Are you a dentist with a new dental clinic, looking to attract quality leads in 2024? Have you recently opened your dental practice and are struggling with low traffic?
Stats suggest that over 37% of dental clinic businesses find it tough to find the right traffic and leads.
Despite offering exceptional services, do you find it challenging to gain the right market share?
Then you must know why digital marketing for dentists is essential.
In today’s digital age, implementing an effective digital marketing campaign is crucial to staying competitive in the dental industry.
If you’re not already utilizing digital marketing strategies, now is the perfect time to start.
These strategies can help you attract new patients, improve patient retention, and expand your dental practice.
Why is Digital Marketing for Dentists Important?
You may be wondering why digital marketing is so crucial, especially if you already employ traditional marketing tactics.
However, digital marketing is the marketing strategy of the present and the future. If your dental practice isn’t using dental marketing strategies, you’re likely falling behind other practices in your area.
Studies show that at least 70% of consumers prefer to learn about products through digital content rather than traditional ad methods.
Additionally, traditional marketing leads to about 50% fewer interactions with patients than digital marketing.
Digital marketing for dentists is undoubtedly a more cost-effective and successful marketing strategy than traditional marketing.
While both techniques have their advantages, focusing on digital marketing can help you retain patients and promote ongoing growth and success for your dental practice.
But, before that you must also understand the importance of dental brand building.
Dentistry is a service sector driven by needs; patients will seek you out only when they are fully informed about your clinic, services, experience, and expertise.
Build Your Dental Brand
Initially, concentrate on dental brand awareness, trust building, brand credibility, and showcasing your expertise through digital marketing.
Building a dental brand is a gradual process, but with digital marketing for dentists, you can see results in less time.
Dental marketing agencies work strategically by analyzing market trends to help your business grow and gain the trust of potential customers.
For example, if someone is looking for dental services online, like “dental implant near me” or “the best teeth whitening service near me” and your clinic appears in the search results, the user is likely to consider your clinic the best in the area and make an inquiry.
However, before patients can find you, you need to convince Google that your clinic is the best in your area.
This requires having a highly functional and informative website, strong local SEO, well-optimized social media channels, and effective content marketing.
8 Best Digital Marketing Strategies for Dentists
The best digital marketing strategies for dentists include:
- Local SEO
- Traditional SEO
- Google Search Ads
- Local Search Ads
- Content Marketing
- Email Marketing
- UX Improvements
- Reputation Management
Lets learn about the strategies information on each one by one.
1 . Local SEO for Dentists
In dentist digital marketing, an essential aspect of SEO is the “map pack” results visible in Google’s search results.
These results are a form of local SEO that appears when users search for businesses in a specific geographical area.
Often, these results are triggered by keywords containing location information (city/town/neighborhood) or when users use terms like “near me.”
However, Google doesn’t only show local results in these instances. Even broader keyword searches can trigger local results.
For instance, a search for “dentist” may display dental practices in the immediate area.
This concept is powerful for dental businesses. It means that your company could appear for broad keywords like “dentist” or “cosmetic dentist” in your local area.
To increase the likelihood of your business appearing in these results, it’s crucial to implement local SEO best practices.
One of the most effective local SEO strategies for dentists is to claim and optimize the Google Business profile.
Google Business Profile (GBP) Optimization
Your Google Business profile is paramount for your dental local SEO strategy. Without one, your business won’t qualify to appear in the map pack results.
To begin, you should claim your Google Business Profile by following these steps:
1. Search for your practice name on Google or Google Maps.
2. If you find your business profile, select it, and choose “Own this business”. (Sometimes it shows Claim this business)
Once you’ve claimed your business, ensure that you’ve correctly set your business categories.
Failure to set your categories can render you ineligible to appear in local results for keywords related to those categories. Fill out this section as comprehensively as possible.
(Note: If you didn’t find any business profile with your dental practice or clinic name, then you can simply create a new Google Business Profile and fill in all the necessary information.) – Don’t know how to create a Google Business Profile, Click Here.
Here, you can see the categories set for an orthodontist business that also offers dental implants.
While the categories you select will be unique to your business, here are some popular options to consider:
- Dentist
- Cosmetic dentist
- Pediatric dentist
- Dental implants provider
- Dental clinic
- Orthodontist
- Dental hygienist
- Emergency dental service
Following these steps to claim and optimize your Google Business profile will establish a strong foundation for your local SEO.
Additionally, you may need to further enhance your strategy by generating citations, reviews, and local backlinks to your website.
2. Traditional SEO for Dentists
When conducting dental digital marketing, you’ll also want to focus on improving the “traditional SEO” of your site.
Traditional SEO refers to any results in Google that aren’t part of the “map pack listings.”
These results don’t include an interactive map or business location pins but resemble the typical search results.
These results are not influenced by the information you have added in your Google Business profile or other signals like proximity to users.
Instead, they are based on traditional SEO principles such as content quality, relevant landing pages, and internal/external linking signals.
While many elements need to be considered from a traditional SEO perspective, one of the best steps your dental practice can take is to ensure you have dedicated landing pages for all the services you offer.
For example, if your practice offers dental implants, sedation dentistry, and teeth whitening, ensure you have dedicated pages for each service.
This approach ensures that your site has specific pages tailored to your practice areas. These pages will then be eligible to appear for high-intent queries such as “dental implants near me.”
Take inventory of all your core services and ensure there’s a matching landing page for each one.
3. Google Search Ads for Dentists
While SEO efforts are a valuable way to enhance your dental digital marketing in the long run, they often require time to show results.
If you’re seeking immediate returns, paid media advertising could be a beneficial strategy for your practice.
Through advertising, you’ll pay for prominent placements directly and start seeing results as soon as your campaign launches.
One of the most effective forms of advertising is Google Ads search campaigns. With search campaigns, your practice can appear at the top of the search results.
For example, you can see Google ad results for the keyword “emergency dental appointment today mumbai”
The key advantage of Google search ads is that you can select the exact keywords for which you want your ads to appear.
If you aim to attract more clients for services like “Dentures” and “Sedation,” you can create campaigns where your ads will only show up when users search for keywords related to those services.
By using search ads, you can capitalize on the popularity of Google’s ad platform to drive traffic to specific pages on your website.
This allows you to connect with potential customers at the precise moment they’re seeking your services.
4. Local Search Ads For Dentists
Another way to enhance your dentistry’s digital marketing is to advertise directly on Google Maps using Local Search Ads.
By utilizing local search ads, your ads are more integrated into the Google Maps experience.
This further encourages users to take vital actions such as making calls, requesting appointments, or getting driving directions to your office.
Local search ads can often appear at the very top of the map pack, directly above the organic listings.
They can also appear directly in the Google Maps interface as users are exploring a specific geographic area.
Optimizing your Google Business profile is crucial for local search ads.
Before starting them, ensure you have followed the steps in the “Google Business Profile Optimization” section to claim and set all relevant categories for your local business page.
5. Content Marketing For Dentists
Content marketing is a valuable dental digital marketing strategy that your practice should adopt.
The core concept of content marketing is to create informative and educational online resources.
These resources help educate users and address their problems, increasing their engagement with your brand.
Over time, content marketing can position your practice as the go-to source when these users are ready to become customers.
While content marketing can take various forms, blogging is the most popular method. Through a blog, you can address common customer issues that relate to your services.
For instance, we recently created a blog for one of our dental clients titled “How Are Acid Reflux and Teeth Erosion Connected?”
This blog now generates an average of 40,000-50,000 sessions a month from users seeking information on solving this specific problem.
The article discusses how acid from acid reflux can cause tooth erosion and provides several helpful prevention tips and treatments.
As a result, it ranks well in search results for terms such as “dental erosion treatment” or “tooth erosion prevention tips”.
Ideally, you should identify the types of problems your potential customers face and create content that helps solve these problems.
This content can be showcased to prospective customers, improve your search engine rankings, or be integrated into your other marketing efforts.
6. Email Marketing For Dentists
Building an email list can be a highly effective digital marketing for dentists for almost any business. Email marketing offers several advantages that other digital marketing channels may lack.
Emails provide direct access to your core customers, and your messages are less likely to get lost in crowded feeds.
Moreover, emails are independent of algorithms, ensuring your visibility isn’t affected by changes made by major tech companies.
Furthermore, email marketing for dentists can help you connect with new patients and maintain relationships with existing ones.
How you use email marketing will depend on your specific marketing goals. Here are some campaigns you might consider:
- Dental health best practices and tips
- Appointment confirmations and reminders
- Company news
- New service and product announcements
- Internal promotions
- New patient email sequences
For further guidance, Mailchimp has developed a comprehensive guide on email marketing best practices for dentists.
7. Website User Experience
Enhancing the overall user experience (UX) of your website is a crucial digital marketing strategy for dental practices.
This approach is highly scalable, as UX improvements can significantly enhance the performance of all your digital channels, including traffic from search engines, advertising platforms, email marketing, and more.
Here are some key areas to consider for UX improvement:
- Calls to action (CTAs): Ensure that CTAs like “Schedule Appointment” are easily accessible and prominently displayed in the design.
- Mobile UX: Ensure that users can navigate your site and find essential information easily on mobile devices.
- Website navigation: Make sure users can find key information such as insurance details, services offered, photos, and payment options.
- Site performance: Improve site speed for better conversions from digital channels.
- Site imagery: Use compelling images that clearly convey your content’s value proposition on key pages.
- Trust signals: Highlight trust signals such as industry certifications, credentials, and affiliations with reputable organizations.
- Competitive reviews: Compare your UX with that of key competitors in the same market or different geographies.
Enhancing the overall UX can significantly improve the quality of each user session, thereby enhancing the efficiency and performance of all digital channels driving traffic to your site.
If you believe that significant changes are needed, you may consider options for a complete site redesign.
8. Reputation Management For Dentists
As potential patients get closer to choosing your dentistry, they are likely to conduct more online research about your brand.
They’ll seek information about others’ experiences with your office, including staff interactions, the environment, professionalism, wait times, and more.
Typically, users will perform searches related to your company or individual practitioners to gather this information.
This stage in the conversion path is crucial and can significantly impact whether a user becomes a long-term patient.
It’s important to ensure that you have a strong online reputation, with users encountering mostly positive information about your business.
For instance, a user might have positive interactions with your website through paid advertising and organic results.
However, if they come across negative information about your business during further research, it could deter them from converting.
To assess your dentistry’s online reputation, conduct the following searches on Google:
- Company name
- Dentist names
- Company + reviews
If you find any negative results in these searches, take immediate steps to improve your reputation.
For example, if you see Yelp pages or practo with ratings lower than 4 stars, work on improving your Yelp and practo reviews.
If there are negative stories or press about your company, consider options to suppress these negative search results.
It’s also important to check your reviews on individual review platforms to ensure that users find positive sentiments about your brand.
Some popular platforms for dentists include:
- Lybrate
- Justdial
- Practo
- Yelp
- US News
- Healthgrades
- Sharecare
Don’t underestimate the importance of reputation management in your dental digital marketing strategy.
Ensure that all your hard work isn’t overshadowed by reputation issues that users might discover in search results.
Thus these are the top digital marketing strategies for dentists that can help in dental lead generation.
6 Dental Marketing Mistakes that Dentists Generally Do
In this digital and competitive era, where all necessary information is available on the internet, some may think that by conducting research, they can handle digital marketing for their business.
However, digital marketing doesn’t work that way. Here are some common mistakes dentists make.
1. Thinking They Can Make a Website for Their Dental Clinic
While a website is essential for any business, creating one with basic research is a misconception.
Although many tools and materials are available online, designing a marketing-ready website that generates business requires expertise.
You need a well-experienced digital marketing agency for this task. An agency can create a high-quality functional website that can generate more quality leads and conversions.
A graphic-rich, informative, user-engaging, user-friendly, and eye-catching website is crucial.
2. Not Understanding the Importance of Local SEO
Would you visit a clinic you’ve never heard of before? Probably not.
Local SEO is a powerful tool for attracting business from your local area.
However, many people are unaware of its importance. With a structured local SEO strategy, you can rank your website and Google My Business (GMB) listing in top search results.
Local SEO involves many technical and non-technical aspects that an experienced digital marketer can handle:
- Optimizing GMB (Google My Business)
- Strategically adding targeted keywords to your website
- Optimizing meta titles and descriptions
- On-page, off-page, and technical SEO
- Optimizing social media channels
Ignoring SEO and local SEO is a critical mistake. Digital marketing agencies conduct deep market analysis to prepare SEO plans that can benefit your business.
3. Not Using Social Media Channels Properly
Posting on social media is just one part of social media marketing. Using social media channels properly requires experience and expertise.
Expecting medical professionals to handle all aspects of social media marketing is unrealistic.
Hiring a professional healthcare marketing company who can craft a social media marketing strategy is crucial.
Using social media channels properly includes:
- Identifying the type of content their target audience likes
- Choosing the right content formats
- Creating a strategy to increase social media engagement and conversions
- Optimizing social media channels
- Including keywords in bios
- Adding services to business pages
- Including keywords in post content, etc.
4. Misconceptions About Google Ads and Social Media Ads
Some believe that running ads is as simple as adding a budget to Google or social media channels, and leads will start flowing automatically.
However, to start an ad campaign, you need to create a plan, define your audience, set a budget, and monitor your campaign closely.
As a medical professional, focusing on your work is essential. Seeking help from digital marketing professionals can ensure a good return on your budget.
Here are some benefits of approaching an agency:
- They will create a plan
- Decide which services to promote based on current trends
- Add relevant keywords
- Define targeted audience
- Optimize your budget
- Optimize campaigns based on daily results
5. Ignoring Digital Marketing for Dentists Strategy
Among all the tools and tactics, one thing is crucial: “STRATEGY.” Ignoring strategy is a significant oversight.
No matter how much research you’ve done about digital marketing, ignoring strategy can render your efforts useless.
This is where an experienced digital marketing agency comes in. Strategy creation and implementation require:
- Years of experience
- Understanding of market trends
- Continuous development of new ideas
- A deep understanding of the project
6. They Think They Don’t Need Dental Marketing Services
Dental patients are meticulous about choosing a dentist, especially when it’s not an emergency.
They take their time to research and seek referrals from family and friends. They also use the internet to search for the best dentist in their area.
Without an effective digital marketing strategy, high Google search engine ranking, an impressive social media presence, and a lead-catching website, attracting new patients becomes challenging.
As a dentist, you focus on treating your patients with care, but without new patients, your business may suffer.
“If your digital marketing strategy isn’t effective and you lack a high Google search engine ranking, an impressive social media presence, and a lead-catching website, your chances of capturing user attention are minimal.“
This makes it challenging to attract new patients and achieve your target.
As an expert dentist, you dedicate your time to providing the best care for your patients.
However, what do you do when you don’t have new patients to treat?
This can be frustrating, especially when it comes to marketing your dental business. With digital marketing becoming increasingly crucial, the process can seem more complex than ever.
So, how can you attract new patients to your practice?
Entrusting your dental marketing needs to an expert service provider is the smartest decision you can make.
5 Benefits of Digital Marketing for Dentists
Digital marketing plays a crucial role in the success of dental clinics online.
Dentists can capitalize on the expertise, knowledge, and experience of digital marketers to grow their business and attract more patients.
Here are some key benefits of digital marketing for dental clinics:
1. Cost-Effectiveness
With the right online marketing services for dentists, you can access digital marketing for dental clinics at a budget-friendly price.
These services are tailored to your needs, fitting perfectly into your financial planning.
2. Result-Oriented
Professional digital marketers understand your business’s pain points and can address them to achieve the ultimate goal of attracting more patients.
Customized dental marketing services deliver distinct results based on your business’s unique needs.
3. Measurable Results
Digital marketing allows for easy measurement of results, from social media responses to website visitors and clicks on Google SERPs.
This provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts.
4. Stay Ahead from Competitors
Expert digital marketers analyze your competitors’ dental marketing strategies to help you define your own success strategy.
This allows you to stay ahead in the competitive dental market.
5. Targeted Audience Reach
One of the most significant advantages of digital marketing is its ability to identify and target specific audiences.
This ensures that your message reaches the right audience, leading to better response rates.
Conclusion
In today’s competitive world, attracting more patients to your dental practice is hard with traditional ways.
Also, patients start their search for a dental practice through online.
Therefore, if you want to get more patients to your dental practice, you must leverage online channels. For that, effective digital marketing for dentists is the best way.
Since you know the dental marketing strategies, mistakes that dentists make, and the benefits of digital marketing for dentist, it’s time to implement it to your practice.
However, if you need a professional dental marketing agency guidance, you can contact us today.
