Have you ever wondered how many people use the Internet when they need to find a company that’s nearby? A recent study claims that 85% of consumers prefer googling local businesses. Among them may be your potential future patients who are looking for a reliable dental clinic in their neighborhood. Losing them would be a disaster, wouldn’t it?
Dental internet marketing is crucial for surviving in the modern world. Why are you better than your competitors? What are the main differences in the approach you use, is the qualification of your workers higher than at any other clinic? These are the advantages that will help you win this competition.
Here, at Lasting Trend, we understand the importance of digital marketing for dentists. That is why we have composed this article to help you create a marketing plan and give you 14 useful tips on how to win in this competitive game.
Website: Design for Mobile Devices
In 2019, there is no need to explain to anyone why a decent and smoothly running a website is a must-have, and not only in the field of dental internet marketing. However, lots of businessmen tend to forget about optimizing their web pages for mobile devices. This is one of the biggest mistakes a company can make when talking about internet marketing for dental practices.
For example, according to the research, 58% of site visits were made from mobile devices. Moreover, the total time people spend online using their mobile devices is a whopping 40%! And the mobile Bounce Rate is 50%. These figures are all screaming one simple thing: your dental company’s website must be mobile-friendly!
If you are wondering how to get more patients into your dental practice, well, here is the answer. Step up your game. Your potential clients should be able to get an appointment anytime and anywhere using their smartphones. Your dental website marketing should be user-friendly, easy to navigate, and very professional.
Lasting Trend will gladly help you with web marketing for dentist’s clinics. Your site will be in reliable hands and you will be able to see results almost immediately.
Be Easy to Find Online: SEO and Local SEO
SEO (Search Optimization Engine) is a powerful tool if placed in the right hands. The success of your dental marketing strategy relies heavily on your website ranking on the SERP (Search Engine Result Page). The higher your rank is, the more clicks you get. More clicks – more potential customers.
Dental SEO marketing depends on keywords. These are the words or phrases people usually type in the search box. If your website has a lot of relevant information, then the search engine will show your link to the user.
How to achieve the best dental website SEO? It’s rather simple – you just have to know what your potential customers’ search queries are likely to be. Try walking in their shoes: what would you type if you needed a dentist?
- Dentist clinic *location*
- Dentist clinic cheap
- Best dentist clinic *location*
- Dental surgeon
- Best orthodontist *location*
These are not all the queries that people could type, just the first few that might pop up in a user’s mind. Local searches for dentists would be one of the most common search queries, so make sure that your dental SEO matches the demand.
Voice Search
Who could imagine that voice-activated technologies would now be a rather large part of our everyday life? Back in the day, people used to think of voice searches as something funny, though not very usable. However, voice-controlled assistants were continuing to develop quite fast and now Google claims that the accuracy of voice recognition has grown significantly, up to 95%!
But how does this affect dental internet marketing? Well, pretty much very directly. People are using voice search more and more, but the way people speak differs from the way they type. That means, that one has to consider different keyword combinations.
There are a lot of tools on the Internet that will help you find the most common queries. For example, Answer the Public. This site will give you a list of commonly asked questions that are related to the keyword combination you have used.
Also, a good dental marketing idea would be to consider adding “local” tags to your keywords. Google has discovered that the number of voice searches for local businesses is growing rapidly, as people usually use it on the go and want to find the nearest result. Online marketing for dentists should use this opportunity to gain new clients.
If you still do not have a clear understanding of how to promote your dental practice, feel free to contact us and ask for advice!
Online Reviews
Local searches for dentist reviews are helping users choose the clinic they would like to use based on the client’s feedback. If all of the reviews are negative, it will be no wonder that your potential client decides to go to your competitor. Marketing strategies for dental practices should always pay a lot of attention to and highlight the good online reputation of the clinic.
There are a lot of review platforms that can be used. We recommend focusing on these for dental internet marketing (in order of importance):
- Yelp
- Healthgrades
The clinic could invest in a review management platform. It will help your business gain more reviews, and more reviews mean a higher ranking in the search engine. For example, here are our Top 2:
Birdeye
What is good about it? It has a month-to-month subscription and the cost is comparatively low. The interface is very simple and user-friendly.
Podium
What is good about it? It also has a month-to-month subscription; however, it is more expensive. Though there are more different features, and Google has invested largely in it.
How to market a dental clinic is a very extensive question. And it has a lot of different answers. So, the best solution would be to use every tool at hand, from reviews to SEO and PPC.
Useful Content
Bill Gates once wrote an essay titled “Content is King”. He thought of the Internet as a marketplace where people sell content. And he was absolutely right.
Dental content marketing plays an essential role in the entire field of dental marketing in the USA. People are used to finding any information they need, in just a few clicks, and queries about oral health are no exception. This is a great idea for dental office marketing. There are a lot of ways to maintain good quality content, gain new customers, and find new dental campaign ideas. For example, you can have a blog about interesting cases, oral cavity care, FAQs, guides, or just newsletters with your special offers. All of these creative ideas can result in potential customers spending time on your website, learning something new, and maybe even become your new patient.
Storytelling in Social Media
A dental social media campaign is a great way to boost your leads and attract a new audience. Nowadays, almost everyone has a page on some social media network. Businesses are no exception. Only a strong Instagram presence can significantly increase your brand awareness (if, of course, it generates good and interesting content). People buy things online, exchange opinions, give feedback and ask questions, all via social media applications.
Here are some dental social media marketing ideas:
- Ask your doctors to use their internet pages more actively and always tag the official clinic account. Not only will it benefit the clinic, but it will also create new clients for the doctor. More people will learn about him and subsequently, share their experiences.
- Ask your subscribers questions, offer to write the answers in the comments section, and then have a prize drawing for the one(s) who gave the right answer.
- Use barter. Find people, who have a lot of followers and offer them free procedures in exchange for mentioning and tagging you in their stories and posts. This alone can give you hundreds of new potential clients overnight!
Sure thing, dental social media ideas are not limited to the list above. However, these 3 points are enough to see quite a significant boost to your brand awareness.
Sponsored Content
How to get more patients for your dental office? Try using sponsored articles! It can work both ways, either you pay someone to mention you, or someone pays you. Sure thing, the barter system works here as well. For example, there is a digital magazine that publishes reviews on various clinics in the medical sphere. You can contact them and ask the magazine to write about your dental business. If you both agree to the terms, it can be an easy way to get new clients. One cannot say that it is the best dental marketing strategy, however, it does work and you should use any tool at hand to stay competitive.
Original Photography
Nice and decent photos on the website make your clinic look more professional and reliable. You can use them not only for the site but in your dental ads as well. Instead of boring stock photos, you will have pictures of yourself, your clinic, and your team.
Another good tool for dental practice marketing is to have some photos taken directly during the process of work. This will show the cabinet, the doctor, and the equipment. These photos show users that they can trust you, you have a sterile, clean environment and modern equipment, and your clinic is nice and neat. This visual impression has a huge effect on the process of decision-making.
Do not hire the cheapest photographer to save a little money. If you want good, high-quality photos that you will be able to use everywhere, from brochures and flyers to digital dental advertising and blogs, a professional photographer will be money well spent.
Online Booking Services
Who would imagine, even a decade ago, that it would be possible to order anything you want online, without even talking to anyone? Just a couple of clicks – that’s what it takes today. This applies to almost every sphere of business, from pizza delivery to making an appointment at a clinic. All hail to 2019!
If you want to keep your dental internet marketing competitive, it will be better if your clients have the possibility of booking an appointment online using just their cell phones. It saves a lot of time and resources for everyone, not to mention that nowadays many young people do not like talking via phone or in person with strangers.
Here are a couple of examples of good, smoothly run online booking systems in digital marketing for dentists:
- First Impressions Dentistry in Oklahoma – they use LocalMed booking service, which has earned its reputation by its robust online scheduling capabilities.
- Studio Dental – this system has a very simple, user-friendly, and fully automated online booking process.
PPC and Remarketing
There are many things in SEO to consider, from choosing the top dental keywords and Facebook post ideas for dentist’s clinics to Pay-per-Click and Remarketing. Let’s take a closer look at these last two.
Pay-per-Click or PPC
Those Facebook ads for dentists you see while scrolling through your newsfeed; are the paid ads. Search engines (Google Adwords, MSN adCenter, etc.) and social media advertising platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) offer a space where ads can be placed. When the user clicks on an ad and gets transferred to the website, the ad-owner pays the platform for this transfer. That is why it is called a Pay-per-Click.
These paid ads are highly useful in generating leads, as they are shown not just to anybody (like on TV), but only to people who are potentially interested in your products or services.
Remarketing
If you are wondering how to get more dental patients, you can try remarketing. This is a tool provided by Google AdWords. The working process looks like this: let’s say a user visited your site once. Maybe he or she didn’t use your services, but just took a look and left. Later, on a completely different site, the user sees your dental AdWords. It reminds him of your clinic and the possibility that he will use your services in the future if the need arises. To get Facebook ideas for a dental office for these ads you should still think like a client. What ad would be so appealing to you, that you would want to click on it?
If you have trouble creating your own dental campaign, ask for the professional help of a dental advertising agency. This way you will at least be sure, that your money won’t be wasted.
Exceed Expectations in Live Communication
Even the help of the leading dental practice marketing companies won’t help your clinic to get more clients if people are not satisfied with the service! Remember, dental patient marketing goes hand-in-hand with the smooth and proper functioning of the clinic itself, any dentist marketing agency will tell you that.
Conclusion
If you do not feel very comfortable with your digital internet marketing strategy, you can always use the help of Lasting Trend! Our marketers will gladly help you develop a strategy, create appealing ads and make your website work! Contact us if you want to get things started!
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