Key Strategies to Jump-Start Your Dental Marketing

Rise Above the “Noise” in Your Dental Marketing

More dental practices means more competition…right?? That’s true to an extent.

On the positive side - more dental practices can translate to more opportunity for the dental-seeking public to access care. As it relates to provider competition - differentiating your practice from the mass of other providers requires intentional strategies.

Exploring How to Get More Patients in Your Dental Office (And Create Long-Term Loyalty) embraces that strategic challenge. You can rise above the competitive “noise” by highlighting the strategies that you utilize to attract (and keep) more patients in your dental office. And what strategies are those?

Make Communication a Priority

”Everything about your dental practice communicates something. It’s vital that what’s being seen and heard by your new and current patients leads to long-term relationships.” ^[1]

• Keep your language engaging on the phone, face-to-face, and online.
  
  
• Listen and respond to patient preferences for scheduling, treatment presentations, and financial discussions.
  
  
• Allow them to share their feedback via reviews and referrals.
  

   

Make a Manageable First Impression

By “manageable” the implication is staying in-control of how patients first interact with your dental practice.

”First impressions are typically formed through your website and/or an online search. This reality drives how to get more patients in your dental practice through digital strategies.” ^[2]

Manage the digital “first-impression” made by your website.

• Keep it updated with relevant images, staff and contact information, hours of operation, etc.
  
  
• Keep it appealing by design and ease of use (navigation).
  
  
• Keep it responsive through screen layout and mobile responsiveness.
  
  
• Keep it searchable with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and fresh, organic content (including local keywords).

And in every impression you make online or offline, keep it friendly and engaging with etiquette, kindness, and courtesy.

Make Feedback a Welcome Resource for Improvement

”It’s better for your practice that you welcome their feedback - however it’s served. People (your patients included) like to know their voice and opinion matters.” ^[3]

• Create accessible feedback “loops” through online forms, follow-up texts/emails, post appointment phone calls.
  
  
• Ask questions specific to your patient’s experience with their treatment, your team, and your practice in general.
  
  
• Allow them to help you improve your practice via shared insights.
  
  
• Process patient feedback and reviews with your team to improve your practice processes.
  
  
• Mine online reviews (positive and negative) for improvement opportunities.

Make Social Media an Intentional Strategy for Dental Patient Relationships

• Create engagement by posting content on a consistent schedule.
  
  
• Curate and share content that’s useful to your patients and the dental-seeking public.
  
  
• Keep your posts balanced between personal (in-house) content and of-interest (curated) content.
  
  
• Respect privacy, maintain HIPAA compliance, and be “tasteful” on all social media content.

Create an Identity for Your Practice

Create a look and feel that makes your business stand out from everyone else in your community - through a logo, brand colors, and decor. A memorable identity improves the effectiveness of your other marketing efforts.

Themed decor is a great way to create a stand-out identity. It especially helps to create a memorable identity in pediatric offices by:

• Solidifying a kid-friendly brand and improving the effectiveness of existing marketing.
  
• Creating word-of-mouth excitement among parents in the community.
  
• Providing amazing visuals to supercharge online reviews and social media shares from parents.

The Foundation of Your Dental Marketing Strategy: Your Business Website

While we’re on the topic of online (digital) strategies, let’s circle back to a core part of today’s dental marketing initiatives:

The Importance of a Website for Promoting Your Dental Practice

Remember the “Yellow Pages?” As you dust off those distant memories keep in mind how much information access has changed since those days.

Now your dental marketing plan is almost always related to your online presence and through your practice’s website.

”When someone is looking for a dentist, they are most likely to search online and pick from the results they find there.

Moreover, a website is an additional opportunity to market your services to a wide audience and provide answers to questions and information about your practice.” ^[4]

Build an Effective Website

Your online presence is perhaps your most vital dental marketing investment. It’s important that you see it as such - an investment.

”An online presence is becoming increasingly important for reaching your patients, regardless of the monetary investment. The expense is quite small compared to the potential amount of lost business, so remember to make room in your marketing budget.” ^[5]

Be Intentional with Your Website Design

The “architecture” of your dental practice website is essential to its influence on your online presence and marketing success.

Social Media for Dental Marketing

As important as having a website is, it’s equally valuable to have a strong social media presence. Today’s approximately 247 million U.S. social media users (circa 2019) are proof that social media marketing isn’t going away.

And if you’re wondering where to invest your social media energy…

The 3 Social Media Sites You Should Be Promoting Your Business On and Why

”By using social media, you are able to put a face to your business and quickly and effectively reach out to previous and potential clients.

There are three main social networking sites that are best for reaching and interacting with your client base: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Each serves a specific purpose and can be utilized in different ways.” ^[6]

Dental Facebook Marketing as a “Connection” and “Sharing” Strategy

If there’s a must-have social media platform for your dental practice…it’s Facebook. Consider it a foundational social media channel to maximize for patient engagement.

• Share patient photos (with permission and HIPAA compliance).
  
  
• Showcase your staff celebrations, milestones, and birthdays.
  
  
• Promote events you’re participating in.
  
  
• Curate, create, and share content that’s useful to your patients and their oral health.
  
  
• Update practice information - office hours, new technology, team additions/transitions, closures due to unforeseen circumstances (e.g. COVID-19, weather, etc).
  
  
• Target your reach with a Facebook ad strategy - promoting a specific service, etc.

Using Twitter as a “Tips” and “News” Tool

Your Twitter platform is best used when you have plenty of content to share and desire a direct connection with current and potential patients who use the platform.

• Share dental health tips, short “bits” of related news, patient review snippets, and “fun” content.
  
  
• Post content throughout the day to maintain a consistent connection with your audience.

Using Instagram as a Visual Gallery for Practice Promotion

Your Instagram platform allows for less formality than Facebook. And it has a strong appeal to younger patients, families, and those who appreciate compelling images and videos.

• Attract new patients with images of your practice environment and “culture”.
  
  
• Appeal to new team members by visually promoting your team and practice culture via photos and video content.
  

Social media speaks for itself as a dental marketing strategy.

”Social Media is about more than simply posting content. The content you create is also pivotal to your success.

Placing advertisements on these platforms allows you to reach new clients without spending a fortune.

The great thing about social media is that you can let your patients market your practice for you! A themed office gives patients plenty of photo opportunities that they want to share to their social media profiles.” ^[7]

The New Billboard: Digital Marketing and Online Advertising for Dental Practices

A Secondary “Social Proof” Strategy that Influences Your Dental Marketing Success: Digital Reviews