How to attract new patients to your dental clinic
By Daniel Reid
Looking for new dental patients? While you might be at the top of your game professionally, no one will know if they can’t find you online.
You spent years in dental school. Your critical thinking skills are top notch. You are constantly expanding your knowledge base and skills. You’re doing everything right on the back end...so why aren’t new patients flooding through your front door?
Here are six digital marketing strategies you should implement to attract new patients to your dental clinic.
1. Outrank competitors in local Google searches
If new patients aren’t booking their first cleaning, it could be because they aren’t finding your website. Almost all consumers these days (87 per cent) research a business online before visiting the physical location.
So, why aren’t they finding your business online? One reason could be that you aren’t using the right keywords, in the right places, on your website.
Implementing a local search engine optimization strategy, targeting people in your specific area, is the most important thing you can do to increase traffic to your website.
In order to do this, you need to do keyword research to discover how people in your specific region are finding dentists. Are they searching “best dentist in Toronto”? Or maybe “oral care in Calgary”? Then you need to load those terms, in the right places, all over your website.
You also need to do some work to get high-quality websites linking to your content: backlinks tell Google and other search engines that you are trust-worthy and create content that other sources like to share.
The goal here is to launch your page to the top position for relevant searches. Nearly one third of people click on the first Google search result and only about three per cent click on the 10th result. How you rank versus competitors for top local keywords is essential for generating traffic to your website and attracting new patients to your dental clinic.
2. Boost your search traffic with a blog
Companies that produce a blog have 434 per cent more search engine-indexed pages than those that don’t. It makes sense. New content equals new opportunities for patients to find you via search.
However, simply having a blog isn’t enough. Too many companies treat their blog as a place to dump company updates and boring platitudes. What you really need is a blog that elevates your brand and gives you an excuse to write about topics your audience is already searching for on Google.
If people in your region are searching for “dentists with toys for kids,” for example, it makes sense to write a blog post about the importance of kid-friendly waiting rooms.
Extra points if your blog post is delivered in a clear, concise, accurate and entertaining way that will make your audience not only consume your content but share it too.
3. Use social media to entertain your patients and attract new ones
When used effectively, social media is a great tool for keeping patients informed and entertained, but it has the potential to be so much more.
A good social media marketing strategy needs to incorporate paid ads, which allow you to introduce your services to a brand new audience that checks all the right boxes, in terms of geography, demographics, etc.
On Instagram, you can serve ads to niche audiences (like parents in Ottawa who have an interest in health). On Facebook, you can upload your existing patient database to find ‘look-alike’ audiences — people who Facebook determines are similar to your patients. On LinkedIn, you can target patients by job title and seniority.
Reaching the right audience is only part of the equation here. You should customize your ads for each unique audience. The messaging you use to attract parents to your clinic will be completely different than the messaging you use to attract high-powered executives who are sprinting over to your clinic on their lunch break.
4. Grow positive reviews
What are patients saying about you on Yelp? How do they rate your services on Google? Are people saying anything about you at all?
Even if you’re already at the top of your SEO game, and you’re outranking your competitors for top keywords, it’s all for nought if you don’t have positive reviews.
Consumers trust online reviews (78 per cent say they trust them as much as personal recommendations) and the majority of people (57 per cent) will only use a business if it has 4 or more stars.
The stakes are even higher for dentists. Would you want a 1 star dentist poking around in your mouth and putting a drill near your teeth?
If you don’t have any reviews on Google or Yelp, you can start by kindly asking patients to review your business after each appointment.
If you do have negative reviews, you should address those as soon as possible. A simple and timely reply to a negative review can show that you respect patients, listen to their concerns and try to make amends. In some cases, a well-crafted reply can even turn a negative review into a positive one.
An unaddressed negative review, on the other hand, can turn someone away from your business forever.
It’s also important to manage profiles on doctor and dentist review websites, like RateMDs, which allow users to easily rate and compare doctors and dentists by geography.
If you have a poor rating on these websites, you risk driving away patients to highly rated competitors in your area.
5. Take control of your online business listings
If people are searching for dental clinics on Yelp or looking up reliable businesses on Better Business Bureau, they’re probably in the market for a new dentist. Your profile is your chance to shine.
Business listing managers allow you to highlight your services, update your business address, add photos to help entice potential patients and promote important upcoming events.
Even more important? Your Google My Business and Bing Places for Business listings can even help improve your rank in relevant local searches.
Knowing this, it’s surprising so few businesses do anything to entice customers who are on the path to making a purchase via business directory listings. Eighty two per cent of businesses haven’t yet claimed a listing on Bing Places for Business and 56 per cent of local retailers haven’t claimed their listing for Google My Business.
6. Refresh your website’s content and design
Your website says so much about you and it’s one of the first things potential patients check out before booking an appointment.
So what defines a good website? It’s actually a lot like a dental clinic:
Well-designed: simple, clean and uncluttered like your waiting room.
Informative and professional like your staff.
Charming and personable like your front desk.
It also needs to look good on a mobile device. Customers use mobile devices to influence offline purchases. In fact, 78 per cent of location-based mobile searches result in a purchase made offline.
If your website isn’t responsive, is hard to navigate and looks unprofessional, you’re missing out on a big segment of potential patients who are walking down your street, ready to walk in and hand over their insurance information.
Conclusion
Attracting new patients to your dental clinic is no easy feat, but these digital marketing techniques will have an immediate impact on your online visibility and credibility which will invariably lead to new appointments.
If you need a little help putting together and executing your digital marketing plan, get in touch with us. We can analyze your efforts online and work out an effective strategy that is right for your business and budget.