Dental Patient Acquisition Digital Marketing Tactics

COMMUNICATION – Whether it’s answering the phone, responding to emails, or engaging potential patients on social media, communication is key and it starts with accurate contact information on your Google Business Profile. Since most people begin their research with an online search for dentists in their area, your online presence and use of SEO is an important first step to get patients in your doors. When conducting online searches, 92% of searchers don’t look past the first page of results, so your marketing strategy should include tactics to increase your rankings in local searches.

REVIEWS – Regarded with the same authority as word-of-mouth referrals, the importance of gathering patient reviews and online reputation management cannot be stressed enough. Equip your staff with the tools necessary to ask for reviews as part of their checkout process, and make it easy for patients to access reviews on your website. SMS text messages see a 98% open rate and are an opportunity to thank patients for their visit while hyperlinks within the message make it quick and easy to capture the response of your patients.

SOCIAL MEDIA – A regular presence on Social Media allows patients to interact with your practice on a more personal level. They can gain insight into the culture at your office through the tone of your posts. Behind the scene posts and highlights featuring your staff can help to reduce the anxiety that many patients face when visiting a dental office. Targeted ads and remarketing campaigns can continually reach out to those who have visited your sites but may not have made an appointment.

CONTESTS AND GIVEAWAYS – Going back to the strength of word-of-mouth marketing, contents and giveaways are a unique strategy to encourage your current patients to spread the word about your practice. Effective methods can include a monthly referral contest – creating a card for patients to sign and give to their friends and colleagues to turn in when they arrive for their appointment. Service or product giveaways on social media also broaden your reach to prospective patients, and by providing outstanding care, you can convert them to repeat patients.

MEMBERSHIP PLANS – Currently 10% of children and over 30% of adults do not have dental benefits. The out-of-pocket costs for dental care can seem daunting for some, but many practices have developed membership plans to help make dental care more accessible. Allowing patients to pay a monthly rate for dental work as opposed to large payments at the time of their appointments broadens your pool of prospective patients. Market these programs through your social media and targeted ad campaigns to directly connect with those who need dental services.

PAID MARKETING CAMPAIGNS – Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing and social media ads allow you to stretch your marketing dollars while targeting specific groups of potential patients. PPC ads give your site prominence among Google search results while advertising on social media allows you to create highly varied campaigns. For example, Facebook’s detailed analytics make it easy to create ads that target specific patient groups, allowing you to filter by Gender, Age, Location, Interests, Education Level, Job, Income, Languages, and much more. This type of marketing allows you to tailor your ads and increase engagement through targeted patient groups, rather than creating broad ads that may get overlooked.