About 80% of the new leads you generate for your dental practice will never turn into paying patients. Meanwhile, 65% of businesses (including those in the dental industry) struggle to generate leads. If you're struggling to attract new patients to your practice, you need to evaluate your dental practice marketing strategy.
Here are a few tips that can help you develop a stronger marketing strategy this year. With these marketing tips, you can start reaching new patients.
Discover how to set your practice up for long-term growth with these tips today.
Outline Goals
To develop an effective marketing strategy, it's first important to outline your goals. Then, you can choose tactics that will help you accomplish those goals. You can also determine where you might need help.
Then, you can outsource specific services to ensure you create a well-rounded, omnichannel marketing strategy.
Your goals might involve:
Improving search engine rankings
Generating brand awareness and recognition
Generating more website traffic
Reaching locals online
Generating patient reviews
Establishing your credibility
Gaining brand trust and loyalty
Improving your cost-per-acquisition and ROI
Gaining social media followers
For each goal, determine which marketing strategies and tools you'll need. Set a key performance indicator (KPI) for each goal you set.
For example, if you want to improve your search engine rankings, you can use search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Higher rankings will also help you generate more brand awareness and website traffic. You can track your rankings or unique website visitors.
If you're struggling to accomplish your goals, you'll know it's time to reevaluate your dental practice marketing strategy.
Research Your Audience
Before using the rest of these marketing tips, take the time to research your target audience. Then, you can create personalized content to appeal to your ideal patients. Personalized content can help you forge stronger connections with your patients.
Define who your patients are based on demographic and psychographic research, including:
Age
Gender
Location
Marital status
Salary
Education
Career
Language
Hobbies
Interests
Pain points
Dental services
You'll likely find your patients fall into different groups. For example, maybe you want to target mothers with children for your pediatric dental office. Maybe you want to focus on business professionals seeking cosmetic dentistry services instead.
Once you've developed buyer personas based on your research, gather keyword research.
Your keyword research will inform your content creation and SEO marketing strategies.
Determine what keywords each group uses when looking for dental services online. You can use tools like SEMRush, Google Keyword Planner, or Google Trends. Look for long-tail keywords (which include four or more words).
Longer keywords are more precise, allowing you to understand the consumer's needs.
Update Your Website
Make sure your website is fast, mobile-optimized, secure, and user-friendly. If your website is old and slow, visitors will leave without exploring your content. You might start losing the chance to generate leads.
Run your site through Google's Mobile-Friendly Test, PageSpeed Insights, and Core Web Vitals.
Make sure there are multiple opportunities for visitors to convert on your site. For example, you can add a "Book Your Appointment" button to the navigation bar. Consider adding an additional form above the fold or in the footer.
Adding multiple conversion opportunities can help you generate more leads.
Make sure your forms are easy to complete on all devices. Remove any unnecessary fields. Otherwise, visitors might stop completing the form halfway through.
Create Content
Content marketing can help patients learn more about your dental care services, practice, and expertise. Reading your posts could help them recognize your brand's credibility, too. They might have an easier time trusting your dental practice after reading your content.
Use your keyword research to determine what questions your patients ask while online. Then, create blog content that demonstrates your expertise on the subject.
In addition to articles, you can also create infographics, eBooks, videos, polls, and quizzes.
End each post with a call to action urging the patient to schedule an appointment.
Optimize for SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) can help your organic content rank higher on search engines. About 70% of all online activity begins on a search engine. With SEO, you can reach patients looking for dental care online.
Optimize your blog content for SEO (you can hire a digital marketing agency to help).
Otherwise, claim and optimize your Google Business listing for local SEO. Ask your patients to post their reviews on your listing, too. Positive reviews can boost your credibility, helping you reach more patients.
Create PPC Ads
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is another effective way to reach potential patients online. With PPC, you can create text or display ads that will appear in front of potential patients. Your ads will appear based on their demographics or keyword usage.
Consider creating display ads to boost brand awareness and website traffic. When a patient clicks on the ad, they'll reach a landing page on your website.
Use remarketing ads to appear in front of previous website visitors to bring them back to your website, too.
Automate Emails
Email marketing can help you nurture existing leads. Then, you can remain top-of-mind with existing or potential patients.
Automate email to remind patients about upcoming appointments. Send newsletters featuring news about your dental practice or your latest blog posts, too.
Stay Social
Start engaging your patients online with social media marketing.
Consider reformatting your existing blog content for each social media platform. Make sure you're prioritizing the platforms your patients use most.
Otherwise, use live video posts or Story stickers to boost engagement.
Hire an Agency
If you need help, hire an agency that specializes in marketing for dentists. A digital marketing agency can manage and optimize your campaigns. With their help, you can find new, effective ways to reach and attract new patients.
Brush Up: Start Marketing Your Dental Practice Today
Don't let your dental practice marketing strategy grow stale. Instead, start using these marketing tips to reach new patients online. With a strong marketing strategy, you can help your practice grow.
Remember, you don't have to develop your marketing strategy alone. We're happy to help.
Contact us today to get started.