Dentists face fierce competition in the world of dental marketing. Keep your dental practice growing by using these 5 marketing tips and strategies for dental practices.
Today people are bombarded with thousands of advertisements per day, with a recent study in 2021 having estimates between 6,000 and 10,000 ads every day. Many companies are finding it difficult to break through this barrier of overwhelming advertisements and marketing campaigns.
As technology and competition continue to advance, marketing has become increasingly important. Unfortunately, marketing can be difficult to understand, and many people feel doubtful that simple changes can make a big difference in a company’s outlook. But a few changes in the right direction, even with a limited budget, can help promote your dental practice and increase your number of patients.
5 Marketing Tips and Strategies for Dental Practices
With so many marketing methods, it can be difficult to know where to start with marketing your dental office. Below is a list of tips and strategies for increasing marketing efforts for your dental practice and maintaining strong relationships with the public.
Community Involvement
One great way to start marketing your dental practice is by getting involved in your local community. Joining others that live in the same area as your business can help spread brand awareness and increase positive public relations among your team and the community around them.
There are several different events that your team could attend like local festivals with businesses pop-ups and university events. Another great option to get your practice involved with the community is by supporting local organizations, or even sponsoring different groups or events.
Participating in activities with those in your community, it can help support a good cause, improve employee morale, spread brand awareness, and promote positive publicity. All of this can help make a difference when locals around your business are looking for their next dentist. They now recognize your company and can associate it with a good time at an event, a conversation they had with your employees, or a generous donation to a charity or organization.
Social Media Marketing for Dental Practices
Another great tool for connecting with the community is by building it online through social media. This is great for all budgets because social media can be a relatively simple and free tool to use for communicating with current and prospective patients.
One way to create a solid foundation for your social media presence is by posting on regular basis. Updating your social media pages regularly allows for your followers to learn more about your business, team members, company values, and services that you offer. It also creates an easy way for people to ask questions and give reviews as well.
With technology becoming such an important feature, many people often look for companies on social media platforms before scheduling appointments. For this reason, it’s important to make sure that all of the information is accurate and easy to find on your social media page. Things like your website link, address, hours of operation, email, and phone number should be kept up to date.
Website Optimization for Dental Practices
In line with social media, having a well-designed website can make all the difference in marketing your dental practice. Your website should be organized and easy to navigate so that anyone can find the information they are looking for without getting frustrated.
One way you can do this is by double-checking that all of the functions on the website are working properly. It is also always a great idea to go back through periodically and make sure that all the links on your website are working. People are more likely to schedule an appointment when they see a professional website that leaves a great first impression. Plus, now it’s easier than ever to add functions that allow people to schedule appointments directly from the website. Having features that make life easier for the consumer can often only benefit your business.
SEO for Dental Practices
SEO or search engine optimization helps websites generate traffic without spending any money on advertising. The goal is to expand your company’s visibility in organic search engine results. This drives more website visitors and increases the number of leads, which causes an increase in possible conversions, ultimately leading to more customers and revenue.
In terms of dentistry, SEO is a strategy that can be used to ensure when a consumer is searching online for a dentist (or any specialty) in the area, they are able to find your website. While there are a lot of factors that play into SEO, some of the ways it can be improved are by having title tags, keywords, image tags, and link structure.
You can also outsource your SEO efforts. As opposed to hiring an in-house SEO specialist, SEO outsourcing involves hiring a specialist or third-party company to assist with your SEO optimization tasks. You can outsource SEO services both locally and internationally.
Content Marketing for Dental Practices
Another great idea that can also help with SEO is content marketing, as it strengthens keywords and can offer value to your website. Some ways of content marketing are writing blogs, and frequently asked questions sections. Adding new content to your website gives your patients something to read and search engines like Google can better optimize your website when others search for your keywords.
Try combining a few of these tips for added benefits. Writing blogs and posting the link to them on your social media accounts gives you more content to post and more information for potential patients to learn more about your practice.
One important thing to keep in mind with marketing your dental practice is finding ways to improve your business’s reputation. This can happen through many different ways like getting online reviews, being responsive on social media, being active in the community, and utilizing content marketing.
If you’re interested in learning more marketing tips that can help your dental practice break through the advertising barrier, read our past blog “Marketing Your Dental CBCT System: A Guide.”
