Even if you’re not necessarily trying to grow the patient list for your dental practice, your dental marketing strategy requires constant attention to maintain the number of people you serve as patients come and go.
A good dental marketing strategy can help independent practices compete with regional and national dental conglomerates that are changing the landscape for dentistry. Luckily, there are plenty of cost-effective marketing tactics -- from claiming your Google My Business listing to running Facebook Ads -- that can help you keep a steady stream of new patients flowing through your door.
Here are ten dental marketing ideas for your dental office:
Your Google My Business page is at the top of the food chain when it comes to creating an internet listing for your dental practice. If you have not claimed your GMB account, stop reading and get started at business.google.com.
When you have a completed Google My Business listing, the Google search engine is more likely to show your practice when people search for dentists. A GMB listing also puts your dental office in line to show up in what’s referred to as the “local pack,” which usually displays a locator map and organic (non-advertising) results and several paid ad results, if there are any.
Even if you’re not necessarily trying to grow the patient list for your dental practice, your marketing requires constant attention to maintain the number of people you serve as patients come and go.
Good dental marketing can help independent dental practices compete with regional and national dental conglomerates that are changing the landscape for dentistry. Luckily, there are plenty of cost-effective marketing tactics -- from claiming your Google My Business listing to running Facebook Ads -- that can help you keep a steady stream of patients flowing through your door.
Your Google My Business listing also displays any Google reviews you have, and it even provides a link you can send to patients when asking them for online reviews. Your dental office listing should display your website address, contact information, photographs, office hours, describe your dental services, create special offers and promote events.
You can even use GMB to display social-media-style posts, and there’s a special section to describe your Covid-19 pandemic protocols.
Your GMB listing is more than a set-it-and-forget-it listing. It’s a dynamic tool that should be updated regularly. The more complete and current your GMB information, the more likely you’ll be noticed by searchers. Also, Google My Business is free. It only costs the time it takes to update the information.
Speaking of updating, have you looked at your website lately? It’s arguably your most important marketing tool, and like the sign outside your dental office, if it looks like it needs a fresh coat of paint, even new dental patients with a toothache might just walk on by.
In addition to looking like it was designed in the 21st century, your site absolutely must be easy to use on mobile devices and it must load quickly on mobile and desktop computers. To check, start by looking at your site on your own mobile device. Do the text and photos fit on the screen? Is it easy to find navigation? Can you read the text without pinching or expanding the screen?
Even if the site passes the eyeball test, use the Google mobile-friendly test. Google will tell you if your site looks good on mobile and suggest improvements. Google also has a page-speed test that will check your website load time and make recommendations. Google is more likely to show mobile-friendly and speedy sites in search results.
While you’re cleaning up your site appearance and functionality, also look for some, uh, cavities, in your content. Among the must-haves for modern dental practice websites:
Fill these gaps in your dental website content, if you haven’t already, and your site will be more useful and attractive to patients.
Local marketing is a must for any dental practice that wants to keep its patient list at least stable while competing with other local dentists trying to do the same thing. Given that so many people are using the internet to search for health services, local dental marketing requires much more attention in your digital marketing strategy.
The teethtalk ad platform connects people interested in dental services with a local dentist. This modern way of acquiring new patients helps dentists focus on their patients, and not advertising their practice.
AI-powered advertising puts your practice inform of local patients that are actively looking to improve their oral health. Learn more about our advertising services.
Dental SEO makes sure that potential patients can find you on search engines like Google and Bing is a big part of digital marketing strategy. A complete Google My Business profile is part of search engine optimization, but there’s much more.
When someone searches “how to fix a chipped tooth,” search engines do lightning-fast calculations to find websites that have information about fixing a chipped tooth. The search engines are smart enough to apply context and understand the searcher is probably looking for a dental office in the searcher’s local area.
For the marketing-savvy dentist, this means including potential search phrases -- keywords -- in your website text. This dental marketing strategy is one of the best ways to add keywords and keyword phrases to your website is by blogging.
A blog has several search optimization advantages. First, search engines tend to favor websites that are updated regularly, so adding a fresh blog article even once a month helps. Second, and more importantly, it lets you add more keyword phrases. In the case of the “chipped tooth” search, a blog creates an opportunity for a headline like “What to do about a chipped tooth.” The article makes several references to chipped teeth and also talks about dental crowns or the potential need for a root canal if the problem isn’t addressed promptly.
Keyword research is a must. SEMrush is a great tool to find the best keywords that drive traffic to your dental website.
When it’s relevant, it’s also valuable to include location information in blogs, even if something simple like “Visit our office in Mayberry” at the end of an article.
New patients will appreciate a video tour of your office to give them the lay of the land before they arrive. Putting yourself and your staff on camera conveys information about your personality and presence better than text and still photos.
People are becoming more accustomed to digesting information through video. There’s no stopping the trend, but creating some videos about your dental practice is easier than you might think.
A mobile phone is all you need to record video, and the message should be brief. A video tour of the office, for example, shouldn’t last more than a few minutes. Use YouTube to host your videos. It provides some basic editing tools, and YouTube has the added benefit of being the world’s second-most popular search engine (surpassed only by Google, which owns YouTube). YouTube will give you a link so you can show your videos on your website.
There are other reasons to get comfortable with the video. Video is ideal for patient reviews and social media posts. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and even LinkedIn are favoring video content.
When patients are searching for somebody to clean their teeth or replace a missing tooth, they’re not just searching for any dentist who can provide the service. They’re searching for what other people say about you. Reviews have become a prominent element in Google searches, on Facebook and on review platforms like Yelp.
How to get reviews? Start by making sure you’ve got your Google My Business listing filled out, you’ve got a Facebook business page and that you’ve claimed your Yelp listing. Then ask your patients to review your practice.
If that sounds too self-indulgent, get over it. Practices that are well-reviewed are going to attract more new patients than practices that aren’t reviewed at all. And you don’t have to ask people to give good reviews. Just ask them to be honest. If someone leaves a poor review, it’s an opportunity for you to respond and show everyone, not just the disgruntled dental patient, that you appreciate the feedback.
You can collect reviews by sending emails after each visit inviting patients to visit Google, Facebook or Yelp to write a short review The advantage of sending an email is that you can include links directly to review forms. Or you could include a review invitation on appointment cards or special cards in the office. Ask your long-time patients if they would mind sitting for a video interview and ask them questions about their experiences with their favorite dentist.
Even though we all have too much in our email inboxes, email remains the number one marketing tactic to build long-term relationships with patients. It’s valuable because you own it, and if Facebook, Google and Twitter disappear next year, you’ll still have your email list.
If you haven’t already started collecting email addresses, start now. If your list is written out on paper somewhere, add those names and email addresses to an electronic spreadsheet so you can upload it to an email management system like MailChimp or Constant Contact.
Don’t think of email marketing as a one-and-done tool. It works best when you send regular emails -- even once a quarter or once a month. It could start with something as simple as email appointment reminders. If you send out regular emails with dental health tips, office staff changes or profiles, your email promoting a discount on teeth-whitening will be more accepted.
When sending emails, work hard on the subject lines. “The latest news from Dr. So-and-So” won’t cut it. Maybe “The demise of ‘rinse-and-spit’” might work.
And be mindful of your readers’ time. Avoid sending emails that really don’t have much to say. Like any content, your emails should enlighten, entertain, educate or evoke emotion.
Instagram, the image- and video-centric platform owned by Facebook, is becoming an effective marketing medium for small businesses. Instagram’s data says 90 percent of the platform’s users follow at least one business, and two out of three surveyed Instagram users say the platform enables interaction with brands.
Whether you post individual images, a series of images in Instagram Stories, or short videos in Reels, the key to winning on Instagram is consistency along with a dash of creativity. Again, you can do everything from your mobile phone.
Social media post giveaways are one way to increase followers and engagement on Instagram. With a giveaway, you can offer something for free or at a discount in exchange for a like, a visit to your website or something other action. To plan a giveaway, choose a prize, establish entry criteria, decide your goal for the contest and set the deadline for entering.
Your prize should be something relevant to your practice and to the prospective patients you hope to attract. Giving away a retail gift card or a tablet will draw unqualified prospects, people who have no interest in going to the dentist. The criteria for entry can be something simple like asking people to like a post and then tagging one of their friends. That increases engagement and spreads the message.
The entry criteria might depend on your goal. Do you want more Instagram followers? Or do you want website visits? Make sure you’ve got an entry deadline and a schedule for choosing a winner. A hashtag just for the contest can enhance the fun.
Sure, Facebook has billions of users around the world. But as a dentist, you’re not interested in advertising to people thousands of miles away. For you, Facebook is an attractive advertising medium because you can choose to show your ads to precisely targeted audiences but is difficult to run and manage.
With Facebook Ads, you can limit your audience to just people within your locale. And depending on what you’re advertising, you can also target by age, gender, education and interests like fitness, health or beauty. For example, ads promoting implants or dentures might be targeted to older residents; ads for pediatric dentistry could be targeted to parents of young children and teens, and ads for teeth whitening could be targeted for people interested in health and beauty.
Being specific with your targeting keeps costs low and saves money by showing ads only to people who might be interested in a specific service. You can pay for Facebook Ads either by the click or by the number of ad impressions delivered on social media posts. Unlike TeethTalkGirl Ads, you have to manage everything yourself or hire an agency to run your Facebook ads.
When starting a Facebook Ads campaign, give the ads at least a couple of weeks to allow Facebook’s algorithm to figure out the most efficient ad delivery. After that, be willing to experiment with different types of ad creative and targeting. Get rid of ads that aren’t working and put a few more dollars into the ads that work well.
While Facebook shows ads based on location and demographics, Google Ads shows ads based on location and what people are searching for at any particular moment. With Google pay-per-click text ads, your ads are shown to people looking for whatever dental service you’re offering.
Google Ads run on a real-time auction system in which advertisers bid to have their ads shown when searchers use particular keywords. If someone searches for “teeth whitening,” Google first looks for ads that mention teeth whitening. Then it compares the bids from each advertiser. The highest bidder gets the top position, but advertisers only pay when someone clicks the ad, and no matter what they bid, they only pay a penny more than the bid below.
The cost and experience required for Google Ads campaign are much more involved and expensive depending on your keywords. For dentists, competition is relatively high, so your cost per click might be higher than average. However, you can set maximum budgets for each month to control overall costs.
Try teethtalk ads before Google Ads since teethtalk ads are 100% managed by an advertising team and require no additional work after sign up. They are also much more cost-effective.
Google Ads reports on a variety of ad metrics so that you can adjust bids and ad content to improve performance. As with Facebook Ads, some experimentation is required.
There are many ways to use dental marketing to market your dental practice. Implement one dental marketing idea at a time. Depending on your practice, your prospective patients, and your community, some methods may work better than others. Completing your Google My Business profile, updating your website, optimizing for search and search ads will help you reach the vast group of people who use search engines to find quality dental care.
Adding video, using email, and asking for reviews can help you build relationships with your patients and encourage them to tell their friends about you. Facebook and video can help with branding your practice, and an Instagram giveaway will drive engagement.
Wherever you are in your dental marketing, don’t try to do everything at once. If you’re doing one or two of these already, try to add something new. As you and your team get better with each tactic, move on to something else that you think will be effective. And remember, dental marketing is like keeping your teeth healthy. It requires consistent attention.
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Zach Westerhoff is a dental marketing expert. Join Zach and over 5,000 dentists to learn how to scale your dental business like a tech startup. Zach managed digital marketing teams & campaigns for large SaaS companies and retail giants. As co-founder of teethtalk ads, his goal is to help dentists advertise their practice to patients looking for treatment.
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