Learn how to more online leads for dentists with digital marketing strategies and tactics to grow your practice.
Like most businesses, dental practices used to rely on traditional marketing methods to get new patients. These methods included word-of-mouth referrals, yellow pages, direct mail marketing, and billboards.
However, as technology has progressed, so has the way that people find your dental practice. Nowadays, people are more likely to find a new dentist through an online search or by reading reviews from other patients. As a result, it’s important for dental practices to have a digital marketing presence in order to attract new patients.
The millennial generation is getting to a point in their lives where they’re going out to find their own dentists, doctors, and insurance providers. They are no longer reacting to traditional marketing methods, instead, they are searching for companies that have high positive reviews and stay connected with their customers online. Therefore, having online marketing for dentists and a digital marketing strategy in place is critical in attracting new dental patients.
Paid digital advertising is separated into three distinct pay-per-click (PPC) groups: paid search (Google Ads and Bing Sponsored Ads), display, and paid social (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok Ads).
PPC advertising is a type of internet marketing that allows people to display ads for their products or services to potential clients that search for relevant topics. As the name pay-per-click suggests, it means that dentists and other advertisers are only charged when someone clicks on their ad. PPC is a great opportunity for dentists to get their practice out there and in front of potential clients who may not know about their practice.
Paid Search Advertising
Paid Search ads are ads that are shown in the top and bottom of the search engine results on platforms like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Your ads are shown to individuals when they search using keywords related to your ad.
When you’re creating your ad keywords, it’s important to keep in mind that potential customers will not only search for generic terms like “dental care” or “dental services.” They will also search for specific services, like “teeth cleaning services near me” or “cavity fillings in [location].”
By including both kinds of keywords in your ads, you can reach a broader range of potential customers. These are known as long-tailed keywords, which are three and four keywords that make up a phrase that is related to your industry even if not directly mentioning it.
They often have a lower search volume but the individuals that are searching these terms have a better chance of converting to customers because of the precise targeting.
When creating an ad for your dental office, focus on the benefits that your office can provide for the customer. By doing so, you will be more likely to appeal to potential patients. Some benefits that you may want to highlight include low wait times, experienced and qualified staff, and a wide range of dental services.
Your ad should create a strong, clear, and concise call-to-action (CTA) for the potential customer. Ultimately, your ad copy should mirror the potential customer’s end goal
Dentists should also take advantage of using extensions on their ads. Extensions are additional snippets of relevant information that extend your ad and provide greater visibility and prominence on the search results page which can increase your click-through rate and improve quality score.
For example, as seen in the image above, the text within the red blocks are extensions. The first red block is outlining sitelink extensions. These are links listed directly below your ad copy that will link individuals to additional pages of your website.
These links can help increase conversion rates by providing users with relevant links to additional landing pages. This can include contact information, an about page, our services, or the option to schedule an appointment.
The highlighted text beneath these is known as structured snippet extensions. They highlight specific services or products that dentists may offer. For example, root canal treatments, teeth whitening, dental implants, or invisible braces.
Search Engine Optimization
If dentists want their customers to find their practices online, search engine optimization is critical. It is important to note that seeing results from a proper dental SEO strategy requires commitment and patience.
One of the most important aspects of your local seo strategy is keywords. Choosing the right keywords will allow Google to understand what your website is about and rank you in their search results for those related terms.
There are several available tools that will assist dentists in finding the most suitable keywords for their website; Google’s Keyword Planner, Moz Keyword Explorer, and UberSuggest.
If your dental practice operates within a specific area, focus on geo-location keywords like “St. John’s Dental Office” or “Dentist in St. John’s.”
It is also important to note that once you have chosen your keywords, dentists must place them in the right sections. These include the title of the specific page, in the URL, in the meta tags, & descriptions, and within the alt text of an image.
Social Media Marketing
Paid social ads are ads that appear on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Each one of these platforms provides precise targeting capability that gives dentists complete control over who will see their ad. Besides the general user demographics such as age, gender, and location. There are other targeting options (that may be less relevant to dentists) such as interests, behaviours, relationship status, income, and much more.
Paid social ads allow dentists to give their practice a voice and build new relationships with their target audience. It allows dentists to reach out to potential customers and provide them with up-to-date, relevant information regarding your practice.
This can include unique services or procedures that your practice may offer, your track record and industry experience, customer reviews, client experiences, and even introducing your team and the office culture.
Creating trust and increasing brand awareness is important for any business, but especially for dental practices. By connecting with your patients and providing quality care, you increase the likelihood that they will think of your dental practice when they need dental services.
When you take the time to connect with your patients, you are increasing the likelihood that they will remember your dental practice when they need dental services. Providing quality care is essential to maintaining a good relationship with your patients.
Having a proper dental marketing strategy in place can increase the number of patients and overall bookings at your dental practice. Instead of spending money on outdated and inefficient traditional marketing practices, get ahead of your competition by starting a digital media strategy. By getting your content marketing running today, you will be able to reach a larger audience and create a more efficient and effective marketing campaign.
At Newfound Marketing, we understand that dental digital marketing can be difficult to navigate. That’s why we offer comprehensive consulting services and tailor our inbound marketing, email marketing, web design, website optimization, Web marketing, and SEM strategies to each individual client. We want to help your business succeed and will work with you to create a digital marketing strategy that suits your specific needs.
Looking for ideas on how to generate online leads for your dental business? Schedule a Discovery Call with Sheldon today to get started. We’ll help you create a campaign that gets results and gives you a great return on investment.
