If given the choice, most dentists would much rather do a smile makeover than a root canal. Number one, it is more fulfilling to see the end result of your work and the smile of a satisfied cosmetic patient. Additionally, generally speaking it is more profitable.

So, how do you get more cosmetic patients? There are three primary methods:

1. Internal Marketing – suggesting cosmetic procedures to your current patients, new patients that come in for other services such as a cleanings.
2. Offline Cosmetic Marketing (direct mail, radio, TV, print ads) campaigns that promote your cosmetic procedures.
3. Online Cosmetic Marketing – positioning yourself so that when prospective cosmetic patients are actively searching on the internet for cosmetic procedures you are the one they find.

Online Cosmetic Dental Marketing Strategies

If you haven’t purposefully optimized your online presence for cosmetic procedures it is highly unlikely that you are going to rank high in the search engines for them. There is simply too much competition out there – too many dentists have embraced the concept of marketing on the internet for cosmetic dentistry.

For example, you determined you would like to rank high for porcelain veneers in your town. There are several strategies you could implement to rank high in the search engines for that phrase. Here are just a few ideas:

1. Optimize your existing website for porcelain veneers (proper page titles and descriptions, proper linking within your website, building links from other websites to yours with porcelain veneers as the link titles, the right amount of content on your website pertaining to porcelain veneers, etc.)
2. You could build a separate website (called a microsite) that is 100% focused on porcelain veneers. This way that phrase isn’t competing with others on the website, the only thing that website is about is porcelain veneers.
3. You could write (or have someone write) blog posts about porcelain veneers
4. Write and submit press releases about them
5. Add them as one of the services attached to your Google Maps listing
6. And so on