There are now about 1,197,000 professionals in the US dental industry, along with 191,497 businesses throughout the country. If you’re trying to help your dental business grow, you need to generate quality leads. Otherwise, it’s likely your competitors are attracting those new patients instead.
Here are five simple tips that can help you generate dental patient leads throughout the year. With these tips, you can expand your dental clinic without blowing through your marketing budget.
Ensure your business grows with these dental marketing tips today!
1. Create Engaging Content
New patients want to know they’re choosing the best dental clinic around. Show off your experience and expertise by creating engaging, helpful content. Content marketing can help you attract new patients to your website.
Then, prospective patients can review your content, professional history, and services before determining if they want to schedule an appointment.
First, learn as much as you can about your prospective patients. For example, are you trying to attract mothers to your pediatric practice? Maybe you’re focused on attracting busy adults instead.
Group your prospective patients into buyer personas based on the demographic and psychographic research you gather. For example, you can define patients based on their:
- Age group
- Gender
- Salary
- Education
- Career
- Hobbies
- Marital status
- Location
- Pain points
- Buying behaviors
- Interests
Think about the services you offer, too. For example, maybe you specialize as a cosmetic dentist. Consider the pain points your patients are experiencing (like lost teeth, discoloration, or crooked teeth).
Understanding the problems your patients are experiencing can help you create personalized content. You can show prospective patients you understand and empathize with what they’re going through. Once you pinpoint the problems they’re experiencing, use content marketing to show them the solutions you can offer.
For example, you can create a blog post about the benefits of cosmetic dentistry. Prospective patients will then recognize you offer the services they need.
In addition to blog posts, you can also create videos, infographics, polls, quizzes, and eBooks. Make sure to demonstrate your experience and expertise within each post. In time, you could become a go-to resource and thought leader within your industry.
Demonstrating your expertise can help brand trust grow. Once dental patients begin to trust you, they might decide to book an appointment at your practice.
Make sure to use lead magnets as part of your content marketing strategy. For example, you can end a blog post with a call to action encouraging people to book an appointment. If someone wants to download an eBook, prompt them to provide their email to receive the file first.
Then, use the leads you gather to develop your email marketing strategy.
2. Get Optimized
You can ensure more people find your website and content by using search engine marketing (SEM). SEM includes:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
- Display ads
- Video ads
- Social media advertising
- Programmatic advertising
Of these, SEO is the only organic form of SEM. SEO involves optimizing your website content for search engine users. When someone searches a phrase relevant to your content, your website could appear on a search engine results page (SERPs).
As more people begin clicking on your content to visit your website, your rankings could improve. Ranking at the top of SERPs for search terms relevant to your dental business can help you generate:
- Brand awareness
- Website traffic
- Brand recognition
- Brand trust and loyalty
- Credibility
- Leads and sales
- A higher ROI
You can learn more about SEO for dentists here.
3. Design Eye-Catching Ads
PPC advertising is another form of search engine marketing. You can use platforms like Facebook or Google Ads to get started. With PPC advertising, you can specify who you want to reach with precise targeting.
Specifying your targeting parameters will ensure you only appear in front of ideal dental patients. Your dental ads can appear on SERPs, Facebook, Instagram, or other social media platforms. When someone clicks on one of your digital ads, they’ll reach a landing page on your website.
You can create both search and display ads to attract new patients to your website.
If you lack experience with PPC advertising, consider working with an experienced advertising agency. Otherwise, you could waste time and money on trial and error. With PPC, you pay each time someone clicks on your ads.
You can also choose to pay for every 1,000 impressions.
If you’re not generating conversions through your advertising campaigns, you could blow through your budget without improving your ROI.
4. Stay Social
You can also help more people find your dental marketing materials with social media marketing.
First, encourage your existing dental patients to follow you on social media. You don’t have to use every social media platform under the sun. Instead, consider using Facebook and Instagram as you get started.
You can branch out to TikTok, Snapchat, and other platforms as you build your social media marketing strategy.
Share your blog posts, before and after photos, or fun updates on your social media accounts. Use call to action language to encourage people to engage with your content. Otherwise, try hosting a contest or engaging with other accounts.
5. Email Often
Email marketing can help you remain top of mind with your dental patients. For example, you can automate emails to send when the patient is about to celebrate a birthday. You can also automate emails to send every six months with appointment reminders.
Consider sending emails about new services, industry updates, or news relevant to your business, too.
Don’t forget to add a lead magnet to your website to encourage more people to subscribe to your email newsletters. Then, segment your subscription lists to send personalized emails.
Start Attracting New Dental Patient Leads With These Tips Today
Attracting new dental patient leads is easier than you might think. Start developing your digital marketing strategy using these five easy tips. As you attract new patients to your practice, your ROI will improve over time.
Then, you can set your dental business up for lasting growth and success.
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