More Revenue to Your Dental Office with These Marketing Tips

We have compiled a list of 8 great techniques to help boost sales at your dental office.

 

1. Engage with your community

In this day and age, it’s easy to assume that the role of technology in marketing supersedes all else. In fact, the most reliable source of patient conversions is still word of mouth.

According to a 2016 study by the American Marketing Association, a positive offline interaction is the best way to predict a purchase (or, in this case, a utilization of services).

People trust each other, especially when it comes to choosing a reliable dentist — and they should. The recommendations we give and receive hold a great deal of personal weight.

That’s why the best way to drive more traffic to your dental practice is through getting involved with your community. Become a familiar face around town when you have the chance.

If you can, sponsor a local youth softball team over the summer, or set up a booth at a vendor fair. People will recognize you, trust you and recommend your dental services to friends and family.

2. Optimize Your Dental Office’s Web Presence for Mobile Technology

Clunky, outdated websites that aren’t optimized for smartphones can hurt your dental practice. These days, people spend just as much – if not more – time searching and evaluating on their phones, and if your site’s not up to speed, those potential patients will just click away.

Make sure your phone numbers, hours and address are prominently displayed, and that patients are easily able to set up appointments online.

Whether patients are preparing for a root canal, Invisalign or just to check up on a toothache, convenience is key and optimizing for mobile means that your practice is prepared for the public’s on-the-go lifestyle.

If you’re not sure how your web presence is interpreted, do some research.

Look up your office on both your laptop and your phone, or just run a common search for “dentist near me,” and make sure the information is accurate, your aesthetics are consistent and evaluate whether or not you would want to click the “call” button. If you don’t, others probably won’t, either.

 

3. Utilize calls to action on social media

Social media platforms are loaded with advertisements. It’s difficult to stand out among all the noise on an average Facebook feed. However, garnering likes and online interactions is an important part of modern marketing.

The best way to keep people engaged and is to embrace audience participation. A regularly updated social media page can go a long way to keeping a bustling practice personal.

Don’t over-post, of course, but sharing a photo or two of staff, the office or patients (with permission only) along with a tagline ending in a question will keep people reading, sharing and responding. Has a patient recently gotten braces, veneers or had a great teeth whitening experience?

Throw those photos and that satisfied-customer story up on your Facebook. Dental offices are busy places, and taking some time to personalize your business will make people more comfortable both returning and visiting for the first time.

 

4. Use Facebook to track metrics

Another great reason to maintain a consistent online presence is the absolute goldmine of data available to you via Facebook. Once you start building a user base, make sure to keep track of the Insights feature via your business page.

With Insights, you’ll be able to track not only post engagement – which breaks down the difference between clicks, reactions, comments and shares, as well as the number of people reached by your post – but demographics, too.

The Audience Insights feature will show you users’ age, gender, education level, job role and much, much more, which can help you identify and retain your target audience, as well as branch out to less engaged demographic groups.

If you’re unsure about how to get a marketing campaign started, you’ll find some great footholds in Facebook’s wealth of information.

 

5. Don’t be afraid to ask for reviews

Your dental practice’s online reputation is based not only on its social media presence and responsiveness but on Yelp, Google or Facebook reviews that people increasingly rely on when it’s time to make decisions.

When someone runs a Google search for a specified business in a specified area, the first thing that pops up is a list featuring starred ratings and review snippets. If you have none, you’ll find it harder to establish trust with an online market.

You’re more likely to stand out and gain new patients if the first thing those searchers see is a 4+ star rating and at least a couple positive reviews.

Procedures like root canals are often difficult and scary, and if your dental office provides great care, comfort and kindness, patients will remember and write your praises.

Sometimes it’s hard to get people to take time out of busy lives to write them, though, so make sure to incentivize reviews to your patients upon checkout.

Offer discounts or small rewards and you will end up reaping very beneficial results.

7. Use online tools to help streamline your dental services

Once you’re comfortable tracking analytics with Facebook, it’s time to start branching out. There are a variety of software programs developed specifically for the purpose of managing the flow of information — and of all the new patients you’ll soon be accepting.

Keeping lines of communication open and accurate is a keystone of any business, and technologies like customer relationship management, or CRM, are essential.

It’s a lot to take in, so if you’re unsure of where (or even why) to start, check out this helpful guide from Salesforce. It will walk you through the types of informational software that could bump up your revenue significantly.

Data targeting can be tough. Enlist the help of programs that keep tracking and content planning a little easier.

8. Incentivize new patient referrals

Why not make word-of-mouth marketing even more appealing to your current patients? Print a stack of cards aimed toward new referrals, and offer discounted prices for first visits as well as services for the patients who referred friends and family.

Common procedure costs, for emergency dental care, dental implants, tooth whitening or anything else, can be intimidating.  You’re more likely to convert members of your target audience if they’re sent to you by someone they trust. This kind of offline marketing can do wonders for your dental practice and can help you retain patients as well as make sure that new ones keep coming through the doors.

Anything that makes referrals more convenient and rewarding for your patients will be rewarding for your business, too.

If you want to stand above the competition, I recommend checking out this local SEO Guide on ranking towards the top of Google in your local market.