Digital marketing strategies for Dentists

Dentists have always been the most marketing savvy group in the healthcare industry. But despite the research and abundant proof of digital marketing’s effectiveness, dentists have not been able to adapt it to their practices. To make it easier, we present just 3 simple dental marketing strategies that can get them started.

Introduction

In a business environment, oftentimes due to the conditions present there arises a situation where businesses go through a feast or famine situation. In these cases, businesses do monumentally well when they manage to get customers (due to high ticket purchases) but then struggle for long periods when new customers stop showing up. In the healthcare industry, dental practices can often experience this feast or famine condition.

It is for this reason that dental marketing has often been far ahead in utilization and adoption than healthcare marketing as a whole. Dentists have recognized for decades that the power of good marketing can make or break a business. More relaxed regulations also made it easier for dental practitioners to start using direct marketing far before much of the healthcare industry started to do so.

But as the era slowly transforms into a digital landscape, dentists and dental professionals must once more look to the future and adapt modern practices in order to keep their businesses growing. In a time when everyone is going digital, dental practices also need to start using digital technologies and processes to market their products and services.

Digital marketing

Digital marketing refers to the practice of using modern technologies and processes related to digital means of communication in order to market a business. Using the internet and the many interconnected services and products available on the web allows businesses to reach larger audiences at just a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing channels.

Digital marketing has today emerged as one of the fastest-growing methods of marketing for businesses of all sizes. But for small and medium-sized businesses, digital marketing is a way to level the playing field by equalizing costs to a large degree and making results more dependent on quality rather than quantity.

But despite the many benefits of digital marketing, especially for doctors and physicians, the adoption rate has been abysmal. Only 4.3 percent of physicians and doctors are currently using digital marketing strategies to promote their business reported Patient Gain. Starting to use digital marketing can not only allow businesses to enjoy its benefits but also gain from being an early adopter.
But in doing so, a healthcare practice also needs to examine its business environment for potential threats to its longevity. There are certain common factors that cause most businesses to fail. Despite being a medical practice, healthcare providers should understand that their practice at the end of the day is a business.

Digital marketing strategies

Digital marketing can be great for healthcare businesses but with so many varied and nuanced strategies, it can be hard for a dental practice to decide which ones would be the best suited for their needs. So, to ease their analysis paralysis we have listed the 3 best digital marketing strategies for dental practices to use.

Improving Local SEO

As a dental practice, most of your patients are going to be located in areas around you. With 9 out of 10 US adults searching for healthcare information online, you want to set up your dental practice in such a way that your name comes in the results when they search for anything related to the services that you offer. Using local search engine optimization processes, you can ensure that whenever patients search for relevant queries on search engines your name comes up in the results.

Using Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing almost seems like a taboo for many healthcare professionals. But with many of the decisions taken by patients in dental healthcare based just as much on cosmetics as medical reasons, social media marketing allows your dental practice to show off the results and build social proof as a good brand. Social media marketing isn’t just limited to social media platforms, blogging and other forms of content publication are also considered social media marketing.

Email marketing

Research shows that many patients defer to not seeing their dentists on a regular basis due to not suffering from any pain despite having dental issues at the same time. With the use of email marketing, newsletters, and other similar processes, your dental practice can educate potential patients on why regular dental checkups are important and why pain is not a good metric to rely on when assessing dental health.

Conclusion

Dentists can find it much easier to grow their business in a quick timeframe using the modern digital marketing techniques available to them. Through the use of digital marketing, dentists are not only increasing their patient acquisition rates but also improving other key business metrics like patient engagement, patient experience, and even treatment outcomes.

In today’s healthcare industry, digital marketing has emerged as an almost essential part of a dental business’ toolkit. But dedicating time, effort, and resources to this task can be a big ask for a dentist. This is why that most dental practices should consider outsourcing their digital marketing requirements to a dental marketing agency instead. With a high return on investment, dental marketing can result in more comprehensive and longer patient pipelines for a dental business.

We at BraveLabs are helping dentists and dental practitioners grow their business year-over-year through customized digital marketing solutions. Want to see what digital marketing can do for your dental business? Contact us today and find out.