Dentistry is a field that can be very lucrative, but the world of dental care has been changing more and more of late. Have you begun to notice that most dentists’ offices started to offer additional services years ago? A common example of this is with skin care products and beauty services. For example, many dentists now offer Botox and other skin rejuvenation procedures out of their own office to get clients to come back in more routinely.
This shows one of the biggest struggles dentists have which is to make money off the patients they do have coming in the door. It may seem strange to think like that, but the dental field truly does struggle with recurring business. Patients either do not want to come in for the routine cleaning and checkup or they simply do not come in often enough which means dentists are not able to make enough off each new patient they acquire, especially if the cost per acquisition is high.
Why Dentists Have To Market
Dentists have no choice but to market their services now because there is more competition than ever, not only with other dentists in the area but because of the advancements in technology where people can take better care of their teeth from home than ever before. Of course, this may not provide the same type of quality care for oral health that you will get by going to a dentist every six months but people like the luxury and convenience of being able to take care of their own teeth and make the trips to the dentist office much more infrequent.
If you are not going to get a customer back in your doors for months and even when they do return you probably are not going to make that much money off of them, then you need to start focusing on getting new customers in, in order to help your business, thrive. Marketing is the best way to drive in new customers but the problem in the dental field is that there are so many places you can market.
Where They Can Market
The first thing you have to ask yourself is not where you should market but where people go to find the next dental office they plan on visiting? Marketing experts refer to this as the customer journey, meaning how the person decides they need to take an action like scheduling the appointment for a cleaning or another service. Once you discover the customer journey you are able to make much more cost-effective decisions with your marketing strategy and can market on a variety of platforms and with services including:
· SEO: The top spot for dental professionals in marketing will always be focused on search engine optimization. The reason is because it generates the most cost effective and reliable leads of any form of digital marketing.
· PPC: If you are completely new to digital marketing then the best way to generate immediate traffic is to utilize a pay per click strategy where your ads appear in front of people who are directly searching for the services you provide.
· GMB: There are several free options offered by Google that can help you generate affordable or even free traffic. One of the top ones is Google My Business or business listings which allow you to list your business for free on local maps.
· Flyers: A traditional and still effective marketing strategy that dental professionals will use is to send out mailers or Flyers to people in the local area offering a promotion or incentive for them to come in for a needed checkup. Sometimes this can include a discount for new patients.
Marketing has several challenges and the best thing to do is to work with an experienced team to make sure that you are getting the best possible results. Your staff is also an important part of the process as most reviews for medical professionals are about the customer service experience those patients received when they arrived at the office. Keep that in mind and make sure that your staff is treating every new patient with great respect and care.
Challenges In Dentistry Marketing
The frustrating thing you will come to realize is that no one service is going to work when it comes to marketing. You need to utilize a variety of options to get your brand out there and make sure that people are aware of your promotions and that you are available to assist them if and when they need your help. Here are some obstacles you will have to deal with as you get started:
· Competition: You should never overlook your competition, especially when it comes to advertising. You can utilize the information your competitor offers based on the campaigns and strategies they are utilizing, to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t work.
· Referral for smaller jobs: One of the main issues with marketing for dentists is that they always want to focus on the better paying jobs rather than the jobs that will get patients in the door now. No, maybe this person doesn’t need thousands of dollars of work today but because you gave them great care, they will refer you to other friends and family and be loyal to you for years.
· Can take a while to see results: Depending on the marketing strategy you are taking and your monthly budget, a quality strategy could take as many as two to five months to be effective. If you think that is ridiculous you need to remember that your competition has been spending 10s of thousands of dollars for years.
· Repeat business: Just because that patient isn’t spending thousands of dollars with you this week does not mean that they do not hold a great deal of value to you as a business. You have to incentivize and motivate your patients to continue to come in for routine checkups and to refer new business to you. The best way to do that is with elite customer care.
Marketing for a dentist’s office is not easy. Paid methods will be very expensive, and the more affordable options will take a long time to get working. If you are not sure where to begin, consider checking on your own web presence to see how many sites you rank on, how easy it is to find your practice and more. This will give you an idea on how you rank against the competition and if someone looking online for a dentist would even be introduced to your practice.