How does your clinic attract most of its new patients? If you haven’t explored digital marketing yet, you might be compromising the future growth of your business.
Whether it’s Yellow Pages entries, billboards, and radio and TV advertisements, traditional marketing is slowly becoming a thing of the past.
New estimates from eMarketer show that digital advertising businesses like Facebook and Google will be bigger in the US this year. Around $129 billion will be spent on digital advertising in 2019, beating the $109 billion they are planning to spend on traditional ads.
Noticed a decline in attracting new patients? That is because the old methods of advertising aren’t as effective as they used to be. Today, at least 85 percent of consumers use the Internet to find local businesses.
Those people won’t see your advertisements in the papers because they are looking up dentists online. They won’t be hearing your radio ads because they are on Spotify. People are more likely responding to e-mails rather than check printed ads in their home mailboxes.
Traditional marketing can help in the early stages of your marketing efforts but if you want more cost-effective strategies to reach revenue success, digital marketing is the way to go.
Digital marketing for dentists is the way your dental practice will succeed in moving forward. Getting down to it, the goal of any marketing is to produce new patients and new revenue. Let us look at some of the benefits of digital marketing for dentists and find out why it is vital to the success of your business.
DIGITAL MARKETING IS MORE COST-EFFECTIVE.
So you spend thousands to reach people. But how many of those are actually in need of a dentist in that exact moment they see your print ad?
If you already have a healthy marketing budget, it is wiser to diversify your methods by reaching your potential clients in as many channels as possible. While television, radio and print ads help increase awareness among people in your community, it may not have an immediate impact on your revenue.
Your efforts with traditional marketing increase brand awareness, but won’t necessarily earn you new patients. Your end up reaching people who aren’t currently looking for dentists, your regular patients, or other dentists’ regular patients who do not have plans of shifting to another practitioner.
With paid digital advertising, you pay to reach just one person at a time. You bid on specific search keywords, like “dentist in Manassas, VA.” Not only are you targeting people highly likely to become new patients, but you only pay when someone actually clicks on your advertisement.
Pay-per-click (PPC) ads are an incredible opportunity to get your name out there, even specifically to patients who might not have encountered your business before. When building a PPC campaign, you can track every result of your advertising campaigns.
If you intend to advertise specific services like teeth whitening, Invisalign, or TMJ treatment, creating a well-crafted message is the key to running your campaign successfully.
Your potential clients have different needs, and traditional marketing does not provide you the ability to customize your message based on the person searching it.
DIGITAL MARKETING ENABLES YOU TO GENERATE LEADS.
Having your prospects’ e-mail addresses allows you to have an open line of communication with them. You can utilize your leads with basic e-mail marketing.
If he or she is interested in availing dental services, you can ensure that you would be the first clinic they call once they are ready to book an appointment.
With e-mail marketing, you can build a single mailing list with all of your leads’ e-mail addresses. When you send out a message, every member of your list receives it.
And since the same message will be sent to each subscriber, this marketing technique works best if you limit your content to general information -perhaps some general dental advice or your services and promotions. The key here is to create content that every reader can relate to.
Right now, there are people in your local area who are thinking about getting new dentures or permanent implants. There are people who are unsure whether to consult a dentist for their recurring toothaches. Most of them are searching online for the answers to their questions, but they are only researching right now and are not ready to book an appointment just yet.
DIGITAL MARKETING ADAPTS TO CLIENT DEMAND.
Video ads, in particular, have become one of the best ways in growing a practice because people are consistently hungry for content.
In fact, 25% of Instagram’s advertisements are now in video format with a click-through rate of 1.84%. Videos give them engaging content that you can use to directly market to your potential patients.
Think outside the box when it comes to your video sponsored ads.
Digital marketing for dentists can help grow your business in a more cost-effective manner. Set up a digital marketing plan, get creative, build meaningful relationships, and enjoy the digital marketing of today! The opportunities and level for success are endless!
We have put together a four-part training video series on how to get more targeted customers through search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Completely FREE, no opt-in required.
What are your concerns when starting to market for your practice? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
