Dental Marketing Goat
Welcome to the Dental Marketing Goat Podcast, where we discuss proven dental marketing strategies that consistently attract predictable new patient flow to your practice.Whether you're a solo practitioner or part of a larger group, we'll provide valuable insights and actionable tips to help your dental practice thrive.Tune in as we explore the latest trends and techniques in dental marketing and how you can use them to drive predictable, sustained growth for your business.
Dental Marketing Goat
#266 ZocDoc is Renting You Your Patients
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Most dentists don’t realize they’re renting patients from Zocdoc instead of building long-term patient loyalty.
In this episode, Gary Bird breaks down the hidden risks of Zocdoc, why 50% of patients may no-show, and how one startup still reached 120+ new patients in month three using the platform strategically. You’ll learn how to reduce no-shows, increase referrals, and build a stronger dental marketing system that doesn’t rely on one platform for growth.
These are the same patient acquisition and practice management strategies that SMC uses to help practices achieve predictable new-patient growth.
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Dental Marketing Goat, the go-to podcast for dentists who want to grow faster, market smarter and build practices that thrive in today’s competitive landscape.
Hosted by Gary Bird, the Dental Marketing Goat himself and founder of SMC National - recently named Best Dental Marketing Agency by over 60,000 dental professionals. Each episode unpacks the real strategies, marketing frameworks, and operational shifts that high-performing practices use to attract more patients and increase production. Whether you're a solo practitioner or scaling a DSO, you’ll learn how to align your marketing, team and systems to drive predictable growth.
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In today's episode, we're going to be talking about Zoc Doc and how you are renting patients if you're using Zoc Doc. Now, I know some people who use Zoc Doc and they have success with it, but I also know a lot of people that are very, very frustrated with them. And at the end of the show, I'm going to give you a case study of a dentist that was 100% using Zoc Doc. And over uh some time uh they were able to wean off of that. And uh there's a whole case study on it, and it's really, really good. You'll you'll you'll appreciate it. So there's a couple things to know about Zoc Doc if you're gonna be using them. And again, I know some people that use them and they're happy with them. So if if that's you, great. This show will help you. I also know some people who use them and they're not happy with Zoc Doc, they're not happy with the results, and they wish there was a way out of it. And so this is gonna help you as well. And I'm gonna give you some really tactical stuff. And at the end, I'm gonna give you a case study of a I actually give you two case studies. One of a startup that uses Zoc Doc and had a great success with it, and another practice who actually had to move off of Zoc Doc and is now using digital marketing. So, first, the first thing that we need to make sure that we recognize is that Zoc Doc, you're you're renting your patients from Zoc Doc. Okay. Um, they're not your patients. Why? The the way Zoc Doc works is the patients go to Zoc Doc anytime they need something. It's different than Google. Okay, Google, we go to Google for everything, but we're not like loyal to Google. Does that make sense? So I go in, I need a house cleaner, I go to Google, find a house cleaner, and then I'm loyal to that house cleaner. Zoc Doc's totally different. Zoc Doc is training people to come to them every time they have a medical need for every one of their bookings. So it's a lot more work to pull that patient away. The other thing is that Zoc Doc is driven by almost a hundred percent of insurance. Almost a hundred percent. So it's young people on insurance, and so now you have like a double layer of they're loyal to Zoc Doc, they're loyal to their insurance, and then you. Now, can you work through that still? Absolutely. Again, I've seen people do this successfully, but it's important that you know the rules to the game before you jump into it and really try to um grow with Zoc Doc because you can end up trapped. Okay, so how much is Zoc Doc? So it's$150 per appointment scheduled. Okay,$150 per appointment scheduled. Now, how does that work? Well, anybody who reaches out to you, they schedule uh through Zoc Doc, you're gonna pay$150 whether they show up or not. Now, if everybody showed up, if it was$150 per patient, that's actually a screaming deal. Screaming deal. Really hard to duplicate that at scale, but you pay whether they show up or not. And about half of Zoc Doc's patients on average don't show up. They don't show up. And so that means you're actually paying$300. Still not bad, but what I've noticed is the patients come in, they get some work done, they they use their benefits, and then it's kind of a short-term ROI thing. It's really hard to get these patients to come back again because they're loyal to Zoc Doc. Digital marketing is totally different because they're loyal to you right off the bat. And you might have some insurance stuff in there, but there's ways to work around that. So that's the first thing that you want to recognize. Now, what can you do to get your no-shows down? Because if you can get your no-shows down, then Zoc Doc might make a little bit more sense for you. There's a couple things in a case study that we just did. If you just let me know case study down below, I'll give you two case studies. One of the doctors actually broke down his exact formula of how he gets a really low uh no-show rate with Zoc Doc. Now, the other thing that you want to keep in mind is that if you are going to use Zoc Doc long term, there are rules inside of Zoc Doc that they can change on you at any time and kind of rug pull you. So it's really, really smart that you have a healthy base of patient referrals. What's a healthy base? 40%. And if you don't track this, you should be tracking this. So 40% patient referrals. You should have a mix of digital marketing. Why? Because if Zoc Doc disappears or something happens or they suspend your account or whatever, then you have another option and you can lean on that and ramp that up. And then you can sprinkle in Zoc Doc in particular markets. So I know most doctors don't like Zoc Doc. Um, they don't like the patients, they don't like the experience. Again, some people do use them and they have had success with them. So if this was helpful to you, let me know down in the comments below. And please make sure that you say case study if you want those two case studies. I have two offices. One office is a startup who sees over 120 new patients, and Zark, Zoc Doc's a big part of that. Uh, they they saw that in the third month. And I have another doctor who had to come off of Zoc Doc and moved all of his patient base or a lot of his patient base over to digital marketing. So, anyways, hopefully that's helpful. Comment down below, and I hope you have a great day.