3 Actionable Steps Every Dental Practice Should Take For Successful Marketing

Dental practices don't grow because the service is poor, but because the marketing is.

It's estimated that 80% of all non-referral based leads within the dental sector starts with a major search engine. In other words, if you think that your potential patients aren't searching for you online, then you're wrong!

What this means is that if you even want to be 'in the game' let alone ahead of it, you'll need to spend a good percentage of your marketing budget on digital techniques.

The good news is that internet marketing for dentists really isn't complex and once you know the basics, it's relatively easy to establish an online presence.

Below are the actionable steps that dentists can take to grow a solid and successful marketing foundation.

Step 1: Have a great converting website that’s created with your customers in mind.

Your dental website is your virtual shop window. In fact, pretty much all your marketing efforts should start with your website, so it needs to be right. When it's laid out correctly, potential clients should be able to navigate quickly and extract the information they need, without having to rifle through pages and pages of content. While I'm not going to go into specifics about what an excellent dental website looks like, it's worth going into some detail about what you should include. Things such as:

• Quick and easy access to contact information (ideally it should be on every page).
• Clearly communicated information about the various services you offer and how they can help the patient. This needs to be both SEO and patient friendly.
• Testimonials that are easy to find and can be read.
• The option to schedule consultations and appointments via your website.
• Direct links to your social media pages such as Facebook and Twitter.
• A blog page containing useful information (this should be updated regularly).

All of these are highly important if you're looking to maximize the potential of your dental website.

Step 2: Become engaged in social media consistently.

Let's face it, a good percentage of your potential patients are likely to be using social media, especially on sites such as Google+, Twitter, and Facebook. Therefore, it stands to reason that if you want to attract them, this is where you need to be.

Before we go into the ins and outs of social media, here's a word of advice... There are a ton of social media sites that you can use, however, building up a good social media presence takes both time and effort. Therefore, it isn't going to be practical or possible to devote that much time to every single one.

Instead, pick just a couple of sites and run with them.

Now we've got that clear, what can you put on your social media pages to entice potential patients? Here are some helpful pointers.

• Every time you post a blog, mention it on social media along with an access link back to your site.
• Start discussions or pointers about good oral health, or reply/re-tweet other users that have done the same thing. 
• Talk about your day and what's going on in your practice. Don't forget to include photos, as people are genuinely nosey and love to know about that kind of stuff.
• Promote events – If your practice is organizing an event or fundraiser, then mention it on social media.
• Promote special offers – If you are offering a promotion on a certain treatment, then don't forget to tell your followers/friends.
• Review dental products such as teeth whitening kits, aligners, toothbrushes etc. and post the findings.

Remember: The key to effective social media is to post content that people want to read. Make it less about self-promotion and more about offering something of value. Use social media to make them feel better about you, your practice, and your services, rather than trying to sell to them. 

Step 3: Use Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing because it works!

So, you've taken care of the organic search element with your website, content, and (hopefully) ongoing blogs, and you're now ready to drive traffic back to your website via your social media channels. So, what's next? How about Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing.

Dental practices can benefit greatly from a well-structured PPC campaign and when used correctly it becomes a great lead generator. That said, for it to work effectively it needs the following 4 elements:

Create groups of relevant keywords for tighter targeting and higher ROI.

Find out what keywords your prospects are typing into the search engines and base your ad around each particular keyword group. For instance, if your prospects were typing in words like "getting whiter teeth" and “improving your smile” you could create an ad based around teeth whitening. The more relevant your ad is to your target audience, the better ad positioning Google will give it AND, the lower the cost per click rate. 

Create landing pages that really convert.

For every ad, you need to create a landing page. While the ad's job is to attract the attention of the reader, the job of the landing page is to build further trust and encourage a connection. Therefore, the landing pages need to be consistent with each ad so that the client experiences a smooth transition.

Optimize each ad for phone responses.

While Google charges for clicks, if you don't maximize your ad for phone responses, you're missing out. Simply make sure that each ad has your practice number prominently displayed so that visitors to the ad can call to make a booking or get some information about a particular treatment. 

Use ad extensions to maximize character limits.

Because PPC ads have a very short character limit, you need to get your message across in very few words. Google helps by offering search extensions. They help to communicate important marketing information without counting towards your character limit. Whether it's a location extension, product extension, phone number extension or site link extension, it pays to use them.

So, there you have it!

Three actionable steps for successful dental marketing in 2023. While it's true that PPC marketing can deliver immediate results, it can also be costly because ads can quickly burn through your advertising budget. So, to get the best long-term results, Pay Per Click should be used in conjunction with the steps above for a well-rounded and effective marketing strategy. And PPC should preferably be researched, set up and managed by experts, so your dental practice sees a strong ROI month after month.