In today’s crowded and ever-growing dental marketplace, your practice needs to keep the patients you already have, attract new patients and differentiate your practice from the competition. But teams often struggle to properly market because they do not take advantage of running multiple marketing activities to reach more prospective patients — something most offices and teams either do not know how or have time to do.
An effective marketing plan uses automated engagement systems that simplify the marketing process so you can better communicate with your patients and effectively promote your practice. These tools can help maximize your marketing dollars and increase your return on investment by keeping your schedule full and bringing new patients to your practice.
If you’re not getting the results you need from your current marketing efforts, or if you’re not doing any marketing at all, follow these three steps.
Step 1: Use a Modern Website
Webpages and technology have changed dramatically over the past 10 years, and you need a modern website with web 2.0 functionality to compete. Practice websites that use modern, dynamic features make you stand out to prospective patients. Today’s essential website elements include:
- Content optimized for search engine optimization (SEO) that can help you effectively communicate your services and expertise to prospective patients.
- Responsive design for seamless functionality on all platforms (desktop, tablet, mobile).
- Dental practice branding that enables better name recognition for your practice.
- Secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate that enables secure communications between your website and your patient’s internet browser.
- Chat functionality that allows your web visitors to quickly engage with you, ensuring they get the information they need.
Step 2: Deploy Advanced Technology to Engage with Patients
Your patients have busy, complicated lives. It can be easy to forget a dental appointment or a treatment recommendation. That’s why good communication with your patients is essential to keep your chairs full and your practice running at maximum profitability. Engagement solutions help improve patient communication and persuade patients to act while also saving your front office time. Your engagement strategy should include:
- Automated appointment reminders that communicate via your patient’s preferred method — email, text or phone.
- Smart messaging that stops once an appointment is confirmed or a treatment plan is accepted.
- Message distribution schedules and prioritization.
- A method for requesting and collecting surveys or reviews from your patients.
Step 3: Manage Your Online Reputation
How important is your reputation? In a society where 84% (Inc.com, 2017) of consumers trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations, reputation is everything. Good or bad, your online reputation influences potential patients who are searching for a new dentist. Effective reputation management systems connect your marketing efforts and help manage and enhance your online reputation by:
- Providing you with a satisfaction index showing how new and existing patients rate your practice.
- Keeping your business listings consistent across influential websites and search directories such as Google, Facebook and Yelp.
- Making it easier for prospective patients to find and read your positive reviews.
- Providing a competitor dashboard so you can easily compare your online ratings, reviews and promotions with other nearby dentists.
By following these steps, you can dramatically increase your marketing ROI. But, implementing all this into your practice is not a small task. Consider onboarding dental marketing software to help create and expedite the process to ensure that your practice marketing is built the right way.
To learn more about website and patient communication marketing, speak with one of our Practice Marketing experts at 833.568.6361 or visit henryscheinone.com/assessment/ada/020120 today!