Five Tips to Get More Out of Your Dental Marketing

Lightwave Dental – Marketing Strategies Series: Part 1

Maintaining an ongoing commitment to the latest dental practice marketing strategies will help drive growth by positioning your practice to achieve an ongoing flow of new patients. This is the first article in a series on dental marketing strategies. Today, we focus on the essentials of digital marketing, an area that many dentist practice owners and managers find exhausting.

Digital marketing trends and consumer behavior can change with the seasons. Meanwhile, Google algorithms can shift just as fast. As a leading management services partner for dentists, Lightwave Dental has established an alliance of dental practice owners who have experienced your pain. The team at Lightwave helps these dentists sift through dental marketing service trends to better reach the goals that matter.

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To help your practice grow into 2024 and beyond, here are five tips on digital marketing presence to get more out of your dental marketing.

1. Actively Manage Your Digital Presence & Google Business Profile

Your Digital Presence begins with your Google Business Profile, which is not only free but also enables your practice to appear on maps, in searches, and in reviews. Listings should include office hours, engaging photos, and a hint of your practice brand.

Make sure your first impression is a good one. Your profile dashboard is the starting point to learn how prospect patients find you. Discover the keywords people use to search and get advanced insights. Also remember that studies show more than 90% of local business engagement starts on Google. Take the time to respond to reviews and patient comments, because that simple way to make a first impression really matters.

2. Prioritize Communications To Get More 5-Star Reviews

Another key element of your practice’s digital presence requires a commitment to ongoing patient and prospect Communications. Positive online reviews are a vital aspect of how prospect patients make their decisions. Research shows that nearly everyone reads online reviews, and 96 percent specifically look for negative reviews.

Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Bing weigh search results based on review ratings, so it is to your advantage to commit to being an engaged problem-solver with your online reviews so that your digital reputation aligns with your real-world reputation.

Make it a point to communicate with your satisfied patients on an ongoing basis. This means you’ll want to develop a process to ask them to share positive reviews. Encourage those who compliment your staff to post their positive thoughts online. Note that prior to responding to online reviews, make sure your team is aware of HIPPA and other federal and state privacy laws.

3. Gain Visibility With Advertising & Search Engine Optimization

To use old newspaper terminology, any search results “above the fold” is actually Advertising. Yes, the most valuable communications real estate on your prospect’s screen is filled with advertisements prior to the search results. Pay-per-click advertising offers the opportunity to target locals who are specifically searching for a dentist.

Build awareness for your practice, gain more visibility, and promote new patient specials by selecting the most appropriate search terms and creating an engaging advertisement. Link the ad to your digital presence as well as your website’s landing page to capture leads and track success.

4. Analyze Your Advertisements By Tracking Lead Attribution

Measure where your Advertising leads come from with Google Analytics 4, which collects website visitor behavior as event-based data. This helps you to better understand your prospects and their journey with your website.

From building awareness with prospects to acquisition of new patients and understanding their behavior, the first steps of analytics include understanding how they engage with your practice online. Your grasp of this data will help drive digital marketing campaigns for your practice, and ultimately convert more prospects into patients.

5. Communicate An Authentic Brand At All Times

Your website is a powerful marketing resource designed to attract and retain patients. The challenge is integrating your practice’s unique Brand identity into everyday communications to help distinguish your dental office.

Keeping your website content current, and authentic, must be an ongoing commitment to distinguish your dental practice. A website design has a limited shelf life, because user behavior can change quickly. Beyond simply aesthetics, your practice website should load quickly, be easy to navigate, and be ready to convert leads.

If your site hasn’t changed much in recent years, it likely isn’t performing at the highest levels. Visitors must be able to find what they’re looking for in moments. It may be time to consider a website update to improve the user experience and attract new patients.

Google’s algorithms love websites that specifically demonstrate expertise on an ongoing basis and will list those businesses that are trustworthy. Therefore, dental practices should consistently post relevant thought leadership around topics that matter to their patients’ experiences with the world of dentistry.

Be active and link back to social media, stay engaged in local community affairs. Building your digital presence within your community conveys a sense of authority and trustworthiness.

Are you interested in talking about how your practice can benefit from additional marketing strategies?

Contact Lightwave Dental

Lightwave understands the future of the dental industry is reliant upon new strategies to solve the biggest issues around business management. As the industry’s first Dental Leadership Organization, Lightwave focuses on partnering, training, and developing dentists as natural leaders.

Marketing support is a key service offered to dental practices in our footprint. Lightwave currently supports more than 200 dentists and 1,800 active employees in 86 dental offices across Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama.