Marketing For Dentists in 2023
Contents
- Why is Digital Marketing Important for Dentists in 2023
- Social Media Channels to Spread Brand Awareness in 2023
- 7 Best Dental Marketing Ideas for 2023
Introduction
Consciously putting yourself in your patient’s shoes(search results), offering them the best service possible, and making them choose your practice over other gazillion options is the jackpot you need to hit.
In this fast-paced and ever-evolving dental market, standing still will move you backward.
Your patients are more informed than ever, and digital marketing has steered some new and easy ways to reach them.
Having a solid online marketing strategy to attract, engage and retain patients by leveraging data and technology efficiently is crucial for a dental practice to stand out in the crowd today.
While planning your marketing strategy for 2023, you should think about adding social marketing, digital marketing, and some cutting-edge marketing tools to it.
This blog will analyze the benefits of the various marketing mediums, dental marketing tips and strategies, and how to implement them effectively to get the results you look for.
Why is Digital Marketing Important for Dentists in 2023
Running a dental practice is a challenge in itself.
Having a well-defined dental marketing plan in place will make your practice stand out and help you connect with your target audience.
“Digital marketing refers to any marketing methods conducted through electronic devices which utilize some form of a computer, including online marketing efforts conducted on the internet.”
Dental digital marketing is as necessary for any other business existing in this era. If wisely engaged, it can prove highly effective and beneficial.
A strong online presence and thoughtful dental SEO marketing will gain your practice the credibility, reach, and reliability your patients seek. This will have a direct positive impact on the number of new patient conversions.
Let’s look at some statistics to understand how important is digital marketing for dentists.
By 2027, the dental market in the United States is projected to witness a substantial growth of $15 billion+, representing a 100% increase.
Referrals have the highest conversion rate of 3.74% from lead to opportunity.
77% of patients will choose a provider that offers online scheduling. Online dental appointment scheduling can make your practice stand out and be approachable to prospective patients.
84% of patients use both online and offline resources for hospital research, and 44% of patients who researched healthcare providers on a mobile device scheduled an appointment.
About 49% of dental practices use automated reminders, while 46% rely on the office team to email or call patients.
The above numbers shed light on why dental practices should never fail to invest their time and resources in formulating dental marketing ideas and strategies effectively to bring in conversions.
Social Media Channels for Marketing in 2023
How effectively do you use your social media handles? Do you use it to educate your followers? Do your run campaigns to bring in new patients to your practice?
In a survey conducted among 510 dentists, only one-third(31.2%) were using social media for dental marketing, and only 17.1% reported that their patients heard about them through social media.
There is much more your social media presence can do for you if used effectively.
The ‘n’ number of social media channels these days cater to a wide range of audiences. Understanding where your gold mine of prospects primarily engages is the first step in building your social media presence.
Let’s take a deeper look at the various social media channels you can leverage to understand your target audience, reach out to them, and eventually convert them into an MQL(Marketing Qualified Lead).
1. Facebook
In recent research, 510 dentists were surveyed, out of which 498(97.6%) dentists still use Facebook as their primary social media.
As a platform that has 2.989 billion monthly active users, creating a Facebook Page for your dental clinic, if not yet done, is highly advised.
Now that you have a page let’s take a look at the types of content that has the potential to rank higher on Facebook.
Posting content that will help you place your dental clinic in front of your target audience is crucial to building a successful Facebook Marketing Strategy.
Facebook is an uber-dynamic platform, and as we evaluate the type of content that has been trending over the years, it changes constantly.
Practices should focus on presenting content that resonates with recent trends and brings value addition to the mix.
Here are some content variations you can use to ensure engagement on your Facebook page.
- User-Generated Content: User-generated videos and images have a higher reach on Facebook. Ask your patients to post a review or record a patient review while they are at your practice. Ask permission to post and tag them. Such user-generated content is a game changer in Facebook Marketing. It is engaging and plays a great role in building trust among existing patients as well as prospects.
- Influencer Content: Work with influencers in your niche and get a collaboration going on. This will give your practice a whole new exposure and audience. Influencer marketing is known to have great outcomes if executed systematically.
- Video Marketing: Videos, both live and recorded, are ruling the Facebook platform in 2023. Host Facebook Live and drive interactions with your audience. However, aim for value addition in every interaction with your prospects.
2. Instagram
Do you know that Instagram connects almost 157 million people in the US alone? Huge market, right?
Don’t you think including Instagram in your digital marketing strategy will benefit you, considering the potential of the platform?
This visual platform equips you with all the tools to engage your audience in fun and vibrant ways.
Instagram influencer marketing has been in the limelight lately. Collaborating with a dental influencer, setting up a campaign with clear goals, and executing it effectively is a great strategy to promote your services or seasonal offers.
Posting
- Before and after photos
- Patient testimonials
- Services you offer
- Introducing your dental team
- Events or giveaways
- Educational information
would drive more engagement and help you reach your target audience on Instagram.
Interacting regularly with your audience is yet another critical act dental practices should perform on a daily basis.
Responding to comments on your posts, commenting and interacting with your followers, responding to direct messages, and organizing interactive live sessions will help you boost your engagement on Instagram.
Using the right hashtags on Instagram gives your content a wider reach, and it helps you categorize the content you publish on your page.
3. LinkedIn
Where does LinkedIn fit in social media marketing for dentists?
A strong LinkedIn profile would give you credibility and help you establish yourself as a leader in the industry. LinkedIn will serve as a platform to showcase your knowledge and reflect your practice culture.
Joining discussion forums related to dentistry and connecting with like-minded dental professionals will further magnify the chances to expand your page reach.
As of April 2023, LinkedIn has reached 200 million users in the USA.
4. TikTok
TikTok, the short-form content platform, is trending among the younger generation.
Sharing entertaining yet informative content through this platform will earn you followers and will help you build brand awareness among a younger audience.
You can post:
- Your dental office tour
- Some satisfying procedure videos
- Short testimonials
- Before and after videos
- Seasonal wishes
- Educational content
Still skeptical about how a TikTok profile would earn you followers and new patients? Let’s look at some dentists using TikTok to share informative and educational content.
Analyze the tone and approach of the content these successful dental professionals use. Identify how you can implement those in your content and look for ways to create entertaining yet informative content for your followers.
7 Best Dental Marketing Ideas for 2023
Staying up to date with the ever-evolving digital marketing trends is crucial in setting up a strategy that will reap you benefits in the form of new patient conversion and referrals.
Let’s look at some dental marketing strategies to embed into your marketing game.
Also Read: Ultimate Dental Marketing Tips and Ideas: What You Need to Know!
1. Identify your Target Audience
Knowing your target audience and understanding where they spend most of their time will unveil clarity you never knew you needed.
If you’ve not yet identified your target audience, it’s high time you do it.
Creating patient personas will give practices an idea of what, how, and when to canvas them.
These personas will put a face to your prospective patients, give your dental practice marketing a better definition, and make sure that your marketing efforts reach the right audience group.
How will personas benefit your practice in building a better marketing plan?
1. Understand your patients’ needs or interests
2. Learn where your patients spend time online
3. Better quality leads
4. Consistency across your practice
5. Knowing which lead to pursue and how
6. Offer better services and care
2. Know your Marketing Channels
The digital marketing channels you engage to distribute your content hold great significance.
It will vary depending on your audience and resources. There are three types of channels you can use in your marketing:
Choose the relevant channels for your dental practice from the above illustration based on your understanding of your target audience.
Also, ensure that the content you put up aligns with your patients’ interests, and make sure to optimize your content to the respective channels.
3. Create a Content Calendar
Why do you need a social media content calendar?
A content calendar answers the question - what should we post next on social media?
Do you know that 63% of businesses do not have a documented strategy for social media content?
They come up with posts and topics on the go.
This ad-hoc technique might be helpful for some businesses but not for your dental practice.
Let’s see how a content calendar will make your dental practice marketing easier.
- Keeps you organized
- Brainstorm to come up with the best
- Consistency
- Put out engaging content
- Visibility across your practice and industry
- A platform to track your performance.
4. Marketing Campaigns for Dentists
Marketing campaigns are organized, strategized efforts to promote a specific practice goal, such as raising awareness of a new service or capturing customer feedback.
Some of the marketing campaigns a dental practice could effectively run include:
- Brand development campaign
- User-generated content campaign(patient reviews)
- Social media campaign
How to effectively set up a marketing campaign?
You should have a precise goal for running your campaign.
What do you expect to achieve with your campaign?
E.g., "The goal of my marketing campaign is to gather reviews from 100 patients via a branded hashtag on Instagram featuring our new and improved dental implant service by December 31."
This is a SMART goal.
Once your goal is set, ensure that you have the right tools to track your campaign. If you’re running a multi-channel campaign, define the results you’re looking for on each of those channels. Make sure to add some in-between checkpoints for your campaign.
E.g., For the above goal, you have to collect 100 patient reviews. Let the in-between checkpoints be 25, 50, and 75 reviews.
Some practice management systems offer reputation management as a built-in feature. This feature will allow practices to automate the patient review collection process making it easier for both the practice and the patient.
5. Referral Marketing for Dentists
Do you know that your patients would 4X likely choose your practice when referred by a friend?
Positive word-of-mouth interaction can exponentially increase your new patient numbers when incentivized through a referral marketing program.
Referral marketing is when a practice rewards its existing patients for referring their practice to their contacts. These brand ambassadors may also be incentivized with monetary or nonmonetary rewards.
Referral marketing will help your practice:
Increase engagement: Identify your brand ambassadors and remarket promotions or offers to them.
Gain loyal customers: According to Forbes, a study done by Goethe University revealed that customers recommended to businesses were 18% more likely to stay with the organization than other customers.
“People tend to have a stronger attachment to an organization if their friends or acquaintances share a bond to the same establishment.”
Brand awareness: Referral marketing is a massive contributor to brand awareness. 49% of U.S. consumers say friends and family are their top sources of brand awareness.
Build a referral marketing program for your practice to drive in new patients and engage existing ones.
6. Email Marketing for Dentists
73% of millennials still prefer communication from businesses to come via email.
What are the benefits of an email marketing campaign for your dental practice?
Let’s break it down. Email campaigns will help you
- Approach your patients with personalized content
- Reach the right people at the right time
- Generate traffic to your website
- Collecting feedback
- Value addition to your prospects and patients
- An increase in the number of leads.
People regularly check their emails; well, most people do.
So sending out personalized email campaigns will keep your practice in your prospective patients’ minds. If not now, they might search for your name later and eventually reach out.
7. Radio Ads
Yes, you heard me right!
Radio advertisements can bring more results than you might expect.
Keep these tips in mind while going all in for radio ads:
- Use educational content
- Seasonal approach
- Establish trust with reviews
- Incentives for new patients
Clarity and patience hold the utmost importance while laying out your radio ad strategy. Ensure that your contact details and practice location are clearly mentioned in the ad.
Collaborating with a radio station or program that caters to an audience similar to your prospective patients and running ads with them will create brand awareness.
Making these radio program hosts your patients and letting them speak from their experience will have even more traction and engagement.
Conclusion
Planning and implementing effective marketing strategies and utilizing various mediums can significantly benefit your dental practice. By defining your target audience and building a professional website, you can establish a solid online presence and attract potential patients.
Additionally, leveraging the evolving technologies and adapting to the latest trends in social media platforms can further expand your reach and engagement with your target audience.
Remember, having a solid marketing strategy in place will not just do the magic.
Regularly evaluating and adjusting your marketing efforts based on data and feedback will optimize your results.
By investing in dental marketing and staying up to date with the latest trends and techniques, you can effectively promote your dental practice, increase patient acquisition, and ultimately achieve long-term success.
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