AYIK + BERTO Dental Specialists is a new, private equity-backed venture that houses eight decentralized endodontic practices. Prior to 2020, these practices operated separately and followed the status quo of the industry: they relied on referrals from general practice (GP) dentists. But there was a glaring problem. Relying on GP referrals is a passive, uncertain business model that often prevents endodontic businesses from achieving real growth. The model is unpredictable by nature because it creates a dependency on third parties for new business – and at the end of the day, there’s no control over the decisions those third parties make (and you can only hand out so many cupcakes to build those relationships). Research shows that only 32% of GPs refer 10% or less of their root canals to endodontists. To take the power back into their own hands, AYIK + BERTO joined forces with StrataBlue to disrupt the endodontic industry.
The Mission
Shift the business to a direct-to-patient (DTP) model where customers are educated and empowered to self-refer, rather than continuing to depend on third party referrals.
To accomplish this goal, they needed to:
Consolidate their eight disparate companies into a single trustworthy and credible brand
Create a sales and marketing foundation that builds authority and confidence
Improve the customer journey and experience to efficiently turn leads into patients
Build a consistent and predictable customer acquisition system that can scale with the company’s growth
Demystify endodontics and make it a household term – and make AYIK + BERTO the top name in the space
Tactics
To bring their DTC strategy to life, Ayik + Berto built a new website for the consolidated brand, created paid advertising campaigns on several media channels and platforms, and generated various types of educational content for potential and current customers.
They advertised on Facebook and Instagram, created radio and audio ad campaigns on Spotify and AudioGo, and built search engine ads on Google, Bing, and Yelp. The company also created several educational and awareness-generating content pieces like video content, ebooks, and email campaigns for consumers and current patients.
The Result
Since setting their strategy into motion in April 2020, Ayik + Berto has seen consistent and predictable year-over-year (YOY) growth – during a pandemic, no less. Their practices receive over 1,000 phone calls a month, with 76% of phone calls on average coming from paid media platforms. In roughly four months of the campaign’s launch, the new website generated more than 43,000 website sessions and their cross-platform ads generated more than 5.1 million impressions. The practice pages have 231% lift in new Google reviews from April 1, 2020, to August 18, 2020 – more than double compared to the Google reviews during the same period in 2019.
Conclusion
Ayik + Berto proves that when brands want to achieve real, sustainable growth, it’s sometimes necessary to break through the status quo and carve a new path. To make this happen, it’s critical to have a clear, research-based strategy to guide every granular tactic and decision. Companies who don’t feel that they have the internal expertise should seek a partner to help build the right action plan and bring their goals to life.
