Multi-channel advertising isn’t just another marketing buzzword. It’s a disciplined approach that strategically integrates every marketing channel (digital ads, email, social media, local events, and community engagement) into a cohesive, unified system.
At its core is a simple truth. No single channel can sustainably drive practice growth by itself. In other words, you can’t just spend your way into advertising success.
Lasting success comes from adding genuine value to your brand, while carefully managing the inherent risks in your advertising spend.
When it comes to effective multi-channel marketing in the dental and airway industry, few marketers match the consistency and results of John Schwind. I’ll tell you more about him in a little bit.
In writing this post, I used the methodology that John described during the AAPMD webinar I hosted with him as a guest. Many of the examples shared here are drawn directly from his experience.
Why I Learned to Lead With Empathy And How It Changed Everything
I’ve interviewed over 1,000 airway patients in the last 30 years. Many of them were in chronic, intractable pain. Most initially hesitated to share their stories on camera, and understandably so. It’s hard to be vulnerable when you’re suffering.
Through experience, I learned something important. Patients would only open up to me when they felt completely understood. No judgment. No pressure. Just empathy, presence, and a genuine commitment to helping them share their stories.
They needed to know I was there to help them tell their story. Only then would they partner with me so that, together, we could create a message that would help ease the suffering of others experiencing similar pain.
Today, I carry this same principle into every conversation I have with dentists and orthodontists like you.
I’ve learned the importance of stepping fully into your shoes when your advertising isn’t working.
I know how vulnerable that can feel. Especially when:
- You spend thousands on campaigns that produce no meaningful return.
- You remain invisible to patients who desperately need your help.
- You become overwhelmed by ad complexity but underwhelmed by results.
You’re not alone.
More importantly, you don’t have to keep struggling. There’s a comprehensive approach – multi-channel advertising – that integrates all of your marketing efforts into one cohesive, patient-centered strategy.
Executed properly, mutli-channel advertising builds trust, credibility, and lasting momentum with patients and prospective patients.
Let’s explore exactly how it works—and how you can use it to finally achieve the advertising results you deserve.
Why “Set it and Forget it” Google (and Meta) Ad Campaigns Generally Fail Over Time
Many dentists try to spend their way into rapid patient growth. But sustainable success is never about how much you spend. It’s about the brand clarity, value, and risk management behind your marketing investments.
Imagine this familiar scenario:
A dentist, motivated and hopeful, decides it’s finally time to grow the practice through digital advertising. They invest thousands of dollars into a new Facebook or Google Ads campaign, expecting an immediate influx of new patients.
At first, there’s excitement.
Clicks increase. Web traffic spikes. The marketing rep is gushing. There’s growing optimism about potential new patient consults. But days turn into weeks, and that excitement quickly fades as the results simply don’t come. The phones don’t ring as expected. (OR they do ring but it is the wrong type of patient calling.) New consults (and treatment acceptance) remain stubbornly low. A growing sense of frustration, resentment and wasted investment starts to set in.
Here’s why this happens (far more often than you might think):
- No Follow-Up Nurturing Strategy:
Many dentists mistakenly assume ads alone can convert strangers into trusting patients. Advertising doesn’t build trust by itself. Relationships have to be built over time. Without structured follow-up to nurture leads, ads remain purely transactional.
- Inconsistent Messaging:
Patients respond best when they encounter clear, consistent messaging that aligns across all touchpoints. When your website says one thing, your ads another, and your front desk something else entirely, patients quickly become confused and move on.
- Lack of Brand Integration and Relationship Building:
Sustainable growth comes from brand coherence. Integrating your core message, values, and patient experience across every interaction builds value over time. Ads rarely build lasting trust or loyalty when they run in isolation. They need to align with your brand. They need to reflect your patient experience. They must connect to your community.
The reality is this:
Advertising Without Brand Clarity, Alignment, and Nurturing Isn’t a Strategy. It’s A High Stakes Gamble That Rarely Pays Off.
Fortunately, there’s a smarter, more effective path forward—one that brings lasting results through an omnichannel approach.
If advertising alone doesn’t build sustainable growth, then what does?
To answer that question, I invited John Schwind, VP of Growth & Development at Freedom Dental Health Systems, onto a recent AAPMD webinar. John embodies strategic clarity, proven discipline, and a commitment to fully integrated marketing.
John has spent his career managing substantial advertising budgets, coordinating dental practice acquisitions, recruiting doctors and executing multi-location growth strategies.
At Freedom Dental Health, he partners closely with CEO Ryan Robinson, DDS, ensuring each practice doesn’t merely advertise, but fully integrates their advertising into a cohesive patient experience.
John’s track record demonstrates what’s possible when you move beyond isolated tactics toward a unified omnichannel approach.
Under his guidance, practices have consistently achieved sustainable patient growth, stronger brand loyalty, and deeper community trust. In short, John doesn’t chase quick results—he builds lasting momentum. And his insights can help you do the same.
How John Schwind of Freedom Dental Health Uses Multi-Channel Marketing to Build a Clear Brand, Reduce Risk, and Drive Sustainable Growth
If you take only one insight from John Schwind’s approach, let it be this:
Patients need more than exposure. They need trust.
Trust isn’t something you can buy simply by increasing your advertising budget. It’s built strategically, patiently, and intentionally across every interaction patients have with your practice.
Whether they’re visiting your website, seeing your ads, engaging with your social media, or walking through your office doors, each touchpoint must reinforce the same clear, consistent message:
We understand you. We care about you. We’re here to help you.
This is precisely why John advocates so strongly for an omnichannel marketing approach rather than relying on single-channel tactics.
Think of relying on just one marketing channel like investing your entire savings into a single stock. It’s an extremely high-risk strategy. When that one channel falters or inevitably gets too expensive (as Google AdWords always does), your entire patient growth plan collapses.
Lasting success in marketing requires deliberately managing these risks. Rather than relying on a single channel, strategically diversify your approach to add value and stability to your practice’s growth.
Multi-Channel vs. Single-Channel Advertising
| Multi-channel (Integrated) | Single-Channel (Fragmented) |
| Consistent messaging across all platforms | Mixed or conflicting messages |
| Relationship-focused approach | Transactional, short-term thinking |
| Builds sustainable patient trust | Builds temporary, superficial awareness |
| Diversified strategy reduces risk | High risk—like putting all your savings in one stock |
| Patient loyalty grows over time | Patient attention fades quickly |
Why Multi-channel Advertising Succeeds Over Time As Single-Channel Strategies Become Less Profitable & Ultimately Fail
When John Schwind talks about omnichannel advertising, he’s describing something very specific. It’s not simply “doing a lot of things at once”. It’s integrating key marketing channels so they complement each other, creating genuine, lasting relationships with patients and prospective patients.
Here are the primary channels John consistently integrates:
- Paid Advertising:
Digital ads, retargeting campaigns, targeted local promotions, streaming cable television podcast advertising, social media platform advertising and paid search. All designed to attract initial interest and establish brand familiarity. - Owned Media:
Websites that clearly articulate unique value to patients. Engaging social media content. Informative email newsletters. Targeted email follow-up sequences. All of his owned media is consistently aligned to nurture and educate potential patients. - Earned Media:
Authentic patient testimonials, word-of-mouth referrals, and online reviews that build trust and validate your expertise in the community. - Community Engagement:
Hosting and participating in study clubs, webinars, and local events that foster genuine connections, demonstrate expertise, and establish his doctors as trusted community leaders.
A Real-World Example from John’s Experience:
In our recent AAPMD webinar, John detailed a practical example from his work with Freedom Dental Health. He recently used an integrated iHeart advertising package that strategically combined streaming cable TV, targeted podcast advertising, digital display ads, and coordinated email marketing campaigns.
John’s team studied local demographics closely. They tailored their messaging carefully. They appealed to both younger and older patient groups across their Delaware market. They paired compelling digital ads with targeted follow-up emails. These emails educated leads, reinforced messaging, and kept their practices top-of-mind.
The outcome was immediate and impactful.
Practices saw increased direct responses from potential patients, significantly improved engagement with their educational content, and a measurable boost in enthusiasm from the teams involved.
The success of this campaign wasn’t about spending more. It was about strategically integrating each marketing channel to deliver one cohesive, resonant message:
We’re here. We care. We can help.
Ready to start moving your practice in this direction?
Here’s how you can practically implement John Schwind’s omnichannel advertising approach in your own practice, starting right now.
To build lasting success, you must consistently add value to your brand and consciously manage advertising risk. Here’s exactly how to put that into practice, starting right now:
Step 1: Audit Your Messaging for Consistency
Start by reviewing your existing marketing materials. Look critically at your website, ads, social media, and emails.
- Is your core message clear and consistent across every channel?
- Does your positioning distinctly communicate your unique value to your ideal patients?
- If you want to know more about positioning, I wrote 3 blog posts that featured 3 airway practices. Here are the links:
- The Strategy Behind a Thriving Dual Brand Dental Practice: Where General & Restorative Dentistry Meet Foundational Airway Healthcare
- Dr. Laurie Johnson’s Positioning Playbook: How She Fills Her Practice with the Right Patients & Earns Their YES
- How Two Young Dentists Built a Brand Patients Trust…From Scratch
- If you spot inconsistencies or mixed messages, align everything to speak with one clear voice.
Step 2: Coordinate Ads with Nurturing Sequences To Existing Patients
Pair your paid advertising with well-timed follow-up campaigns.
- When you run digital ads promoting airway or dental services, immediately back them up with nurturing email sequences or engaging social media content. This is one of the most under utilized tactics in dental marketing in my experience. All of your patients should be getting periodic emails letting them know what the practice is doing and offering. Those emails get forwarded more than you might think!
- Offer genuinely helpful information, education, and reassurance, building upon the initial interest created by your ads.
- Each follow-up touchpoint should deepen trust, not simply repeat the initial ad message.
Step 3: Deepen Community Engagement with a Branded Study Club
Extend your digital reach into meaningful, face-to-face interactions.
- We strongly recommend creating a branded Study Club that meets 2 to 4 times per year, providing a consistent opportunity to engage, educate, and build trust with local referral partners and potential patients.
- Actively promote your Study Club events through your social media platforms. Consider using targeted Facebook advertising to amplify your reach, utilizing a lookalike audience based on your personal profile. Your own network likely includes an excellent representation of your ideal attendees.
- Invite your digital ad audiences directly into these events. This personal interaction helps solidify connections, transforming casual interest into committed patient relationships.
- For a detailed example of how impactful this can be, read my recent blog about Dr. Evie Sabet’s Craniofacial Sleep Study Club. Evie’s story offers practical insights on leveraging a Study Club to boost referrals, credibility, and patient trust through consistent local engagement.
Why Implementing These Strategies With Consistency Will Improve Your Results
Consistent implementation isn’t about chasing quick wins. It’s about steadily adding value to your brand and systematically managing risk in your ad spend.
There’s no quick fix in marketing. It’s tempting to chase fast results through isolated tactics, but lasting success is built by adding value to your brand and managing the inherent risk in your ad spend. It takes consistency, discipline, and strategic clarity.
- Build value (and trust) into your brand through consistent messaging over time.
Patients need repeated exposure to a clear and compelling message before they feel comfortable committing to treatment. Regular, disciplined communication positions your practice as reliable and trustworthy. - Strategic nurturing moves beyond quick impressions to lasting relationships.
Short-term advertising grabs attention, but sustained follow-up is what converts attention into patient trust. Disciplined nurturing across multiple touchpoints turns curiosity into genuine engagement. - Community engagement thrives on consistent presence, not occasional appearances.
Real connections require ongoing effort. Regular, authentic involvement in your local community signals genuine care, distinguishing your practice from those who seek quick transactional gains.
In short, disciplined, consistent implementation of these omnichannel strategies transforms your marketing from unpredictable to dependable, providing steady growth that compounds significantly over time.
The Three Most Costly Advertising Mistakes Dentists Make That Hurt Brand Value and Increase Risk – And How to Fix Them
I talk with experienced dentists and practice owners every day who make these same advertising mistakes—often without even realizing it. John and I have seen firsthand the frustration and lost opportunity these pitfalls create. Here are John’s key insights on how to spot these common errors early, along with clear strategies to correct them:
- Mistake: Relying solely on ads for patient growth. (And even worse – a single platform)
Solution: Integrate thoughtful follow-up strategies such as email sequences, retargeting, and nurturing campaigns. This consistent approach ensures your initial ad spend leads to lasting relationships. - Mistake: Ignoring brand consistency across marketing channels.
Solution: Maintain unified, cohesive messaging everywhere your patients encounter you: website, social media, email, and local events. A disciplined brand centric approach builds a recognizable, trusted presence for you and your practice. - Mistake: Neglecting community engagement.
Solution: I’ve found nothing more powerful for building your personal and practice brands than community engagement and branded Study Clubs. These events foster meaningful connections, generate a steady stream of qualified referrals, and demonstrate genuine care through real, personal interactions. In my experience, this approach consistently moves practices and practitioners beyond transactional relationships and significantly boosts patient trust and loyalty. If you take anything away from this article, let it be this.
You Don’t Have To Overhaul Your Marketing Overnight. Instead, Commit To These Three Focused Actions:
1. Review Your Positioning.
Are you clearly communicating who you are, who you serve, and why patients should choose you? (Blogs on Positioning: The Dentist Lounge. Dr. Laurie. Christin Buehler)
2. Identify the Gaps.
Look critically at your current strategies. Are you overly reliant on Google ads, neglecting your email list, or operating without a structured referral plan?
3. Launch One New Initiative.
Start small but purposeful. Perhaps a targeted email campaign, a structured referral program, or your first strategically integrated local event.
This approach respects the reality that consistent, disciplined improvement—not quick fixes—drives real, sustainable results.
Remember, lasting success in your marketing isn’t about spending more. It’s about strategically building brand value and carefully managing advertising risks.
If You Have Questions, Need Support, or Just Want a Fresh Perspective on Your Current Advertising Approach, My Team and I are Here to Help.
If today’s insights resonated with you—and you’re tired of hoping your ads will eventually work—let’s talk.
In a focused, free 60-minute Lunch & Learn, we’ll review your current advertising efforts, pinpoint exactly where your system might be breaking down, and map out clear next steps to turn your scattered campaigns into a disciplined, integrated patient-growth machine.
Here’s exactly what you’ll walk away with:
- Clarity about the gaps currently undermining your marketing.
- Actionable, practical recommendations to build trust and consistency.
- A straightforward, sustainable blueprint customized specifically to your practice goals.
It’s not about spending more money.
It’s about spending smarter—with empathy, consistency, and strategic clarity.
If you’re ready to stop guessing and start growing, I’d be honored to help you make that shift.👉 [Book your complimentary Lunch & Learn right here.]