Dental patient marketing is essential if you want your practice to thrive. It brings in new patients, and it can even help strengthen your relationship with existing patients.
A variety of strategies can help attract new patients to your practice but using a combination of methods can yield the best results.
Read on to learn the top ten effective ways to promote your dental practice.
1. Dedicated online market presence
A potential patient’s first interaction with you is most likely to be on your website, so it must make a good first impression. Since your site serves as your virtual business card, ensure it looks professional, is well-organised and offers information your patients need such as your address, contact information and the services you offer.
Hire a professional website designer to build and manage your site and consider adding SEO strategies for your content marketing to help convert visitors to patients.
2. Make local events
Dental practices are local businesses and rely on the local community to provide patients. Get your name known by sponsoring the local youth soccer team or other recreational sports.
Consider creating goodie bags with toothbrushes, floss and information on children’s dental health to give away at the sign-up table. Free swag also works well for fun runs, marathons, festivals and any other community event.
Offer to teach a class on dental hygiene at the local primary school, or have your dental staff participate in a charity event or volunteer work that gives them an opportunity to engage in some word-of-mouth and direct marketing.
3. Start a community referral program
Nothing beats word-of-mouth referrals and creating an incentive-based referral program can help you get more patients through your door. Patients’ casual conversations with friends, relatives, neighbours, and co-workers can impact their decision about their dental provider.
Offer an incentive to both your existing patient and the referral. It could be a credit toward their next service or a complimentary dental exam or a teeth whitening discount. Don’t know where to start? These referral card ideas may help.
4. Consistent email marketing reminder program
Growing your practice isn’t just about attracting new patients. Maintaining your relationships with existing patients also matters. Sending them an email reminder to book their appointment is a wonderful way to ensure they are receiving the dental care they need.
While you don’t want to spam their email address, you can re-engage by sending them hygiene tips, referral program invites and business updates.
5. Make a company Google business page for regular updates
Google My Business Page is a vital tool that can be used to encourage new patients to choose you over the competition. Ensure your page is up-to-date and optimise it with key information like your practice name, address and hours of operation. Upload images and include behind the scenes videos to share your practice’s personality.
You can also share informative blog-like posts and monitor your questions and answers to make a better connection with a potential patient.
6. Update educational awards and achievements
In order to be an authority in your field, make sure you are updating your academic background and accomplishments. This will provide credibility to any reviews or sites where information about you or your practice is posted.
7. Make a dental website for easy to follow
Having a website that is easy to navigate will keep visitors engaged. Strong site navigation makes it easy for visitors to find the information they need quickly, and it helps search engines index important data efficiently.
Continue to test and tweak your site until you can ensure your visitors are getting the best experience possible and you are getting the results you want.
8. Promote dental practice with video advertising
We already know your website has to make a great first impression, but how do you keep visitors interested? Videos enable visitors to engage with your content faster, creating a better website experience.
Dentists use videos to convert visitors to patients. Potential patients are more likely to engage your services if they can view your staff at work, learn about a procedure and feel a personal connection to you.
9. Daily update on social media for consumers trust
When it comes to growing a thriving practice, trust is critical, and your reviews matter! Millennials, for example, use Yelp, so make sure you claim your business and your data is accurate.
Instagram is another millennial favourite, so if you are targeting this demographic make sure you are marketing your practice through regular posts.
10. Do a local directory listing
As part of a complete marketing effort, it is critical you are listed accurately in relevant directories that appear in local searches. Getting your practice ranked in an offline directory option like the Yellow Pages can help to place you at the top of the list of local searches and attract new patients.
When properly optimised, Google gives your practice more authority, and each listing is counted as similar to a backlink to your practice.
About the Author
Dentalkind is a modern dental practice providing all aspects of general, cosmetic dentistry and teeth implants in Essex. Dentalkind provides your family with the best of dental care in a friendly environment helping patients to experience all their treatment needs conducted under one roof.