15 Tips to Heat Up Your Dental Marketing

#1 – Request Patient Reviews: Every patient visit is an opportunity to share an online review about their experiences. This feedback will help boost your brand’s reputation ranking. Sending review requests as part of your automated reminders and follow-up SMS messages can increase the likelihood of getting these coveted testimonials and improve your marketing efforts significantly.

#2 – Update Your Practice Website: Most dental patients look for healthcare providers online, so their first point of contact with your brand is there. First impressions are very important. Your practice’s website should be friendly, modern, easy to navigate, and provide well-written content for your patients. 

A mobile-friendly website is essential, as the majority of people use their cell phone instead of a computer for many tasks. 

#3 – Create A Memorable Tagline and Logo: Effective branding should provide a consistent message about your dental office, and is important for new patients. They need to know what to expect from your brand and build trust in it. If elements are ever-changing or don’t match up, it can be difficult to attract new patients and hold onto existing ones.

#4 – Show Your Authority: Your patients want to trust you, and demonstrating your authority is critical to getting their trust. It’s important to participate in local and national professional events, especially as a speaker. 

A blog for your website will also show your expertise. Publishing educational information on your dental website blog, and providing resources to answer patients’ questions about oral healthcare concerns, will show website visitors you are an authority. This is a great way to engage and convert website visitors into booked appointments.

#5 – Create Informative Dental Videos: Whether you film a sixty-second TikTok or a longer YouTube video, you’re on the right track. You can explain flossing techniques, provide a video tour of your dental practice — or list the reasons why you love being a dentist. Your videos will help you connect with prospective patients, and gain their trust. 

#6 – Remember CTAs: A call-to-action (CTA) is a critical marketing strategy that prompts a visitor to take action — whether they are interacting on your social media, blog, website, and/or emails and text messages. The CTA will tell them the next steps they should take. Always include a link to your online contact page or scheduling app and your practice’s phone number.

#7 – Maximise Your Social Media: When leveraged correctly, platforms like Facebook and Instagram help you keep in contact with current and potential patients, but also create a bond with them. Dental practitioners can cultivate friendships with their patients, which improves your reputation in your community.

Your social media posts can educate patients about topics related to dentistry, including prevention and risks. And they can alleviate anxiety. When you show you empathize with these anxieties, and show how you can help, you can attract a new subset of patients — who view you as a specialist in dental anxiety.

#8 – Optimise for Search: Your website, your social media — every online channel you use in marketing will have content. And that all-important content requires search engine optimization (SEO) — keywords that help patients connect with you.  SEO is key in getting your dental practice in front of patients when they search online for your services. 

SEO requires careful analysis of your target audience and current market trends, to be effective as a tool in online search. But it’s key to attracting exactly the patients that will help your practice thrive.

#9 – Offer Discounts: Special offers are perfect for attracting and retaining dental patients. In fact, you can help cut down on no-shows by providing 3-5% off prepaid visits. Consider a 5% cost reduction on accounts paid within five business days of statement.

One idea: Run limited-time specials on services such as whitening, in June for weddings, or Christmas/New Year’s for holiday parties.

#10 – Incentivise Patient Referrals: Discounts or credits are great incentives for existing patients to refer family members, friends or coworkers. Gift cards or other prizes also work well.

#11 – Create An E-Newsletter: It’s critical to build contact lists of patients and prospects. You can do this by creating a monthly e-newsletter filled with your latest happenings, service offerings, and other related news. The content should be educational and related to your audience’s dental interests. When someone signs up to receive this regular communication, they will submit their contact information, which directly links your patients.

#12 – Expand Your Marketing: Instagram, Google Ads, Facebook, Pinterest and TikTok are all excellent options for reaching your audience. Using multiple ad providers will boost your visibility and improve your revenue stream. Pinterest and TikTok are very affordable, and even offer free content-posting features. 

#13 – Search Retargeting: Have you placed ads on Google for “dentist in my area” or something similar? You’re using Google Adwords, and doing what’s called “search remarketing” — so people who have previously visited your website will see the ads. You can display an ad that says, “You just visited my website. Here’s 20% off if you call right now!” Very powerful. 

#14 – Google My Business: You probably already have a Google My Business (GMB) page set up for your practice. But don’t ignore it. In the last two years, Google has introduced new features to this free marketing tool — including call logging and insights for your google map results.

#15 – Pay Per Click (PPC): PPC advertising can boost your marketing plan greatly. These ads help attract a clientele based on paid placement on a search engine. It targets healthcare consumers based on their searches — which positions you well to attract new people to your page.