Typically, dental local SEO is what will be most important for a dentist because they are targeting people in a specific area and want to show up in the Google local results, as seen below:
Now, Google shows local listings and prioritizes businesses with the best reviews on mobile searches. This makes it easier for people on the go to find the business they are looking for.
Take a look at the number of reviews the dentists in the local results below have!
According to Google, “88% of consumers who conducted a local search on their smartphone visited a store within a day, and 78% make a purchase.”
You want to optimize for location-specific keywords so that people searching for dental offices near you will find your website. Here are some examples of location-specific keywords:
- [Your city] dentist
- [Your neighborhood] dentist
- [Your zip code] dental office
You should also optimize for keywords related to your specialty (e.g., Portland dental implants).
One way you can minimize competition is by targeting long-tail keywords (more specific phrases). Patients are looking for solutions when they search online, and oftentimes, these solutions have many words, so they are called long-tail keywords. Examples would be:
- dentist in Salt Lake City that does teen Invisalign
- zoom teeth whitening dentist in SLC
So, part of your strategy should involve a focus on long-tail keywords that revolve around solving people's dental problems.
Search engine optimization is an ever-changing art, so you should consult a marketing professional (preferably a dental marketing professional) to decide what keywords to target and how to do so.
Implementing the proper keyword research and long-tail keywords will undoubtedly put you in a good spot regarding your online presence and Google search results, ultimately helping you attract more dental patients.
5. Enhance Your Reputation by Focusing on Positive Reviews
If you want new dental patients to choose your dental office in online searches, positive reviews are a must. Dental practices that don't prioritize reviews often have little to no online reviews. This typically creates a gap between them and their competitors.
Here's the hard truth about it:
Nobody will choose a dentist with no reviews over a dentist with dozens of positive reviews. Your online reputation is a critical component of your digital presence, and it could increase your production from an average level to as high as you want.
The truth is that reviews are the number one factor people consider when making a purchase decision. So, if you’ve landed a few patients through your employees or friends, ask them nicely to write a review.
In most markets, Google and Yelp are the biggest sites on which you want to get reviews. People who use Google Search or Google Maps to find your dental practice can easily see your Google reviews and address, and the more positive reviews, the more likely somebody will choose to contact your office.
So, if you are starting at zero, do your best to get those first crucial reviews and take a sigh of relief!
Then, implement a review strategy and stick with it. Set a realistic goal of 1-2 reviews a week. That’s nothing! But at the end of the year, you’ll bet at 50-100 reviews!
Be careful about incentivizing reviews. Read below to see what the FTC says about it. That said, a gentle nudge to patients after an appointment or a reminder via email or text after they have left the office should be enough to get them to write a review.
While on the topic of reviews, remember to deal with negative reviews quickly. Ignoring them will only compound the issue. Respond to all your reviews, both positive and negative, and take the time to clarify your position when you get a negative review. Sometimes, having an explanation from the business is enough to convince people that the issue was a one-time occurrence.
As we mentioned earlier, read our guide to dental reputation management to learn how to get more reviews, respond to reviews, and manage your reputation online appropriately.
Consider a review system to help you get more reviews. These review systems can automate and simplify your review efforts.
6. Optimize Directory Listings to Attract New Patients
Directory listings are low-hanging fruit for getting new dental patients to schedule treatment. People searching for dental offices in an online directory are exactly the kind of patients you want to target—they either don’t have a dentist or are looking to switch.
So, make sure you have listings on Yelp, Better Business Bureau, HealthGrades, Vitals, and other dental directories.
More importantly, make sure your listings on these sites are entirely consistent.
Why?
It helps build trust with Google and other search engines. They pay attention to your business listings around the web to determine how to rank your website in local search. Inconsistent name, address, and phone number (NAP) details can lower your ranking, making it harder to attract new patients to your practice.
One mistake we often see is people listing their business name in one directory (e.g., Redmond Dental Center) and their practitioner name in another (e.g., Jane Doe, DDS: Redmond). Go back through and ensure you use the same naming convention everywhere
7. Use Press Releases to Reach More Dental Patients
Press releases are a great place to start if you want to attract patients to a new practice. They are an important part of many dental marketing campaigns. I’m not talking about the typical “Hey, we’re in business!” notifications. Instead, send press releases about subjects that genuinely interest people.
Whenever something dentistry-related reaches the national news, add your two cents on a local level. Here are some great example headlines from The Institute of Dental CPAs:
- “Dentist Says Needle and Drill Nearly Obsolete”
- “Cosmetic Dentistry Demand Running High”
- “Sioux City Dentist Goes High-Tech with Newly Approved Laser”
Additionally, take advantage of news such as the FDA approving the use of new technologies in dentistry or releasing statements on trending dental topics. These press releases can generate buzz and attract more dental patients by positioning your practice as an expert in the field. The possibilities are endless.
When you issue a press release, be sure to reach out to your local news to see if they are interested in the angle. Chances are, they are looking for a story!
8. Utilize PPC Advertising to Get More Dental Patients
PPC (usually using Google Ads) is one of the most effective new patient acquisition methods available! With Google, PPC ads appear above organic search results, making it an extremely effective way to get in front of your target audience.
They work well because you can reach potential patients when they are looking for your services. This ensures that the ads are relevant to what people are searching for when looking for dental services.
How does Google Ads work?
Somebody does a search in Google.
Every time someone clicks on your ad, you pay Google a small amount. While this amount varies depending on the competitiveness of your industry and local market, a skilled PPC agency can help you reduce costs while driving more conversions. Additionally, consider using local service ads as part of your strategy to help you target potential patients in your specific area even more effectively.
That said, the cost-per-click for dental ads can be expensive ($2-$15). Optimizing the right keywords is important to maximize effectiveness and get more dental patients. Don’t automatically choose keywords with the most competition; doing so can quickly deplete your budget. Also, consider the day of the week your PPC ads are shown, as some days yield higher click-through rates. Lastly, narrow down the audience to target your specific area and the demographics you serve at your dental clinic.
If you work with a dental marketing company that knows what they’re doing, you can combine PPC with SEO strategies for the best return on investment and attract more dental patients.
If you are wondering if it makes sense to hire somebody to manage your ads, we recently wrote a post about the advantages of using a local PPC management company for your paid advertising.
9. Encourage Referrals with a Rewarding Patient Referral Program
First, let’s agree that you will likely get that business if a current patient refers someone to you. Someone testifying to your excellence as a dentist will convert someone into a new patient for you in much less time than it would take for you to convince them yourself.
Patient referrals are a great way to get more patients into your practice, even if you are starting out. Those first few patients you get will be essential in attracting more patients during your first year.
There are many dental referral program ideas you can try. Encourage patients by offering a referral bonus program, such as a free cleaning or a special discount whenever they refer a friend. All you have to do is hand out a simple referral card at the end of the appointment that explains the deal.
Consider a referral program in which if a patient refers a friend and that friend books an appointment (and actually shows up), you reward the referring patient with free movie tickets or another valuable freebie.
Even if you don’t have a single patient, you can always use the strategy with your employees. They probably have many friends and family that live nearby, so encourage them to refer to your practice.
Focusing on word-of-mouth marketing may seem old-fashioned, but even word-of-mouth marketing isn’t what it seems in the Internet age. It may seem simple: Be a great dentist, and patients will refer new patients to you. With the power of the Internet, you can take it a few steps further.
10. Attract New Patients with Engaging Social Media Marketing
If you want to attract new dental patients to your office, dental social media marketing is something you'll want to try. Having an active social media presence helps give your brand a human element and builds connections with potential patients. You can attract new dental patients using LinkedIn by engaging with local professionals and building relationships in your community.
Social media is an extremely powerful tool for online marketing. However, many businesses approach social media marketing in the wrong way.
Don’t be one of those businesses that set automatic posts without engaging with the readers. It shouldn’t be a ‘spray and pray’ approach. It should be about connecting with your audience.
How often should you post? You can read the research here (spolier- it’s more often than you think). That said, just because ‘research’ shows you should be posting X times per day or week doesn’t mean you have to. What is much more important is that you regularly post and respond if/when there are questions.
You're not just on social media to advertise your practice but to engage with your audience and show what life is really like at your dental office. Use hashtags related to your industry to start participating in broader conversations:
- #dentist
- #dentistry
- #NoMoreDentures
- #FunDentistry
Social media marketing is a great way to attract new patients to your dental practice by participating in relevant conversations and creating authentic connections with your audience.
You can also use social media to cross-promote your other tactics to get new patients. For example, if you’re sponsoring a local event, use the event’s hashtags to engage with attendees and potential patients.
Make sure someone monitors your social media accounts for mentions of your dental practice. Reach out to potential patients in the area who may be looking for a new dentist. This simple strategy can help patients who are actively seeking dental care but may not know where to go.
NextDoor is also gaining popularity for local recommendations, so be sure you have someone on your team managing mentions and inquiries there.
Social media can be a great tool for customer service. If you have disgruntled patients, they may air their complaints on your Facebook page or Twitter profile. Addressing problems publicly offers an opportunity to improve your business's image and demonstrate excellent customer service.
While this isn’t as prevalent for small brands like a dentist's office, if it does come up, you want to be sure that you are acknowledging it, and owning the problem
Here are a couple of statistics from SmileSaavy that demonstrate the importance of including social media in your online marketing strategy:
- 40% of consumers say they use the information they find on social media to make health decisions
- 71% of consumers who receive a quick response from a business to a complaint on social media would recommend that business to others.
11. Attract First-Time Visitors with Exclusive New Patient Specials
According to research by the Healthy Policy Institute, 22.9% of adults say they are unsure or don’t plan to visit a dentist in the next 12 months. The top reason? Cost.
To attract new patients to your dental practice, offering new patient specials can be an effective solution. Many people avoid routine dental care due to cost, but a special discount can make them more likely to schedule an appointment.
Use a new patient special to get people to book that first appointment; then, you can nurture them as recurring patients for years to come. Here are some examples of effective incentives you can offer:
- Free teeth whitening
- Money off Invisalign treatment
- Discount service bundles (e.g., oral exam, cleaning, and X-ray)
- Military discounts
- Senior Citizen discounts
Whatever new patient special you choose, it’s important to understand how it compares to the competition and that it clearly communicates your unique selling proposition (USP). Remember, when you’re first starting, offering the same deal as four other dental practices in your area may not be as effective as you'd like it to be. While you don’t want to be seen as a low-cost provider, you may need to be more aggressive initially.
12. Re-engage potential Patients with Targeted Ad Retargeting
Please note that before doing any ad retargeting, be sure you are 100% familiar with HIPAA regulations and have spoken to an attorney to ensure that you can legally do it. This blog does not constitute legal advice. For most situations, retargeting is NOT allowed in healthcare- again, see an attorney.
SEO and PPC are great marketing ideas for dentists, but ad retargeting is an effective tool that can make it easier to expand your practice. The idea behind ad retargeting is that it enables you to connect with people who are already interested in your practice.
For example, someone visits your website, but they don’t book an appointment, sign up for your mailing list, or anything else. Cookies from your site are placed on their browser, so when they leave your site, they see advertisements for your business in other places on the web.
There are two main platforms you can use for ad retargeting right now:
- Google Display Network
Facebook will display advertisements for your business right in people’s newsfeeds or in the sidebar on the desktop.
Google has a network of websites that display advertisements. You can even target specific kinds of websites where your retargeting ad will appear.
Like Google Ads PPC, retargeting works well because the ads are relevant. These ads display only to people in your target audience who are already browsing around for a new dentist, and you want to make sure your business stays fresh in their minds.
They may not need a dentist right now, but they’re looking for one later. Having your advertisement appear now and then is a great way to ensure your dental practice stays at the top of their minds.
Retargeting works best if you segment your potential patients and show them different ads based on their interests. For example, you can segment them by the pages they visit on your website to show them ads for services they are interested in.
13. Expand Your Network by Seeking Business Referrals
Business referrals are another great way to get more patients into your practice. Develop a relationship with other businesses in town, and you can work together to refer each other to customers.
Working with a person/business related to yours, such as an oral surgeon or orthodontist, will get you the most relevant and valuable referrals. You can also partner with unrelated businesses and display fliers of each other's services in your offices.
If your office is in a complex with other businesses, offer your dental services to your neighbors. Convenience is important for people working 9-5 jobs. If you have extended hours, it’s a perfect solution to their dental needs. Have one of your staff members hand-deliver a letter of invitation to other businesses around you.
Use a service like Redi Comps to get a list of new homeowners in your area, and then have a mailer designed somewhere like VistaPrint or Click2Mail. Some essentials to include in your postcard mailer include:
- A visually striking design
- An attractive offer
- A call to action with prominent contact information
If you use this strategy, offer to reciprocate by referring your staff or patients to your referral partners.
14. Retain and Attract Patients with a Convenient Membership Plan
One way to get patients to stay, pay, and refer is to offer them a membership plan that provides basic services in return for an annual fee. Dental membership plans might not be widespread yet, but they can be a good option for patients who aren't insured or have limited insurance.
A membership could work as follows. Say that your practice charges $200 for a full exam and cleaning and $35 for a bitewing x-ray. You could offer an annual membership for $450 that covers the following things:
- Two exams
- Two cleanings
- Two bitewing x-rays
- 15% off all additional services
In an article I recently read, the dentist added a $55 annual treatment credit that rolls over when the membership is renewed. To make the membership deal more enticing to your patients, you could even offer a monthly payment plan.
15. Start a Blog to Build Trust and Educate Patients
Did you know blogging is one of the best ways to connect with your target audience and attract patients to your dental clinic? On average, companies who blog attract 67% more leads than companies that don't have blogs.
That said, you’ll need to consider that blogging will likely generate traffic from areas where your ideal patients don't reside (out of state), so while you may be providing an answer to somebody's question, it may or may not be directly generating leads.
Blogging for a local business is a great way to build internal links to relevant pages. So, while you may get a bunch of traffic from non-relevant visitors, and it may seem like you aren’t getting leads from it, it helps with the structure, organization, and building of website authority.
In addition to helping with SEO, adding a blog to your website is the perfect opportunity to highlight members of your dental team, explain procedures, provide educational content, and ease patients' anxieties about dental care.
The best part is you don't need to blog every day to get great results. Blogging as little as once or twice a month can give you an opportunity to answer patient questions, build trust with them, and position yourself as an expert.
16. Simplify Appointment Booking with 24/7 Online Scheduling
One of the biggest mistakes dental professionals make with their websites is putting obstacles in the way of new visitors who may want to make an appointment. How about getting appointments on the books when your office is closed? Great, right!?
By adding your practice management software booking option to your site, you can let a patient book without having to call your office and book in your off hours. With a few clicks, patients can book an appointment that your staff can confirm as needed.
Remember that you always want to make it easy to do business with you. One way to do this is to allow online booking. A positive patient experience starts the very first time someone visits your website.
17. Use Flyers to Reach and Attract Local Dental Patients
Printed marketing materials might seem a little old-fashioned in a world that's turned to digital marketing as the default. Still, the truth is that patients walk into dental clinics after learning about them in various ways. You shouldn't rule out print marketing to increase brand awareness and attract potential new patients.
A well-designed flyer can do a lot to let people know about your practice. You can mail flyers directly to your current or former patients you haven't seen in a while. You can also give a stack to other local businesses and ask them to display them to help you—in return for displaying some of their marketing materials.
Flyers are an effective way to announce new patient specials and get more dental patients. Best of all, they don't cost much. Also, you can easily print and copy them yourself if you prefer.
18. Offer Flexible Payment Options to Attract More Patients
The ability to pay for necessary dental services and treatments is a concern for many people. While some companies offer dental insurance, many do not. For patients who have avoided dental care due to financial concerns, booking an appointment may be upsetting at best.
One way to attract more patients is by being flexible with payment options. Here are some strategies to consider:
- Partnering with an outside financing company to allow patients to borrow what they need and pay it off gradually
- Accepting credit card payments
- Offering in-house payment plans where patients make an initial deposit and pay off the rest of their balance in increments
- Offering a discount for patients who pay upfront
Of course, you'll need to balance payment flexibility with the potential for delinquent accounts. Your staff may need to spend additional time following up on scheduled payments, but there are solutions to streamline this process. For example, you could set up an email list to send automated payment reminders to patients with outstanding balances.
Patients are more likely to choose your dental practice—and remain loyal—if you empathize with their financial needs and offer solutions that make dental care accessible.
19. Leverage Radio Advertising to Attract Local Patients
Radio advertising is an option you may not have considered to encourage patients to choose your practice for their next dental treatment. It's less expensive than television advertising, and it may help patients who hear your ads remember you the next time they need cleaning or an orthodontist for their child.
It might surprise you that approximately 92% of all Americans listen to the radio at least once a week. This statistic encompasses both traditional and online radio.
Most people listen in their cars, but some listen at home. If you have room in your marketing budget, radio ads can help you connect with local audiences and keep them informed about your practice and services.
These days, advertising on the radio isn’t limited to FM/AM, but it includes ads on Spotify, Pandora, and more.
20. Expand Accessibility with Teledentistry Services
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the patient demand for telehealth and teledentistry has dramatically increased. Teledentistry allows dentists to connect with patients remotely, do preliminary exams, and recommend services and treatments while minimizing the risk for patients and staff members.
We anticipate that teledentistry will continue to be a trend. As a provider, it can help you see more patients in a day and increase your profits by making it easier for patients to contact you when they have a problem.
Teledentistry is convenient for your patients. If you offer it, your current patients may be more likely to refer their friends to you.
That said, teledentistry isn't for everyone, and many dentists who have tried it despise it. However, it may be something to look into.
21. Add Innovative Services to Meet Patient Needs and Attract
The last of our tips on how to grow a dental practice is to expand your services, allowing you to increase patient volume for your practice. A lot of dentists specialize, and doing so may be beneficial, but if you limit yourself too much, it can turn into a problem.
For example, if you've never considered offering cosmetic dentistry, add whitening services and other cosmetic options to help patients get the smiles they want. Or you could expand into family dentistry by making your office more kid-friendly.
Another way that dentists are attracting new patients is by embracing new technology. For example, investing in lasers and other high-tech treatment options lets people in your area know that your practice stays on top of dental trends and prioritizes patient comfort.
You don't need to offer every service under the sun, but expanding your available services can help you attract more patients and get more referrals.
Struggling to Attract New Patients? Let’s Build Your Practice Together!
Attracting new patients and growing your dental practice requires more than just great services—it requires a well-thought-out strategy and consistent action. The 21 strategies we've shared can help you retain your current patients, speed up payments, and turn them into loyal advocates who refer their friends and family.
But you don’t have to do it alone. Titan Web Agency specializes in helping dental practices implement these strategies and attract more patients effectively. Ready to take your practice to the next level?
Schedule a consultation today, and let’s discuss how we can create a customized plan that works for you!
Ready to take your dental practice to the next level?
Schedule a FREE consultation!
We're ready to help you modernize your dental marketing strategy and expand your patient base.
About the Author
Tyson Downs is the founder of Titan Web Agency, a company specializing in marketing for dental professionals. With an impressive track record of working with over 100 dental practices, Tyson has a deep understanding of the unique marketing needs within the dental industry. His expertise has helped numerous dental practices flourish by meeting and surpassing their revenue goals and established him as a thought leader in healthcare marketing. His insights and strategies have been featured in esteemed dental publications, including the American Dental Association and the American Academy of Implant Dentistry. Before dedicating his career to helping dental professionals thrive through effective marketing, Tyson honed his skills in SEO and web design as a freelancer, while also gaining valuable experience in the corporate sector. As an alumnus of Brigham Young University, he brings a strong educational background to his entrepreneurial endeavors. Outside of his professional life, Tyson is a devoted father of five, who cherishes time spent with his family, especially when they're all enjoying America's pastime on the baseball field.
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