13 Ways Dentists Can Attract Patients Who Pay, Stay, And Refer

If you just launched a new dental office and you’re wondering how to get more new patients into your dental practice, then you're in luck. We are going to discuss how to get new dental patients into your practice using 13 different marketing strategies.

More new dental practices are coming on the scene every year, while patients are actuallygoing to the dentist less and less.

More competition for less patients can seem pretty bleak, unless you know some proven dental marketing tips to attract new patients. Here are 13 dental marketing ideas that you can use to grow your patient base from scratch.

1. Create an Engaging Website

Your business website can no longer be generic. Websites need to be engaging and interactive, but this is often overlooked by the medical world. When someone visits your website, you need to be sure that you have all things in place so you can convert that visitor into a new patient.

Good websites cost money. Yes, you can put up a homemade website for a couple hundred dollars but it will likely not draw as much attention as a professionally-built site.

Consider the benefits of getting a professional website for your dental practice, designed by an agency that understands design concepts and SEO. Properly done, a dental website will be an excellent marketing tool for you, provided the website has:

·                      Uncluttered, mobile-friendly web design

·                      Simple navigation

·                      Onsite blog

·                      Pictures of dentist and offices

·                      Prominent contact info

·                      Reviews and testimonials

·                      On-page SEO

Though there is often significant cost for a website, remember that website is your 24x7 sales person. You should be able to recoup the cost within the first few months of having it up.

Consider developing a website that funnels patients towards setting an appointment. Be sure that your contact information is readily accessible and give your patients & potential patients multiple contact options.

Consider asking your long-term patients to write you a testimonial that you can use for your website. Also, look into posting a video testimonial that can be shared via social media.

Highlight patient testimonials on your website and social media accounts to help build trust with future patients.

2. Stand Out From the Crowd

Knowing how to attract patients to a new practice can be difficult if you don’t stand out from the crowd. Depending on where you’re located, there could be several dental practices in your neighborhood to choose from.

And the problem is that most people already have a dentist they see regularly or irregularly. They know the doctor and their insurance is on file. So why switch?

Do this by developing a unique selling proposition (USP) for your brand. A lot of practices go for the “luxury dentistry” USP to help them stand out. But you can also dig into your specialties, such as:

That’s the question your practice has to answer.

·                      Oral sleep appliances

·                      Invisalign

·                      Veneers

·                      Implants

·                      Dentures

It’s a great idea to focus on your unique services or “after hours” dentistry. Make it prominent in your marketing materials.

Keeping your office technologies current also helps attract new patients and keeps existing patients sticking around. In addition to using all the current dental technologies, be sure to let people know you’re using these state-of-the-art technologies on your dental website.

In addition to providing marketing materials in your office, make sure it is comfortable and provides amenities like drinking water, comfortable chairs, current magazines, and other niceties.

3. Sponsor Local Events

One of the most effective methods to attract patients to a new practice than to get involved in the community!

Sponsoring local events is a great strategy for your dental marketing plan. Become a sponsor for a charity event or community organization.

Especially if you’re just starting out, having your name or logo at a local event will help build brand awareness. If there’s a concert or race involved, send one of your employees down to hand out fliers and coupons to attract new patients.

You can also host your own event in the community, and it doesn’t even have to be related to dentistry.

Just take some inspiration from Collins Dentistry For Children in New Hampshire:

They host and sponsor all sorts of events for children as part of their dental office promotions, including their Annual Child Safety Fair, the Promote Good Oral Hygiene event, and more.

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is no longer the simple “stuff it with keywords” strategy. It has evolved to where you may need the help of a professional.

It involves much more than keywords at this point.

A true SEO professional will understand conversion rate optimization as well. This is optimizing your website so that you are able to convert as many people as possible.

Once you rank well, and you are getting a good amount of traffic to your site, be sure to spend time/money on the optimization of your site.

There are different SEO strategies – local, organic, and international. Each has a different impact on your conversion rate. Talk to an expert about the strategy that will work best for you before you get started, and remember that it’s not just about basic keywords.

Typically, local SEO is what will be most important for a dentist, because they are targeting people in a specific area, and want to show up here, in the Google local pack

Google now not only shows local listings, it prioritizes them on mobile searches. This is to make it easier for people on-the-go to find the business they are looking for.

According to Google, “50% of consumers who conducted a local search on their smartphone visited a store within a day, and 34% who searched on computer/tablet did the same.”

You’ll want to optimize for location-specific keywords so that people searching for dental offices near you will find your website. Here are some examples of location-specific keywords:

·                      [Your city] dentist

·                      [Your neighborhood] dentist

·                      [Your zip code] dental office

You should also optimize for keywords related to your specialty (e.g. Portland dental implants).

One way you can minimize competition is by targeting long-tail keywords. Patients are looking for solutions when they search online, and oftentimes these solutions have many words, we call them long-tail keyword. Examples would be:

·                      dentist in Salt Lake City that does teen Invisalign

·                      zoom teeth whitening dentist in SLC

So focus on long-tail keywords revolving around solving the dental problems that people have.

Search engine optimization is an ever-changing art, so you should probably enlist the help of a marketing professional to decide what keywords to target and how.

5. Focus On Getting Positive Reviews

If you want to get new dental patients choosing your practice in online searches, positive reviews are a must. At this point in your business, you probably have no reviews. Unfortunately, the truth of it is this:

Nobody is going to choose a dentist with no reviews over a dentist with dozens of positive reviews.

The truth is, reviews are the number one factor people consider when making a purchase decision. So if you’ve landed a few patients through your employees or friends, ask them very nicely to write a review.

dentist triggers and Google Reviews are the two biggest ones to pay attention to for local businesses. If someone uses Google search to find your dental practice, or even Google Maps, they will easily be able to see your Google reviews right along with your address.

So do your best to get those first crucial reviews, then encourage all your future patients to continue by adding to your reviews.

Don’t pay people for positive reviews, as that is against Google’s terms of service. But, a gentle nudge to patients after an appointment or a reminder via email after they’ve left the office should be enough to get them to review you.

While on the topic of reviews, remember to deal with negative reviews quickly. Ignoring them will only compound the issue. Respond to all reviews, both positive and negative, and take the time to clarify your position when you get a negative review. Sometimes having an explanation from the business is enough to convince people that the issue was a one-time occurrence.

6. Directory Listings

To get new dental patients to schedule treatment, directory listings are low hanging fruit. People searching for dental offices in an online directory are just the kind of patient you want to target. They either don’t have a dentist or are looking to switch.

So make sure you have listings on dentist triggers, Better Business Bureau, Health Grades, Vitals, Angie’s List, and any other directory you can think of.

But more importantly, make sure your listings on these sites are completely consistent.

Why?

Again, it’s all about Google. They pay attention to your business listings around the web (citations) to determine how to rank your website in local search. If your name, address, and phone number (NAP) aren’t consistent, your site will rank lower.

One mistake I often see is people listing their business name on one directory (e.g. Redmond Dental Center) and their own name on another (e.g. Jane Doe, DDS: Redmond). Go back through and change it so you are using the same naming convention everywhere.

7. Distribute Press Releases

If you want to attract patients to a new practice, press releases are a great place to start. I’m not talking about “Hey, we’re in business!” notifications. Send press releases about subjects that actually interest people.

Whenever something dentistry-related reaches the national news, add your two cents on a local level. Here are some great example headlines from The Institute of Dental CPAs:

·                      “Dentist Says Needle and Drill Nearly Obsolete”

·                      “Cosmetic Dentistry Demand Running High”

·                      “Sioux City Dentist Goes High-Tech with Newly Approved Laser”

Take advantage of the news when the FDA approves the use of new technologies in dentistry, for example. The possibilities are endless.

8. Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)

PPC is one of the most common marketing ideas for dentists you hear about. Google Adwords is the largest pay-per-click (PPC) platform. With Google, PPC ads appear above organic search results.

They work really well because you target specific keywords, like with SEO. This ensures the ads are relevant to whatever people are searching for.

The good news is, you don’t have to pay to display the ads, you only pay when people actually click on them. Every time someone clicks this ad, you pay Google a small amount. While this amount varies depending on how competitive your industry and the local market is, a good agency can get you a lower rate compounded with higher conversions.

That said, the cost-per-click for dental ads can be expensive ($2-$15). To avoid paying out a large amount of money in exchange for no new business, remember to optimize the right keywords. Don’t immediately, and unknowingly just choose keywords that have the most competition, as you’ll eat into your budget quickly. Also, consider the day of the week your PPC ads are shown. Some days have a higher click-through rate than others. Finally, narrow down the audience to be specific to your area and the demographics you serve.

If you work with a dental marketing company that knows what they’re doing, you can use PPC and SEO together to get the best overall return on investment.

9. Seek Patient Referrals

First let’s agree that if a current patient refers someone to you, you’re very likely to get that business. Someone testifying to your excellence as a dental practitioner, such as a satisfied patient, will convert someone into a new patient for you in much less time than it would take for you to convince them yourself.

Patient referrals are a great way to get more patients into your practice, even if you’re just starting out. Those first few patients you get will serve as an essential voice in attracting more patients during your first year.

There are a lot of dental referral program ideas you can try. Encourage them by offering a referral bonus program, such as a free cleaning or special discount whenever they refer a friend. All you have to do is hand out a simple referral card at the end of their appointment that explains the deal.

You might also consider a referral program where if a patient refers a friend, and that friend books an appointment (and actually shows up), you reward the referring patient with free movie tickets or another valuable freebie.

Even if you don’t have a single patient yet, you can always use the strategy with your employees. They probably have plenty of friends and family in town, so encourage them to refer to your practice.

It may seem old-fashioned to focus on word-of-mouth marketing, but in the Internet age, even word-of-mouth marketing isn’t what it seems. It may seem simple. Be a great dentist and patients will refer new patients to you. But, with the power of the Internet, you can take it a few steps further.

10. Social Media Marketing (SMM)

If you want to attract dental patients to your new office, social media is something you'll want to try. Having a presence on social websites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and more helps give your brand a human element.

Social media is an extremely powerful tool for online marketing. However, many businesses are approaching social media marketing in the wrong manner.

Don’t be one of those businesses that sets automatic posts without engaging with the readers of those posts. In fact, the more posts you publish every day, the less engagement you will see from your followers. Brands that post to social media twice a day only receive 57% of the likes and 78% of the comments per post according to Track Social.

You’re not just there to advertise your practice, but engage with your audience and show what life is really like at your dental practice. Use hashtags related to your industry to start participating in wider conversations:

·                      #dentist

·                      #dentistry

·                      #NoMoreDentures

·                      #FunDentistry

You can also use social media to cross-promote your other tactics to get new patients. If you’re sponsoring a local event, use the event hashtags.

Make sure someone is monitoring your social media accounts for mentions of your dental practice. Have them reach out to potential patients in the area that may be looking for a dental practice. This is a simple practice that can bring you patients that are in a hurry to get to a dental practice but don’t have the local knowledge to choose one.

Read Now:  Social Media For Dentists Done Right: 4 Things You Can Do This Week

Social media is also an important platform for customer service. If you have any disgruntled patients, they may air their complaints on your Twitter profile or Facebook page. Take this as an opportunity to publically address any problems they may have. This will give your business a positive image to others.

Here are a couple statistics from Dentist Triggers that demonstrate the importance of including social media in your online marketing strategy:

·                      40% of consumers say they use information they find on social media to make health decisions

·                      71% of consumers who receive a quick response from a business to a complaint on social media would recommend that business to others.

11. Use New Patient Specials

According to research by the Healthy Policy Institute, 22.9% of adults say they are unsure or definitely don’t plan to visit a dentist in the next 12 months. The top reason? Cost.

If you want to increase patients in your office, new patient specials are the solution. People turn themselves away from treatment because of cost, but if you offer a special discount, they’re much more likely to respond.

Use a new patient special to get people to book that first appointment, then you can nurture them as recurring patients for years to come. Here are some examples of simple incentives you can give:

·                      Free teeth whitening

·                      Money off Invisalign treatment

·                      Discount service bundles (e.g. oral exam, cleaning and X ray)

Whatever new patient special you decide to offer, just make sure it beats your competitors and it communicates your USP. When you’re first starting out, it’s not going to be very helpful to offer the same deal as 4 other dental practices in your area.

12. Ad Retargeting

SEO and PPC are great marketing ideas for dentists, but ad retargeting is a new development that can really help you capture patients.

The idea behind ad retargeting is this:

Someone visits your website, but they don’t book an appointment, sign up for your mailing list, or anything else. Cookies from your site are placed on their browser, so when they leave your site, they see advertisements for your business other places on the web.

There are two main platforms you can use for ad retargeting right now:

·                      Facebook

·                      Google Display Network

Facebook will display advertisements for your business right in people’s newsfeeds or in the sidebar on desktop

Google has a network of websites around the web where it displays advertisements. You can even target specific kinds of websites for your retargeting ad to appear on.

Like Google Adwords PPC, retargeting works well because the ads are relevant. You’re targeting someone who’s probably already browsing around for a new dentist, and you want to make sure your business stays fresh in their mind.

SEO and PPC are great marketing ideas for dentists

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It is possible they don’t need a dentist right now, but they’re looking for one for a later time. Having your advertisement show up every now and then is a great way to make sure your dental practice stays at the top of their mind.

Retargeting works best if you segment your potential patients and show them different ads based on their interests. For example, you can segment them by the pages they visit on your website in order to show them ads for services they are interested in.

13. Seek Business Referrals

Business referrals are another great way to get more patients into your practice. Develop a relationship with other businesses in town, and you can work together to refer each other customers.

Working with a person/business related to yours, such as an oral surgeon or orthodontist, will get you the most relevant and valuable referrals. But you can also partner with unrelated businesses and display fliers of each other's’ services in your offices.