For context, Smile Doctors manages over 550 locations with 300 unique teams across the country. Jon's been in the dental marketing game for a decade, previously leading marketing at Dental One Partners and Sage Dental before joining Smile Doctors.
The conversation covered everything from AI's impact on search to building vendor partnerships to scaling marketing operations without proportionally scaling costs.
Jon Kaufman has been working with DoctorLogic for over 10 years across three different dental organizations. In an industry where most vendor relationships last 18-24 months, that longevity tells a story.
What's behind that loyalty? Industry specialization.
"I look for partners who are very good at certain things. I don't believe you can be an expert at many things in marketing."
But here's the critical distinction that often gets missed: Jon isn't talking about finding separate vendors for websites, SEO, content, and paid media. He's talking about finding partners who specialize in your industry.
Healthcare marketing requires specialized expertise that generalist agencies—serving retail, B2B, restaurants, and healthcare all at once—simply can't develop:
These aren't things you can learn by doing "some healthcare marketing on the side" while primarily serving other industries.
DoctorLogic doesn't just do websites or just do SEO. We provide comprehensive digital marketing services—websites, local SEO, content marketing, paid advertising, reputation management, and AI tools—but all specifically designed for healthcare.
That's the specialization Jon values.
As he explained: "I have really smart people on my team that manage: we've got Dr. Logic, who's really great at this thing, and I've partnered them with a state-of-the-art content development system."
DoctorLogic provides the comprehensive healthcare marketing foundation. When unique needs arise outside standard healthcare marketing, specialized vendors supplement. The internal team at Smile Doctors coordinates everything.
When evaluating marketing partners, ask:
Red flag: "We do marketing for medical practices, retail stores, B2B companies, restaurants, and real estate."
Green flag: "We exclusively serve healthcare practices and understand the unique compliance, patient journey, and credibility requirements of medical marketing."
The goal is comprehensive marketing services delivered by true healthcare industry specialists.
Here's a striking stat: Most individual dental practices have 0.5 to 1 full-time marketing resource per location.
For a 550-location organization, traditional thinking would suggest you need 550 marketing people.
That's roughly a 1:3 ratio—one marketing person for every three locations. How?
The key insight: Scale doesn't have to mean proportional cost increases. But it does require the right technology foundation and partners who understand enterprise healthcare operations.
"It's critical to us to have the right technology foundation in place in order to be able to scale effectively at an enterprise level."
Smile Doctors didn't achieve this 1:3 ratio by working with generic marketing agencies. They achieved it by partnering with healthcare marketing specialists who built enterprise-grade tools specifically for multi-location medical practices.
If you're in healthcare marketing, you've probably noticed organic traffic patterns shifting. We're seeing it across our entire client base, and Jon confirmed Smile Doctors is experiencing the same thing.
When someone gets a comprehensive answer from an AI search result (like ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI Overviews), they're clicking through to your site already informed and further along in their decision-making process.
The longer and more detailed the AI-generated answer that links to your site, the more qualified that visitor is when they arrive.
For healthcare practices working with DoctorLogic, we're already building content strategies around AI search behavior—ensuring your medical content is comprehensive, accurate, and structured for AI citation.
Jon's model isn't about hiring dozens of agencies. It's about having a comprehensive healthcare marketing partner who can coordinate with any additional specialized needs.
This isn't a "hub-and-spoke" model with 15 different vendors. It's a comprehensive healthcare marketing partner supplemented by specialized vendors only when needed.
Jon was candid about the approach: "It's not the most resource-efficient. But it certainly is the most effective, so far as I've found."
For smaller practices (3-50 locations), this often means:
You don't need complexity. You need the right healthcare marketing specialist.
This simple statement is Smile Doctors' operating motto, and it's more than just motivational.
"We're never gonna be smaller than we all are today, and that's kind of our motto."
This mindset informs every decision:
If you're building systems that optimize for your current size, you're building wrong. Every time you grow, you'll need to rebuild.
Instead, build for where you're going:
This is why Jon chose DoctorLogic. Our platform works for a single-location practice or a 500-location DSO. The same enterprise healthcare marketing tools, just scaled to your size.
The marginal cost of "over-engineering" for scale is tiny compared to the cost of switching vendors every 12-18 months as you outgrow them.
Managing 550+ locations isn't just about having more resources—it's about having better systems and the right partners.
The common thread through all five lessons? Intentional design.
Jon and the Smile Doctors team don't just react to growth; they architect for it. They don't settle for "good enough" agencies; they partner with healthcare marketing specialists. They don't chase every marketing trend; they focus on what drives real conversions.
If you're working with us (or considering it), you're already applying Jon's philosophy.
DoctorLogic specializes exclusively in healthcare digital marketing. We're not spreading our expertise across retail, B2B, restaurants, and healthcare. We're focused entirely on medical practices—developing deep expertise in HIPAA compliance, patient journey, medical terminology, provider credibility, and healthcare-specific marketing strategies.
We provide comprehensive services (websites, SEO, content marketing, paid advertising, reputation management, AI tools) all built specifically for healthcare.
That's why clients like Smile Doctors stick with us for 10+ years across multiple organizations. Healthcare marketing expertise compounds over time.
Whether you have 1 location or 500, you need a healthcare marketing specialist who can scale with you.
Want to watch the full webinar to hear Jon's complete breakdown of enterprise dental marketing, AI's impact on the industry, and how to build a marketing operation that scales?
About Jon Kaufman
Jon Kaufman is the Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at Smile Doctors, overseeing marketing operations for 550+ locations and 300 unique teams. He previously led marketing at Sage Dental (130 locations) and Dental One Partners (multi-state, multi-specialty operations). He's been in corporate dentistry for 10+ years.
About Smile Doctors
Smile Doctors is one of the fastest-growing dental organizations in the country, managing 550+ locations with 300 unique teams. Founded about 10 years ago, they compete with major players like Heartland Dental and Aspen Dental.
About DoctorLogic
DoctorLogic is a healthcare-focused digital marketing agency serving over 1,000 medical practices. We provide comprehensive digital marketing services—websites, local SEO, content marketing, paid advertising, reputation management, and AI tools—designed exclusively for healthcare providers. Our enterprise-level platform scales from single-location practices to 500+ location DSOs.