Dental marketing ideas to grow your clinic

Dental marketing has been an evolving strategy that continues to change significantly due to the digital world. Traditional dental marketing practices no longer work. Virtually all consumers now go online to find local services like dentists. Your dental clinic needs to be up-to-date on how to optimize your digital presence so that you can maintain your reputation.

Your stellar team knows how to run a successful dental clinic, but it takes more than years of experience and high-quality dental instruments to attract new patients and grow your revenue. If you don’t spend enough time or resources on having a modern website and being active on platforms where your local patients are, you risk losing out on acquiring more patients and keeping existing ones as well.

The benefits that digital marketing brings to dental clinics

An effective digital marketing strategy helps your dental clinic create a stronger online presence and showcase your dental clinic as an experienced and trustworthy source. Digital marketing isn’t just about reaching a bigger audience for your dental clinic, it’s also about delivering the right message to the right person. Traditional marketing tactics don’t give you the ability to target specific patients. If you know whom you’re targeting, you can deliver a more personalized message at a cost-effective rate.

Here are some of the benefits that your dental clinic will achieve:

• Increase brand awareness and credibility
• Attract quality patients to your clinic
• Reduction in the patient acquisition cost
• Build stronger relationships

Effective digital marketing ideas for dental clinics

1. Have a modern and optimized website

Having a website that is user-friendly is vital to attracting and converting your visitors into new patients. Creating a solid first impression is essential for your dental clinic to get local patients to schedule an appointment. Having a modern and well-optimized website will position you as a local expert and leader in your field.

Furthermore, your dental clinic will also be seen as a reputable healthcare provider since you have the content that your patient is looking for. Showing your target audience how you can help and guide them through the patient’s journey will make you the obvious choice to become their healthcare provider.

2. Prioritize local SEO

Having a strong SEO is a must if you want your dental clinic to be seen by potential patients. Besides your website, it’s essential that you also have an optimized Google My Business profile. This is a key factor in making it easy for new patients to find you when they search for dentists in their local area. Since 77% of new patients start their search for a healthcare provider on a search engine, if you want more bookings, you have to prioritize local SEO to grow your online presence.

Local SEO is an essential marketing tactic for your dental clinic to improve your online visibility in local search results, such as cities, states, or the phrase ‘near me,’ to help you reach more potential patients in your area. While your dental clinics may rely on word-of-mouth to gain potential patients through your existing patients, you can only partially depend on it as your sole strategy. Since many patients turn to search engines to find and compare dentists in their area, investing in local SEO can attract and keep new patients walking through your door.

3. Provide value through content marketing

Content is still King when it comes to attracting patients. Having content that local patients are searching for will improve your visibility and build strong relationships. Search engines are looking for this when they rank your website on the search engine results page (SERP). Content has a positive impact on your overall SEO, but be careful, your content needs to be optimized for your target audience, not search engines. It doesn’t matter how much content you have, it’s about the quality of the content that helps solve the patient search intent that is deemed valuable to rank high.

When it comes to creating content, you always have to know what a potential patient is looking for. By providing your target audience with helpful tips and advice, you will gain their trust and make them more inclined to choose your dental clinic. Creating content is also a good way to learn more about your target audience and what pieces of content engage them better.

4. Request patients to provide more online reviews

Having positive reviews from your patients is essential for your dental clinic to be seen as a trustworthy and reliable healthcare provider when potential patients seek help. Your online reputation matters a lot, statistics from Forbes show that over 90% of people read online reviews, and more than 80% trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.

Keep in mind that Google gives advantages to well-reviewed local businesses in their Maps search results; for example, if your dental clinic has an average of 3.5-star rating and a competitor has a 4.7-star rating, Google will most likely place the competitor above you in the search results. To help automate online review requests from your patients, you can utilize email automation to send a reminder right after a patient’s recent appointment.

5. Reach potential patients at the right moment with PPC

Pay-per-click advertising campaigns (PPC) are one way for you to get found quickly by patients looking for health providers on search engines without waiting for SEO’s long-term impact to work. There is a noticeable difference in results between dental clinics implementing a strong PPC campaign and those without. Those who use PPC regularly have shown increased phone calls, booking appointments, and higher rates of web traffic converting into patients.

Simply put, PPC is one of the most effective ways to reach local patients at the right moment with the proper advertisement that makes them take action. The beauty of this tactic is that you only have to pay when someone clicks on your ad.

6. Use video to engage with patients

To get the most out of your digital marketing efforts, video is an excellent way of showcasing your brand. Statistics show that using video on your website will increase traffic and generate more leads. Furthermore, 6% of people would rather watch a short video about a product or service than read a text. To do it right, remember to make your videos personal and engaging, and avoid just rattling off your services. Showcase what makes your dental clinic unique and why patients should choose you instead of the competition.

7. Be active on social media

Social media is a great way of building community and improving retention, but there are also some challenges. Most noteworthy is the tough competition and how to stand out amongst the crowd. To create a strong social media presence, posting content that is personal is always a good choice to get more engagement on your posts. Usually, the posts that get the most interactions are those where health providers and staff members share what’s happening around the office. Showcasing what is important to them, what they are doing in their community, and what patients say about them is the type of content that will deliver a high engagement rate.

Another good idea for content that patients like to engage with is interactive content. Asking questions or running a poll is a great way of keeping your followers engaged with your brand. It´s also a good way of learning more about your audience and what kind of content they prefer.

8. Stay in touch through email marketing

Email marketing is an excellent way of staying in touch with both current and past patients. Since most patients come back to get their teeth checked periodically, it´s important to remind them of ways to stay healthy and to plan for the next visit. Most people are comfortable providing their email to businesses, making this tactic a cost-effective way to retain patients.

Email marketing can be used in many ways, not only reminders. Message patients on their birthdays, during holidays, or on important occasions. It shows that you value them as a patient, making the relationship between your dental clinic and your patients more personal. By keeping in touch with your patients periodically, they will have your brand in mind for when they need to get in touch for a new appointment.

It’s a good idea to use email automation to make it easy to keep track of when to send an email and to whom. Sending individual emails isn’t practical and takes time. With email automation, you can easily create segments that send out appointment reminders, patient surveys, tailored healthy tips, and holiday and birthday emails at the appropriate time.

In conclusion, growing your dental clinic can be challenging. It’s clear the digital marketing era for dentists is here, if you don’t prioritize it, you can decrease your chances of getting more patients through the door while retaining your current ones. By considering these suggestions, you will be seen as an expert in your field and a trustworthy and reliable source that makes more patients book an appointment with you. Get started with growing your local market share and maintaining a solid reputation for your dental clinic with an effective digital marketing strategy.