Betsie Richardson

Alright Boise-ites, time to warm up your voting buttons! We need to help the Boise Bicycle Project win the Pepsi Refresh Project. Click here to view the BBP's voting page in their run for $250,000 to create a sustainable bicycle education center.

There has been quite a bit of buzz in the advertising industry regarding the Pepsi Refresh Project of late. Pepsi pulled a startling move last year by pulling their media buying spend from the Super Bowl and diverting it to this social media-backed philanthropy. Read the AdAge article from two days ago to learn about Pepsi's success with the cause.

In my experience with the BBP, they have utilized some rather clever local marketing ideas on a small budget. They run in the Boise Weekly and occasionally grab network TV airtime to promote big events like Bicycle Block Party and FrankenBike. They also maintain an active Facebook page and do co-op advertising with brands like REI.

This is big for our community. Make sure to vote every day this month!

Being in the business of local advertising, we at Balihoo are often asked by our small business owner clients about how to utilize local internet marketing. They hear buzz that their customers are overwhelmingly adopting online media. But the internet appears to our business owners as, well, the world wide web - rather daunting, and they don't know where to start.

Our retail store owners in particular spent much of their local marketing efforts in the past few decades hanging coupons on doors and running inserts in the local newspaper. This method simply doesn't cut it in today's fragmented consumer marketplace.

Online advertising is a great way to market on a tight budget and reach a targeted demographic. Google Paid Search (pay-per-click) and SEO efforts should be top on any local business marketer's list. Then consider what your local media outlets offer on their online properties.

Groupon's online display campaign in the NYTimes.com illustrates a great example of local targeting through online news sites. Admittedly, I was reading an article about Snooki, but my shame aside, Groupon's ad on "Boise's Best / Up to 90% Off / Get Today's Special" caught my eye, and I found myself adding to their click through rate. The special today happens to be laser hair removal at a high end spa in Boise. Well targeted at me - a young female professional reading the Fashion & Style section of the NYTimes.com.

Groupon is averaging 500,000 new subscribers a week. After they ran an $11 million promo for Gap, they gained 750,000 subscribers (see Advertising Age's article).

What to learn from Groupon's online marketing:

• Identify your target demographic and only buy top-rated pages against that audience
• Keep your message concise and easy to read (the less words the better)
• Focus the message on the call-to-action
• Leverage the measurability of online advertising - track your results closely and optimize as you see upward/downward trends

Are you a franchise owner looking for guidance with local store marketing? Check out Balihoo's white paper.

Working on the local consumer advertising side of the dental implant industry, I understand the barrier of finding financially qualified leads. This procedure is still young, and consumers are simply uneducated on the cost parameters. Once they see the high out-of-pocket cost, they have to ask themselves how much they would pay to smile proudly again, eat apples and steak, speak confidently, and eliminate the stigma of dentures going in the sock drawer at night. What is the price tag on quality of life?

The New York Times posted a good article on this topic on July 29 - read it here.

As Lesley Alderman writes in this story, insurance typically only covers up to $1,500. When a single implant procedure runs $3,000 minimum and full-arch implants start at $20,000, you can imagine the sticker shock experience for a consumer who just wants to eat steak again.

Based on our experience, the best prospect-to-patient conversion rates in dental implant marketing happen as a result of public education seminars and our local media buying experts have given clients great results by recommending advertising in newspapers. It turns out to be a key medium for the target of this specific marketing campaign with these demographics (female in house, 55+, household income of $75,000+).

We worked with a dental implant center in Boise that ran their third public education seminar last night. They had 21 attendees, of whom 17 had missing teeth (the other 4 were supportive spouses). Not bad for two hours of the surgeons' evening! These were These attendees scheduled personal consultations on the spot, and when they walk into their appointments, they will have a solid understanding of the benefits and costs of available procedures.

If you are interested to learn how Balihoo's dental marketing arm can provide local marketing ideas to benefit your business, contact us: www.dentalmarketing.balihoo.com.

When Nobel Biocare asked Balihoo to partner with them to provide local consumer advertising for their dental implant clinician clients, we jumped at the opportunity. We initially rolled out a subscription service that provides clinicians with a soup-to-nuts advertising campaign. We are excited to announce that we have added two new subscriptions to our service offerings. We have our clients to thank for communicating what they want, and we listened!

In the initial "Platinum" Subscription, we start by diving into the market to develop a cross-medium annual strategy with budget allocation, detailed tactics and demographic research. The service also includes a suite of creative material that includes TV, radio, print, direct mail, online, internet paid search - the full gamut. We load this material into our proprietary co-op marketing software where clinicians can customize it to their brand and objectives. Finally, we perform local media buying and post-buy analysis.

Having consulted with hundreds of dental implant clinicians over the past year, we have learned a lot about what they want in an advertising campaign. Importantly, we learned many clinicians are not ready to dive into a mass media advertising campaign, the cost barrier aside. They are simply not ready to see their name on TV or a billboard. This puts them in a defensive position with their GP referral base that they may not be ready to manage. They are, however, very comfortable with Internet marketing and hosting free patient education seminars through their local newspaper.

These learnings combined, we came up with the Gold and Silver Subscriptions.

Gold includes:

• Print (newspaper & direct mail)
• Online (Google AdWords bidding & E-mail)
• Microsite (w/customizable offers that update immediately)
• Media Buying
• Account Management

Silver includes:

• Online (Google AdWords bidding & E-mail)
• Microsite (w/customizable offers that update immediately)

The Gold subscription includes material focused on marketing patient education seminars. Silver will eventually include microsites that market dental services other than implants (i.e. wisdom teeth, veneers, crowns and bridges, etc.) We will continue to deliver services as our clients ask for them and always welcome new ideas!
Are you a Nobel Biocare customer? Are you interested in local marketing ideas to grow your dental implant business? Go to www.dentalmarketing.balihoo.com to learn more or download our whitepaper here.

Working for Balihoo, a company that focuses on local advertising, we look for signs of success all around us in our little town of Boise, Idaho. Let me tell a short story about word of mouth advertising performed by a certain Frenchman.

On a lovely blue sky evening in this fine downtown, after consuming some locally brewed fair at The Falcon, I happened upon a middle-aged man sitting at a table with mouth-wateringly delicious baked something-er-others displayed in front of him. I then noticed the cash box and realized these brilliant edible charmers were for sale. And then he spoke.

The eloquence that left that man's tongue still rings in my ear. "Mademoiselle, would you care for a sweet baked roll? I would love for you to enjoy this. Two dollars if you please." The man has hair to his waist, a neatly trimmed beard and donned a chef's jacket and hat. Was he pulling my leg? An Idaho-born actor with a knack for European accents? Questions aside, I had emotionally committed to the sweet roll before realizing I had only 20 cents on me. That Frenchman offered it up anyway with a huge smile on his face, asking only that I let others know of his product.

As it goes with Balihoo culture, we enjoy sharing such stories. Nico, one of our internet advertising designers, is hosting an art show at a coffee shop downtown tonight. I emailed the company asking that everyone not only attend her show, but visit my long-haired, French-accent bearing pastry chef. This sponned an email chain between people across the company - some admitting sitings of the Frenchman, others claiming he bakes in a top Italian kitchen after hours, others simply wanting his location and hours of operation.

Looking for more local marketing ideas to help your franchise or franchisees? Download Balihoo's white paper on Local Marketing Automation.

Being in the dental implant marketing space, we at Balihoo are often asked how to gain more qualified leads in local advertising. There are many consumer barriers to overcome with dental implant marketing. How much will this cost? Is it painful? Will it take a long time before I have functioning teeth?

These questions can be answered in a free-to-the-public education seminar. Now the doctor has the ability to speak in great detail to a captive audience of consumers, and they can ask questions in a comfortable setting where they are surrounded by people who also suffer from the discomfort of missing teeth.

Many dental clinicians - specialists in particular - run education seminars for general dentists to open a channel of patient referrals for dental implant procedures. These prospecting patients call the implant specialist's practice with a fairly knowledgeable understanding of the procedures available, obstacles and costs. The office staff is used to this "qualified" lead. Now try running a strong :30 second TV campaign like we do for many of our clients, and your staff is suddenly hit with an influx of prospecting consumers who have many questions about the exciting procedure they saw marketed while watching Oprah. Simply put, a :30 second TV spot cannot qualify a dental implant patient on its own.

In our integrated marketing plans, we often include such an education seminar in the annual strategy. The one medium that has proven most successful is...drum roll please...newspaper ROP. This "dying" medium is still highly read by our target demographic in most markets. My anecdotally-based theory is that consumers are value or event-shopping newspaper's advertisements. They can physically hold onto the paper, read your ad in detail and cut it out and post it on the fridge to remind them of the date.

One of our local clients held a patient education seminar last week. Running an integrated approach of newspaper, network TV and online advertising, they had a great turnout of 14 consumers. Nine of them scheduled personal consultations that evening. Needless to say, that client found their answer in seeking more qualified leads.

Download our white paper here to learn the three cardinal rules of dental marketing.

(Nobel Biocare taps into our local marketing automation software to provide a co-op advertising solution for their partner clinicians. Using our print ad builder, these clinicians tag their advertisements with their photos, logo and customize the messaging.)

"It's not about elections, sanctions, proliferations, he-said, she-said, my land, your land, no man's land; it's not about the stock market, black market, orange alerts, green homes, hope, change, fear or loathing; it's not about Communism, Socialism or Capitalism, war or peace, love or hate...this is about the one month every four years when we all agree on one thing: 32 nations, one world watching; 2010 FIFA World Cup."

Watch ESPN's 2010 FIFA World Cup "United" television commercial here:



You know that moment when you find yourself lazily flipping channels on TV, lacking inspiration to settle on a program when you find yourself pause on a commercial. Something about it - the music, the vibrant imagery, the inspiration of the voice talent - grabs your attention. You want to be a part of that brand - buy their product, join their event, watch their program. Watching ESPN's "United" commercial for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, I felt goosebumps spread across my body. I was ready to buy tickets to South Africa just to stand outside the stadium.

In our dental marketing efforts with Nobel Biocare partner clinicians, we often talk about telling a story. Every advertiser has a story. Dental implants are no exception. The dental professionals with whom we work talk passionately about the life-changing effects of the fixed prosthetics they offer patients. We provide a number of creative themes that tell the story of renewed confidence, restored comfort and enjoyment of foods forbidden to denture-wearers, which all leads to feeling younger, feeling good about yourself and embracing age.

Sure, something like direct TV begs for infomercial-style product marketing. We all remember Billy Mays fondly as the infomercial king of such products as OxiClean and Liquid Diamond. Our dentist clients often ask about testimonial-style commercials or demonstrations of how dental implants are placed, however, we have had the best return on investment from our :30 second spots that tell a story. The consumer watches the TV and feels a connection - this doctor understands my issue and has a solution.

Do you run a dental implant practice and want to learn how to tell a story with your brand? Contact one of our consultants to learn about our local marketing ideas.

(Nobel Biocare taps into our local marketing automation software to provide a co-op advertising solution for their partner clinicians. Using our print ad builder, these clinicians tag their advertisements with their brand identity and customize the messaging.)

Everyone knows the old adage, You scratch my back; I'll scratch yours. This colloquialism rings true for many of the dental specialists who engage with us in direct-to-consumer local advertising of dental implants. These specialists want to maintain their General Practioner (GP) referrals that have fueled a majority of their business over the years, but they fear advertising will appear to "skirt around" their GPs. What is the solution? I give you the reverse referral.

The reverse referral works such that a specialist begins marketing to the local consumer base through our integrated media plan. They begin drawing new patients from the local market who have not seen a general dentist in years and sometimes decades (typically due to dental phobia). These patients often have several missing teeth or are fully edentulous. They are therefore great candidates for the Nobel Biocare All-on-4 or related procedures. Our specialists then collaborate with GPs to send the patient to their practice for restoration of the fixed prosthetics. Everyone wins.

One such oral surgeon specialist who uses our local advertising platform held a dinner for his top 20 GP referrals to openly announce his advertising efforts and product launch marketing of the All-on-4 procedure. A few months passed when he sent an advertising-driven All-on-4 case to a GP in his building for restoration. This GP had never seen an All-on-4 case and was not well versed on the topic before the surgeon's dinner. This GP has since sent the oral surgeon four patients who accepted treatment for the All-on-4. You scratch my back; I'll scratch yours.

Download our white paper here to learn the three cardinal rules of dental marketing.

(Nobel Biocare taps into our local marketing automation software to provide a co-op advertising solution for their partner clinicians. Using our print ad builder, these clinicians tag their advertisements with their photos, logo and customize the messaging.)

We work with a number of general dentists who perform a smattering of treatments ranging from family to cosmetic to sedation to placing dental implants. Local marketing and media buying is all about efficiencies. You will spread your message too thin trying to market all of your procedures to all local consumers. You might as well spend your money on a new car.

It's easy to develop the "all things to all people" disease in general dental marketing. Unless you have extremely deep pockets, you need to focus your message and media vehicles on a target demographic for targeted procedures. Ask yourself which procedures best support your business and which ones have the most potential for growth.

For example, if you want to grow your dental implant business, target 50-75 year old females with $75-100,000+ annual household incomes. Ask the consumer to call to schedule a free treatment consultation and to learn about your finance options. Then run this message across an integrated media campaign - while she is watching her favorite TV programs, going through the mail at home with a direct mail postcard, in her subscription lifestyle magazine and on the Internet on a local news website where she checks the weather and reads entertainment.


If you want to market wisdom tooth extractions, target 35-54 year-old mothers with teenage children with broader income ranges ($50,000+). Offer a free consultation and x-ray with mention of the advertisement, and include an expiration date. Start a Facebook business page with a contest to win a $1,000 scholarship for a student who has their wisdom teeth removed at your practice.

Want to learn how to build an integrated media campaign focused on the right target patient? Learn about our dental marketing platform at www.dentalmarketing.balihoo.com and contact us for a free consultation.

Every so often, our beloved Boise turns up in national media. In this instance, we owe thanks to Sunset Magazine for highlighting Boise as one of the Top 20 Towns of the Future.

Boise, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth of the Payette river and breadth of our foothills' trails and height of Bogus Basin
Balihoo's local marketing automation software can reach, when franchises feel out of site
For the ends of well executed media campaigns and ideal ad builder software
I love thee to the ends of every day's
Most quiet local business owner's need, by our 234-day shining sun and crisp Idaho evenings,
I love thee freely, as men strive to summit Hard Guy
I love thee purely, as they turn from crowded cities
I love thee with a Balihoo passion put to use
In a CEO's griefs and his childhood's faith that more Balihoo's may be so lucky to thrive in Boise.

Does this poem sound familiar? I thought I would pull from my British literature studies and allude to Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Love them or hate them, the Paris Hiltons of reality TV - famous for having a famous name - can teach us something about branding. Sure, they are clogging our news racks and cable networks with their ridiculous drama, but we must give them credit for staying top-of-mind and creating a recognizable brand. And when I say "brand," I mean face. For these celebrities in the business of being famous, their faces are their brand identity.

Advertising Age commented on how the E! network created stars from scratch with "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" in a February story: "E!'s highest-rated show in network history attracted 4 million viewers a week in its fourth season. It also banked $18.4 million in measured-ad spending during the first 11 months of 2009."

For many of the dental surgeons for whom we plan local advertising and perform local media buying, their name is their brand. Some dental clinicians feel uncomfortable with putting their own face on an advertisement, which is understandable. But they need to build brand awareness with some sort of consistency, like their logo and tag line.

Few dental clinicians who use our local advertising services understand the importance of branding in their media campaigns. They want to run advertisements that make the phone ring. Again, understandable. However, if we can learn anything from the Kardashians, it's that branding efforts provide the long-term benefits of name-awareness where lead gen can be short-sighted.

(Nobel Biocare taps into our local marketing automation software to provide a co-op advertising solution for their partner clinicians. Using our print ad builder, these clinicians tag their advertisements with their photos, logo and customize the messaging.)

Who said print is dead? Who said broadcast TV is failing to perform? Before making such blanket claims, advertisers need to consider their target audience.

We just launched a campaign for a small business owner who had never advertised direct-to-consumer before last month. The business has had astounding results thanks in large part to local broadcast TV. We tracked 250+ calls in the first 5 weeks.

Speaking of the "dying" print industry, within the first week of running a full page ad and a business reply card in a local lifestyle magazine, our client received four business reply cards. And get this - the consumers actually put their own stamps on the cards! (I don't remember the last time I used a stamp, but I'm not the target demographic.)

I work with Nobel Biocare partner clinicians to help them market dental implants directly to consumers in their local market. (Nobel Biocare runs a Co-op Advertising program.) Their primary target audience is female, 55-70 years of age, with a HHI of $100,000+.

Our local advertising plan for this client includes an integrated media mix that has strong reach to the target demographic:

• Broadcast TV on the ABC and Fox local affiliate stations
• Billboard on a major local highway
• Local lifestyle magazine (full page + business reply card)
• Local Internet marketing - pay-per-click on Google search

Our client's phones are ringing, and we tracked a 2.5x ROI in first 5 weeks. When looking at an older, edentulous consumer, traditional media can still perform.

As a provider of local advertising services to dental practices who want to market their dental implants procedures, Balihoo often has doctors ask about social media. In particular, they want to know whether or not they should post a Facebook page for their business. With over 350 million active users, what do they have to lose?

For a lot of dental professionals, they fear they may lose credibility and their professional appearance. Yes, they are posting content in a public forum, but they have complete control over it, so there's no reason to not use it to their benefit. Facebook is yet another free tool to enhance your local marketing efforts and project yourself as an industry leader.

Here are some guidelines for creating a Facebook business page for your dental practice:

- Create a business page, not a personal profile.
- More than 3.5 billion pieces of content are shared each week on Facebook. Get on the band wagon - post content regularly! We advise linking to news stories on dental procedures, posting updates on the doctor's continuing education, new technology your practice adopted, etc.
- Schedule a regular cadence for updating your page. Assign a few people in the office to post new content once a week. You don't want your page to go stagnant.
- Start asking your friends and family to become "fans" of your business. Using social networking sites for local marketing purposes is all about, well, social networking. Tap into your immediate social base.
- Get your office comfortable talking about Facebook. Hygienists have the most face time with patients, making them a key marketing tool. You will find that patients of all ages use Facebook, and it can be a good topic for conversation.

Facebook is one of many local marketing ideas we present to our dental clinician clients. Our primary intent with the local media strategy we build for these clients is to drive lead generation for dental implant procedures, but we always integrate their media schedule with branding, social networking and non-traditional advertising tools.