It is common knowledge that an average solo dental practice needs more than 20 new patients a month to grow and succeed. To do so, it is imperative upon dental practice business owners to use traditional as well online marketing methods as an overwhelming percentage of consumers use online search engines to research dental treatments. Additionally, the first step taken by over 70 percent of patients when searching for dentists is to look up online reviews. Hence, this piece has been put together to enlist the top 7 proven dental marketing ideas which will help your practice in sustaining and growing. Let’s get started!
Improve Your SEO
Most people who are looking for dental practices will often begin with a simple Google search. Thus it is imperative that you rank higher on such searches as it will improve your chances of getting visitors who may end up making appointments. You use both front end and back end ways to optimize your website for higher rankings on Google. First step in the process is on-page SEO, which will entail improving your website copy, titles and so on. After that, you will have to begin monthly SEO maintenance. This entails different off-page SEO and digital marketing services like increasing high-quality backlinks and posting content on social media platforms, that brings traffic to your website. It is important that you pay attention on your site’s speed and user-friendliness because these are important factors considered by Google while ranking websites. SEO can prove immensely effective in bringing good traffic to your website, so it is highly imperative that you pay attention to this aspect.
Search Engine Marketing
Getting desirable results out of SEO campaigns can take as much as 6-12 months which doesn’t work for most dental practices, who are in the need of immediate and effective results. But fret not, as one can use Google Ads to get traffic immediately to their sites. Google Ads help marketers in recognizing what the potential patients are searching for and then helps them target such patients with ads. One of the key benefits of using Google Ads is that they can be targeted to specific locations, ideally in areas near the location of your dental practice. Since competition is very high for dentists on Google Ads, it is advised that you hire dental marketing services of a top dental marketing company, to get the best results and ROI from your online advertorial budget.
Local business listings
How patients find local doctors and dentists has changed considerably in the past couple of years. Not only do you need good word of mouth through positive reviews, you also need to have good online visibility. One key way of increasing your online visibility is by getting your business listed on various online business listings. This can be done by making and managing accounts on such platforms and updating it periodically with correct and accurate information. You can get your business listed on platforms like Google My Business, Bing, Yelp, Yellow Pages Manta, Citysearch and so on. If you don’t have the time to do it on your own then you hire dental marketing services from a top dental marketing company for doing it on your behalf.
Patient Reviews
Reviews are a very efficient way to attract visitors and convert them into patients. An overwhelming majority of patients go through many reviews before narrowing down on one dental practice. Hence, it is imperative upon you to do everything possible to make a great first impression on such visitors. If you find it is difficult to manage reviews by your self or get it done through your in-house team, you can outsource the same to a dental marketing company which provides dental marketing services. Other than encouraging satisfied clients to leave positive reviews, you can highlight such reviews in a way that can bring more patients to your practice.
Organic social media
It is common knowledge that potential patients not only look at reviews, but they also look at the social media channels of dentists. Hence it is advisable that you manage your social media profiles effectively because patients are likely to look at your social media profiles to learn about your practice. Through social media you will not only impress prospects, but also help in building brand awareness, engagement and trust. Managing social media profiles isn’t exactly rocket science and you can do so through posting content that can offer value to your potential patients. Focus should be connecting with the right kind of people by publishing content. You can also hire dental marketing services to build the right kind of exposure for your dental practice.
You can begin a blog on your website and update it regularly, so that it can bring you a whole lot of traffic. Patients are always looking for answers and information relating to dental health on search engines, and you can use this leverage this inquisitiveness of the masses into getting visitors and potential patients for your business. You need to craft content that has the ability of getting the attention of such people. You can do so by countering wrong assumptions and crafting relevant content connected to trends in public domain. You can also provide value to your potential readers by offering them valuable information on dental health.
Email marketing
Email marketing is a very important part of dental marketing. It has proven very beneficial for many businesses in getting new business and repeat business from former patients. It has been used by many dental practices for increasing their conversion rates. You can get the best results out of email marketing by sending email newsletters to specific audiences with an aim towards encouraging or psychologically compelling them to book an appointment with you. You can also hire a dental marketing company, if you can’t hire the time for email marketing out of your own busy schedule.
Wrapping Up
Executing a marketing strategy isn’t easy. It takes a lot of time and dedication. Many dentists end up eating more than they can chew and often initiate ideas and strategies that they can’t bring to fruition. It can be because of the lack of time or interest and sometimes both, but in such situations, such dental practitioners can hire dental marketing services provided by a dental marketing company.