Let’s now see practically how you can organise a dental marketing strategy.
The dental practice can utilise both traditional and digital advertising tools, provided that careful attention is given to the conveyed message and, not least, the objectives to be achieved.
Rule number one: do not improvise advertising campaigns or actions without first developing a communication plan that considers all essential aspects:
Once you have identified the dental marketing strategy that best suits your objectives, it’s time to choose the right channels.
It is essential to distinguish between advertising channels for
In both cases, you can use printed materials, press, TV, billboards, etc. (offline marketing), and all the formats available in the digital world: posts, blogs, websites, sponsored campaigns, social media pages, email marketing, etc. (online dental marketing or digital marketing for dentists).
Let’s explore in detail the main tools a dental practice can use for advertising.
Your website is your home on the web: the only space you own, where you have the utmost freedom to present yourself, convey messages, images, offers, and valuable information. An effective dental website must be:
Google My Business listings help users discover and reach desired locations. Since your dental practice has a physical location, registering your business profile and managing its content allows your patients to find you easily. Moreover, by publishing posts, obtaining reviews, and optimising your profile, you can increase visibility on Google, the most widely used search engine in Italy.
The Google My Business profile is the right place to share images taken with smartphones (original and amateurish, yet well-curated).
The blog is the primary tool for content marketing: disseminating content written by you, original and useful for your patients and potential ones, is an excellent form of advertising for your dental practice. It has no campaign costs, is always available, and will give you more visibility and authority, improving your reputation (brand awareness).
Writing is not a simple activity, and despite the common belief that blogging has low costs (it’s free if you do it yourself), what you might not know is that:
Landing pages are special pages on your website created ad hoc, and they are excellent lead generation tools.
If you want to advertise your website, you won’t be “only” interested in visibility.
At some point, you’ll want the website visitors to translate into potential patients (aka leads): a phone number, a name, an email to follow up with promotions and initiatives.
All of this can be obtained and profiled through this marketing tool.
“Oh no, we don’t want to pay for advertising”: this mindset is wrong.
Remember that it’s not the tool that makes your communication “too salesy”, but the message you convey.
Google Ads and Facebook Ads are the main platforms to show your messages to a targeted audience (with specific characteristics). For example, if you want to spread the news that your practice is launching a prevention campaign for children this month, through Facebook Ads and Google Ads, you can target an audience geolocated in your area of interest (your municipality or province) and with specific interests (school, toys, etc.).
Also, don’t underestimate the possibility of retargeting: you can show up again to people who have already interacted with a page on your website or a specific campaign and display custom-made ads to renew the communication of a message and reinforce its impact.
Social media pages are your rented house: a virtual place not owned by you but where you can convey your image and messages, interacting with real people.
Social media pages bridge distances and are the most immediate means of gathering information about your dental practice.
As mentioned before, you can run sponsored campaigns for specific advertisements or choose to curate content to receive organic contacts (without paying advertising costs).
Do you have a good email contact database? Have you collected useful characteristics for marketing activities for each contact?
Well, through specific platforms (Mailchimp, Hubspot, etc.), you can create targeted messages to reach only the people you want.
For instance, you can inform your clients with children that there will be a caries prevention meeting for baby teeth this month or present an innovative corrective orthodontic method.
Furthermore, you can suggest the latest articles from your blog, where you have discussed dental care for children.
Your dental practice is your best form of advertising.
Your collaborators, specialists, and experts can actively participate and help you organise scientific and informative meetings for specific patient categories.
Although traditional methods do not allow for measuring real impact, print, radio, and TV are valid advertising tools to enhance the reputation of your dental practice.
Use them with great care, both due to the costs (not exactly cheap) and to transmit a consistent and highly professional image (there’s a high risk of falling into low-quality commercial communication if you lack experience in this area).
We have already discussed the importance of strategic management of the dental waiting room, including the importance of brochures. But that’s not all.
In the waiting area, you can carry out various marketing activities: from collecting reviews to using interactive devices to assess satisfaction levels, to creating informative videos displayed on monitors and devices.
If you are thinking of independently managing the advertising for your dental practice, here are the main mistakes to avoid:
Before advertising dental services, consider dental advertising training from Ideandum.
One last advice you cannot ignore: before starting any marketing activity, take time to well-define and coordinate your image, logo, brand, values, mission, and your online presence (website + social media).
The rest is all about experience and professionalism that cannot be improvised!
Do you want to stand out from the crowd? Be unique?
Have an effective and engaging graphic identity for your audience?
Attract clients and grow your dental clinic’s business?
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