Marketing your dental practice isn’t easy. Not only do you need to attract the right kind of patient, but you need to make sure they continue to return to your practice and refer their friends!
Perception Agency Founder, dental practice owner and consultant, Kaine Harling, believes the speed of change within the industry is one of the reasons practices are struggling with their marketing. With the rapid rise of digital technology, most traditional marketing methods are far less effective than they used to be.
As Kaine told us, “Dentistry has changed dramatically over the last 10 years… to engage with patients you really need to have a much different approach.”
The truth is, marketing is evolving, and the rapid changes in online marketing make it almost impossible to keep up.
As leading Dental marketing author, Carolyn Dean, states in her book, Fully Booked, “Dental marketing is not just about ads, email campaigns, or having a social media presence. It is about building and maintaining relationships with your patients”.
And, while there is no silver bullet solution to your marketing woes, there are some things you can do to put your practice in the best position for success.
With that in mind, here are 5 high impact marketing channels you can look at to elevate your practice marketing.
According to recent figures, 15 million Australians actively use Facebook. With this many people using Facebook, it’s no wonder that people expect businesses to have a Facebook profile. This includes practices, too.
Setting up a Facebook business profile is easy, and you can begin customising it straight away. You can include opening hours, staff availability, contact details, and location, providing your patients with quick, easy information on how to find and access your practice.
You can also write posts, share images or articles, and interact with your patients in a way that a website doesn’t allow. You can pay to post ads for your practice, which you can optimise to reach a wide variety of local users. Think of it as an interactive business directory.
Check out our Simple Guide to Facebook Ads Manager for tips and tricks.
With 3.8 million searches per minute and 5.6 billion searches per day, Google has become a significant part of our lives. Today, we don’t just go online, we live online. And, while there are a number of paid marketing options available via search engine marketing (SEM) such as Google Ads, not all come with a cost.
Google My Business is a free, easy-to-use tool for practices to help you manage your online presence across Google. This includes Google Maps, which these days is crucial in being found online.
By uploading, verifying, and editing your business information, patients will have an easier job finding your practice online, wherever they are. They’ll be able to see your address, business hours, and phone number, and have all the necessary links to connect directly with your practice.
To see what your current listing looks like, simply head to Google and type the name of your practice into the search bar. On a desktop computer, your listing will appear in a box on the right hand side; on mobile it appears as a blue shaded box with call/directions/website underneath.
So naturally, it’s important that this information is correct! Using Google My Business you can ‘claim’ your listing. Google will send you a verification code to ensure that it’s genuinely your practice, which should arrive in two weeks. Once you’re verified you can confirm your details, upload them to your business listing, and start to see the boost in traffic from your organic Google presence.
HealthEngine’s Patient Connect Essentials
HealthEngine is Australia’s home for healthcare with more than 3.6 million Aussies visiting HealthEngine every month.
And it’s far from just a new patient platform with existing patients also choosing HealthEngine as their preferred booking method due to the ease and convenience of being able to find, book and manage all of their healthcare appointments in the one location.
In fact, over 91% of bookings on HealthEngine are existing patients who book with their regular practice.
Patient Connect Essentials is our $0 solution giving you the ability to connect with the millions of patients who’ve chosen HealthEngine to help them find, connect, and engage with their preferred practitioners and practices.
When your practice has Patient Connect, we’ll do what we do best, and what no other provider can do – promote and connect your practice with patients on Australia’s leading consumer healthcare platform.
National Health Services Directory
Online directories aren’t just digital versions of old printed directories, they’re comprehensive platforms enabling users to find, learn about, and contact businesses directly.
By adding, verifying, editing, and regularly updating your business information, patients will have an easier job of finding your practice online. Be sure to include links to phone numbers, email, your website, and any relevant social media accounts, to ensure you give your patients more opportunities to get in touch with you.
Launched in 2012, the National Health Services Directory (NHSD) is a national directory of health services and the practitioners who provide them.
Over 400,000 records are accessible via the NHSD and are searched an average of 1 million times each month.
Instagram is an image-based social media platform, where you upload and share images and videos. WIth more than 9 million Australian users in 2019, Instagram is a great platform for connecting with patients.
Instagram is useful in sharing images of your practice, your staff, and behind-the-scenes content that show your patients the human side of healthcare. You can interact with your connections, and utilise searchable #hashtags to make your content more visible, or to take part in current online threads.
Instagram also allows for paid advertisements.
For more proven ways to promote your practice, download our Free HealthCare Marketing & ROI Guide.
Digital marketing is an evolving creature. If you need help navigating it, talk with the team here at HealthEngine.
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