12 Most Effective Digital Marketing Strategies for Dentists in 2021
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DENTISTRY BY: DR. JERRY HU 12 Most Effective Digital Marketing 1 page Strategies for Dentists in 2021 © 2021 MicroDental GUEST CONTRIBUTOR Cesar Navarro Director at Geek Dental Marketing® Cesar Navarro, MS · Director at Geek Dental Marketing®
12 Most Effective Dental Marketing Strategies to Maximize Your Practice DIGITIAL MARKETING HAS LIMITLESS POTENTIAL Like most dentists, you mostly focus on fulfilling dental services and not finding new ways to create or understand marketing strategies. But in the era of digitalization, all dental offices must understand the importance of digital marketing. Your dental office should not be limited by just word of mouth; instead, try using proven techniques that will help you maximize incoming patients to your office. You have to be aware of the new and current ways of reaching out to your target audience. Give your practice a fighting chance by carrying out these strategies and techniques. In this guide, we’ll review the 12 Most Effective Dental Marketing Strategies to Maximize Your Practice’s Growth In 2021. 1 page © 2021 MicroDental MICRODENTAL LABORATORIES · MicroDental.com Cesar Navarro, MS · Director at Geek Dental Marketing®
12 Most Effective Dental Marketing Strategies to Maximize Your Practice Num.01 BRANDING Branding sets your practice apart from the competition and creates a unique experience that your patients recognize as soon as they interact with you. No matter which channels they choose to interact with your office, your brand – your website, blog, email, Facebook, Twitter, or whatever tomorrow’s technology may bring – they should all demonstrate the unique experience that your brand represents. A brand is a person’s perception of a product, service, experience, or organization. A brand strategy is a long-term plan for developing a successful brand presence to achieve specific results. First, let’s clarify that your brand is not your product, logo, website, or name. Your brand is far more encompassing — your brand makes a more profound, emotional connection with your patients. A well-thought-out and defined brand identity should be the backbone of any successful practice, so distinguish yourself from the ones around you. 2 page © 2021 MicroDental MICRODENTAL LABORATORIES · MicroDental.com Cesar Navarro, MS · Director at Geek Dental Marketing®
12 Most Effective Dental Marketing Strategies to Maximize Your Practice Photo credit: # smileonnashville Num.02 PHOTOGRAPHY ON SOCIAL MEDIA Social media works wonders for marketing. impact your image and business. So, be But to do so, you need to upload high- regular with the photographs and uploads. quality photographs with eye-catching Keep it relevant and also make it fun. captions. Poor quality pictures, such as low pixel, blurry, or even wrong edited photos, do not You must understand that using quality photos and catch people’s attention. taking your time to edit them says a lot about your They only bring down the quality of your work. You persona and how you carry out yourself with your work. must understand that using quality photos and taking your time to edit them says a lot about your persona and One of our favorite tips is to create your own how you carry out yourself with your work. hashtags for your specific treatments. In a If you start posting pictures with a low- way, you can build your smile digital album for quality resolution or even posting temporary veneers, crowns, dentures, implants, etc. crowns/veneers (which are not as great as the final results of a delivered case), people tend to feel your work is low-quality. Dentists must example: understand that perception is reality. you just finished delivering a few veneer cases, so you start posting the before/ It will be beneficial to invest in a dental after pictures on your social media photography class and a good camera. This platforms. to create your digital album way, you can attract cosmetic cases. The for those specific cases, you hashtag algorithm keeps changing, but sometimes the posts #VeneersbyDrJAlbum (this is a it takes only one great photo or video to go custom hashtag of your own). try using viral. This will open up doors to new patients more hashtags obviously to get more ready to commit to your work and maybe even presence, but this one is a must for all 3 A-list or celebrity clientele. your veneer cases. *make sure no one else page is using this same hashtag. that way, when It is also important to upload photos regularly. you search for the hashtags, only your Going cold on social media will negatively © 2021 MicroDental veneer cases pop-up and not some random case from a different doctor. MICRODENTAL LABORATORIES · MicroDental.com Cesar Navarro, MS · Director at Geek Dental Marketing®
12 Most Effective Dental Marketing Strategies to Maximize Your Practice Num.03 SOCIAL MEDIA Posting amazing photos on social media is not enough. You need to build a relationship with your patients via social media. Be as responsive as you can. Have frequent interactions. Maintain transparency to gain the trust of your patients. Your social media should focus on what your brand is. Maintain the consistency of your brand, and you will have a steady in-flow of patients. In simpler words, let your patients know who you are as a dentist and a person. Having a presence on social media can also boost your reputation and give you a variety of clientele. It is a very effective way of attracting the a-list patients that you want. You could also draw celebrities and even big-time influencers with millions of followers. As mentioned before, perception is everything, Make it about them, not you. so if you serve celebrities, others will follow. See, back in the day, trust used to be something that would take time to build, but this generation acts differently. People with thousands or even millions of followers are called influencers because they influence people to come to your office. Even if they don’t know each other, one shoots the message, and others follow. How do you know who an influencer is? When a patient comes to your office, try looking them up on social media, most people have their profiles “public,” so you can ask them to take a picture with you. Make it about them, not you. 4 page © 2021 MicroDental MICRODENTAL LABORATORIES · MicroDental.com Cesar Navarro, MS · Director at Geek Dental Marketing®
12 Most Effective Dental Marketing Strategies to Maximize Your Practice Num.04 tip: you can claim you free business profile at SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION http://www.google.com/ (SEO) business/ Creating a website and not performing SEO is like having business cards and keeping them in your storage room. By now, we all know that content is the new ultimately, ranking you on the first page of currency of this age. Displaying the right organic search engines. A great way to see content gets your target audience’s attention SEO strategies is as an investment for your and engagement with your business. Great practice. SEO helps search engines navigate content rich with SEO friendly words will your website more structurally. Creating boost your practice when people search for a website and not performing SEO is like services or specific keywords. It will help your having business cards and keeping them in website come out on top of search engine your storage room. No one will know you results; Search engines like Google, Bing, have them. It is important to distribute your Yahoo, etc. Search Engine Optimization content across the web. This type of strategy helps you attract the right audience; in your can take time, but it is a great investment case, patients ready to commit to treatment. in the long run because in a year or so, you You must understand these are patients can stop SEO, and all the ranking will stay searching for treatment or services and not up there until another office starts climbing patients interested in dentistry like Facebook up; Unlike Google Adwords, once you stop targeted ads. Articles enriched with SEO paying, you disappear from the map. friendly words are not everyone’s forte. It is best to hire a content writing company or a Local Listings are also part of SEO, so freelancer. They specialize in creating the make sure you have claimed your Google perfect targeted content for your practice. MyBusiness (GMB) profile and you are They will provide the content and help keeping your patients up to date with current information about your practice. After all, 5 develop a blog system that will be read page locally and not worldwide because when it your GMB is seen 3x more than your actual comes to search engines, you want to keep website, so ensure you have accurate contact © 2021 MicroDental your presence locally to avoid spammers. information, great pictures, specials, and In a nutshell, SEO refers to improving hours of operations listed. Your Google your website on the unpaid results, and MyBusiness profile is a hub for all the information about your practice. MICRODENTAL LABORATORIES · MicroDental.com Cesar Navarro, MS · Director at Geek Dental Marketing®
12 Most Effective Dental Marketing Strategies to Maximize Your Practice Num.5 REVIEWS: “THE NEW DIGITAL WORD OF MOUTH.” If you ask where your patients found you, person accountable to leave a great review; most of their answers will be, ”I found you moreover, when you say, “I can’t wait to read online... You had great google reviews... or your feedback.” someone recommended me to you.” Reviews have become the new word of mouth. In If you feel asking is too much for you, there are fact, most people read reviews before going programs such as RepBoost from Geek Dental somewhere; I’m sure this includes you; Marketing that allows your staff to send text searching for the best Italian restaurant in your messages with an invitation to leave a review. area? What makes dentistry any different? This will make the review process smooth, and People search for the best service and great if patients happen to text back to that text, reviews translate into the best services. your staff will be able to answer right away The best part is that it is not limited to one via the two-way (SMS) text feature. Programs geographic area. Maintaining a good, steady like this will help you boost your reviews in service with a focus on patient satisfaction no time. We have seen offices gettings 10- will lead to good reviews. Great reviews will 15 reviews per day. Keep in mind; “The best separate you from other dental offices. advertising is done by satisfied customers.” - Philip Kotler In fact, most people read reviews Reviews influence purchase decisions, so before going somewhere; I’m sure consider setting a goal to get 5-10 reviews this includes you. monthly and watch your office phones ring a little more than usual. A bad review can negatively impact your work to a great extent. Always provide the best service and stay up-to-date with what reviews you receive. The saying “Ask and you shall receive” must be applied to this strategy. Most of the time, doctors are afraid of asking for a review, but if you know you provided excellent service, make sure you ask 6 page for a Google review. By asking, you keep the © 2021 MicroDental MICRODENTAL LABORATORIES · MicroDental.com Cesar Navarro, MS · Director at Geek Dental Marketing®
12 Most Effective Dental Marketing Strategies to Maximize Your Practice Num.6 GOOGLE ADS (PPC) PPC stands for Pay Per Click. Google Ads is a Google-based advertising platform that uses a bidding system to promote a business to users searching online. So, why use Google Ads? Google is the biggest search engine on the internet. Most people even refer to Google as being the internet; that’s how big it is. With Google Ads, you can create online advertisements to promote your practice to your specific target audience. The best thing about PPC is that you only pay when someone clicks the Ad to get to your website or contact you. There are different strategies to use within Google Ads, but it is essential to keep track of your budget and your office’s KPIs to have a healthy campaign. Conversions If your Ad is compelling and catches the are not always the best KPIs. You see, there person’s attention searching for a specific is a huge gap between the digital world and keyword or treatment, they will most likely the physical world, so it is wise also to have turn into a patient. physical KPIs such as incoming patients to the office, not just online leads, to keep track of your real return. When creating a Google Ads account, you must ensure that you or the company helping So what’s the difference between Google Ads you optimize your campaigns keeps in mind and SEO? Your PPC Ads are placed on top of hours of operations, landing pages, link the search engines so users can see your Ads extensions, location attachments, devices, faster. If your Ad is compelling and catches offers, and more. There are many ways to the person’s attention searching for a specific optimize campaigns, but the biggest of all is keyword or treatment, they will most likely the negative keywords! These are your best turn into a patient. friends when it comes to Google Ads. 7 page © 2021 MicroDental MICRODENTAL LABORATORIES · MicroDental.com Cesar Navarro, MS · Director at Geek Dental Marketing®
12 Most Effective Dental Marketing Strategies to Maximize Your Practice Num.07 YOUTUBE VIDEOS Never compromise with the quality of content you upload. It will affect your reputation... Youtube is a great medium to reach out In addition, you can create testimonial videos to your target audience. Make simple from your patients. New visitors will start educational videos as if you are talking to your trusting more when they see other patients patients to build trust. It helps you showcase talking about your service and work quality. your knowledge to assure patients that they Eventually, with time, if your videos get a lot should come to you for specific procedures. of traffic, you can even monetize them and Visitors can get to know you before they even earn additional income from Youtube, which come to your office, so they’ll feel more at can help you boost your marketing strategies ease when finally talking to you in person. without taking from your overhead. Using the right titles, descriptions, and tags can help your channel grow and bring you Adobe Premiere Pro is a program used by great results. video producers to edit videos. It can turn regular videos into magic! You can add In addition, you can create testimonial videos transitions, cut scenes, or color-grade your from your patients. New visitors will start videos so they can look professional. trusting more when they see other patients talking about your service and work quality. adobe premier video editing software: Eventually, with time, if your videos get a lot of you can check prices and plans here: traffic, you can even monetize the channel and https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/ earn additional income from Youtube, which plans. html?filter=video- can help you boost your marketing strategies audio&plan=individual without taking from your overhead, but this is doctors that can commit their time and become influencers. Lastly, Youtube videos will help boost your website’s SEO. If you are already investing in Search Engine Optimization, this is a great way to boost it up and get organic local traffic. 8 page © 2021 MicroDental MICRODENTAL LABORATORIES · MicroDental.com Cesar Navarro, MS · Director at Geek Dental Marketing®
12 Most Effective Dental Marketing Strategies to Maximize Your Practice Num.08 EMAIL MARKETING The cool part about automation is that 69% of offices said automation could help reduce wasted time. Creating “Use it or Lose it” campaigns can help your end of the year collection, but for example: creating an email marketing campaign is when a new patient is scheduled for not just to send promotions to your current an appointment, the automated email patients. You can also build automated campaign will send directions, welcome campaigns. An automated email campaign is forms, etc., as an email. One week later, a series of emails sent automatically, triggered the patient will receive an email asking by your subscribers’ actions or staff members. for reviews linking them to your Google reviews. Lastly, they can probably get a 9 The cool part about automation is that 69% page of offices said automation could help reduce personalized letter asking for a referral wasted time. of friends and family. © 2021 MicroDental There are many ways to get the most out of email marketing campaigns. MICRODENTAL LABORATORIES · MicroDental.com Cesar Navarro, MS · Director at Geek Dental Marketing®
12 Most Effective Dental Marketing Strategies to Maximize Your Practice Num.09 EXTENDED SERVICES (Allied Marketing) One way to make Suppose you are branding yourself as the cosmetic dentist in your your business area, and you are using high-quality products such as Microdental bloom is to offer extended Laboratories’ MacVeneers, then extended services can be an services related excellent idea for your practice. to dentistry by making allies with other businesses. If you provide a package, it will be way more case study: attractive. It will also be affordable for dr. jeff trembley partnered with country people. You can collaborate with trustworthy music star, jessie james decker as an companies of your choice that offer services extended service. patients can enter to like plastic surgery, eyebrow microblading, win a smile and wardrobe makeover from medspas, dermatology, etc. (primarily related two nashville-based businesses. to the face to complement your services. Connecting with other health aesthetic professionals will be beneficial for you. Services like dermatology and plastic surgery are related to the face, just like dentistry. Sometimes, a package service sells more than a single service. Suppose you are branding yourself as the cosmetic dentist in your area, and you are using high-quality products such as Microdental Laboratories’ MacVeneers, then extended services can be an excellent idea for your practice. This will make you look apart from any other dental office around the block. The best part about extended services is that all the patients from the other company will know about you right away, and vice-versa. It is a win/win situation. If you happen to promote your services, you go 50/50 and not kill your marketing budget, a good way to save some money. 10 page © 2021 MicroDental MICRODENTAL LABORATORIES · MicroDental.com Cesar Navarro, MS · Director at Geek Dental Marketing®
12 Most Effective Dental Marketing Strategies to Maximize Your Practice Num.10 PODCASTING This is a wonderful way to Just like YouTube videos and social media stand out and get noticed by interactions, starting your podcast will enhance your reputation and increase your credibility. your target audience. Do not Focus on topics related to dentistry. Do not give up, and stay consistent. worry about attracting a massive audience. Focus on putting out good quality content and polishing your reputation. This is a wonderful way to stand out and get noticed by your target audience. Do not give up and stay consistent. Podcasts can tend to be more engaging than books because not everyone reads. Many people do not have enough free time. But a podcast can be listened to while traveling or even cleaning. You may also invite other healthcare providers to join you on specific episodes. This will make your show more diverse! Again, this is not to get you thousands of listeners or followers, but to build your reputation and stand out from the rest. 11 Don’t want to spend money on Podcasting? page We recommend https://anchor.fm © 2021 MicroDental MICRODENTAL LABORATORIES · MicroDental.com Cesar Navarro, MS · Director at Geek Dental Marketing®
12 Most Effective Dental Marketing Strategies to Maximize Your Practice Num.11 SOCIAL MEDIA PAID ADS You may not think of social media marketing as a paid search campaign, but to maximize your visibility on social media platforms, paid social media is a must these days. While social media platforms differentiate drastically from search engines, you can always benefit from paid advertising visibility. Remember, older demographics between I am sure you are aware of an old marketing the ages of 35 and 55 are quite active on strategy, sending a “Welcome to the Neighborhood” social media. They come with a significant household income, family-oriented, letter to people who just moved in – Visualize understand the importance of a healthy smile, doing the same, but instead of a letter, an actual and are your desirable patient. personalized video Picture advertising a “Teeth Whitening Special” to that specific person? Even if you are not interested in going into too much detail. I am sure you are aware of an old marketing strategy, sending a “Welcome to the Neighborhood” letter to people who just moved in – Visualize doing the same, but instead of a letter, an actual personalized video saying, “Welcome to our city! This is Dr. John Smith at White Smiles Dental Office; I just wanted to let you know that we are here for you whenever you need a new dentist around your new town. Click the link below so we can get your information and meet you!”— Yes, that is possible! Paid Social Media is all about targeting the right audience. Always keep in mind that social media differs from search engines in a big way! While people look for you or your services on search engines (hot leads), social media shows ads to people interested in you or the demographic you chose (cold leads), which is why your ad needs to convince someone to come to your office. 12 page © 2021 MicroDental MICRODENTAL LABORATORIES · MicroDental.com Cesar Navarro, MS · Director at Geek Dental Marketing®
12 Most Effective Dental Marketing Strategies to Maximize Your Practice Num.12 CONVERSION-DRIVEN WEBSITE . Finally, we can’t leave this behind. Optimizing your website to have a conversion- driven design. Conversion is the ratio of people visiting your website and taking some action such as buying, calling, or filling out a form. In this case, getting people to schedule appointments or calling would be the conversion you need. Instead of using hyperlinks to help the audience to book a session, use buttons. You can increase your website conversion Your website should be easy to navigate rate by doing a few simple but necessary — Make sure that the information is not things. Instead of using hyperlinks to help presented chaotically. It is a big turn off and the audience to book an appointment, eventually leads to low conversion rates. use buttons. Make them big, visible, and Adding real images also attracts more people attractive; that way, your visitors won’t miss to the website. Keep in mind that a picture them. The loading time of your website is speaks a thousand words, but a video gives a big deal. Because the attention span and your patients a specific message. A video is patience has decreased with time, people will a high-conversion tool, so consider doing not wait for your website to load. it. Make sure to add the relevant keywords that people will use to search when looking for a dentist. If you are doing a Pay-Per- Click (PPC) campaign, these will also help drastically. Lastly, make sure your website is mobile optimized and has a “call” button on the first-page load— so that patients can call right away! Do not make it hard to find your 13 number. Consider age in this matter; while page some younger generations will be able to identify a button with a simple phone icon, © 2021 MicroDental older generations may want to see a clickable phone number. Always account for everything and think outside the box. MICRODENTAL LABORATORIES · MicroDental.com Cesar Navarro, MS · Director at Geek Dental Marketing®
12 Most Effective Dental Marketing Strategies to Maximize Your Practice Thank you for reading! These were twelve of the most effective online dental marketing strategies to maximize your practice in 2021. If you need any help creating specific campaigns, feel free to reach out! Its never too late to start growing. We will be giving a complimentary assessment of your digital presence for all Microdental Laboratories partners in which you’ll learn what can help you the most in your particular case. Remember that not all offices are the same. For your complimentary assessment: (954) 681-5824 info@geekdentalmarketing.com GeekDentalMarketing.com About the author CESAR NAVARRO GEEK DENTAL MARKETING Cesar Navarro, MS, is presently the Marketing Director & CEO of Geek Dental Marketing®, a marketing, development, and technology company for dental offices. With the vision to grow practices, improve management and visibility online, Cesar launched a full marketing company that focuses solely on dentistry to help dentists stand out from the crowd. Cesar holds over ten years of experience in the dental marketing field. He has also served as a group practice administrator and treatment coordinator, where he began his journey and passion for dentistry. Before dentistry, Cesar served as an NCO in the United States Army for several years, where he gathered many skills that most marketers lack. Combining all his skills like attention to detail and experiences, he has presented several CE courses to help dentists globally, such as “Leadership in a Dental Office,” “Branding Mastery Course,” “The How Much Patient? Converting & Selling”, “A New Era: Social Media Marketing,” and many more, and with it thousands of hours as a practice marketing consultant. His strategy includes the GeekBoost™ program, which allows clients’ business information, including addresses and phone numbers, and online web presence to be distributed across multiple channels, such as landing pages, listings, and social media platforms from one single source – securing the accuracy of dental office information online. © 2021 MicroDental MICRODENTAL LABORATORIES · MicroDental.com Cesar Navarro, MS · Director at Geek Dental Marketing®
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