Why I Stopped Teaching Dentists to Do Their Own Marketing (And What I Tell Them Instead)
There was a time when I firmly believed every dentist should learn how to do their own marketing.
I built programs around it. I coached it. I taught Facebook strategy step-by-step. And for a while, it worked incredibly well.
But the marketing landscape didn’t just evolve — it flipped.
When Adrian Lefler, from My Social Practice, had me on the Byte Sized Podcast, we talked about the most important shift I’ve witnessed since starting in dental marketing in 2010. It’s a change that’s quietly redefining how patients find practices online.
Social media is no longer just “branding.” It’s become SEO.
And once I saw that clearly, I knew I couldn’t keep teaching dentists to do it themselves the way I had before.
I was one of My Social Practice's earliest clients, grew my social following past 50,000, and at one point was generating 50 new patients a month from social media alone. For years, I ran coaching programs teaching dentists to handle their own Facebook marketing. I closed those programs down. Here's why.
The August 2024 Moment No One Saw Coming
In August 2024, Instagram started being indexed by Google. For practices already posting consistently, the effect was immediate and dramatic.
Almost overnight, 80% of our clients went number one in Google. The practices that shot to the top weren't doing anything fancy. They were simply showing up consistently while their competitors were not. That one change rewired the relationship between
dental SEO and social media permanently.
Why Social Is Now a Search Engine
This is where the conversation really opened up. AI search engines like Gemini, ChatGPT, and Perplexity don't just crawl your website anymore.
They pull data from everywhere. Your reviews, your Instagram posts, your Facebook page, your YouTube videos, your activity on X. All of it becomes part of the picture they assemble when a patient asks who the best dentist near them is.
As I explained to Adrian, the math is simple. A practice posting four times a week creates 16 pieces of searchable content monthly. A practice posting nothing creates zero.
"For those of you who are not doing blog posts, for those of you who have not updated your website in the last year or two, and you've got someone else posting 16 times a month, that's 16 times they're having content that is now searchable by Google and all of the other platforms."
When AI assembles a recommendation, it pulls from the practice with more recent, relevant data. Understanding the shift from traditional SEO toward
generative engine optimization is no longer optional for practices that want to compete.
Zero-Click Is Already Here
In August 2024, Instagram started being indexed by Google. For practices already posting consistently, the effect was immediate and dramatic.
Google is preparing to shift its entire interface to AI mode in 2026, meaning patients will receive synthesized answers from Gemini rather than scrolling through ten blue links. Conversion rates from AI recommendations already run four to eight times higher than from traditional search results. Not appearing in those responses is a serious visibility problem. I explained:
"If you're not in the response of Gemini or in the response of ChatGPT, you're not going to get found. You're literally not going to get found."
I shared a concrete example with Adrian: a Fort Lauderdale cosmetic dentist whose website wasn't particularly beautiful but was loaded with text, video, and patient content. He ranked number one for cosmetic dentistry in the entire market. Content and consistency beat aesthetics every time. This is the new reality that
AI-driven SEO demands from every practice, regardless of size.
Why Dentists Can't Do This Alone Anymore
This brings me back to why I shut down my coaching programs. Effective modern marketing now requires copywriters, video producers, multi-platform managers, technical SEO specialists, paid advertising experts, and lead management systems. That's a team. Not a dentist with a smartphone and good intentions on a Tuesday afternoon.
"I don't think dentists can do their own marketing anymore. It is so freaking complicated. You have to have a team."
My advice? Think less about the "how" and focus on the "who." Find the right people, build the right systems, and let dedicated professionals handle what changes daily. The practices that treat marketing as infrastructure rather than a side project are the ones the phone won't stop ringing for.
My advice? Think less about the "how" and focus on the "who." Find the right people, build the right systems, and let dedicated professionals handle what changes daily. The practices that treat marketing as infrastructure rather than a side project are the ones the phone won't stop ringing for.
Listen to the Full Episode
My conversation with Adrian covered even more ground, including what minimum viable content looks like for practices that aren't ready to go all in. You can hear the
full episode and find more insights at the
My Social Practice blog. To stay current on everything happening at the intersection of dental marketing and AI, visit me at
Digital Floss or explore on-demand education for your whole team at
Dentalflix. Thank you to Adrian and the entire Byte Sized audience for the platform and the conversation.
