add, like I said, you can have a deconstructed hygiene kit right on your booth. But one thing, this is from Dr. Cassandra Joseph from Odyssey, Dental, balloon. Balloons are fantastic. I can't tell you this has happened sometimes to me too.
I see people with balloons and I'm like, uh, just see a sea of balloons of your balloons with your logo on it. And kids, do they not love balloons? They love balloons. So they're gonna see other kids with balloons and they're gonna be like, I want that balloon. Where? Where can't we go get the balloon?
Oh, mom, I found where the balloons are at. They're right there. Let's go. Right? Have balloons. So if you can just have a deconstructed hygiene kit and some balloon. Trust me, it's gonna be fa you're gonna own that event. You're gonna own that event. So guys, that's gonna do it for this episode. Thank you so much for tuning in.
At the same time, if you want much more information, we're gonna be opening up enrollment to the Pediatric Dental Marketing course pretty soon here. So make sure you go join the wait list or join the email list, be a part of it, and make sure you, you know, you, you're a part of the Pediatric Dental Marketing course because at the same time you get monthly.
Mastermind sessions, office hours. So basically what you're listening to right now, but in real time, and I'm engaging with you, Manal, Sam, pat is engaging with you. We're answering questions, concerns, and all these things, and we also invite other guests and professionals on there as well. So that along with so much more information, go check it out.
I'm gonna put a link to it in the show notes below. So thank you guys so much for tuning in and I'll talk to you in the next episode.