Why Invest in Dental Digital Marketing Services? Increase ROI and Boost Your Bottom Line
Dental marketing can help grow your practice, gain more control over your profits, and strengthen patient relationships.
Over 80% of Americans look for answers to their dental concerns online, especially since so many patients have delayed important dental services. The expansion and optimization of your digital footprint is one of the most critical factors in attracting and converting the right patients for your practice.
Research also shows that over 70% of marketing professionals recommend adopting a strong inbound SEO content marketing strategy as the most effective methodology for boosting your bottom line with the highest return on your investment. This is the strategic process of creating captivating dental content that promotes your unique vision and passion and weaves it into a cohesive story throughout your online presence to engage potential patients with the right solution to their needs.
Failing to execute on these strategies means you’re leaving money on the table and missing out on connecting with those “unattached” patients who need your services.
Investing in a comprehensive data-driven dental marketing strategy is the best way to ensure accelerated growth for your dental practice without breaking the bank. This is where PBHS comes in.
Dental Marketing Puts You In Control of Your Practice
A successful dental marketing strategy helps you stay in control of your production and your financial health by attracting and retaining the right mix of patients for your practice.
Knowing your target audience and what they are looking for is the first step. Not only do you need to understand who your patients are – including their ages, income levels and their needs – but you also need to understand and speak to their underlying motivations.
Your patients already understand why they go to the dentist for cleanings, but they are likely unaware of many of the services you offer that are the current standards of care for their existing problems, treatments that serve to boost their confidence and self-esteem, or free them from pain and embarrassment. Do you offer special services like sedation dentistry, or would you like to see more high value implant cases? These are the services and audiences to focus on.
Now that you know who your ideal patient is, you need to make sure they can find you online, and quickly, for the care they need. It’s not a secret – if patients cannot find your practice, they will never select you for their dental care. Therefore, a successful Search Engine Optimization strategy that ensures you rank highly in Search Results cannot be overestimated.
At a minimum, your dental search engine optimization strategy should place your practice on page one of search results, especially within your critical local market. Not only does a dental practice that shows up at the top of search results automatically seem more trustworthy than one at the 10th position, but research shows that less than 5% of traffic engages with practice listings that rank outside of page one results.
A highly targeted, dental-specific SEO campaign is the only way to actionably secure patients searching online for the services you want to perform. By proactively monitoring and adjusting the resulting traffic from your ongoing SEO marketing initiatives, you eliminate the guesswork and take control of targeting new patients for your practice as well as retaining and expanding your existing patient base.
Boost and Build Awareness For Your Practice
Your practice brand is an integral part of your identity as a dental professional; it is one of the most important assets you’ll cultivate as a part of your overall dental marketing strategy.
It all starts with an innovative and captivating logo that’s as unique as you are. Your logo is often one of the first touchpoints a potential patient has with your practice, and it’s vital that you make a great first impression. If this first look is unprofessional, lackluster, or unattractive, chances are you’re never going to see them – an unfortunate, preventable opportunity cost of poor branding.
If you’re in need of a professional logo design, PBHS can do all the heavy lifting for you. We provide you with a team of logo designers that create a professional, innovative logo – one that is completely original and fits your personality and target audience.
Your dental marketing efforts should go beyond attracting new patients.
Yes, attracting new patients is critical, but you also need to focus on retaining your existing ones. Your current patients have a long-term relationship with you, but they need attention and timely reminders to ensure the highest levels of patient satisfaction and the best oral healthcare outcomes possible.
To this end, an automated patient messaging system, like RevenueWell, that connects with your patient base on a continual basis via targeted text, email and voice messaging is the best way to engender trust and maximize the lifetime value of your patients. If you automatically remind your patients about their upcoming appointments, along with preoperative instructions, they can arrive on-time and prepared. And if you can automatically prompt patients to complete their health histories and registration e-forms online prior to their initial consultation, your practice will save hours in chart preparation and data entry; patients will save valuable time at your office.
On average, adding a marketing platform like RevenueWell results in 910 more appointments in the first year and an average of $73,630 in increased revenue.
It’s important to convey your message in the places where patients spend the most time. Maximize your online presence and showcase your dental practice through your Social Media channels. In particular, your Facebook and Instagram networks represent your largest opportunities for additional practice growth. The cultivation of a dynamic patient community here, that is responsive to your social media content, is the key to driving more new patients to your practice and boosting your bottom line.
Additionally, Social Media Advertising is fast becoming the best way to expand your social reach and target new audiences, not just your existing patients. In fact, a successful demographically and geographically targeted FB & IG ad campaign can see a 656% return on your investment.
Enabling your practice to be easily found in search results, having a strong social media presence, and engaging regularly with the dental community and your patient base will all help build your practice awareness.
Dental Marketing Keeps You Competitive
Staying competitive in the dental market means ensuring your practice and your message is the one a prospective patient sees first when looking for care. If your website isn’t found, your competition’s will be.
When an “unattached” patient starts the process of looking for a new dental care professional, your practice must stand out. Ranking highly in Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) is the foundation for securing prominent website visibility, but in highly competitive metropolitan areas, we recommend the addition of a targeted Google PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising campaign to bolster your position and ensure you are found first.
A hyper-focused PPC campaign targeting the keyword services critical to your practice can typically enjoy a 200% return on your investment and, without question, is the quickest way to get to the 1st page of Google and in front of patients actively searching for a solution to their disorder along with your services. PPC advertising is also the only way to successfully compete against your competitors that are also running paid ad campaigns.
The key to staying with the pack is to create an effective dental marketing plan. Knowing what makes your practice unique, knowing what your patients want, and knowing how to connect with them will help you maintain a competitive edge.
Manage Your Reviews—Good and Bad
Over 90% of patients take reviews into consideration when choosing their local dentist and, consequently, a robust reputation management strategy is critical to the foundations of your overall dental marketing program. A strong reputation marketing plan includes both a strategy for actively soliciting and promoting new patient reviews across online platforms as well as a methodical and timely approach to responding to reviews.
The best way to get more reviews online is to ask for them and then respond to them!
To help boost your testimonials, consider incentives for patients who leave reviews. Add visual cues in your office, on your website, and on your social media pages to encourage the habit of leaving online reviews. Consider a strong video testimonial for your website and Facebook profile page that covers a patient’s successful care experience and the impact of the performed procedure. Encourage patients to share your social media page or post when they’ve stopped by the office. If you have an email list or an automated patient messaging system like RevenueWell, consider adding quick links to your favorite review site right within your regular email communications.
Whether positive or negative, it’s best practice to respond and deal with all types of patient feedback promptly and in a professional manner. This way you show you’re in touch, in tune, transparent, and that you care about them. Acknowledging and responding to both good and bad reviews demonstrates that you value your patients, you’re committed to enhanced patient experiences, and you are proactive in improving subpar experiences. This builds credibility and trust, which is critical in growing your practice.
Managing your reviews as part of dental marketing is key in upholding the reputation of the dental practice. And remember, bad reviews need not create ‘end of the world’ scenarios. Instead, let reviews help you reflect and reevaluate shortcomings and where you can offer improvements.
Creating Stronger, Lasting Relationships With Patients
In a world transformed by digital technologies (“There’s an app for that”) and the rising demand and competitive nature of superior dental care, digital marketing has become the most important foundation for growing a practice.
A solid dental marketing strategy is important to developing enduring relationships with your patients. It allows you to be in control of your practice and guarantee new and returning patients have better experiences.
Your online presence is critical to achieving your goals and objectives, and partnering with PBHS can you get there quickly and effectively. We cut through the noise of the digital landscape to attract, convert, and engage with your current and prospective patients through key dental marketing strategies, products, and design.
Serving the dental community for 35+ years, we specialize in driving results and growth for your practice—online and in-office—with our website design, practice branding, and digital marketing services.
Get in touch with the PBHS team today and discover how our customer-focused suite of dental marketing services helps your practice save time and improve efficiencies for all aspects of patient engagement while building a more profitable dental practice.