Dental Marketing Plan Example: a Modern Guide & Steps $799 to $1299/mon

What Parts of a Modern Dental Marketing Plan Have Proven to Be Successful With Other Dental Practices?

Dentists and owners of dental practices need to embrace dental marketing in today’s highly competitive environment. Dental marketing has evolved quite a bit over the last few decades. A practice can no longer put a sign of a giant tooth in front of their facility and assume that is more than enough for a community to know a dentist is available. Also, there are often more than a couple of dental health solutions in an area. To acquire patients from the target audience in an area, a dental practice must have a solid dental marketing plan. The experts at PatientGain.com can help, and we have spent years assisting other dentists in fine-tuning their marketing plans to grow and reach their goals.

What parts of a modern dental marketing plan have proven to be successful with other dental practices?

Much like marketing for other areas of the health industry, modern dental marketing generally relies on digital and online marketing strategies. Successful dental marketing plans will invest in various areas of online marketing to reach current and new patients. Digital marketing is constantly changing, but some areas have remained constant over the years. A well-rounded dental marketing plan will include both digital and traditional marketing tactics to succeed.

What are some areas and tactics of online advertising that a dental marketing plan will use?

Online and digital marketing for dental practices generally include:

Websites (Dental SEO, PPC Dental Advertsing, Dental Local SEO, Dental Re-Targeting Ads)
Social Media (Facebook, Instagram Advertsing)
Content Marketing (Content includes, text, images, videos, posts, blogs, informational pages, service pages)
Video Marketing
Medical Engagement Chatbots

What are some examples of video marketing for dental practices?

Dental provider bio videos – Introducing a provider in a video
Product videos – Explaining how a certain product works, like Invisalign
Service videos – How an implant is performed
Testimonial videos – Happy patient videos
Educational videos – Providing useful information to dental patients like how to take care of your dentures
How to videos – Explaining how to use the sleep apnea appliance at night
Company culture videos – Showing off values of your dental practice – giving back to community
Infomercial videos – It is a really a sales video

How important is a website to a dental marketing plan and what tactics to get more people to view it?

A website is a keystone to any dental marketing plan. It will be a marketing property that practically every current and potential patient will explore when making oral health decisions. A website will be the final destination for almost all marketing campaigns and will be the place to showcase a practice’s services and share information. It needs to be easy to navigate, well written, and be structured for good organic rankings using SEO tactics.

SEO, search engine optimization, is the process of helping a search engine understand the content and nature of a website. It involves inserting the keywords people use when searching for dental health services throughout a website’s content. If these keywords can match a person’s words and phrases when searching for dentists, that website will likely begin to rank higher in future searches.

A website also impacts local SEO. Many searches, when looking for businesses, will consider the location of a searcher. For example, if someone searches for “Best Ice Cream Shop” in rural Kansas, a search engine will not display the highest rating ice cream shops in New York City. The same concepts applies to dental practices. A website should have information regarding where it is located. Generally, this includes the address, but a page dedicated to directions that include landmarks, names of streets, and how to reach it from different directions will help boost local SEO. This will make a practice rank higher in search results and give it a better chance to appear in the top three map results, which are very advantageous positions for any business.

How can a dental practice use social media for its dental marketing?

Social media continues to prove to be a great way to stay connected with current patients and potential patients. For a social media page to be successful, it must be maintained, and new content must regularly be posted on it. Social media allows dental practices to engage with patients and answer their questions, assuming they do not violate any HIPAA standards. Often the quickest way to reach people with announcements, such as new services or closures due to inclement weather, is by posting an update on a social media channel. Social media channels also have advertising platforms that allow a dental practice to create highly targeted campaigns to reach the most valuable audience in the community.

Social media can also do a great job at showing a dental practice’s personality and introducing the community to the people who will be taking care of them. Posts should include pictures and videos of doctors and staff introducing themselves and giving oral health advice. If a dental practice holds a regular contest or giveaway, a social media channel is generally the place where it is hosted.

There are many social media channels available for a dental practice to join. There are so many that it can become cumbersome, if not impossible to manage. With that in mind, there are only a few social media channels that a dental practice will find helpful when marketing its business. Generally, joining Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram should be the social media components of a dental marketing plan. Posts on these channels should reach the vast majority of a target audience.

How can content marketing help a dental practice’s dental marketing plan reach more patients?

Search engines eat up authoritative, unique, engaging, well-written content. Search engines will well receive a dental practice that has this content on its page. The content on a website needs to be informative and help a visitor understand the kind of services available at a dental practice. In most cases, the more content a website has, the more important it will look to a search engine. For example, a search engine will put more weight on 800 words of unique content talking about root canals than 150 words on another website where root canals are lumped in with other dental practices.

Effective content marketing also has content on a site that is continually updated. A dental practice’s website should constantly update, refine, expand, or add content to its site throughout the year. Make a list of every page on a dental website and make an effort to review a page once a year for updates. When making an update, do not publish all updates at once. When updates are published throughout the year, this shows a search engine that a site is continually updating and kept up to date as best as possible. Consider starting a monthly blog if there is no new content that can be added to a site.

Why should a dental practice claim its Google My Business listing?

A Google My Business Listing (GMB) is vital for a practice to be listed on Google Maps. Google maps is the preferred mapping app for many people and feeds business listings into many other websites. Without GMB, patients may have trouble finding how to reach your location. Many times, if a dental practice does not create a listing, one will be made and left unclaimed for it. This listing may have incorrect information that can only serve to hurt a dental practice’s local SEO.

Google My Business Listings require verification so a business can prove it is the legitimate owner of a listing. Verification generally comes in the form of a phone call or a postcard. Once a verification code is entered, the listing can be fully claimed. From there, a dental practice should ensure that all of their contact information is accurate. The address, phone number, website URL, name of the dental practice, hours of operation should match the information that is on the website. Finally, claiming a GMB listing allows a dental practice to manage its reviews, which plays a significant role in local SEO and reputation management.

How can a dental practice use videos in its dental marketing?

With today’s smartphones, it is effortless to make a video and post it online. However, making quality videos that are engaging and informative is time-consuming and expensive. A quality video needs to have a high-quality picture, audio, and good lighting, or it will look highly amateurish. However, videos to market dental practices and other health care businesses will continue to grow in popularity. Studies say that many internet users spend at least 33% of their time online viewing videos. There is a decent chance the following site you visit after reading about dental marketing will be a site with a video.

For dental practices, videos can be used in several ways. A popular use of videos is to create individual “meet the staff” videos where the doctors and other staff members can introduce themselves. This is an excellent way for the community to meet them and learn about their providers before an appointment. Other videos could educate an audience about various dental conditions and ways people can take care of their teeth at home. These videos are great to share across social media channels and will often be shared by others. (And should be shared by employees.) Finally, when placing these videos on a website, host them on third-party video sites and do not have them directly load onto a dental practice’s website. This can drive down the load speed for a website and negatively impact its SEO.

How can using an interactive medical engagement chatbot be helpful for a dental practice?

Despite its best efforts, a dental practice will likely receive questions from patients and potential patients about their services, even though a website will have their answers. These questions will fill up a practice’s voice mail and email inbox. To take some of this time-consuming work off the hands of staff to concentrate on more complicated issues, consider using a medical engagement chatbot. It can help website visitors find the information they are looking for, answer frequent questions, or accomplish everyday tasks.

A chatbot is a program that is embedded into a website and is programmed by a dental practice. A dental practice will determine what questions and tasks a chatbot can assist with patients. The front desk can gather a relatively comprehensive list of questions, tasks, and requested information. Programing these into the chatbot will cut down on some, but not all, of the calls and messages they receive throughout the day. The best part about a chatbot is that it is available 24 hours a day, every day of the week. So if someone had a common question about a dental practice at 1 am on Christmas Eve, a chatbot is there to help. For any questions it can not answer will take the person’s contact information and store it on a HIPAA compliant dashboard for staff to handle later.

Are there any traditional or offline marketing methods that dental practices can use as part of their dental marketing plan that are still effective today?

While digital marketing has taken the lead in advertising for a dental practice, traditional marketing can still be very effective. Direct mail marketing remains effective at reaching a community and can also be cost-effective, essential for any owner. Unlike other traditional marketing methods, like radio or TV advertising, direct mail marketing has a degree of targeting. Using the United States Post Office tools, a dental practice can target specific neighborhoods or mail routes with their marketing materials. Prepared, sorted, and items ready to go into the postal system can also get discounted postage, depending on the volume being mailed.

Effective direct mail marketing needs to catch the attention of the household. Ideally, unlike a Google Ad that appears once and then goes away, this marketing piece will be put on a corkboard or fridge for future reference. If it ends up there, it is more or less advertising inside the household every day! Fortunately, with reduced mail volume, there is less to compete within a mailbox than there has in the past. However, to stick out amongst other mail pieces, a practice should play with size, color, and even the texture of the paper. This will increase the chance the marketing piece is kept and not tossed into a recycling bin.

Another traditional marketing method that a dental practice should consider is speaking in the community. Opportunities to speak at business organizations, health fairs, and another gathering allows a practice to showcase their expertise. This method of dental marketing also provides opportunities to network with other colleagues and business leaders in the community.

The experts at PatientGain.com can assist a dental practice with its dental marketing plan. We have helped many across the country increase their patient counts and grow. Let our team work with you help you achieve your goals!