Top 10 Best Practices Dental Marketing Online

Do you stand out online from your competition? Or are you merely following the pack and getting lost in the digital shuffle?

You know a blend of traditional and digital marketing are key ingredients to establishing a thoughtful and holistic dental marketing strategy, but dental marketing online is unique in many ways. It’s forever a moving target; meaning to stand out from your competition, you need to be ahead of the crowd with how and where you market your dental practice online.

Recommended Dental Marketing Best Practices

There are 10 things you need to be doing ensure your marketing strategy is driving the results you desire, including:

• Use social media effectively. In our hyperconnected world – one where nearly everyone has instant access to the internet at any time thanks to the mobile phone in their pockets – social media networks have become the go-to platforms consumers flock to for everything. From keeping up with current events to combing for discounts on consumer goods to praising or criticizing a company, celebrity, or government, social media is critical to helping you raise awareness of your practice, and build trust.

• Produce high-quality content. Consistently producing well-written, custom content in the form of blogs, online articles, videos, as well as dental office newsletters can position you as the dental expert in your community. Long-form content that educates your patients or provides them with something of value will become increasingly important in consumers’ decision-making. To put it another way, if you’re not publishing valuable content regularly, and your competition is, you’ll continue to lose business.

• Leverage short-term digital marketing. Whereas content is a long-tail marketing strategy that will boost your dental office’s search engine rankings over time, and help prospective patients understand the benefit of good oral hygiene and the services you provide, the rise of social channels such as Snapchat has spawned what’s known as “ephemeral marketing.” Using Snapchat creatively could help your practice connect with younger generations, but make sure you know your practice demographic before allocating limited resources.

• Focus on building long-lasting patient relationships. In digital marketing circles, the term “relationship marketing” is all about customer relationship management and the customer’s experience. Its purpose is to focus on cultivating customer loyalty and engagement by improving interactions between your business and your patients with an aim to improving the customer’s experience, ergo patient retention and satisfaction.

• Use video. It’s the future. After Google, YouTube is where most people conduct online searches to the tune of an estimated 3 billion searches per month. But dental marketing online means more than posting short, informative videos on YouTube. Take advantage of live streaming opportunities offered by YouTube Mobile Live Streaming, Periscope, and Facebook Live that won’t cost you a lot of money.

• Advertise your practice online with Bing. Using geographically targeted digital ads, put your practice front and center by way of a simple digital advertisement on the Bing search engine. Bing is the second most popular search engine after Google. A lot of people conduct searches on Bing. That it trails Google in the tech industry translates into lower advertising rates for you, and effective dental advertising in general is a revenue generator. Don’t forget to use call tracking and scoring.

• Have a mobile-ready website. Do you have what’s known as a responsive website? In other words, is your website optimized for mobile searches? More people conduct online searches using a mobile device nowadays instead of a desktop computer. Ensuring people can easily view and interact with your website on a mobile phone is critical. And always use call tracking and scoring.

• Only use professional photos and images. High-quality photographs and digital images are as important to projecting your practice as a modern and professional one as informative content on both printed and digital marketing collateral. Mobile phone cameras have improved beyond recognition, and can capture professional-looking images. You can also invest in professional stock photography or hire a photographer to help your photos have a more polished appeal. For team and doctor shots, make sure you look friendly and approachable.

• Advertise in your local newspaper. Dental newspaper advertising is still a valuable way for you to market your practice and services in your community cost-effectively. Statistics show printed dental ads and direct mail content marketing helps dental practices grow their patient rosters, and differentiate their services from the competition. Direct mail advertising also proactively engages your existing, lapsing, and prospective patients who will check you out online.

• Ask for patient testimonials. Asking your patients of record to post positive reviews of their experiences at your office on Google or Facebook is a smart way to encourage new patients to visit you. Additionally, regularly use dental patient satisfaction surveys to find out what your existing patients think of the services they receive, and the experiences they have dealing with your staff.

Need professional assistance marketing your dental practice? We can help. For more than 24+ years Patient NEWS has specialized in helping dental offices across the U.S. and Canada grow their businesses. Call us now at 1-888-377-2404 or request a callback. Let’s get to work growing your practice and delighting your patients.