What more can I do online to market my dental practice?

For the past 30 years, Patient NEWS has dedicated its efforts in improving patient acquisition and retention in the dental industry. From innovations in dental marketing to improving product quality, our 360-degree experience with dental practices across Canada and the USA has proven to be an inspirational journey with an abundance of learning!

During this period, we studied the evolution of dental marketing (as well as marketing as a whole) and its dramatic changes year after year ranging from the discovery of new online consumer trends to the use of unique digital platforms. The opportunity to explore these trends allowed us to answer some important questions.

1. What factors influence audience decisions in choosing a dental practice? 
2. How can practices efficiently reach their potential customers online?
3. Is it important to build a relationship with your audiences?
4. Where are audiences searching for dentistry services?

Over the years, we’ve come across dentists and dental administration teams that often claim they believe their efforts are sufficient in terms of online marketing. But our question here is not “how much you are doing” but “how effective is it”? Has the required research been done to ensure all your bases are being covered when it comes to patient attraction?

After 30 years in the industry, we understand the ins and outs of both dental practices as well as what patients really want. If you’re intrigued to know where you can take your online presence, start with a fast, 10-minute discovery call at 1-888-377-2404, or sign up for a free consultation.

Here are a few trends we would like to share. These are:

Digital marketing consumer trends that dentists MUST know

Consumer trends can largely be defined as the behaviors, attitudes, and opinions that customers may form about a product or service which directly influence their buying decisions. By understanding these trends, marketers can build strong and sustainable strategies for both the acquisition and retention of customers.

And if that’s not motivation enough to keep reading, think of it this way, these are insights your competitors likely already have, and they are working hard to reach the same audiences you are!

#1 Data-driven marketing

Data-driven marketing simply means advertising to your audiences with a granular understanding of your customers’ buying habits and lifestyles. Tools like Google Analytics and most of your social media dashboards are already collecting data about your audiences from their digital footprints. Leveraging these details can help you learn more about your audiences and the more you know about your potential customers, the more successfully you will be at predicting their online behavior.

Wait a minute, can I predict consumer buying behaviours?

The study of online consumer trends isn’t a mundane analysis that includes more digital marketing jargon that can only be used as part of a slow and gradual process. Online trends have the potential to tell you what your patients are looking for, where they are looking for it, and how to persuade them via effective communication to choose you; right then and there!

It’s almost like having your own marketing psychic!

Studying consumer behavior thereby does allow marketers to predict future buying behaviors through the identification of patterns in their online activity. That’s what we do when it comes specifically to dental marketing and websites for dentists.

Intelligent marketing includes identifying buyer personas of a specific target audience to make sure your marketing efforts (communication and promotions) have the potential to reach and make an impact on a highly interested audience as opposed to a broader group.

Tip: Run a competitive analysis to understand who your competition’s target audiences are, compare that to your market share and demographics, and build your buyer personas. Ensure your communication is then appropriate to each persona, and based on your competitive advantages for the best results from your marketing campaign. Your team at Patient NEWS will take care of this for you. Call in and find out more!

#2 Marketing Automation- Automated Email Marketing

Choosing a dentist for a patient or their family is far from an impulse decision. There are a number of factors that influence choosing the right dental practice regardless of which service the patient seeks. Agreed? In such a case, it is important to understand that communication with such prospects should also be customized; it must include content that resonates with them enough to take the next step like making the first call, filling out a form, or booking an appointment directly with your practice.

Frequenting your communication through automated email campaigns can help you generate a highly interested audience pool (based on your data collection and analysis). Automated email marketing supports both building and maintaining positive relationships through regular communication with your audiences. 

As per a recent article by SuperOffice, email marketing outperforms all online marketing strategies including SEO, PPC and content marketing. The statistics say, for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect a $42 return! That’s the power of automation.

Tip: Use email regularly, from monthly patient newsletters to custom content for patients at each stage of the buying journey. From awareness of services to consideration to conversation, automate emails to speak to patients consistently, as repetition builds recognition and trust.

#3 Omnichannel marketing

The digital marketing landscape includes multiple platforms for advertising promotion across the internet. From a post on social media to a personal message in your target audiences’ email inbox, it’s all digital!

Omnichannel marketing means bringing together both digital and traditional efforts (including direct mail for dental offices). For example, neighborhood newsletters from Patient NEWS are a highly effective way of driving traffic online and leveraging the online presence. With the right online activities in place, you can leverage multiple mediums to build trust, promote services and engage customers, all at once. This also helps consumers interact in the way they prefer. Through intelligent research and a strategic approach, your dental practice can obtain high visibility and in turn higher conversions – and more new patients – by choosing an omnichannel approach to be present where patients are present.

Apart from visibility, omnichannel marketing also helps boost sales through constant engagement, encouraging a positive relationship amongst your audiences. Effective content and customer-centric communication further support in building trust and loyalty throughout these efforts.

#4 Customer-centric marketing and patient convenience

While a comfortable couch at your practice waiting area would have been ideal, how do you provide convenience online?

Since the pandemic (and likely even prior to it), customer convenience has become a make or break for many practices. In the digital world, this means your audiences will not be spending too much time on your website if it lacks performance capabilities.

In an article recently published by Devrix, it was stated that the average user attention span on a webpage in 2022 is only 8 seconds! From a fast website to an ease in navigation, positive web accessibility can directly help your practice stand out.

Along with technical components under a microscope, the quality of your content plays a big role here as well. Word-of-mouth marketing is said to have evolved into “marketing with meaning” with an increased focus on nurturing customer experiences and relationship building instead of quick conversions with every PPC ad you run!

Customer-centric marketing and communication give readers an immediate clear picture of your service and how it can fulfill their needs as opposed to keyword-stuffed content that the SEO team asked you to host. Enhance your patient experience with both an easy-to-navigate and visually appealing website with high quality, relevant content.

Tip: Study online consumer and marketing trends to build a strategic marketing plan for your practice! Reach out to an executive on the Patient News team for support in building a tailored marketing plan for your practice.

Remember, Patient NEWS client production (revenue) has trended 25% higher than industry-average through 2022 and into 2023. We can help you improve your digital and traditional marketing strategies, including dental social media marketing, to boost production through 2023. Our proven techniques in both digital and conventional channels have helped many dental practices enhance their visibility and patient engagement, leading to increased revenue. Let us leverage our extensive experience to help your practice achieve similar success.. Start with a fast, 10-minute discovery call, and see if we’re a fit for your practice. We love working with successful dental teams! As Dr. Alex Giannini says “I can attest to the quality of this organization. If you want a trusted dental marketing partner, contact Patient NEWS.”

Happy holidays!

Joanne Bishop