How Digital Marketing Helps Dental Clinics to Reach New Patients

The best way to learn about dental online marketing and your target market is hiring an experienced team that has worked with several dentists. Traditionally, the most effective way for dental offices to attract new patients has been from referrals. Today, the same concept exists online in the form of reviews and social media engagement. Here are ways dentists can attract new patients with digital marketing.

Social Media Conversations

Dentists need to embrace social media because it's becoming a modern form of customer service and market research. If you can attract a steady stream of followers on social media, it can generate interaction that helps you learn about patients and they can spread the word to friends. Since it's unlikely a dentist can spend hours answering questions on social media, it helps to outsource to a marketing team that is familiar with the dental industry.

One of the most important reasons that dentists need an interactive online presence is that women tend to be the decision makers when it comes to choosing a family dentist. Women are huge fabs of social media. A majority of both Facebook and Twitter users are more likely to make a purchase from a small business after seeing its content on social media.

What makes social media particularly powerful for dentists is that it can help maintain existing relationships and build new ones. LinkedIn provides opportunities to get endorsements for your business, which may influence new prospects. Since visiting a dentist is a personal experience, social media is an effective platform for building personalized relationships.

Promote Your Web Content

Ideally, your dental office has both a content-rich website and a social media page. You don't need to be on several social media sites, but it helps to be on one or two. It also helps to have plenty of original web content that demonstrates your authority as a dental business. By building up a wealth of content about dental information, you will be able to easily answer people's questions with links to deeper knowledge.

The reason that social media and a website work well together is that you can network with people on social media to promote various web pages. If people like what they read, they may share it on social media, which increases exposure for your business.

You can maximize your reach with your online following by creating a regular blog series. The blogs should be interactive and present fresh content that cannot be found anywhere else online. Here are some ideas for crafting original content:

• dentist interviews
• industry statistics
• professional perspectives on the dental industry
• video tour of your complex
• demonstration video

Reviews and Reputation Management

The more you can get repeat business from your existing clients, the better your chances are at attracting positive reviews online. Reviews are posted on social media, message boards and review sites such as Yelp. You may want to encourage your most loyal patients to post reviews on your site, since reviews have become an important filter for consumers, especially those looking for personalized services.

It's possible to attract new patients with your blog and website. The blog, which can be managed by a digital marketing team, needs to be updated continuously to keep followers coming back often. If the blog answers people's questions or gives them insight, visitors may view your blog as a source of valuable information. If Google views your blog as authoritative for your niche, it can get high search rankings for your geographic location.

SEO techniques are important, but they do not guarantee high search rankings. You can still gain widespread search engine and social media visibility by using pay-per-click (PPC) ads. This type of advertising is ideal for reaching your target market at a more affordable cost than what traditional media offers. PPC advertising can generate leads immediately, but at first you usually need to experiment to find out what type of campaign strategies work the best.

Stand Out in Your Community

Many dental offices compete on a local level. So how does one dentist stand out from another if they offer the same services for about the same prices? That's a question each dentist must answer for themselves. Just be aware that the best way to get high search rankings in Google is if your business corners a certain niche market.

Think of stories in your community that you can associate with and create content about. Perhaps there are annual events in your neighborhood that you can promote as a public service. Be sure to connect your actual patients with your online community by publishing your domain, email address and social media page on your physical marketing materials. Ultimately, the more your content stands out online, the better chances you'll be remembered.

Conclusion

The secrets to achieving successful digital marketing for dentists revolve around working with knowledgeable digital marketing professionals. You can attract new clients by building a compelling website and integrating it with social media profiles. Consider saving time and money by hiring a seasoned team to attract new patients to your business through dental online marketing.