Dental Marketing Ideas That Will Boost Patient Growth

If you want to grow your dental practice, there are plenty of things you can do today. You can start with some basic marketing strategies, such as sending out email newsletters, posting ads online, and hosting events.

But what about generating leads? How can you attract new clients to your dental practice? Well, here are 20 of the most effective dental marketing ideas you can implement now to increase patient traffic.

Set practice and acquisition goals: How many new patients?

A dental practice needs to set clear goals for itself. These are the things it wants to accomplish over the next few months and years. For example, does your practice want to grow? Does it want to increase its market share? Does it want to become the go-to place for certain procedures?

These goals help determine what kinds of advertising campaigns you run, how much money you spend on each campaign, and where you allocate resources within the clinic. They also allow you to track whether your strategies are working. If you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve, it’ll be hard to tell whether your current strategy is effective.

Build a customer profile: Who do you want to target?

After you’ve set goals for yourself regarding how much money you want to make per month, it’s time to think about what types of patients you want to attract. This is called creating a “customer profile.” A customer profile includes basic information, such as your ideal patient’s gender and age.

Do you want to attract people looking for comprehensive care? People seeking preventative care? People interested in cosmetic dentistry? People interested in orthodontics?

The more clearly defined your ideal clientele is, the easier it will be to find them online. You’ll also be able to provide a better experience for them once they arrive at your office.

You can build multiple profiles, each representing a different type of patient. For example, one might represent a family dentist, another could be geared toward seniors, and another might focus on a particular area of dentistry. All of these profiles should be based on the specifics of your dental practice.

Does your dental office plan to cater to large numbers of patients through affordable prices? If so, then your target audience may be low-income individuals and families. Middle-class families and older adults tend to be your best bet because they’re likely to spend more money on their health care.

Build an online presence

Having a digital presence is key to growing your dental practice, whether you’re looking to attract new patients or keep current ones coming back. If you don’t have one, now’s the perfect time to start building yours. In this section we’ll go over what you need to know about setting up an effective online presence for your dental practice.

Website: Think of your dental web site as a virtual business card, or your office’s main salesman. Your website needs to cover the basics: your office location, address, phone number, and the specific services offered. You want to make sure that the language of your website copy speaks to your ideal patient. Patients are extremely picky, so if your site isn’t giving them the information they need — such as pricing, appointment times, and directions — they may choose another dentist.

Social Media: Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter provide a great way to connect with people around the globe. However, unlike traditional social networks like LinkedIn where you can promote yourself professionally, dentists often use social media to market themselves personally.

While most dentists post photos of their smiling patients, they rarely talk about their professional accomplishments. Instead, they focus on sharing personal stories and pictures of their families. This approach works well for many doctors because it helps them establish a strong personal connection with potential clients. But, it’s important to remember that while personal connections are helpful, there’s nothing wrong with promoting your practice.

Get involved in your community

Simply being active and involved in you community is an effective dental marketer idea. Giving back is a great thing to do, and it goes far beyond the standard dental service. It ensures your practice will be on the top of their list anytime they need a dentist. Here are a few ways you can get involved in your community.

Sponsoring a small local sports team is one of the most popular ways dentists give back. Sponsorships range from $500 to $10,000, depending on the sport. If you want to sponsor a team, check out our article here. Or, take part in a local fundraising event like a bake sale or a fun run. You can find information about these types of events here.

Create a Dental Website Blog

A dental website blog is one of the most effective ways to build trust and authority in your practice. But it requires commitment and consistency. A blog gives your audience something to read and interact with every day. And it provides a place where you can publish helpful resources like articles, videos, and pictures.

Having a resource for visitors looking to find answers about an oral health concern is a great way for you to engage and convert those visitors into scheduled patients. When you write for your readers, you are creating a relationship with them. You are building trust and credibility. Your patients will feel comfortable asking questions, sharing concerns, and seeking advice on topics related to their care.

The key to success is to keep up with your blogging schedule. Don’t let life get in the way of your blog. If you’re busy, don’t worry. There are plenty of tools out there that help you manage your time and keep track of what you’ve written.

If you want to start a blog, we recommend starting with WordPress.com because it’s free and easy to use, and it offers tons of features. Plus, you’ll be able to customize your site with themes and plugins.

Take Time to Make Informative Dental Videos

Video content is essential whether you are filming a sixty-second Tik Tok explaining your top ten joy of being a dentist or a longer educational video on Youtube covering flossing techniques, but it requires careful planning and execution.

Whether you are creating a short clip that explains how to properly brush your teeth or a longer one that covers how to clean your gums, there are several important things to consider.

First, make sure you have permission to use the images or footage you plan to use. You don’t want to find yourself having to pay licensing fees to use someone else’s image or footage without their consent.

Second, ensure you have enough time to complete the project. A good rule of thumb is to shoot anywhere from five minutes to twenty minutes depending on the length of your video. If you’re shooting a thirty-minute video, you’ll probably need more time than if you’re making a three-minute video.

Third, think about your target audience. What do they want to learn about? How much information do they need to know before booking an appointment? Do they need to watch the entire video before calling or scheduling an appointment?

Finally, remember that videos aren’t just for entertainment purposes. They can provide value to potential clients. For example, a video featuring a patient testimonial can help ease anxiety and give people confidence in your ability to perform quality dental work.

Incentive Patient Referrals

Patient referral programs are one of the most effective ways to grow your dental office. They’re easy to implement and offer many benefits. But what do you do once you’ve got the program running? Here are some ideas to help you continue growing your patient base.

Setup Google Local or Google My Business

Google rolled out new features to their GMB tools in 2020 and 2021 that make it easier for people to find you and connect with you. These changes include adding call logging and insights for listings on maps and adding online business attributes to profiles, making it easier to see what others say about you.

Now you can use this free resource to add additional information to your profile that makes it easy for people to find you, including photos, hours of operation, reviews, ratings, and more. With a few simple steps, you can now turn those visitors into repeat customers.

Beat Your Competition

Strategic dental marketing means knowing your competitor. In order to understand how your practice compares to others, it helps to know what they are doing. This is where research comes into play.

Study your competitors to identify their market strategy. What types of dentistry does each office specialize in? Are they focused on cosmetic procedures? Or did they focus on restorative work? Knowing this information gives you insight into what type of dental marketing ideas works best for them.

Think about how your practice can outshine theirs. If you want to attract new patients, what could you do differently? For example, some practices offer free checkups. Others give away toothbrushes. Could you do something similar?

Use PPC Advertising

If you want to attract new patients, try pay per click (PPC). This type of online marketing allows you to reach out to people looking for dental care. By targeting specific words related to dentistry, such as “dental office,” “toothache,” and “dentist,” you can put up ads on sites like Google, Facebook, Bing, and Yahoo.

You can set up a campaign and select how much money you want to spend each month. Then, you just wait for customers to come knocking. Once they do, you’ll start earning revenue immediately.

Utilize Email Marketing

The most effective dental marketing ideas combine traditional methods such as print advertising and social media with newer digital tools like email marketing. This combination helps dentists reach out to potential patients while continuing to build relationships with current clients.

Email marketing allows dentists to communicate directly with their patients via email. As long as it is done correctly, email marketing offers several advantages over other forms of communication.

For example, emails allow dentists to send information quickly and easily, providing a convenient and cost-effective method of communicating. They also provide a great opportunity to connect with patients, especially since many people prefer receiving emails rather than phone calls.

In addition to being easy to use, email marketing is highly targeted. Dentists can segment lists based on age, gender, location, income level, and even interests. Once a list is segmented, dentists can target messages to specific groups within that list. This allows them to better tailor their messages and increase response rates.

Track Your Dental Marketing Ideas with Google Analytics

Understanding the inner workings of Google analytics gives you a deeper insight into the world of digital marketing. From understanding how often people come to your site to seeing what pages visitors spend most time on, it’s a great tool to use to track all of your dental marketing ideas. You’ll find out whether your marketing campaigns are successful and identify areas you want to improve.

Google Analytics can help you see how many visits you receive each month, how much traffic you’re getting from different sources, and how long your visitors spend on your site. This information helps you understand how effective your dental office marketing ideas efforts are.

Analytics lets you track visits to your website, including mobile devices, and even allows you to look at which pages your patients are viewing while they’re there. You can even set up goals to measure conversions like purchases and signups.

You can also view data on the number of times people return to your site, how long they stay on your site, and how many pages they visit while they’re there. All of this information is useful in helping you develop a strategy for improving your online presence.

Bonus: Additional Dental Marketing Ideas

Facebook Messenger Ads – A Clever Conversation Starter

Facebook Messenger ads are relatively new but a clever conversation starter. They allow businesses to reach potential customers directly via the chat interface. This makes it possible to target messages to specific audiences, such as those who are interested in certain products, services or offers.

The main advantage of Facebook Messenger ads is that there are no limits on how many impressions you can make per day. You can even run multiple campaigns simultaneously. However, keep in mind that the maximum daily budget is $10,000.

In addition to targeting options, you can also set up different call-to-actions depending on what type of audience you want to attract. For example, you could offer free consultations or send out coupons to people who are looking for help.

Another great feature of Facebook Messenger ads is the ability to show sponsored messages. These are similar to regular ads, except they include a small link to another webpage. When clicked, they take the visitor to a landing page where they can learn more about the product or service being advertised.

Enable One-click Bookings for Your Dental Practice

Imagine being able to book a dentist appointment online without having to go through multiple steps. Now imagine doing this for every single patient.

You could save hours per week just by automating processes like scheduling appointments. And you don’t even need to hire anyone else to help out.

But there’s another reason why you might want to consider adding one-click bookings to your workflow. When you provide easy access to your schedule, patients will feel more comfortable making an appointment with you. They won’t have to worry about whether you’ll show up on time or remember what day they came in for their checkup.

And because your patients will be able to book online, they’ll no longer have to wait around for you to return their calls. Instead, they can simply pick up the phone and start scheduling an appointment.