Like it or not, being a dentist won’t automatically make your practice successful. Most dentists don’t realize this. As a result, they struggle and wonder why they can’t get more appointments, see more walk-ins, or get more clients.
In case you didn’t know, you’re competing with about 200k other dental practitioners. Interestingly, there’s more than enough clients to go round, as you have just 61 dentists for every 100,000 American residents.
So, if you find yourself frequently thinking “I need more patients, it’s time to ramp up your marketing,” it’s time to use the best digital marketing tips at your disposal to get those results.
So, which marketing tips are the best for dentists? Keep reading to find out!
Search Engine Marketing
Let’s assume that you already have a website. If you don’t, your business is already dead.
You need to set up a website immediately if you want to get some clients online. And no, Yelp, Angie’s List, and YP listings don’t count. A solid website for your business is an absolute must-have.
Once that’s done, you need to be found on the search engines. The most popular one is Google. You’ll want to aim to get your website in the top 3 positions for your primary dentistry-related keyword phrases.
The only way to do this is to use digital marketing tips like search engine optimization (SEO). SEO will help you get ranked for your target keywords. The better you or your marketing agency is at SEO, the higher your odds are of getting in those top search engine positions.
Pay Per Click Advertising
The more popular pay-per-click ad programs are Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Microsoft Ads. If you must do any, start with Google Ads. Google currently has the highest search engine share in the world.
So, pay to have your ads listed on the search engine. Please note that this can be quite expensive depending on your coverage area, keyword competition, and keyword volume.
Focus on long-tail hyper-targeted keywords, instead of broad short tail keyword terms. The more specific your keywords are, the lower your cost-per-click (this is how much Google charges you every time someone clicks through your listing) will be.
You can also set up pay-per-call marketing campaigns there too. With these, you’ll pay a certain amount when people call you directly from Google.
Done correctly, pay-per-click ads can generate decent ROI for you -about $2 for every $1 spent. A key tip to remember is to use highly specific and effective calls to action (CTAs).
For instance, if your ads about Invisalign services, CTAs like “learn more about Invisalign” will get higher conversion rates than non-specific ones.
Social Media Marketing
If you’re not on social media sites these days, your business is at a clear disadvantage. You need to set up active Facebook and Twitter accounts at the very least. This is where you can engage with your audience, prospects, and clients.
Successful dental practices typically have active social media profiles. This lends some credibility to your business and does a lot for your trust factor. These days, people look up their dentists Facebook page or Twitter handle just to get a feel of how they operate.
They also check for reviews on these social media pages because they feel they’re more genuine. So, engage with your audience here by posting oral care and dental health tips and videos.
You can also engage your clients by featuring some of your office employees, addressing common dental issues, and showing that you’re running a real business with real people.
Content Marketing
One of the powerful dental marketing tips is to focus on content marketing. This is incredibly effective if you do it right. A simple approach would be to write a blog post every week, addressing specific dental problems.
Make sure that the article is written in plain and simple English. This way, the average individual will understand what you’re talking about. The simpler and less complicated your written language is, the better it is for your engagement.
If you don’t have the time to write, you should consider doing weekly video content. All it takes is a phone camera to set it up. It’s that simple. Just dole out tips and information every week.
This way, when prospects come to your site, they’ll learn a ton and have a general idea of your process.
Also, it gives you an opportunity to showcase your personality, office culture, and allow people to get a sense of who you are.
Newsletter or Email Marketing
Did you know that the average dental practice has a 65 percent patient retention rate? This is better than the average retention rate in many industries. Yet dentists don’t use this to their advantage.
The good news is it’s easy, thanks to newsletter or email marketing. This is great for taking advantage of your existing patient base.
Most dentists don’t know this, but you can do way more than you’re doing now to get your old patients walking through the door.
Apart from your practice protocols, you need to set up an email marketing campaign that’ll allow you to be in frequent contact with your clients.
This could be in the form of dental newsletters that go out once a month. You can also add a fortnightly email addressing major dental problems.
All you have to do is set up the email sequence to go out on the said dates, preload them with your email content. It’s that simple.
Are There Other Effective Digital Marketing Tips?
Yes, there are other powerful digital marketing tips. But, the aforementioned are the very best of them all. If you apply all of these tips, your dental practice should start enjoying increased patronage and new clients.
For more dental marketing tips like this, check out At Your Business blog.
