Are you struggling to find new dental marketing ideas to grow your dental practice? If so, you’re not alone.
Australia has over 15,000 registered dental clinics, with many concentrated around the eastern states of NSW, Victoria and QLD, where 75% of the population live. So competition is fierce.
With this in mind, it’s no longer sufficient to throw up a dental website and think that this is enough to bring in continued business.
So how do you make your dental practice stand out from the competition?
With so many dental marketing strategies available, sifting through to find the right ones can be time-consuming and overwhelming.
Here at Mediboost, we’re all about sharing knowledge, and we’ve done the legwork, so you don’t have to.
This post discusses eight simple dental marketing ideas you should adopt to grow your dental practice.
Quick analysis
Before we dive headfirst into dental marketing strategies, it pays to cast a critical eye over your business and assess your
- Key strengths
- Weaknesses and,
- Competition
Once you have answered these questions, you can implement the right simple but effective dental marketing strategies for your business.
Hint – Many are cost-free and only take time and effort to achieve!
Eight dental marketing ideas guaranteed to grow your business
Tip #1 – Update your dental website
While your website is indeed your shop window, if it hasn’t been updated in several years, now’s the time to do it. Here are some ideas:
- If you have new team members, update your ‘meet the team’ page.
- Update your new patient testimonials – add some video testimonials for extra kudos.
- Add new treatment pages if you offer updated dental treatments and services.
- Add blogs – Write posts about new technology, new treatments or give detailed answers to frequently asked questions.
Tip #2 – Get ahead of your competition
It pays to look at what your close rivals are doing to bring in new patients. Good dental marketing is all about knowing your competition. Let’s say your competition is offering a new patient check-up for $99. Why not undercut them slightly and offer one for $89?
Alternatively, if you don’t want to start competing for cash, look at your rivals’ opening hours. If they only open Monday to Friday, how about opening your dental practice every other Saturday morning?
If that isn’t possible, try opening an hour earlier or extending the opening time by an hour in the evening.
Tip #3 – Understand your target demographic
Who is your ideal patient?
Is it the retiree?
Do you see more young families?
Or is your target market the young professional?
Good dental marketing identifies this and gears all promotional material, including your dental website, to that.
Tip #4 – Encourage reviews
According to the latest figures, 53% of people will carry out research online before committing. Doing so ensures they make the best possible choice. As competition for dentists is stiff, we need to make it easy for them to choose you.
Solid reviews are vital for dental marketing. They help build trust and can be the difference in whether a potential patient chooses your dental practice or goes elsewhere.
As a dental marketing idea, Google your name, and or dental practice and see what comes back. If it isn’t a bunch of five-star reviews, it’s time to get listed on major review sites like Yelp, Trustpilot and White Coat.
Oh, and don’t forget to claim your free Google My Business Listing if you haven’t already done so.
Then, encourage all visiting patients to leave a review. Why not send them the link to make it easy?
Tip #5 – Social media
As a top dental marketing tip, try and put yourself where your target audience is.
Do you know, for example, that Facebook has over 2.8 billion active monthly users?
That’s 35% of the entire world’s population!
An excellent dental marketing idea is to set up a Facebook business page and start posting regularly. You can also set up advertising campaigns to drive footfall to your door.
Remain active by encouraging potential customers to post and answer replies and questions promptly.
Tip #6 – Offer a patient referral programme
Some of the best dental marketing you have available to you are your existing dental patients.
How many times have you gotten good service and immediately told friends and family?
One way to encourage them to do just that about your dental practice is to offer a patient referral programme.
You could work it so that if someone contacts your clinic and that contact came from an existing patient, both the current and new patient would receive a small gift.
Rewards could be in the form of money off an initial check-up or subsequent treatment or gifts such as an oral care goody bag.
Why not look to get some referral cards printed up and hand them out to your existing patients?
Tip #7 – Email marketing
If you have a patient base, you’ll undoubtedly have an email list. Why not send them a monthly newsletter detailing
- Latest promotions
- Oral health tips
- New team members
- Common questions answered.
In addition, you could send out a gentle reminder to patients who are due their dental check-up. You could even make it personalised and send them a birthday greeting.
Tip #8 – Get your team onboard
Collaboration is perhaps the most important of all dental marketing ideas. No matter how impressive your dental marketing exploits are, it takes a team effort to succeed.
How do your reception team speak to potential patients on the phone?
Are they approachable, warm and knowledgeable?
Are they happy to answer patient questions, or are they quick to place the caller on hold?
You may implement many dental marketing ideas, but your marketing efforts are dead in the water if your potential patients don’t make it through the first phone call.
Look to set your team up so that their main focus is always on the customer/patient. Consider a dedicated team member who will answer emails within 24 hours.
Dental marketing – Final thoughts
Successful marketing requires both ingenuity and patience. The good news is that none of the dental marketing tips listed above cost money. All you need is a little bit of time, the right mindset and a team effort, and you will see an increase in new patient footfall.
If you’re still unsure how to implement any of these dental marketing ideas into your dental practice, don’t worry because we’re here to help.
Call Mediboost Australia on 1300 163 058 and book your no-obligation strategy call with our experienced team today.
