The fast-changing online landscape often makes implementing effective dental marketing strategies feel like shooting a moving target.
But however difficult it may be, digital marketing is a must for dentists. Those who invest in digital marketing their practices thrive, while others who resist tend to fall behind.
That’s why we put together this list. There are 15 sure-fire marketing ideas that are proven to grow your practice in less time and ensure sustainable growth.
We’ve broken this list down into the four key areas of sustainable practice growth:
Marketing for Dentists: Attract, Convert, Delight, Systematize
- Attract – How to Attract More New Patients
- Convert – Boost Your Lead Conversion Rate
- Delight – Never Lose a Patient Again
- Systematize – Managing a Growing Practice, Simplified
How to Attract More New Patients
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Reviews
This is the MOST important factor in this whole Dental Marketing Strategy. You need to be collecting more reviews for Google, Facebook, and other online review sites. If your dental practice isn’t leading in reviews in your area, you are losing business every single day. The more 5-star reviews you have with honest comments and feedback, the more you will attract new patients. The process of asking for reviews can be tedious, having to remember if you asked the patient, double-check if they actually left you a review, and then feel like you’re constantly nagging them. Use dental services like Review Wave to help you automate review requests and provide a simple way for patients to leave you a review without having to nag them.
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Local Business Listings
A local listing is an online mention of the name, address, phone number, and website for a local business, like what you’d find on Google, Facebook, Yelp, or other social media pages. Local listings help patients find their local dentists and can affect a business’s website traffic. Typically, this involves submitting your business’s information to a variety of listings, which can be time-consuming. Review Wave can post your business information across all trusted sites with one click.
So many directories…so little time -
High Performing Website
You can spend countless hours and money designing an elaborate website, but there are only 2 simple factors that truly make a high-performing website.
Noticeable CTA’s (Call to Action)
The one and only goal of your website should be to “Book an Appointment.” When a patient is on your dental website, it should be overly obvious what you want them to do next. So, help yourself by making the next step short and easy for your patients.
Take it from us, a prominent CTA is huge Mobile-Friendly
In today’s culture, over half of the internet traffic is on mobile devices. Do you want half of your potential new patients to have a poor experience? The average person spends less than 3 seconds on a website if it doesn’t load fast enough or if they can’t find the information they’re looking for.
Site load time, local listings, and your outstanding reviews also play a factor in your SEO performance (see point number 4).
Review Wave has a customizable website template built to convert leads into patients and improve SEO. Their user-friendly system makes it simple to create a beautiful, high-performing website without needing knowledge of coding or website management.
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SEO
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” Businesses that show up high on Google search and other search engines have done an excellent job optimizing their website. SEO can be very confusing, especially if you’re new to learning about online marketing. It can be time-consuming and require a lot of effort to actually pay off. Luckily, there are a few simple tricks you can focus on to help your results:
Have a “Contact Us” page
Including a section that has your phone number, address, and business hours that’s easily accessible lets Google know that you’re a local dental business and will organize their results accordingly.
Brag a Little
Google trusts websites that explain things well. Show off all the unique things your dental practice does and make individual pages that describe each of the dental services or products you offer.
Tracking
Make sure to install Google Analytics on your site. There’s no charge and it’s easy to set up. This helps you better understand how your patients are finding your website and you can make improvements where needed.
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Set Up an Extraordinary Referral Program
Now that you’ve attracted all these new patients to your practice, you can turn them into your biggest advocates by offering a referral program they can’t refuse. If your patients are happy, they will most likely be thrilled to support you and your business. Review Wave makes it easy for your patients to share your info with friends and family through texts, social media, or email.
Boost Your Lead Conversion Rate
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Online Scheduling
We mentioned noticeable CTA’s in point number 3. And, we can’t stress enough the importance of CTA’s. There is a HUGE difference between “requesting an appointment” and allowing patients to complete the natural next step of “booking an appointment.” The biggest difference being that you are losing leads to your competition if you don’t offer online scheduling. 69% of patients prefer to use a self-service appointment booking service. Review Wave allows patients to book an appointment in real-time and automatically updates your calendar. Online scheduling gives your patients what they want, reduces burdensome administrative tasks for your team, and makes you stand out from other dentists in your area.
Scheduling online should be super simple, just like this! -
Answering Services
How much do you dread coming back into the office on Monday to a neverending list of voicemails? Not to mention the hours you waste every day calling people back and playing phone tag.If you’re not able to respond to your leads in a timely manner, they will likely move on and find another practice that will. With the Review Wave software, you get after-hours phone support. When you miss a call after-hours, the AI (artificial intelligent) software can recognize if the caller is a lead or a current patient and it will send them a follow-up text message accordingly. You or your team can respond via text at your convenience, whether you’re at home or enjoying a round of golf.
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WebChats
73% of people prefer to chat with a business over phone calls and emails. Offering another easy form of communication between you and your patients gives you a competitive advantage. Most live chat services require you to stay glued to your laptop or computer because if you close out of the browser your chat gets disconnected. Review Wave’s webchats take the chat experience to the next level. When someone chats in, you can follow up with a text message so patients can still stay connected with you while they’re on the go. This enables your team to get other tasks done as well. They don’t have to stay glued to the front desk or the computer.
Never Lose a Patient Again
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Business Texting
99% of text messages get opened. If that isn’t enough of a reason to start sending text messages to your patients, we have plenty more. According to studies, 9 out of 10 patients prefer to text their doctors, including those over 60 years old. Yet the majority of dental offices are still calling or emailing as their first line of communication. Patients need to get in touch with their doctors. They need to schedule and manage appointments, know what to expect, ask questions about treatments, etc. More importantly, they need to get in touch with their doctors on the go. Learn more about why business texting is essential for practice owners from Review Wave’s CEO, Matt Prados.
Everyone is texting these days -
The Scheduling App
Having an online scheduling system on your website is imperative for attracting new patients. Take your patient experience to the next level by offering a scheduling app for current patients to manage rescheduled. Let’s face it, life happens. At some point in time, your existing patients will need to reschedule an appointment. Make it easy for them and your team to manage rescheduled. You’ll create a better patient experience, which in turn will create happier patients which will lead to more referrals. It’s the circle of business.
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Marketing Campaigns
Marketing campaigns are the perfect way to add valuable touchpoints to each step of the patient journey. Whether you want to follow-up with leads, send appointment reminders, send happy birthday messages, or referral requests, Review Wave’s campaigns are completely customizable and the options are endless.
Managing a Growing Practice, Simplified
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Digital Forms
As your practice thrives, the amount of paperwork adds up fast. And, no one likes wait times. Reduce the time a patient has to wait to fill out paperwork at the office by offering digital forms. Plus it alleviates added stress on your team and time-wasted re-entering data. You can send new patients a text message with a link to complete all paperwork ahead of their first visit. Ensuring a smooth and easy first visit, which will overall improve the patient experience.
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VOIP (All-In-One Cloud Phone System)
Switching from a traditional phone line to a VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) system makes patient communication so much easier. You get faxes, voicemails, caller ID, call forwarding, instant access to upcoming appointment info, and more, all in one easy-to-use system. Work smarter, not harder!
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Drag & Drop Email Editor
Helping patients get access to information is a huge part of the patient experience. Whether you want to send leads follow-up communication, send current patients monthly newsletters or patient education tips and tricks, Review Wave’s email editor creates beautiful, branded emails effortlessly.
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Automated To-Do Lists
Send your patients epic gifs, like this one Give yourself the peace of mind of knowing what to expect when you come into the office each day. Review Wave’s Mission Control feature generates an auto to-do list showing your team vital information like:
- Unconfirmed appointments
- Missed appointments
- Care Plan compliance updates
- Patients with missing information
- Patients’ birthdays
- And more!
Each of these 15 proven dental marketing ideas and growth strategies will leave your practice fully booked and never worried about losing a patient again.
Review Wave offers a full suite of patient experience and communication tools that make running a successful and profitable practice easier than ever. Check out all the dental services Review Wave can offer your Dental practice.
