Think about the last few male patients who came into your practice for a long-overdue exam. If you asked them what finally brought them in, how many would say they suddenly realized the importance of preventative care?
Probably very few.
How many would admit their wife, girlfriend or mom finally got fed up and booked the appointment for them?
“I’ve never had a man as a patient say that they forced their wife to see the dentist because she needed to… but I have had countless women say that they forced their husband or boyfriend to see the dentist.” – every dentist ever
If your dental marketing strategy treats every prospective patient as an isolated individual making their own healthcare decisions, you are leaving a lot of money on the table.
The Hard Data: Women Drive Healthcare Decisions
The anecdote above is backed by overwhelming data. When it comes to family health, women are overwhelmingly at the wheel.
ZocDoc stats
- 82% of healthcare appointments booked for men are scheduled by women.
- 76% of all appointments booked for someone else are made by women.
What does this mean for your practice? It means that if a man in your community needs dental work, the person who will actually research your practice and pick up the phone is highly likely to be his female partner.
The Marketing Pivot: Adjust Your Social Media Targeting
Many practices waste their advertising budget by targeting the end-user rather than the person actually booking the appointment. This is especially true when marketing high-value cosmetic procedures.
If you are trying to fill your schedule with veneer cases, understanding your demographic is critical. Data from the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AACD) reveals a strong gender trend in aesthetic dental treatments, showing that 71% of cosmetic dentistry patients are women. Not only are women booking the vast majority of healthcare appointments for their families, but they are also overwhelmingly the primary demographic seeking out and booking cosmetic treatments like veneers for themselves.
Optimize Your Audience Parameters If you are running Facebook or Instagram ads for high-ticket procedures that might normally lean toward an older male demographic, such as full-mouth restorations or sleep apnea treatments, do not limit your targeting to men. Conversely, when marketing veneers and other cosmetic enhancements, your primary audience is already proven to be female.
Ensure your marketing team understands that reaching women aged 30 to 55 is often the most direct route to getting both male and female patients into the chair. By shifting your audience parameters to focus on the person who manages the household calendar and drives cosmetic dentistry trends, your ad spend becomes significantly more efficient.
The Bottom Line
Your practice’s growth relies on getting patients in the chair, but you have to market to the people who are actually willing to book the appointments. By recognizing women as the primary healthcare decision-makers and the primary drivers of cosmetic procedures, you can adjust your social media targeting to reach them and unlock a massive, untapped pipeline of new patients.
By Dr. Patrick Anghel, DDS (Pat the Dentist)