In many ways, your dental practice may not have changed much in the past few years. Dentists periodically add new equipment and software, but most aspects of running a dental office rarely require complete overhauls.
However, one aspect of practice ownership that requires continuous adaptation is marketing.
To continuously connect with potential patients, it’s vital to adapt your marketing techniques to reach modern consumers in the formats and styles that they respond to.
The digital marketing environment moves quickly, but keeping pace doesn’t have to be an enormous headache or time-sink. In fact, modern marketing tools make it easier than ever to reach your audience—it just takes a bit of work to get up to speed.
To help you create an outreach strategy that resonates with today’s patients, here are five dental practice marketing ideas to try out at your office.
1: Short-Form Video
Short-form videos are everywhere these days and many business owners are embracing the trend as a unique form of marketing.
A video is considered short-form if it’s less than one minute in length. This duration is ideal for today’s limited-attention media environment. Short-form videos are easy to make and can reach broad audiences via platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts.
If you choose to create short-form videos for marketing purposes, focus on providing concise and helpful content with an engaging tone of voice. Use visuals that catch the eye and quickly jump into illustrating the concepts you’d like to discuss with your audience.
Just remember to protect privacy and maintain strict ethical standards when creating videos. Never show a patient’s face or name without their consent and never provide advice that could be harmfully misinterpreted.
2: Dental Reaction Videos
A reaction video is simply a video of someone reacting to something, sometimes to capture moments of surprise or amusement, sometimes to offer commentary.
In recent years, qualified professionals have embraced the reaction video format as a way to offer informative responses to trends associated with their areas of expertise. For example, a dentist might film a reaction to a trending “tooth cleaning hack” created by an unqualified influencer. This type of reaction video is used to dispel myths and provide insights in a manner that’s entertaining and fun.
Reaction videos can be used as a form of indirect marketing. Rather than touting your services, you’ll simply have fun with your audience while offering educational tidbits.
3: Google Local Service Ads
As of 2023, dentists can now apply to run Google Local Service ads (LSAs). Previously, HIPAA-regulated businesses were blocked from this opportunity. Dentistry is the first medical vertical to be cleared for LSAs.
An LSA can position your practice at the top of a search engine results page for queries that reference your geographic region. Better yet, these highly-targeted ads are paid for on a per-lead basis rather than a per-click basis. This ad category is also less competitive than regular pay-per-click advertising, resulting in a greater opportunity to dominate your local search engine results.
4: Short-Form Articles
Articles posted to your website are a terrific way to communicate with patients, position your practice as a source of expertise, and generate web traffic via search engine optimization (SEO).
Articles don’t have to be long or complicated. Short-form articles of 450-600 words are perfect for succinctly answering common patient questions or telling success stories from your practice.
5: Responding to Social Media Comments and Messages
Responding to and engaging with people who reach out to your practice might seem like a given, but the fact is that many businesses set up social media accounts and then fail to monitor them. As a result, potential customers post comments or messages that go ignored, thus discouraging further engagement with the business.
If you choose to use social media accounts for your practice, make sure that someone on your team is responsible for thoughtfully responding to all engagement in a timely manner.
Responding to questions from patients or potential patients helps to address concerns, develop familiarity, and improve the odds of earning new or repeat business.
Get More Ideas for Growing Your Practice
Whether or not a marketing overhaul is in your best interest, Duckett Ladd can help you plan for sustainable growth at your dental practice. We’re a team of advisors and CPAs working exclusively in the dental industry. Our services include:
- Dental practice growth guidance
- Business accounting services
- Acquisitions and dispositions consulting
Contact our team today to learn more.
