What if your dental practice could grow far beyond your wildest dreams?
Your business growth hinges on bringing in more patients. And to do that, you need to take your dentist practice marketing to the next level.
Ready to start growing your practice? Here are a few of our favorite marketing techniques!
Table of Contents
1. Community Marketing
Most dental practices focus on internet marketing. But you must be careful when it comes to how you market online.
For example, you need local customers to keep your business successful. And marketing to someone half a world away won’t really help you.
So if your focus is on dental marketing Ireland, make sure you are doing real community marketing. Attend local festivals, sponsor local school activities, and so on.
The more locals see how much you care, the more they will trust you with their dental health.
2. Local Awareness Advertisement
Facebook is a great way to reach potential customers. But as we said above, you want to try to focus on a more local audience whenever possible.
With Facebook, you have the option of using “Local Awareness” ads. As the name implies, these ads can be limited to a certain radius (such as running ads no more than 50 miles from your practice).
These same ads can share things like your location on a map, hours of operation, and phone number. All of this makes it easy to become a new customer!
3. Referral Bonus System
The real secret to every successful business is good word-of-mouth. And you can get more word-of-mouth advertising by using a referral bonus system.
Simply ask your patients to refer other potential patients to your business. And when a new patient mentions someone who referred them, you pay the original person a bonus (such as $50).
Patients love this because they were going to talk about their experience no matter what. In this way, a successful referral is like getting money for nothing.
4. Online Scheduling
Want to know why some people haven’t become a patient yet? It may be because they don’t want to pick up the phone.
Younger patients have grown up in a world that’s mostly messaging. Text messaging, online comments…it’s rare they pick up a phone and talk to a stranger.
By adding online scheduling to your website and social media, you can let them make an appointment with the click of a button. And even those who don’t mind a phone call will appreciate the added convenience you have provided.
5. Social Media Savvy
Do you have a presence on Facebook and other social media? If not, you need to start one today!
By regularly posting useful dental content, you create posts that others will share, which helps marketing your business. And others will follow your page to see all of your posts, giving you a great way to organically advertise.
In most cases, there is no charge to create a business page on Facebook, Instagram, or other platforms. And as a bonus, such platforms give your customers one more way to easily reach you.
6. Click to Call
Here’s a newsflash: most of your potential patients are browsing your site and social media via their smartphone. If you want more patients, you need to make it easier for them to contact you via smartphone.
One of the best ways to do this is by “click to call” ads. As the name implies, these are advertisements in which a smartphone user clicks a single button to initiate a phone call.
Basically, patients like any dentist that makes their lives simpler and easier. Instead of punching in a long phone number, they will prefer being able to click a single button and go from there.
7. E-Mail Marketing
It’s not enough to get a patient through your door the first time. To really have a successful practice, you need to turn those patients into repeat customers.
You can do this by having patients enroll in a mailing list for your business. Afterward, you can send them e-mail marketing at a modest rate (such as once a week).
Such e-mail marketing may include special deals and opportunities. This provides an incentive for those who have held off on going to the dentist to make an appointment.
As with your social media, you shouldn’t use e-mail marketing exclusively for deals and advertisement. You also need to focus on content marketing services.
8. Content Marketing
There are many things which separate the Millennials from other demographics. And one of the key things is their skepticism about marketing.
Generally speaking, this group knows when they are being marketed or pandered to. And they are very wary of taking any business at its word regarding the quality of that business.
That’s why your social media and e-mail marketing needs to have quality content. And “quality” means something that will improve your patients’ lives.
You can post things like flossing tips and tooth brushing techniques. And if you really want to get on their good side, post some “hacks” for dental care that will minimize their number of visits to the dentist.
Ironically, when customers see that you care about them more than building your business, they will become more loyal to your business.
9. Appointment Reminder
So, you’ve got a bunch of new patients. But what if you suddenly lost them?
For a dentist, it’s the worst when someone misses an appointment. Sure, you can charge them for not canceling ahead of time. But they may get angry and stop coming to you altogether.
This is why you need to offer appointment reminders. Use software to automatically text and e-mail customers about appointments, and have someone call them to verify they will come.
Customers will appreciate the polite reminders. And you’ll appreciate the lack of canceled appointments!
Dentist Practice Marketing: The Bottom Line
Now you know how to boost your dentist practice marketing. But do you know how to stay up to date on all things teeth?
We keep everyone in the loop with awesome health and lifestyle news every week. To discover the next big angle for your dental business, check out our other dental articles today!
