Struggling to gain new patients for your dental practice despite your best efforts devising and implementing a digital marketing strategy?
Well, don’t worry, you’re not alone. 65% of businesses say generating website traffic and leads is actually one of their top marketing challenges. Worse, around 80% of new leads never turn into sales. This means that if you fail to convert web visitors into patients, growing your practice could get extremely challenging.
While we can’t deny that digital marketing is the driving force behind a successful dental business, or just about any business, we’d like to point out that there are certain missteps that can drive your practice in the wrong direction.
Especially if you’re new to the scene, there’s a huge chance that you’re committing a few mistakes that many other dentists have also committed…. before they finally made a name for themselves. Upon realizing that they’ve been doing some things wrong, they’ve found solutions to fix these poor practices and stopped using them altogether.
Did their dental business improve eventually? Without a doubt. Odds are, even the best dentist had once fallen into some of these traps.
So, what are these dental marketing pitfalls, you ask?
No worries – I’m here to help.
As you probably know I’m a bestselling author and award winning designer – with about 2 million books and courses sold globally.
I offer a range of online marketing tools in my course: How To Make Profitable Courses – Without The Overwhelm.
Plus I offer Peak Performance Coaching for individuals and corporate teams.
I love helping people to live their most successful and fulfilling lives.
So I decided to put together this article with dental marketing practices to avoid or stop doing altogether.
What should you do – or not do – to ensure that you’re on the path to success with your dental marketing? Find out below!
Before anything else, ask yourself who you really wish to target.
Whether you’re a general dental practitioner, an orthodontist, or a pediatric dentist, your online marketing strategy should vary depending on your ideal audience. Let’s say you’re a cosmetic dentist who caters to wealthy patients. If your marketing strategy is similar to that of a fellow dentist who serves low- and middle-income families, then you’re more than likely setting yourself up for failure.
Understanding who your target audience is makes it easier for you to come up with campaigns that truly resonate with them. People tend to respond better to marketing when they find it relevant, especially if it addresses their concerns or pain points.
For instance, dental SEO geared towards millennials could focus on social media engagement, online reviews, and convenient scheduling through mobile apps. These aspects reflect their digital savviness and preference for seamless experiences.
On the other hand, marketing to professionals in urban areas includes emphasizing the convenience of location, flexible appointment scheduling, and tailored services to accommodate busy lifestyles. These things align with their priorities and needs.
A targeted strategy also involves collaborating with local influencers among your target audience. Local partnerships can enhance your visibility and credibility within your community, which will drive more qualified leads to your practice.
Many people believe that branding is merely a logo or symbol. The truth is, it’s more than that.
Branding plays a significant role in the success of every company. It helps them attract new customers and stand out from the competition, both of which are essential in taking your business to the next level.
Think of your brand as your vow to your prospective and existing patients. It’s how you want them to perceive your dental practice. It should be able to provide them an overview of your services, your team, and of course, your clinic.
That being said, you should focus on building a solid dental brand. There must be consistency and common threads among your marketing materials, ads, social posts, blogs, and anything else that you show to the public.
For instance, your logo should be prominently featured across all platforms, from your website to social media profiles, ensuring instant recognition for your practice.
Color schemes and typography should also remain consistent, reflecting your brand’s identity and values. Whether it’s a blog post, social media ad, or newsletter, maintaining a unified tone of voice and messaging helps to reinforce your brand’s image and build trust with your audience.
Additionally, incorporating elements of your brand’s visual identity, such as images of smiling patients or dental care tools, across different marketing materials creates a sense of familiarity. It reinforces your brand’s expertise and commitment to oral health.
What’s the point of developing a dental website if it looks unappealing and outdated? Or one that is pleasing to the eye but is just too difficult to navigate? For sure, your visitors will find themselves clicking away before they can even get past the first page. There go your missed opportunities!
People want a beautiful and well-functioning website, one that allows them to find the information they’re looking for in less than five seconds. It should also contain everything about your business – from your contact details and services to your mission statement and dental-related blogs.
More importantly, your dental site should be optimized for search engines. In short, it should be SEO-friendly. Why? It’s pretty much what you need to rank high in Google. The higher you rank, the more organic traffic and leads you generate.
However, considering that search engine optimization is a complex and time-consuming process, your best bet is to hire a digital marketing agency that has vast experience in dental marketing, or whatever your specialty is, like dental implant marketing, for example.
Your online reputation can affect a potential patient’s decision to book an appointment with you.
90% of people read online reviews before visiting a business, and 84% of them trust these reviews as much as a personal recommendation. With these stats, managing your online reputation is a crucial step.
Make it a habit to monitor and respond to feedback about your practice, including the negative ones. While a negative review or two won’t hurt your reputation too much, you should be aware of repeated complaints. Keeping track of online reviews can notify you of the issues that must be addressed regarding your dental practice.
When responding to bad reviews, make sure that you keep your responses as authentic and honest as possible. Providing a cookie-cutter and generic response will give your audience the impression that you’re not sincere, which might lead them to switch to another dentist. Don’t forget to thank them for their feedback, no matter how harsh it may be.
Knowing what your competitors are up to can help your practice in so many ways. You can get inspiration from their success, learn from their mistakes, and take note of the strategies they’re using that are unfamiliar to you.
Check out their websites and social media channels, or better yet, use competitor analysis tools to spy on your dental rivals. These tools will help you quickly and efficiently assess how you stack up against the top dogs in your industry. There’s a wide range of options to choose from, so we’re giving you some of the most popular ones.
Buzzsumo and Feedly are ideal tools for identifying your competitors’ top-performing content and keeping an eye on their topics without having to check their blogs regularly.
If you want to analyze their SEO performance, you can count on Ahrefs or SEMRush to get the job done.
As for their social media marketing efforts, I recommend Sprout Social and Social Blade.
Using these tools, you’ll find out what marketing channels usually bring them outstanding results, what their best-ranking search terms are, what social networks they have large followings on, and more.
These days, it’s not uncommon for brands and businesses to pay for followers on social media. As tempting as it sounds, don’t do it. Trust us, it won’t pay off in the long run.
Especially as a dental practitioner, this tactic will turn out to be completely useless. Aside from the fact that most of these followers come from other cities or areas, they’ll also have no interest in your services whatsoever. And, you could end up spamming your real followers, which can damage your reputation as a result.
I offer a range of online marketing tools in my course: How To Make Profitable Courses – Without The Overwhelm.
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