Hi, everyone. My name is Andre. I'm here with
my co -founder, Eric Hubbard. We are the founders
of Pain -Free Dental Marketing. We are, as you
can imagine, a dental -specific marketing agency.
We are full service. We work nationwide. And
we started our company around 10 years ago. In
that time frame, we've seen a lot of different
trends, a lot of rise and fall of platforms,
platforms that used to work really well that
stopped working, and now they're coming back,
different tactics and all those things. Today,
as part of the CallRail Contributor Program,
we are here to talk about our predictions for
2025 and help anyone that's listening stay ahead
of the curve and be prepared for what's coming
this year as far as marketing and the industry.
So, Eric, off the top of your mind, what is the
first thing that comes to mind when you think
about changes that you're seeing? It's hard to
not embrace the elephant in the room that's AI.
And AI has brought a lot of... improvements to
the space certainly blew up a few years ago and
has only grown so rapidly now. But AI has led
to a ton of automation improvements. And one
thing that concerns me about AI is, though, the
way we see it applied is everyone's using the
same tools in near the same manner. And in doing
so, it becomes more challenging to differentiate
yourself from what's out there. That's where
marketing is. Always, I mean, if you go all the
way back, it's about identifying your ideal consumer
and reaching them. And when you start doing the
same thing that everyone else is doing, it begins
to erode how well you're connecting with that
consumer. I love the tooling. I love the life
hacks and the simplicity that we're trying to
distill these concepts down into these, you know,
super bite -sized nuggets, these 30 -second TikTok
videos of how to change your life. Real change
and real connection is much harder. And while
I like AI, if we're all using it in the same
way, it is going to erode. We're all going to
look the same. And that's the biggest trend I
see today is we like to think this new technology
will be the answer. And I agree that it's a step
forward and it certainly levels the playing field
in setting up your Google ads and writing copy
and these things. It does at the same time. start
making you look like everyone else that's using
AI. Yeah, I heard a really good analogy that
I liked that I think conceptualizes the changes
happening here. And it had to do with photography.
If you think about the very beginning of human
history, we've always wanted to capture someone's
likeness or moment. And in the very early days,
via portraits, if you had the technical skill
of being able to create a really realistic painting,
That really set you apart because you had the
skill that no one else had. But as technology
evolved and cameras came around and all those
things, the ability to actually accurately represent
a scene or a person no longer became a differentiator.
Everyone has a camera and can point in a general
direction and capture a picture. So where the
difference became, it wasn't anymore about the
capability or the thing itself. It became about,
are you able to... connect with someone via that
photo and tell the story and the composition
and the thoughtfulness behind it. So the ability
to create an image was no longer the differentiator.
When you think about marketing and technology
and content today, I think there's a very similar
parallel of maybe in the past, no one had enough
content about a particular topic or something
that you're trying to sell or connect with the
audience. But now, generating a piece of content
that takes... 10 seconds on ChatGPT or anything
else. And so now we're going to have to go back,
similar to the photography, on focusing on what
message do you want to say? And does it sound
like you? Does it connect with people the right
way? Because consumers are craving that. We're
seeing the younger generation now going back
to buying analog cameras or the point -and -shoot
codecs that we had in the 90s and 2000s because...
It's not super edited. It's more authentic. It
gets you off of your phone and just being with
your friends in that moment. We're seeing that
shift. And I think that's also shown up in the
marketing and that when you can't tell if any
given picture is even real anymore, if any given
video was AI generated, it's only going to exacerbate
the desire and the craving for authenticity.
And I think the community is going to go back
to looking for non -digital ways to connect.
local events or community events and i don't
know this for a fact but maybe things like print
to go back to being um relevant as where it hasn't
been as much in our space at least the last few
years but i i think consumers are going to be
looking for ways to that can't be phased that
can't be edited that can't be curated to get
their real information. You don't need to look
any further than LinkedIn and Facebook, even
Instagram now, and who knows what happens with
TikTok. But I remember when LinkedIn came out,
my first core group of people on LinkedIn, I
knew every one of them. I knew how to talk to
them. I had their phone numbers already in my
phone, my BlackBerry at the time, whatever it
was. That was that was a very tight connection.
And now I don't think I can. Yes, I know some
of them, but like my connections on LinkedIn
are just, you know, woefully overblown. And same
with Facebook. You know, when you go back, I
get those, you know, memories 15 years ago, 17
years ago. And they were so intimate into such
a small community around like my day to day life.
And now, you know, I try not to post on Facebook.
My last round of Facebook posts were more about,
you know, glamorizing my travel or, or, you know,
complimenting my kids or, you know, some form
of self, you know, presentation to the world.
And I didn't like, I didn't like it. And I, and
I, and as a result, I, I probably have three,
400 people on Facebook and I, I mean, how many
of them do I really have a connection with? And
when you see it through those eyes, Facebook
is a tool that allowed me, I can connect with
anyone, but I don't. Because at some point it
became noise. And I think we will continue to
see that with new technology improvements. The
technology is going to exist and it's going to,
as you very well said, level the playing field
on who can represent a scene. But when everyone
can do that, now it's up to the storytelling.
and why it matters and real connection is not
if i have a frustration and it's something you
know i'm trying to teach my kids i think it's
something irrelevant in business too is like
you can't fake the effort of real connection
there's no three -minute life hack that lets
you connect with a human being it is hard work
and it is authentic and it takes real effort
and while i love the tooling because it allows
us to be so much more effective Without the real
intent and a desire, the connection, the technology
is not the answer. And when you distill that
into marketing, it's around connecting with your
ideal patient. It's speaking to them. It's talking
them through what they can expect when they visit
you. It is truly about knowing your, it hasn't
changed, you know, since, you know, my wife loved
to watch Mad Men back in the day. The conversations
they're having with clients and how to present
the brand and those things are the exact conversations
we're having today. And while the tooling has
changed and the effectiveness, it used to take
an agency of, you know, 80, 100 people. Now an
agent can do it for, you know, 20 or 30 people.
The effectiveness has improved. Ability to iterate
is quicker. I think it's easier to determine
ROI than it was at that era. We're still chasing
the same, how do I present this brand to the
core group of people in a manner that reflects
the ideals that they hold? And there's nothing
except for hard work and testing that gets that
job done. We like to be practical here at our
agency. And for anyone listening, how does that
show up in the day -to -day activities, right?
That someone listening to this conversation can
put into practice in their business, whether
they're in dental, maybe they're in healthcare,
some other capacity, maybe they're not, maybe
they're e -comm, right? What does that mean?
How do you connect? What tactical things or advice
can you think of and share? I have a couple,
but I want to see what you think. I think for
me, it's... Google yourself, which that's always
a blessing and a curse to Google yourself. Google
yourself and see what shows up and look at it
and say, am I proud of this? Are these photos
recent? Does this text represent what I stand
for today? Going across your Google business
profile, down to your Facebook and Instagram,
down to your website, I think it's just being
curious. going through them and making sure that
the text and the imagery reflects where you are
today. And it may reflect where you were, you
know, some time ago. That's fine. But today,
and am I proud of this? I think if you just started
there and I know that you could get into, well,
do I represent the ideal consumer and all that,
but I feel that's a very tactical thing today
that improves your online presence so much. And
I think that's a hard one, easy one to say, but
a hard one to do because you're going to start
going down a rabbit hole. But I think it's something
that everyone should do. You know, we are big
fans of CallRail. We're part of the contributor
program. And the reason why we're big fans of
CallRail and why it's such a big part of what
we do is because it gives us direct access to
hear the conversations between our clients and
their customers. And if you want to do good work
in marketing in any field. Hearing your customers
interact with the brand and the way you're marketing
is one of the most powerful ways to understand
what do they care about? What are they after?
What's important to them? And this is why CallRail
is really powerful for us, not only from a technology
perspective to be able to optimize campaigns
and conversions and all of those things. Those
are important. But the consumer and market research.
insights that it gives that you can't buy anywhere
you know talking about people wanting to take
the easy route the easiest thing is to do a search
about the demographic makeup of a certain region
and average household and all those things because
you're trying to create your ideal patient profile
or consumer profile you know if you're not in
health care but hearing them talk and and how
the brand is interacting with them the questions
they're asking that's where the real magic lives
in my opinion because If you can preemptively
address the concerns that your consumer has,
talk to them about their pain points and what's
important to them, as opposed to how great you
are all the time, it creates that connection
because the consumers will feel seen and heard
and get that feeling that this company gets it,
which is why I think this is the best place to
start any marketing strategy conversation. You
mentioned talking about use. Do you think that's
one of the problems we've gotten into in marketing
is we're talking about ourselves and not solving
our consumers' problems? I think it's half of
the equation. I don't so much mind that people
talk about themselves because I think you have
to tell your story. You have to tell what's important
to you and who you are and all those things.
I think the problem becomes when you stop there.
I think what consumers are wanting, and everyone
is asking this question in their own minds, anytime
you're having to make a decision, what's in it
for me? So if you're going to talk about who
you are and what's important to you, you have
to go the next step and say, and this is why
it matters to you, Mr. and Mrs. Consumer. I'm
doing these things because X, Y, and Z. And I
think this is what makes, what's built community
around brands and what they stand for because
people want to align themselves with. businesses
and brands that represent, that they feel represented
in and they feel heard and seen. And if you stop
at just talking about you, I think you missed
the connection option. We talked about AI. We
talked about the need for connection. Are you
getting into communication or storytelling as
a means to make that connection? I know there's
some books out there that we've read as well,
but how are you using AI then? with that in mind
to tell that story. It's easy to say, I graduated
here and I've done this many surgeries or I've
done this many procedures and I'm board certified
for this. And that's great. That's about you.
But how do you get to talking about it in a way
that reflects the consumer? I'd say if we're
looking for a practical way to put this into
action, I think AI is a really good... ideation
tool, research tool, because I think when we
say you need to put yourself out there, you need
to talk about what you care about and your brand,
people get a little, unless you're a professional
first, you get stuck. I don't know what I'm going
to say. I think for that, all different AI platforms
are great. It can give you a plethora of directions
and examples to go. If you then take that along
with that consumer research piece that we talked
about. By listening to your customers and understanding
the questions they have. I think if you're an
e -com brand, listen to the customer support
questions. What are their complaints? What are
their pain points? That sort of thing. It gives
you a really clear picture of what the consumer
cares about. I think the next step to build that
connection is to just speak from the heart. Try
to be authentic as opposed to try to follow a
script or try to manipulate the conversation
in this direction or that direction. And because
AI has gotten... so powerful with video creation
specifically in the last few months one of the
predictions that we are it's a prediction for
the future but it's something that we've already
seen signs of right now is that more raw unedited
imperfect unfiltered content does better because
it gives people the feeling that it may be real
you know i think six months from now we're going
to be questioning every single piece of content
that comes across looking for that you know,
the 11th finger, you know, AI hasn't gotten really
good at drawing hands quite yet. So we still
have the capability of being, wait a minute,
that's not right. But I think as time goes on,
that's going to become more and more difficult.
So going the other direction and try to be more
authentic by not over -editing. Sure, the content
and the story part is important. I'm talking
about the visual aspect specifically and just
try to be who you are. And if you are vulnerable,
if you show your imperfections, I think that's
what draws people in because everyone is looking
for that. So any final thoughts? Predictions,
2025, marketing. I think the theme is if you
leverage AI only, you're going to be just like
everyone else. If you want to stand out, if you
want to connect, you have to do the hard work
of listening to your customers, connecting with
them. This is where a tool like CallRail can
be really powerful to give you that insight.
into the into the customers and try to be as
unfiltered and unedited as possible so people
can feel like this is real and i'm talking to
a real human being and actually one more thing
that just came to mind we're also seeing that
even with brands big brands too where you know
years ago you only talked about the brands like
coca -cola starbucks there was never any face
to those brands as where over the last several
years and i think that trend continues you're
seeing People being associated with brands like
Elon Musk, like Steve Jobs, obviously those have
been there. But we're seeing that starting to
happen now with smaller brands that have their
little space and their micro -influencers, if
you will, because we're seeing more and more
of that. People want to buy from people that
they trust. And if you can associate a person
to a brand, you inherently transfer some of that
trust from the person to the brand. That's so
well said. I think that's a perfect place to
wrap it up. And we'll go listen to some calls
in Colorado and hear what consumers are saying.
Yeah. And if you are in the dental space and
you want to keep the conversation going, you
can find us at painfreedentalmarketing .com.
You can find us in all the usual suspects, Instagram,
YouTube, Facebook, all of those things. And we
love to talk shop. So if you have questions and
you just want to keep the conversation going,
don't hesitate. All right. Thanks, everybody.