3 Dental Marketing Ideas That Will Never Fail to Attract New Patients

Dentistry is perhaps one of the most competitive healthcare industries. One might say there is a dentist every few blocks, even in small towns across the country. Nationwide, a total of 188,074 dentists were actively practicing as of May 2022, with 5435 in North Carolina.

How do you stand out in this ever-increasing competition?

Of course, dental SEO marketing can help.

When done correctly, it can help you attract new patients, retain existing ones, and make your online presence felt. However, with your competitors vying for the top spot in local search results, you will need unique dental marketing ideas to stand out.

3 Dental Marketing Ideas to Attract New Patients

1. Optimize Your Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile (previously Google My Business listing) is at the heart of dental SEO marketing. It’s the best way to attract local footfall to your dental clinic, but you will need to optimize your business profile. If you don’t have a Google Business Profile, you need to create a new one immediately.

Here are a few basics that will help you attract more patients.

• Enter complete data for your profile which means don’t leave any relevant sections empty. Your name, address, and phone number, called NAP data, are the most crucial information. It needs to be accurate.
• Make sure to add Dentists as your primary business category, this will help your profile show up in the relevant search results.
• You should also update your service areas, a.k.a. the locations you serve. If you have patients from outside the city or nearby towns, add these service areas to your profile.
• Also, add the correct hours of operation to your profile.
• And above all, always respond to customer reviews, good or bad. When searching for a local business, the majority of customers check Google My Business for reviews. And if you actively respond to the reviews, they are more likely to call you for an appointment.

In addition to this, you should also optimize your business profile with relevant keywords. Keyword optimization will help you show up in relevant search results. This is one of the easiest and most effective dental marketing ideas, just make sure to keep your profile updated.

2. Start a Blog

A well-written, informative, and keyword-optimized blog is your gateway to a strong online presence. This is one of the dental marketing ideas best suited for the long-term success of your dental practice. Blogging helps you build mutual trust with your patients and target audience. It also allows you to demonstrate your dental knowledge and skills.

Most dentists have a website. Chances are, you also need a website. So, it’s not difficult for you to maintain an on-site blog. Plus, you can start guest blogging, preferably on top-tier dental and healthcare portals. You can start small, maybe one to two posts a month. Then, gradually ramp up to once a week.

But make sure to cover only relevant topics. You can write on topics like:

• Dental awareness.
• Tips about common dental problems.
• Insights on overcoming dental anxiety.
• Explain various dental procedures.
• Talk about your achievements, community work, staff, and skills.

Remember, blogging strengthens your dental SEO marketing and establishes you as an industry expert. Use it to demonstrate your knowledge so that your patients understand how you measure up to other dentists in your area.

And if you don’t have time to blog yourself, you can always hire a dental marketing company to do it for you. They can provide you with a comprehensive dental SEO marketing strategy.

3. Optimize Your Website

On our dental marketing ideas list is optimizing your website. Your website is where your patients will first interact with you, it’s a direct reflection of your dental practice. And as first impressions matter, you will need a sophisticated, feature-rich, and user-friendly website.

That said, most dentists pay little or no attention to their websites. So, dental websites often have outdated designs, low speed, and next to no features. That’s not a very good start to building a long and successful relationship.

That’s why your website needs to be up-to-date and functional.

Here are a few features your new dentist website design must have.

• An online appointment or scheduling facility to book and reschedule appointments. The days of calling a dentist’s office to book an appointment are long gone.
• An online payment facility helps patients pay their bills without hassle. Most people prefer paying bills online using credit cards and digital wallets. Make sure your website supports these payment methods.
• Live chat support also comes in handy. If your patients have doubts or need more information, they can instantly message you.
• Finally, your website needs to feature you and the supporting staff (about us section), photos and videos of your office, and customer testimonials. It will lend authenticity to your dental practice.

Furthermore, you will also need to optimize your website for SEO. Preferably, run a thorough technical SEO audit to check your website. A dental marketing company can provide you with a detailed SEO audit and solutions.

However, some of the key areas that you need to address are:

• Speed: As page load time goes from one second to 10 seconds, the probability of a mobile site visitor bouncing increases by 123%. In other words, your website needs to load really fast.
• Security: As you may know, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) requires you to protect sensitive patient information. So, your website also needs to be secure.
• Mobile-Friendly: With mobile accounting for more than half the global web traffic, your website needs to be mobile-friendly. Your target audience should be able to access your website on their phones with ease.

In Conclusion: Dental Marketing is key to attracting new patients

Dentistry is one of the most competitive healthcare niches. You will need to gear up your marketing plan if you want to stand out from the crowd. That is where carefully designed dental marketing ideas to attract new patients can come in. When you start revamping your marketing strategy, consider these three tried-and-tested ideas.

Of course, you can rope in an experienced dental marketing agency like DentaMarketing. With videography, SEO, social media management, and web design, we can help you create a 360-degree marketing roadmap. Call us at 910-623-0319 or fill out our online contact form today.