As more and more dental practices spring up everywhere, competition between them to survive and generate revenue has never been greater. Just a decade ago, dentists only needed good clinical skills and basic marketing knowledge to thrive. Unfortunately, nowadays, running a successful and profitable dental practice requires more than just excellent clinical skills.
Today, every dental practice needs to have a clear-cut business plan in place, with digital marketing being the primary focus. Unfortunately, dental schools continue to focus solely on teaching clinical skills and cannot recognize the importance of teaching business and marketing strategies to the graduating dentists. As a result, many dentists struggle to ensure the profitability of their “business.”
This article explains 7 easy-to-implement and straightforward dental marketing strategies that can help you stand out, improve your patient flow, and increase your earnings.
1. Improve your Online Presence
Gone are the days when dentists could attract patients simply by word of mouth. Today, it has become necessary for dental practices to ensure their online presence and one of the best ways to do that is to get their practice indexed in the Google search directory.
According to statistics, over 49% of consumers use Google services when searching for a new product, service, or item. Every day, over 3.5 billion Google searches are conducted. This means that you can harness the power of Google Maps and Google ads to attract patients and grow your online presence.
Note: Small Business Memes Ideas
2. Invest in a Good Website
Having a fully equipped dental practice with a nice interior and breathtaking view is no longer enough. In today’s world, you may struggle to attract patients if your practice doesn’t have an eye-catching and informative website.
Nowadays, potential patients visit the dental practice’s website first and only decide to visit if they find the information they are looking for. Therefore, good website design should include:
- User-friendly interface that can be easily accessed on mobile devices
- An easy-to-understand overview of the services offered
- Introduction to the dentist and team members
- Information on business hours with contact information for an emergency dentist appointment
- Option for online appointment scheduling
- Offering online chat to assist with questions and scheduling appointments
- Link to the practice’s social media pages
3. Harness the Power of SEO
According to statistics, searches for businesses and services that include “near me” have increased 200% since 2019. This shows that consumers, including dental patients, prefer to find businesses near them. So, the better your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is, the more likely your practice will appear on the first result page of a Google search.
Besides this, investing in a long-term SEO strategy ensures that we have included all relevant keywords in the website content used for local search – which benefits your online presence.
4. Mobile Push Notification
It is one of the most effective retention strategies on the market as it reminds your clients about regular dental visits for strong and healthy teeth. You can also share the current campaign that you are running on social media through mobile push messaging so that they can connect on those platforms as well.
Mobile push marketing will be convenient for loyal clients; because they can directly book a schedule just by clicking on the link that appears below the message
5. Utilize the Power of Social Media
Dentists should never underestimate the power of “digital” word of mouth, spread through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. An NRC Health Survey found that over 92% of the consumers would rely on online reviews – from Google or social media platforms – before making a purchasing decision. It was also revealed that about 75% of them would only trust a business or practice if it had at least 7 online reviews.
Dentists must be active on social media to run campaigns or to engage on social media platforms 2-3 times per week.
Following are content that you can use to create a post or short video:
- Photos of your team members, office, and events you take part in, particularly for the benefit of your community
- Dental tips, especially as they relate to overall health care
- Client results, i.e. before and after images.
- Current clients’ testimonials.
- Offer seasonal discounts or packages
- Updates about dental technology and treatment techniques that you are using.
- Host a virtual event or Go live for AMA (Ask Me Anything related to the Dental field )
6. Collaborate with Influencer
Offer free or discounted services to influencers for the promotion of your services.
Make an engaging short video / Reel / YouTube shorts and post it on social media platforms. Tag the influencer so that followers of the influence will reach out to your clinic as well. It is noted that more than 49% of consumers depend on the social media influencer recommendation before any purchase or appointment of a service.
P.S: Make sure these influencers have a following in the geographical area that you want to target.
7. Public Relations
Through the public events, it will create a more positive brand image in the mind of your targeted audience; that will boost your engagement for your practice. You can run an offline campaign regarding the awareness of Oral cancer, gum disease, dental caries like- How to prevent this disease or take total care of your teeth.
This will create a favorable relationship with the target audience, as they will remember your value-added information in their life. It’s one of the great ways to raise awareness about your offerings and grow your business.
In today’s competitive scenario, running a profitable dental business may be difficult – but not impossible. With the dental industry market size expected to grow to over $156.4 billion in the US alone; it is high time for dentists to learn and implement the dental marketing strategies presented in this article. This will help them survive in this cut-throat competition, attract more patients, and ensure that they are a steady source of revenue.
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