Digital Marketing for Dentists
How Do You Attract New Patients To Your Dental Practice?
Dentists and dental practices should have two primary goals in mind. Goal #1 for all dentists should be an increase in profitability within an existing dental practice. Goal #2 in dental marketing should be to increase the amount of new patients a dental office cares for within any given month. Dental marketing not only has the challenge of building an online presence for the dental practice but also strategizing with the dental office manager to figure out what specific dental services are most profitable.
So how does a dentist acquire new patients? Dentists must recognize that people only want to visit a dentist within their local geographic area. Dentists will usually only want to market and advertise within a 5 mile to 20 mile radius. New patients will come into a practice mostly as a result of community marketing or word of mouth marketing. Developing a popular, good professional reputation in any given town, city or neighborhood will give a dentist a head start over the competition. This is achieved through local advertising, social media, paid advertising and standard engagement practices such as e-mail marketing and smart phone texting technology that is connected to the dental office CRM.
Digital Marketing Strategies for Dentists
SalemGlobal has worked with a number of dentists and has a clear understanding of what can and should be done when marketing dental practices.
When working on digital marketing campaigns for dentists, one must keep in mind that there are health and HIPPA regulations to which they must adhere. Keywords related to dentists don’t always follow the same formula and rules that other industries have. Many potential new patients look for a “dentist near me” or “dentist in my town.” Dental marketing is very local to the location of the dentist. Patients want a local dentist or dental practice for regular dental healthcare as well as the convenience and urgency of an emergency dentist. Therefore, dentists, dental office managers and marketers have to be careful not to waste their budget on national campaigns and focus more on specific locations and zip codes.
Digital marketing strategies for dental practices includes:
- Building a professional corporate looking website that includes “Schedule an Appointment” calls to action, short “Free Consultation” forms and phone number in header
- Search Engine Optimization with relevant keywords
- High-end photography with pictures of actual dental offices and the dentists themselves
- Consistent, informative and educational content
- Weekly email newsletter
- Engaging and relevant social media (specifically Facebook, Twitter and Instagram)
- Educational videos presented on a YouTube channel