Are you tired of wasting money on ineffective, traditional dental marketing and advertising strategies?
Yellow page ads not working like they used to?
Spending a fortune on glossy local lifestyle magazines and not getting any calls?
No longer can you send out the same old “me too” postcard that every other dentist within a 30 mile radius is mailing out and expect to get results. Times have changed and today’s consumers choose a dentist on their terms in their timing, which usually means starting with a Google search and conducting extensive online research.
So, how do you take advantage of these new rules of dental marketing?
You leverage the internet. You position yourself (websites, videos, online press releases, blog posts) so that when consumers in your area are actively searching for a new dentist – they find you. Ever heard the old saying “people hate to be sold, but they love to buy”? In today’s internet centric world, that could be paraphrased “people hate to be found, but they love to find”.
Simply having a website is no longer enough. Most websites are nothing more than static, templated online brochures. Not only are those types of websites boring to consumers, they are boring to the search engines – which results in poor rankings, few website visitors and ultimately no potential patients finding you online and calling in to schedule appointments. 
If you want your website to rank high in the search engines, it not only needs to be properly optimized, it must also stay fresh. That means, relevant content that is updated regularly. A stale website won’t do you much more good than those old, outdated brochures you have sitting in your storage closet.
How to leverage the internet to get high-value dental patients
It takes just as much time, effort and money to bring in a low value patient as it does a highly profitable patient. In other words, you can just as easily position yourself online so that consumers who are researching dental implants find you as those who are looking for free whitening.
Success today requires targeted internet dental marketing strategies like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC). You must identify your ideal patients and procedures and build your marketing campaigns around them:
For example, a focused online cosmetic dental marketing campaign may include:
- Properly optimizing your website so you rank well for your most profitable cosmetic procedures
- Placing articles (blog posts) on your website that discuss the latest in cosmetic dentistry
- Writing and distributing press releases that are tagged for various cosmetic procedures
- Creating a video describing a new or interesting procedure you perform and then distributing it on video sharing sites, placing it on your website and adding it to your Google Maps listing.
- A PPC campaign that drives consumers to a landing page describing your cosmetic services.
Or, if you wanted to get more ortho patients, you could implement a targeted orthodontic marketing strategy. Perhaps you could have a microsite (scaled down version of a standard website) created that is laser focused on orthodontics, Invisalign™, etc.
When combined with a well optimized primary website, a microsite can double your chances of getting patients from the internet by giving you an additional listing at the top of the search engines. And the profit from a single ortho case would probably cover the cost of your microsite for a year or more.
The multi-faceted online campaign and the microsite strategy could also apply to implants, veneers, dentures, sedation or any other high ticket procedure you would like to target.
How To Get Started
The best place to start is to get a detailed assessment of your current online presence, an analysis of the local competitive landscape and research which dental related phrases are being searched for online in your area. This is exactly what our Dental Website Marketing Audit provides.
Complete the form or call us (800) 506-9817 to get started.
Online Potential for Dentists
