They were referring out the cases they could already do
A general practice with an owner who had spent two years and a lot of money learning to place implants. Their own patients did not know, and were being sent down the road.
General practice placing implants. Client identity anonymized. Results reflect this engagement and are not a guarantee.
Owning the neighborhood, not the metro.
Implant searches across the suburb and surrounding towns, before and twelve months in. Rank falls away fast at the edges, which is exactly the plan.
The cases were already in the building.
A general practice adding implants has a problem no specialist has. Everybody already knows them as the place you go for a cleaning.
- Two years of implant trainingand a fully equipped operatory, running well under capacity
- Their own patients did not knowthe practice placed implants at all
- Around seven a month were referred outto a specialist for cases the owner could do
- The website listed implantsas one line item among twenty-three services
- Not one search in the top tenfor anything implant-related in their own town
Seven cases a month were already walking through the door.
This is the one situation where the fastest cases are not new patients at all. Seven a month were being referred out to a specialist for work the owner could already do.
A general practice will not out-rank a dedicated implant center on the biggest citywide searches. What it can own is its own town, the neighboring suburbs, and everyone within a comfortable drive.
Small radius, high intent, almost no competition. That is a far better fight than the citywide one.
Tell your own patients first.
The cheapest case in dentistry is the one already sitting in your own records.
Stop referring out
A simple internal process so the front desk and hygienists knew which cases stayed in-house. No marketing involved. It produced results in the first month.
One practice, two identities
Implants given their own proper section rather than one line on a services list, so patients searching for implants do not land on a general dentistry page.
Own the neighborhood
Not “dental implants [big city]”, which was never realistic. The suburb, the surrounding towns, and everyone within a comfortable drive.
- Week 1Visibility test: implants referred out, no implant rankings
- Month 1Implant pages live; own patients offered implants in-house
- Month 2First implant cases kept in-house
- Month 5Implant searches reach the top 3 near the office
- Month 9The neighborhood owned for implant searches
- Month 1211 implant cases a month
What changed.
Measured against the month before the engagement started.
Month of engagement
Most of the first year’s growth came from patients the practice already had. The marketing did not create those cases. It just stopped them leaving.
The internal referral process took one afternoon to set up and produced more revenue in month one than anything else we did.
We now check for this in every general practice we talk to, and it is almost always there.
The cases you are referring out are worth more than the ones you have not met yet.
Check your own records before you buy anyone new.
A general practice adding a high-value treatment usually has a year of cases hiding in its own patient base. Marketing to strangers before capturing those is doing the expensive thing first.
How many are you referring out?
If you have invested in a treatment your patients do not know you offer, that number is usually higher than you think. We will work it out with you before anything else.