In today’s day and age, It is all about marketing strategy and consistent execution to grow your dental practice. It is the key to the new patient inflow and the subsequent revenue. If you fail to execute a consistent dental patient marketing strategy, then you’ll not only lose your potential patients but also the old promising ones to your next-door dental clinic. The dental clinic space, like others, is also a competitive market. Unless you think about your growth strategies, you’re bound to be left behind.
But before implementing any dental marketing strategies, it is always a good idea to first evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. This way you know exactly what areas you lack and can particularly focus on them. In this blog post, we will share some awesome tips for marketing of your dental practice.
Building a Dental Website
Nowadays, most people don’t bother going through phone books or visiting multiple clinics to find the best dentists instead, they search online, visit dental practice’s websites, read reviews, and schedule appointments. It is crucial to have an impressive website. Your website should have the following:
- The website design should be professional yet friendly. Most people are scared of the thought of getting a dental job done. Use friendly pictures of your clinic to show that it’s cozy and secure.
- An about us tab that includes you and your clinic’s pictures, team pictures, and a brief biography
- Profiles for each dentist and their specialty
- Online Scheduling
- Online Payments (try to provide as many options as possible)
- Live chat messaging for any queries
- Informative, eye-catching videos
- Blogs that educate patients about oral health and dental procedures
- FAQs section for any possible questions
- Patient reviews
Local SEO: Optimize Your Google My Business Profile
Once you make your Google My Business profile and provide your exact location, Google synchronizes it with your local area searches and hence, you’re featured on Google’s Business list for that specific area. Though it may sound new, however, the profiles of nearby clinics ranking at the top are a result of local search engine optimization.
To efficiently market your dental practice, it is crucial to have the following on your Google profile:
- Name
- Location
- Phone Number
- Business Description
- Pictures of Team and Dental Clinic
- Timings
- Website
- Reviews
Whether it is a restaurant or a dental clinic, most people would use a local search first. It is imperative to have a well-optimized and all-rounded Google My Business profile to ensure a robust online presence.
Get Involved with Your Patient Community
Online marketing is critical, but it is not the only way. In order to target parents and seniors, in-person sessions still prove to be very effective.
You can get involved with your community by giving awareness sessions in schools and universities, attending festivals in your local community, or even organizing charity events. This will help the local residents to get to know you.
Social Media Marketing
By far the most popular and revolutionary marketing strategy for any business is to create your Instagram and Facebook profiles. This broadens your clinic’s reach and is a great way to keep your patients updated on any new offers or news. Whether it’s a Mother’s Day discount or emergency consultation offers, they’ll give people instant access to what’s new.
The most effective way would be if you use these platforms for collaborations. In a world of social media influencers, it’s the easiest way to attract new customers through referrals.
Facebook Ads Strategy
According to many studies, most health care decisions are made by women, hence if you shape these Facebook ads in a way that specifically targets women and their interests, you can easily get their attention to check out your dental office and possibly become potential clients. You can also retarget people who visited your website on Facebook.
Dental Referral Discounts
We all are skeptical even after reading online reviews of a any place, however, that one honest review by a friend or family member makes us find it credible and trust it right away. If that one recommendation is incentivized, it can lead to a large pool of new patients.
This means that for every first referral visit, you offer around a 20% discount. You can promote this on your social media, and website, and get more exposure through existing patients.
Optimize Your Website for Organic Traffic
When you search for something on Google, the first few websites that you see listed at the top are a result of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO promotes and ranks your website higher than others.
With the use of SEO, you can integrate high-quality blogs, solid PR, social media, and educational dentistry material to increase your website’s Google traffic. To rank higher or keep your current place, your website must be regularly optimized.
If you’re looking for a promising digital marketing partner that can help you with dental marketing and dental billing, Zap Dental Billing is your go-to company. You can check out our services here. From retaining old patients to attracting new ones, we successfully do it with our well-thought dental marketing strategies.
Dental Patient Reviews
Word of mouth is the best form of marketing. Honest reviews and ratings are the ones that really help patients trust you. Reviews establish credibility. Try to get as many dental reviews as possible for online credibility. Ask for a review on Yelp, Google, and Facebook page
- Create a crisp testimonial video of your happy customers
- Get a video review from a celebrity or local influencer
- Create a follow-up system to make sure people do leave you a review
Sending Out Dental Marketing Newsletters
This is an old and tested way of making sure your subscribers remain updated on any possible discount offers or services. You can also share tips on how to take care of oral health and ask your email subscribers to share the tips with their friends and family.
Get Yourself Included in Prominent Dental Sites
You must have seen numerous sites that provide a list of all possible nearby choices for a particular business or product. They even provide you with an option to rate or review the choices after a visit. This is a convenient way for people to choose the best possible option. Hence, if you can get yourself featured on these listing websites, it would increase your exposure and help attract new patients.
Collaborate With Local Influencers
As mentioned before this is an effective way to get people to know you. Most people nowadays tend to follow local influencers. So a good review by such an individual can generate a lot of hype about your dental clinic.
Video Marketing for Dental Practice
Most people would rather watch a short video than read lengthy paragraphs on a dental website. Here are some video marketing ideas for you:
- Video on your professional journey
- Patient Review Videos
- Educational Videos
- Treatment Videos
- Videos on your year-around efforts to get involved with your local community
Dentist Appointment Reminders
Is it all about getting new patients? What about staying in touch with existing patients? Even they need constant reminders to keep visiting you. If you fail to engage with them often, they may get swayed away to other dental clinics. We suggest having an automated reminder system in place for upcoming appointments and follow-up procedures.
Conclusion
We hope that the strategies shared in this blog gave you a good idea of how to attract new patients to your dental practice and retain the existing ones. The dental practice market is becoming competitive. Dental patient marketing plays quite a significant role in maintaining and even increasing your monthly inflow of patients and revenue.
If you have any further questions regarding marketing for a dental practice or need help with your dental billing, Zap Dental Billing is here to help.