I despise the dentist. The dentist is my least favorite appointment, far more than going to the hospital or eating my greens, and I’ve never liked them. Furthermore, because I travel a lot, I’m constantly seeking a new dentist to trust my teeth with.
After my last dentist retired, I decided to look for another one. However, when it came to finding a good dentist, I was stumped. My research brought me up against friends who had struggled with the same issue; they’d heard all kinds of horror stories—including getting fake cavities filled and being overcharged for dental services they didn’t.
You may also discover that gaining new clients, and lots of them is difficult. Here are some intelligent marketing strategies to make it easier for potential patients to locate your clinic.
Facebook Advertisements for Local Awareness
While you want to spread the word about your dental practice, being specific about who you market to is crucial. Most likely, you don’t want to be advertising for your business outside of a 50-mile radius—if you’re in Pennsylvania and someone in California sees your ad, that’s not going to do anybody any good.
The new map card, which can be used with local awareness ads, allows you to communicate locally relevant information about your dental practice, such as the address, distance from the business, hours of operation, and a “Get directions” link. A call button on your CTA could even be for making an appointment.
Pro tip:
Contests and giveaways are excellent dental marketing strategies since they demonstrate that you care about your patients.
Click here to call-to-action (CTA) ads
The main aim of dental marketing or advertising is to get patients and prospects to book an appointment, which is generally accomplished through making a phone call. On mobile, desktop, and tablet, click-to-call advertisements may be found on Facebook and Google Ads (previously known as Google AdWords). This plugin can be used with existing advertisements or you can create them as well.
Call-Only Ads
According to Google, the majority of healthcare-related queries are conducted on a smartphone. One in every 20 Google searches is for health-related data, according to Google. You don’t want to miss out on this opportunity. With call-only campaigns through Google Ads, you may create a
Demographics for Facebook Advertisements
Facebook provides an almost limitless variety of demographics targeting, which you might take advantage of. Apart from that, language, relationship status, employment, income, and hobbies are several other options for targeting potential consumers. According to statistics, women make up 90% of all dental purchasing choices. Make sure you’re in the limelight by offering tailored advertising to women
Reminders for Appointments
Reminders, whether they are in the form of a postcard or a phone call, are crucial to ensure that your patients show up on time. Use Google calendar alerts to automate this procedure and send confirmation and reminder emails. You may also utilize these approaches to remind your patients to schedule an appointment, such as for yearly cleaning.
Income Targeting using Google Ads
Yes, everyone should floss at least once a day and visit the dentist for regular check-ups. In reality, most people don’t do this. You may target different demographics based on income level in Google Ads. Go to the settings page and select “Advanced Location.” This menu will appear:
On the left-hand menu, click “Manage groups.” Select “Location groups” from the drop-down menu. There are three options on this page: “Demographics,” “Genders,” and “Interests.”
Now, select the household income level (or levels) that you wish to advertise on and hit the big red “add” button! This may be used to advertise for teeth whitening or veneers at higher income levels, whereas those with a lower budget may want to focus more on basic health.
Remarketing Ads
“Easy money” is a frequent phrase when it comes to remarketing. It allows you to reach people who have visited your dental website or practice and show them targeted ads about re-linking with you. You can utilize Customer Match on Google Ads and Facebook at your dentistry office to track email addresses! You can add their email addresses to create a remarketing audience and develop an ad that encourages patients to return to your clinic—for example, a reminder for a cleaning or whitening.
The newest Facebook ad type is called “Messaging.”
Facebook has recently introduced a new advertising feature that uses Messenger to interact with businesses. Advertisers will be able to utilize “Send Message” as a call-to-action on their ads, which will then bring the consumer to Messenger. This is still in beta, but it should be fully implemented soon!
Google Maps Advertising
A Google map ad may bring a possible patient directly to your dental practice. When “dentist” is input into the search bar, results appear on the map and the search results list. These ads also include directions and call CTAs when viewed on a mobile device.
Waze Ads
Waze, like Google Maps, lets you place advertising directly on the application. Because Waze is a community-based app, advertisements are a bit different—customers in the vicinity of your business will see a “digital billboard” on the map as well as in search results. They can either go to your dental office or save the location for later.
Emergency Keywords
I Googled “emergency wisdom tooth extraction Boston” at 2 AM two months ago. The first two results failed to include a “call” button, so I went with the third and second place Google maps results with the best ratings. They were all uninterested (which was to be expected), but I made an appointment with the first
It’s easy to get clients with urgent needs and a high level of intent if you bid on keywords like “emergency” or “urgent.” Consider the return on investment for those words! But make sure your practice can handle emergency cases and has a straightforward way to contact them; otherwise, you risk getting a bad online review…
ZocDoc
What do millennials despise more than paying for the internet? Talking to medical practitioners over the phone, according to polling data. ZocDoc is a mobile app that helps prospective patients find physicians based on their area of expertise, insurance plan, distance from home, and availability; it’s almost like reserving an appointment through Open Table. It’s now available in most cities.
Yelp
According to a survey conducted in 2014, 88 percent of customers trust online reviews. I can’t emphasize enough how essential Yelp is—claim your practice! People are most likely already writing reviews of your clinic on Yelp, which should be responded to and verified for accuracy. It’s the first place that millennials go looking for a good dentist and recommendations.
Have you ever heard of Dr. Pimple Popper? Although this dermatologist is not for the faint of heart, he or she popularized popping zits on Instagram. Celebrities promote teeth-whitening drugs on their Instagram accounts, and orthodontists post stunning before-and-after photos to demonstrate how good their skills are.
Instagram has evolved into a retail destination—establish an Instagram for your practice to showcase your distinct methods and advertise to potential patients through social media. If you keep up with it, it will certainly keep your clients in mind.
Email Marketing
Imagine a scenario in which existing patients could email the practice to schedule an appointment. With a few nudges, your receptionist could respond with various scheduling choices, and voila! An appointment is scheduled and on the calendar. You can also use this method to send bills, remind people about appointments, and even nice “it’s been too long since we met emails”. If you want to give your dental practice the edge it needs, you need to invest in email marketing automation. It’s not only a viable dental marketing strategy; it can also provide dental offices with a significant return on investment.
Referral Bonuses
According to the Pride Institute, 93 percent of people trust recommendations from their friends in the dental industry. In order to thrive dental practices need to encourage and engage those suggestions! Referral bonuses may be utilized to retain existing customers and expand your practice. Thank them for their assistance and offer $10 off a dental visit for each referral who makes an appointment! To make things simple, offer business referrals to patients who show up for their appointment to attract more clients.
Video Advertising
The healthcare sector is increasingly embracing video marketing, as reported by Margot. Don’t fall behind! Real people from your practice may help you establish a personal connection with your prospects, which can lead to trust and more appointments.
Direct Mail
The days of using postcard advertisements to fill mailboxes are not over. Direct marketing, especially for baby boomers, is still effective and a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate your area of expertise or competitive pricing rates. They received an average of 35 phone calls and 7 new patients out of every 5,000 postcards sent. That’s a fantastic return on investment.
Public events
I played in recreational sports leagues as a youngster, and each team was sponsored by a local business, which paid for our team shirts adorned with the company’s logo. Not only will this get your company in front of parents with little children, but you may also provide free toothbrushes and a small postcard that contains information about child dental health.
When you use these easy, affordable, and successful dental marketing strategies, your dental practice’s growth will be constant and regular, and your profits will grow. And see for yourself which dental marketing idea works for you! For additional information read this.
