Marketing in general is always personalised to what you do, and for this post the niche being targeted is dental marketing. This post will give you a few tips and key strategies to remember when marketing your dental practice.
Repetition repetition repetition
A key to bringing in new customers to your practice is repetition and consistency. If a potential client sees an ad online, they may just scroll past it with no consideration, mostly because people use search engines to find what they want (which we will come to later in this post). However, subconsciously they will remember seeing that ad, so whether they see it through a mailing list or as a banner on social media, they will remember it.
Using the same ad over and over may seem futile, because if people haven’t responded instantly then they probably don’t want the service, right? Wrong! People are busy from day to day and may not have time to respond when they first see it, or is simply slips their mind, but seeing the same add over and over may push them to book a dental appointment, especially if the ad comes with a promotional offer.
Building trust with your target audience
Being afraid of the dentist is no myth, its called odontophobia and can cause mild to severe anxiety when it comes to receiving dental care or even booking an appointment. There is however a way around this. Most of the fear comes from the unknown, therefore you need to show customers that you are human, too.
- Posting a picture of yourself with a friendly face, or even a video with a brief introduction of you as a professional and what you do, how long you’ve done it etc but also about you as a person, just a brief overview of hobbies and pictures of you not in your professional surroundings. This can calm many people knowing they are in safe hands. But why stop there?
- Posting real reviews from customers and pictures of before/after treatment will show just how great your work is.
- Showing that you and your staff have a good working relationship is great also, having pictures that are still professional but still show the staff together, happy (showing off their great teeth).
These should be implemented in your website – if used on adverts make sure the service is still being promoted.
Online promotions targeting your dental patients
Everybody loves a deal, which is why the potential to save money will entice customers to book your service. Be careful though, there is such a thing too good to be true. If customers see a premium service from a dental surgery that has 70% off, they may not trust the legitimacy of the dental practice, or the quality of the dental service. A good place to start is deals for new customers, for example, 20% off for new customers, or free teeth whitening when booking a service over £50, this February only.
- Find your target audience, market specifically to them (if your dental practice is next to a university, offer student discount when a valid student card is supplied)
- Make sure the message is clear, get the message across simply – most people will only spend a few seconds looking at an online ad, make it eye catching and interesting so they want to spend more time considering your dental practice. (using colours and eye-catching relevant images).
Leave your patients wanting more
When it comes to showing off what your dental practice does, you want to make sure the customers are left with a lasting impression, especially among your target audience, but you also want them to call or book with your dental practice to find out more.
- Show off your own great teeth; customers want to know you believe in your own service and having great teeth.
- When advertising make sure they know how to contact you (CTA, call to action), if they see a great deal but can’t get in touch, the whole campaign is redundant.
Using simple but effective online promotional ads will give people a reason to want to know more and speak to someone from your dental practice, giving opportunities to give precise details and prices about your dental services. Having face-to-face or on the phone interaction with potentially new dental clients is more likely to result in a new customer for your dental practice.
Dental marketing with the latest SEO strategies
It may not be so obvious to all business owners that their webpage will mostly be found through a search engine such as Google. However, making sure your website is search engine friendly will increase the organic traffic to your sight. For example; “Big Smiles Dentist” is much search engine friendly than “Dr Harris DDS”.
- Google AdWords will help your website to be on the first page of Google. Most people will not look past the first page, so getting to the top 1-3 search results is essential.
- Using the right key words can make a huge different, you wouldn’t want to rank for terms such “teeth” as this is unlikely to be searched alone and is too broad and not specific enough.
- Using words like “Big Smiles Dentist UK” and “teeth whitening Canary Wharf” are more likely so show up in the first page, using your location will help rank for the correct area instead of people finding you that are 1,000 miles away.
- Think like the customer, what are they likely to search for?
Let’s conclude;
You know you have a great dental practice and you just need to show that in the most efficient way possible, using the above dental marketing strategies. You want to show that you too are human but believe greatly in your dental services, showing off your own smiles. Give people a reason to call and get to know more information about your practice by not letting on too much in your online ad, but just enough to peak interest (find the sweet spot), and make sure that your webpage is search engine friendly and can be found on the first page of Google by using the best key words for your services and business.
With that being said, if you are a dentist looking for a professional dental marketing agency to consultant and help you grow your practice with digital marketing, do visit https://www.clickdo.co.uk/dental-marketing/ for more information.
