The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing for Dentists
Dentists are faced with new challenges every day. Patients are more informed than ever before, and there is a lot of competition out there. What can dentists do to stay relevant in this digital age?
Digital marketing for dentists may be the answer!
In the world of dentistry, digital marketing is a growing trend.
As patients begin to expect more from their dentists, it becomes more critical that dentists keep up with the trends and demands of their customers.
We live in an age where the internet is transforming almost every industry on the planet. If you want to be a powerful dentist in the future, you need to learn how to embrace digital marketing strategies.
With tools like email marketing, social media, and video creation, dentists have a veritable treasure trove of methods to not only connect with their existing customers but to attract new ones as well.
With digital marketing, your practice can reach more patients. You can also post pictures of various dental procedures on your website to let your patients know the kinds of services you offer.
This blog post will help you learn about what you need to know about digital marketing for your dental practice.
Introduction: What is Digital Marketing?
The term “Digital Marketing” refers to the marketing of products and services using digital technologies, such as the internet, mobile phones, and display advertising.
The term includes email marketing, search engine optimization, social media marketing, social media optimization, and many other online marketing techniques.
Digital marketing is used to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to websites, build online communities, extend customer relations, and/or support sales.
Digital marketing is a lot of things. It is a conversation. It is a relationship. It is a contract. Digital marketing is becoming more and more important in today’s business world, with the rise of social media and smartphones.
Why Digital Marketing for Dentists?
We can’t escape the digital world. As a dentist, you want to reach your patients where they are. Digital marketing is an easy, affordable way to reach people in their everyday lives.
Reach potential customers where they are!
Digital marketing is becoming more and more popular every day, and it’s no surprise why: Digital marketing allows for complete customer interaction.
This means that you can communicate with all of your clients through a variety of digital marketing methods: Websites, email, social media and more!
Your clients have different schedules and needs, that change from day to day, so why not offer them a variety of ways to stay in touch?
You Want to Be Seen
People are searching for you on Google and other search engines every day. Why wouldn’t you want to be seen by the people who are looking for YOU?
Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the process of ranking web pages using search engines. Digital marketing for dentists will help you with this!
You want your website to be seen, and you can make that happen by following SEO guidelines.
Your website is where most of your digital marketing efforts will go toward. Having a website for your dental practice is the first step to getting more people to see you online.
Make sure that all of your website’s information is accurate, up-to-date and easy for potential patients to access quickly.
Digital Marketing Can Offer More Opportunities
Digital marketing can bring about more opportunities for your dental practice. Your website should be able to do more than just give information about you and your services.
Include a blog on your website, as well as social media pages! People love getting helpful information that is easy to find.
How can digital marketing help this?
You can include a blog on your site that provides updates about your business. These blogs will show up on search engine rankings, which means more visibility for you!
Likewise, social media pages can help bring in clients by promoting your website and advertising your services.
It’s affordable
Digital marketing tools are much cheaper than traditional marketing methods. You can reach more potential clients for less money!
It’s simple
You don’t need to be tech-savvy or spend a lot of time learning about digital marketing.
Digital marketing can really change the game for dentists! If you are looking to grow your practice, digital marketing may be the answer you have been looking for.
At the end of the day, dental marketing is all about converting potential patients into actual patients. So if you’re looking for more new patients, then digital marketing is the way to go.
Digital Marketing Tools to Use in Your Dental Marketing
As we have already mentioned above, Internet Marketing is a great way to reach your targeted audience.
When you do proper diagnostic workup about the nature of the business, where to target, what are the keywords that should be used, who are the competitors and how they run their businesses online, understanding how Google works, these help us achieve better results in your online campaigns.
For best results, you can use the following tools.
Website
Having a good website for your dental clinic is absolutely essential, especially now that search engines like Google give prime importance to websites/blogs.
The website should be well-designed and aesthetically designed. Remember that an impressive looking site with a bad user experience is of no use.
Always create pages that have the keywords you are targeting on them. For example, if you are targeting the term “cosmetic dentist in New York,” then it should be included on your page.
Remember that Google is getting smarter and the use of keyword stuffing and other shady techniques has no effect now. The focus should be on making great content that will help you get more organic traffic to your site (traffic that is free).
The website should have a good user interface. Today, the websites that are liked by users are ranked higher by Google.
Creating a modern-looking site with responsiveness is very important. Sites that load faster are ranked higher, so having a good loading speed helps in rankings as well.
Mobile compatibility for your sites is also another important factor. Do not forget to have a dedicated mobile site that gives a great user experience, because that’s what Google wants too.
Creating a website is less expensive than other digital marketing strategies.
But since the competition for local rankings is very high, if you don’t have time or the required expertise, it would be better if you could outsource this task as well as other tasks related to your online strategy.
Google My Business
Easily set up your business with Google and start taking advantage of location-based search results. When people search for dentists in a specific area, they will be shown the website of dental practices near them.
You can list all necessary information like address and phone number and what services you offer on this platform.
This is available to everyone and helps you get the attention of your targeted audience. It is a must to register on this platform if you want to be at the top of search results.
Google will rank your clinic higher if you have reviews. These reviews should be genuine, so try to ask an existing client or two to write a review about your practice. Make sure that the reviews are real before posting the same.
Reviews help improve the trustworthiness of your practice.
Google Analytics Your Website
A free tool from Google, it shows how many people visit your site, their location, where they come from, what pages they visited and for how long. This helps you to understand whether the website is being visited because of its content/services or it’s simply a one-time visitor.
Google Trends
This tool helps you analyze your market and see what topics are hot, whether people are searching for products or services that you offer online. You can then list these keywords in your content and increase visibility.
Google Adwords
This tool allows you to place an advertisement on top of search results. You simply choose a keyword and write a short description, the final cost will depend on how much advertisers are willing to pay for advertising their products or services. This can give you a very competitive edge.
Google Alerts
Google Alerts can help you stay on top of a brand, a competitor, a trend, a topic, or a category. But more than that, it can help you find your next great piece of content. You can set up alerts for specific keywords, and then Google will send you an email when it comes across relevant pieces of content.
It is important to stay updated about what people are saying about your services and industry in general.
This helps you be proactive, reduce costs related to negative publicity and increase revenues by targeting your audience with relevant content.
Facebook Pages
You can create a Facebook page for free and manage it as a central hub.
For example, if you have different dental offices in different cities, you can keep people updated about what’s going on in each location through the same platform.
It is important to leverage your network so that you can improve your presence online.
LinkedIn Page
Like Facebook, this platform is used by professionals to network and exchange ideas related to their chosen profession. You can create a page regarding your dental practice and let people know what services you offer and how frequently they are updated on new treatments or promotions.
Email Marketing Tools
Email marketing is still alive and kicking. Experts say it has the highest ROI compared to any other online platform. It allows you to broadcast your message, set up a subscription list and create content that educates readers on various aspects of dentistry.
With millions of active users worldwide, Twitter can help you connect with potential clients in your area. It is similar to Facebook, but more concise and faster-paced.
You can create interesting content related to dentistry, retweet what others are saying about certain topics or use hashtags so they show up when people search for these topics.
Pinterest helps you promote various aspects of dental care through images rather than words. It is one of the most engaging platforms and makes it easy to build a community around topics that matter to you.
This platform is similar to Pinterest but has a more visual appeal. Your dental office can post photos of new treatments, patients having fun at your facilities or attractive scenery from the city where you are located. These images can be used on your website and social media portals.
Video Marketing Tools
YouTube is a goldmine when it comes to video marketing for dentists.
You can produce videos that show the latest treatments, post them on this platform and link to your website so they lead directly to pages where clients can book these services online. A dental practice with a YouTube channel is ten times more likely to attract new visitors than one without.
Slideshare
This platform hosts millions of presentations, white papers and various other pieces of content that potential clients might find useful in their research.
You can post your whitepapers here or embed slides from your presentations so people know what you are all about. It also helps to improve your search engine ranking as websites that host these types of content tend to rank higher than those that don’t.
Vimeo
Much like YouTube, this platform is a repository for original video content and can help you reach an audience interested in dental care.
You can upload clips related to new techniques and treatments so they appear on relevant searches or create a channel where all of your videos are collected in one place.
All these tools are designed to help you grow your business.
It is important to stay on top of all the changes in search results, keywords, hashtags and more so that you don’t fall behind. Listing yourself online on all relevant platforms will make it easier for customers to find you when they need you.
How to Create a Winning Digital Marketing Strategy for Your Dental Practice?
You probably know the basics of digital marketing and you’ve set your goals, but how do you actually execute a strategy?
And more importantly – how do you accomplish it without blowing up your budget?
By now, everyone is aware of the power and influence of online marketing.
We see it in our everyday lives as we use social media to communicate with friends and family, do research for products and services (even dentist’s office), follow brands we like on various channels and usually end up purchasing something we saw online.
But what kind of strategy should we actually use?
Most small businesses – including dental practices – don’t have an efficient digital marketing plan or any at all. A recent survey revealed that 55% of marketers did not feel effective in their own digital marketing activities.
So what’s the issue here and how do you avoid it?
Your digital marketing strategy has to take into consideration all aspects of digital marketing.
You should always remember that your website is only as good as number of people visiting it and the conversions it generates.
So while your website is the place where you’re going to share your message, attract new patients and inform them about your services, it won’t do you any good if nobody knows that it exists.
That’s why Online Marketing tries to get people interested in what you offer and convince them to visit your website and eventually become a paying customers.
That means:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
This is the art of improving your website’s visibility on search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo.
Paid Search
This is an online advertising service that allows you to bid for keywords related to your business and appear as results when people search those keywords.
Email Marketing
This is a list of email contacts that your business has accumulated over the course of time. You can use this list to inform people about discounts, new promotions or other things that you offer.
Social Media Marketing
This is the use of social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest among others to promote your website and share information with people who are interested in your services.
Social media has a bad reputation as a time-waster, but that doesn’t have to be true if you use it right. The channels come in handy when it comes to marketing because they allow for instant communication with your patients and potential customers.
Your digital marketing strategy as a dentist should also focus on the following:
Developing an Online Presence
This is just as important as having a physical presence, but you won’t be able to do it without social media. The more people see your business online, the more they will want to visit and hopefully, buy from you.
Building Your Brand
Social media can help you show your personality to the world. Using it right means that you can show people who you are and what makes you special.
Creating Community
People love being able to interact with others, so make sure your social media channels allow for user input. This could be something as simple as an “Ask the Dentist” feature or a place where people can share information and stories.
How To Make Your Digital Marketing Campaigns Work
One wrong move and your digital marketing campaign will fail. Here’s how to avoid this:
Don’t Use Too Many Channels
It’s tempting to think that if something didn’t work once, you should do it differently. However, you can’t expect to achieve great results by trying 20 different marketing campaigns simultaneously. Stick with the 2 or 3 forms of online marketing that you feel comfortable with and know well.
Don’t Trick Your Audience
This is one of the worst things you can do in order to get your digital marketing campaign to work. People are smart, so you can’t expect them to fall for the same tricks. If your audience starts to recognize the patterns that you use, they will know it’s a marketing campaign and ignore it.
Use Quality Content
You should always aim at providing people with interesting content that will not only keep them coming back for more but also attract new followers. This is one of the best ways to make your digital marketing efforts work.
Make Sure That Everything You Post Is Relevant
Every post that you make on a social media channel should serve a purpose. If it doesn’t, there’s no point in sharing it. Before you send something out into cyberspace, ask yourself if it will add value to your followers. If the answer is no, it shouldn’t be published.
Call To Action
The point of a marketing campaign is to get people to take action. However, you should never make demands from your audience because this could result in losing potential customers and fans. Instead, provide them with an actionable CTA that they will find interesting.
The Future of Dental Marketing
The future of dental marketing is an ever-changing landscape. Dental practices have to navigate a complicated, rapidly changing digital world with constantly shifting strategies and a variety of options for bringing in new patients.
In the year 2000, few dental practitioners had a website or even email accounts. Fast forward to today’s date, and just about every dental practice has gone digital.
It’s clear that dental practices are now also being judged by the quality of their online presence. Patients are using Google to find a nearby dentist, and your website needs to be top-notch.
Luckily, we have covered most of these important aspects of digital marketing for dentists above.
Concluding Thoughts
At this point, digital marketing is a necessity for any business.
For dentists and other medical professionals, it’s an invaluable tool to help grow their practise through increased visibility online as well as providing patients with the information they need about your services.
It’s time to stop relying on the old school methods and start embracing the technology that will help you grow your practice for years to come.
You can reach more patients, increase profits, and save yourself a lot of hassle by taking advantage of new tools in dental marketing.
With such high stakes, don’t think that you can just “wing” your way into success in digital marketing; instead take these steps to create a winning strategy tailored specifically for dental practices—and start reaping all of those benefits today!