Marketing by the Numbers: Why Data Beats Gut Instinct Every Time Featuring Justin Strong, EP 184
Episode Overview
In this refreshing conversation, Justin Strong from Room 118 challenges everything you think you know about marketing. Moving away from the "throw spaghetti at the wall" approach that's given marketing a bad reputation, Justin advocates for a scientific, data-driven methodology that treats marketing like clinical diagnostics - complete with "x-rays" before making recommendations.
Drawing from his analysis of over 4,000 dental practices through the Dental Marketing Index, Justin reveals why traditional marketing approaches often fail and how practice owners can make informed decisions based on hard data rather than gut feelings or sales pitches.
Key Topics Discussed
• The Marketing Trust Problem: Why marketing has earned its bad reputation and how to identify high-integrity marketers who prioritize results over profits
• The Dental Marketing Index: A comprehensive analysis of 4,000+ practices that reveals what actually correlates with success vs. what agencies typically sell
• Market Diagnostics: Why every marketing decision should start with understanding your local market demographics, competition, and patient behavior patterns
• The "Near Me" Revolution: How patient behavior has fundamentally shifted, with "dentist near me" becoming the most searched term and average patient lifetime dropping from 14-17 years to under 5 years
• The Sales Gap: Why great marketing often fails due to poor follow-through - missing online schedulers, unreturned calls, and inadequate patient experience systems
• Competition as Innovation Driver: How high-density markets like DC create exceptional patient experiences through competitive pressure
• The Science of Marketing: Moving from creative guesswork to measurable, forecastable strategies based on data analysis
Memorable Quotes
"Marketing's job should be to tell you, is this possible in your local market? If so, where is our best opportunity for success? And then it should give practical recommendations based on that."
"It's sort of like a patient walked in and said, I have a tooth. Therefore, I need you to pull this tooth. And your response is going to be, why don't we take a look at the tooth? How about that x-ray first?"
"All a brand is is the small bit of space you occupy in your patients' minds. What do they think when they think of your brand?"
"If you think they're doing it, they've been doing it for a while." (on data privacy and corporate surveillance)
"There is a way to reduce complexity... hire good people to solve problems. If you understand where you want to go as a practice owner... recognize what the challenges are you must overcome, and hire good people to solve those problems."
The Bottom Line
Marketing doesn't have to be a guessing game. When approached scientifically - with proper market analysis, competitive benchmarking, and data-driven decision making - it becomes a powerful tool for practice growth. The key is finding marketers who prioritize your success over their service offerings and who can provide the objective "map" you need to navigate from where you are to where you want to go.
Bio:
Justin Strong is the Founder and CEO of Room 118, Inc., a dental research and marketing agency focused on data-driven practice growth. With 25 years of experience in marketing and strategy, he's led multi-billion-dollar initiatives at Verizon Enterprise Solutions and McCann. Recognizing the gap in evidence-based dental marketing, Justin pioneered the Dental Marketing Index, analyzing 4,000+ practices to identify what actually drives results. He specializes in helping practice owners move from random marketing tactics to predictable, high-ROI strategies using Fortune 500-level data insights applied to local dental marketing.
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