The new year is in full swing! That means it’s the perfect time to try some new dental practice advertising ideas. If you’ve been wondering how to grow your dental practice, we’ve got a ton of things you can try—and it all begins with your dental website design.
It’s important to try a variety of things when it comes to dental practice growth. Why? Because every dental practice needs patients to survive—no matter your location, specialty or how long you’ve been serving your community. Without a good flow of new patients, making money and growing your practice become impossible.
But, if you create a system that attracts patients to your dental practice like clockwork, that’s a recipe for:
- More high-paying dental cases
- Increased revenue for you and your dental practice
- Dental practice growth
We know why dental practices need patients, but how can you get more affordably and efficiently? The answer is: professional dental website design and dental SEO services. If you’ve ever wondered how to grow your dental practice, follow the steps below.
1. Get More Patients With Professional Dental Website Design
If you don’t yet have a website (or if it isn’t a professional dental website design), one of the best things you can do for your dental practice is to create one. A website acts as your dental practice’s online office—it’s the cornerstone of your online presence and gives potential clients a place to:
- Learn more about your dental practice
- Read about the dental services you provide
- See your location
- Get in touch with you about dental services
- Become a new patient at your dental practice
Without a good dental website design, how are your potential clients going to find your dental practice on Google? How will they know where to contact you? They won’t.
Without a website, your dental practice might as well not exist at all. If you’re not sure where to begin, consider working with a dental marketing agency or other dental marketing companies to get started.
Fill out the form below to get a free quote on professional dental website design.
2. Send Out Direct Mailers to Get More Dental Patients
Here’s another dental practice advertising idea that’s stood the test of time: direct mailers. Compared to the chaos that is most email inboxes today, old-school mailboxes are seeing a lot less action, which means your letter or postcard is much more likely to be seen and read by potential clients.
According to the Direct Marketing Association, direct mail has an average cost per lead of $51.40 for a general mailing list and $54.10 for postcards. Compare that to what you’re paying on average for patients for dentists and dental patients from other sources to determine if this is a viable solution for you.
Added to professional dental website design and SEO for dentists, direct mail advertising could be a viable method of dentist lead generation. A good dental marketing agency or dental marketing company can help you get started.
3. Use Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
A good PPC and SEM campaign is one dental practice advertising idea that’s been proven time and again to benefit dental practice growth. So, if you’ve been wondering how to grow your dental practice, give this a shot!
While Google is the most popular search engine for these types of campaigns, thanks to its widespread popularity, don’t sleep on Bing. PPC and SEM are great ways to reach your ideal dental patients.
Still on the fence? Check out these stats:
- For every $1 spent in Google Ads, dental practices make an average of $2.
- About 41% of clicks on a search results page go to one of the top 3 paid ads.
- More than 85% of people use the internet to find local dental practices.
- Visitors who come to your website via PPC or SEM are 50% more likely to become a patient.
Sounds good, right? Reach out to us to learn more about how we can help you create a powerful PPC and SEM campaign that will help you with dental practice growth. We can also set you up with dental website design and share other ideas for dental marketing.
4. Always Use Dental SEO Services to Reach Your Ideal Patients
Search engine optimization (SEO for dentists) is still king in the digital marketing space, which is why dental SEO services are so popular. Dental SEO services are what move your dental practice to the top of page 1 in Google searches and keep it there. If your campaign is robust enough, SEO for dentists alone can reach a huge audience of your ideal patients (but we still recommend reading the rest of these dental practice advertising ideas)!
A good first step is setting up your Google My Business account. From there, you can advance to backlinking and content marketing.
It’s always a good idea to let a dental SEO services expert get you up and running. Check out local dental marketing agencies and dental marketing companies for help!
Fill out the form below to get a free quote on SEO for dentists! Paired with dental website design, this is a powerful method for growing your dental practice.
5. Get More Dental Patients Through Facebook + Instagram
Still wondering how to get more patients and grow your dental practice? Advertising on Facebook and Instagram can be a cost-effective method for dental practice advertising, provided you put the right strategy in place and know how to navigate the ad builders on these platforms.
You can target your ideal dental patients by their location and other pages they’ve liked—such as your competitors’ pages.
Displaying ads to this audience has the added benefit of creating and boosting awareness of your dental practice. If people see your logo and your ads all over the place, they’re more likely to remember you when they need dental services in the future. If you’ve been wanting to try social media advertising for your dental practice, this is one dental practice advertising idea worth trying.
6. How to Get Dental Patients Through Strategic Alliances
Another smart way to get more patients and grow your dental practice is to partner up with businesses in your area, such as other health care providers. Creating a partnership means they’ll recommend you to their patients and provide a steady stream of new dental patients.
7. Content Marketing Is Great Dental Marketing
Creating content for your ideal patients is a great way to grow your dental practice. Consider writing blog posts and articles that you can post on your dental practice’s website, and make it easy for your audience to share that content on social media.
Here are some topic ideas:
- The Correct Way to Brush Your Teeth
- 10 Common Dental Hygiene Myths
- Read This Before Using Teeth Whitening Strips
As you write these articles, plug your dental services. Suggest that readers use a dental practice they can trust to do the job correctly and create winning smile.
8. Don’t Forget About Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the oldest forms of digital marketing, and there’s a reason it’s stuck around so long: it works. For every dollar you spend on email marketing for your dental practice, you’ll make (on average) a $40 return on your investment.
Because most dental practices overlook the benefits of email marketing, it’s a great dental practice growth option. For instance, dental practices that stay in touch with their ideal patients via email generate 50% more patients and spend 33% less money on getting them in the office.
Use this tactic in addition to SEO for dentists and professional dental website design to maximize your ROI. Working with a dental marketing agency or dental marketing company is a great place to start.
9. Get Dental Practice Advertising Ideas From Your Chamber of Commerce
If you haven’t already joined your local chamber of commerce, attend their next meeting and start networking with other local business owners. In particular, try to connect with people who might need (or have customers who might need) your dental services—they’re likely to send more dental patients your way!
10. Reputation Management Affects Your Dental Practice
Did you know 85% of people search online to find local dental practices? (If your dental SEO services are on point, they’ll find you!) Those same people are also researching your reputation—what are your past patients saying about the quality of your work? Were your prices fair? Did you do what you said you were going to do?
Offline, you can use word-of-mouth to your advantage. Ask your satisfied clients if they can think of any neighbors, friends, family, or acquaintances who might need your dental services. Give them plenty of business cards to pass around.
Online, list your dental practice on review websites and ask your happy patients to leave a review on Google. Doing so makes it more likely that you’ll get more patients and grow your dental practice.
11. Ad Retargeting Is a Fresh Dental Practice Advertising Idea
Have you ever searched for a product online then noticed ads for it following you around the internet? That’s retargeting, and you can do it for your dental practice.
Retargeting is a great way to keep your dental practice and dentist website in front of potential patients who have already shown interest by visiting your website. This is one dental practice advertising idea well worth trying, especially if you’re already getting good traffic to your dental practice website. Throw in some dental SEO services for an extra boost! For a professional touch, consider working with a dental marketing agency or other dental marketing companies.
12. Make Your Dental Marketing Stand Out With a Unique Selling Point
If you want to stand out from your local competitors, your dental marketing needs a unique selling point. That could be your level of service, your experience in your specialty, your competitive prices, your reputation, your guarantees—anything that sets you apart. Once you’ve figured out your USP, use that selling point in your dental marketing and dental practice advertising materials!
If you’re not sure where to start, take a look at how your competitors are getting more patients and fostering dental practice growth. What’s their USP, and how can you beat it? What would matter more to your clients and the community you serve? Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Specialized services
- Guarantees
- Level of service
Can you think of something else that’s unique to your dental practice? Maybe your origin story or how you got started? Use it!
13. Use Google’s Local Service Ads to Get More Dental Patients
Google’s Local Services ads are a type of pay-per-lead ad, and they appear at the top of the search results page. These ads get about 13.8% of clicks—that means if 50 people in your area search for dental services, at least 7 of them will click one of those ads and turn into a dental patient.
How much more money would you make per month with 7 more dental patients?
14. Increase Referrals to Get More Dental Patients
Referrals are a great way to capitalize on word-of-mouth marketing. Offer your existing patients an incentive to refer their friends, families and neighbors to your dental practice, and give them a discount in return. Since people are far more likely to use a dental practice that a friend recommends to them, this is one dental practice advertising idea you shouldn’t pass up.
15. Create Helpful YouTube Videos About Dental Hygiene
YouTube is a popular platform, so why not use it to your advantage? Make an account (it’s free!) and start posting helpful dental hygiene videos. The videos can document your day-to-day activities, explain how to select a competent dentist (you), or explain dental care. These videos will build your credibility as a dental practice and make it easier for viewers to see that you know what you’re doing and build trust.
In the video description, include your contact information and a link to your dental practice website so they can learn more.
16. Use LinkedIn to Attract Commercial Dental Patients
LinkedIn is more than a great place to establish yourself as a dental expert and dentist—it’s a great place to generate patients, too. How? Do a search for businesses that commonly need (or work with customers who need) the type of dental services you offer.
17. Send Out Press Releases About Your Dental Practice
Press releases are a great way to share new and exciting developments about your dental practice. Are you offering a new dental service? How about a discount for repeat clients or those who refer their neighbors? Write a press release that outlines these new items and send it off to your mailing list to start getting new patients and growing your dental practice.
18. Sign Up With Townsquare Interactive to Maximize Your Dental Marketing Budget
Professional dental website design isn’t the only element of an effective dental marketing campaign, but it is the most important. One of the best things you can do to grow your dental practice is to make sure your website has everything it needs to continuously attract patients using the steps above.
Adding other elements to your marketing campaign, such as SEO for dentists and reputation monitoring, can strengthen your dental marketing campaign and help you to get more patients and foster dental practice growth.
The team at Townsquare Interactive specializes in creating dental practice websites and marketing campaigns that generate patients for dentists across the country. All of our dental website designs feature the elements mentioned above, and our dedicated marketing specialists and teams of experts can provide personalized suggestions for how to take your dental marketing campaign to the next level.
Fill out the form below to learn more about our dental marketing packages and jumpstart your dentist website.