Best Dental Marketing Strategies For Dental Offices
To become successful in the business of dental marketing means developing and creating a “gameplan”. Now, what do I mean by this? Well, it refers to developing a game plan that would help you in doubling new patients in your own dental marketing business. Take note: the more new patients that you have, the more chances of success there will be for you in your business. Developing this idea or strategy is one way to be on top of the dental marketing business.
Dental offices, like most other small business across America, are facing new challenges in today’s tech-savvy marketplace. Patients are no longer looking for their dentist through word of mouth referrals or because it is the closest office to their home.
Today’s patients take a consumer-based approach to choosing their dentist just like they do with other major buying decisions like buying a car or choosing a babysitter.
Dentists who run their own practices are great at their craft, but most have very little knowledge about marketing. A dental practice that has little to no knowledge of marketing will face many challenges like these:
There’s just more dentists out there – There are 6 times as many dentists today than there were 60 years ago. Meanwhile, the US population only went up two times between 1950 and 2010.
Patients read more information about their dentists before inquiring – There is a lot more information on the internet about dentists than before. Today, dentists can be reviewed on social media sites like Facebook, Yelp, and Google reviews. A dental practice is at a position of weakness if it can’t moderate or have control of its social media presence.
Prices are dropping – Many, if not most dental procedures are paid with health insurance proceeds. But when patients are about to undergo major procedures, they are going to shop around. With many more dental practices around today than before, you will also compete against others on price. Furthermore, some people are traveling abroad to get dental work done.
Digital Marketing ROI can take time to recoup – Over 93% of all marketers say that they find it difficult to deliver a measurable ROI. For example, you could invest money into SEO for your website. But it will take several months before you start seeing a noticeable increase in your search results and web traffic. Many dental practices are hesitant to invest in something that does not have quick results.
Using the below infographic, you will learn how to get caught up with the essentials needed to market your practice and build your patient base. This guide includes:
Writing a marketing plan – Before you start anything, it’s important to outline what your practice does, who you will target, and what sets you apart from your competition.
Website development – Many practices, including yours, may have a website. But it’s also important to have it optimized for mobile traffic and with landing pages to convert your visitors to leads. You also will learn the importance of keeping track of your data.
Use content to attract your future patients – When you write engaging blog posts or post informative videos about your practice, you become a thought leader within your field. Also, your future patients will be intrigued about what you have to offer them.
In dental marketing, having goals on the number of new patients that you would like to have can be very helpful. Set the number of new patients that you would want to have, for example, in a month. Having this number in mind helps you target a specific number of patients at a fixed rate in a month (let’s say 3 patients in a month). Then in time you will be able to add more new patients to those fixed number of patients ( let’s say from 3 patients, you will be able to increase them to 4 or 5 patients in a month).
Goal The Type of Patients You Want To Have:
Choosing the type of patients that you want to attract can also be very helpful in your dental marketing business. These patients could be from different kinds of status and professions (like lawyers, accountants, engineers, etc.). Having this in mind would help you in setting up the income that you would like to earn in a month; for example, as to how much you would charge for this type of patient who is from a certain kind of profession.
Goal The Number of Referrals You Want To Make:
As you satisfy your new patients with your services, chances are the number of patients that you have set for in a month will increase… and this is through their referrals. These referrals are the patient’s friends, relatives, etc. Your patient would tell themselves, “Hey, I’m very satisfied with the services that my dentist is giving me… so I would definitely introduce them to my family and friends!” With this, you surely be able to gain more success in your dental marketing business!
Goal The Expected Worth of Each Your Patient:
Now, you set the expected price for each patient that you have, or what we call the “lifetime value of each of your new patient”. Let’s say for your patient who is an accountant you would charge $900, for your patient who is a lawyer you would charge $950, etc. This kind of planning in dental marketing can help you set how much income you would have within a month, and also within a year.
So as you go on with your dental marketing business, keep these goals in mind. Remember, having a good game plan will always give you success in your business!