Retaining more patients and strengthening the relationships with those you already serve are constant challenges for any dental practice. Without marketing systems in place to first understand your community’s needs and then offer them the right services, your efforts can feel more like a guessing game than a well-planned strategy.
Thankfully, dental marketing companies like Patientnews.com have the knowledge, expertise, and know-how to elevate your practice to its full potential. They’ll analyze your chosen market and gather insights and then apply them to craft engaging content for your patients, as well as improve the overall quality of your customer service. The result is increased patient retention and referrals due to a greater sense of trust in the work you do. Let’s dive into five traits to look for in an exceptional dental marketing provider:
Effective Email Marketing
Monthly emails are a great way to reduce churn and strengthen relationships with your patients. They are an opportunity to show them you’re invested in their wellbeing by:
- Sharing educational content about best oral health practices customized to their particular situations
- Staying in touch and informing patients about your suite of services, including elective services from which they may benefit
- Vouching for the high quality of your services by asking for referrals so you can spread the smiles to friends and loved ones too.
By working with a dental marketing manager to create these value-added communications, your book of business will have every reason to remain loyal to you and cement the longevity of your practice. In fact, your name will be on their minds even before they need dental attention, increasing the likelihood that you’ll be the first person they’ll call. You’ll also increase your appeal to the millennial sub-section of your community, as studies have shown that the vast majority of them prefer email when businesses reach out to them.
Website Design Mastery
A standout dental marketing firm will have expert website designers on their marketing team who will be able to capture the uniqueness of your brand identity. This entails internalizing your story and the principles behind your business and making them come alive through informative, educational content and eye-catching imagery.
They’ll also take care to make your website responsive, which means adapting it to adjust for viewing on cellphones, tablets, desktops, and any other devices that may be relevant to your chosen market.
In addition, the dental marketing firm you partner with should be able to implement a robust SEO strategy to increase your ranking on all online search engines. Given that Google alone handles over six billion searches per day, it’s an area no digital marketing strategy can afford to ignore.
Social Media Savvy
It’s hard to understate the relevance of your dental practice’s social media presence given that users on Facebook alone surpass the 2.5 billion mark. If you’re not active on the major platforms, it’s likely that you’re leaving new business on the table.
That said, a carefully considered social media campaign can quickly and positively impact your business, and a quality dental marketing company can set you up with everything you need to implement it:
- A repository of hundreds of customized posts, all about dentistry, oral health, and overall health to keep your readers coming back for more educational tidbits
- A diversity of topics so content remains interesting, such as nutrition tips, the benefits of fruits and vegetables, dental statistics, and tips on how to brush your teeth
- A variety of forms like cartoons and trivia questions to keep your page fresh and exciting.
From a broader perspective, posting on social media is also about reflecting authenticity and the high level of service your practice is dedicated to providing. Tailoring your posts to get this across to your patients can feel like a tall order, but it doesn’t have to be with the right marketing team on your side.
Customized Direct Mail
The thrill of receiving a physical letter in the mail has only grown stronger in the digital age now that fewer people send them. It’s a sure way to put a smile on someone’s face by showing them you care through a personalized message. If a dental marketing company is the best of the best, they already know this, and take advantage of it by crafting beautifully and professionally crafted (visually and editorially) patient communications.
From choosing a high-quality paper to creating articles for your specific patient base, to sending them out on a regular basis, they’ll take all the hassle out of keeping in touch with your patients. By experiencing the joy of opening a letter just for them, your patients will learn to turn to you for their dental needs, thus reducing attrition, increasing referrals and elective services, and growing your revenue through long-term loyalty.
Strategic Analysis
None of the methods we’ve discussed thus far would bear fruit without the right information about your target market. You need to have a clear idea about the community you serve before being able to offer them relevant services from which they walk away satisfied every time.
This is why your dental marketing plan should include a segment on business intelligence, one where your dental marketing company analyzes your existing patient base and offers you profiles of the patients most likely to stick with you and refer new people your way. You’ll be able to tell exactly which neighborhoods they reside in, so your marketing dollars yield as many new-patient calls as possible.
You’ll also gain access to relevant data points, including the socioeconomic makeup of surrounding neighborhoods, the patterns they follow when making dental purchases, as well as how competing practices do business. With all of this information readily at hand, you’ll be able to make objective decisions about which direction to take your practice in and how you can expect them to increase your ROI.
When you’re looking to reach as many potential patients as you can, and nourish the bonds you’ve formed with those you already have, it’s essential to partner with a dental marketing company committed to familiarizing themselves with your business to develop a strategy that fits. Do your research, stick to the tips in this article, and find the personalized attention you need to maximize your practice’s success for years to come.
