As a dental professional, it can be challenging to keep up with all the digital marketing trends. With an ever-evolving landscape of new technologies and strategies, staying ahead of the curve requires keeping an eye on what’s hot—and what’s not. To help, we present a roundup of five expert-certified dental digital marketing tips that will make a difference in your practice as well as increase patient conversion.
These tips can and should be used in your marketing through SEO, Pay-Per-Click (such as Google Ads, Bing/Microsoft Ads, Facebook/Instagram, etc). In fact, they can even be used in more traditional advertising as well. Read on to discover how you can give your dental clinic’s online dental marketing and conversions a real boost this year.
Speak the same language as your audience to maximize conversions
Utilize their preferred words and phrases, so they can relate to what you’re saying. Doing this will help increase the chances that they’ll convert into paying customers. Communicate to your patients in a way that helps them build an emotional connection with your brand, which will help maximize conversions.
It can be the difference between someone simply scrolling by and making the decision to become a patient at your clinic. Speaking their language will help create opportunities for sales through stronger relationships with those interested in what you have to offer.
Crafting persuasive writing demands an informal, conversational tone rather than a formal academic language. Your ad copy needs to be simple. Your writing should be understood by someone with a 5th grade education. If your service or offers are hard to understand, nobody will buy it.
Address objections to services in your dental digital marketing for higher conversion rates
Addressing objections that potential customers may have is key to gaining their trust and improving the likelihood of conversion. Prospective patients may hesitate to invest in dental services for reasons such as financial instability, worries about pain associated with procedures, or fears about recurring issues with oral health despite treatment.
To ease objections, it can be helpful to highlight how your practice offers solutions tailored to each customer’s needs. Stress the following types of things to your potential patients:
- Safety measures you’ve taken
- State-of-the-art equipment in the office
- Skills/training and certificates
- Experience
- Reviews & testimonials
- Anxiety-free atmosphere
- Attentive staff/dentist
- Payment plans or insurance benefits
Many of those things are put in place for the added comfort and benefit of the patient and the procedure.
It is important not to gloss over potential concerns, but to focus on the lifestyle transformation that they will achieve when finished with treatment.
Make sure to include a few stories from patients who are satisfied with their results; this adds both credibility and relatability that can help someone to connect more easily. Addressing objections is a crucial step toward turning interest into conversion on a dental website.
Create an irresistible offer
Something we see all too little in dental digital marketing is an irresistible offer. This is something that patients will be drawn to because it has all of the right pieces that your ideal patients are looking for. The key is first to learn about your ideal patient. What is it that they truly desire, and how can you help them to achieve those results?
In order to create a truly irresistible offer, you will need to find the right combination of scarcity, social proof, risk-free guarantee, and added value. Crafting the right offer is the key to finding success in every business.
Scarcity
One of the ways you can craft an irresistible offer is by creating a Unique Selling Proposition. Commonly referred to as a USP, Unique Selling Propositions are what makes you different from other dental practices in your area. How can you make your dental office or service(s) more unique? That unique aspect of your dental office is what makes your practice scarce in the eyes of the consumer.
Social Proof
Social proof is another great way to create an irresistible offer. Social proof is when people are encouraged to purchase a service based on the positive reviews from other customers. Many times, potential patients will look for social proof before making their decision about which dental practice to choose.
You can do this by getting as many positive reviews from patients as possible on Google and other places. When you have testimonials, be sure to make them part of your marketing strategy. Place them all around your website, office, and marketing materials.
Learn more about the Science of Persuasion, which includes social proof and scarcity. A good businessman/marketer studies psychology, cognitive bias, and body language. Understanding these things helps you to understand your ideal patient.
Risk-free guarantee
Do whatever you can to eliminate or lower the amount of risk that prospective patients might feel. Offer a risk-free guarantee or money back guarantee to make them feel secure and comfortable with their decision to choose your service.
By offering a risk-free guarantee, you are demonstrating to potential customers that you have confidence in the quality of your service. This can be a great way to boost trust and build relationships with patients.
Value
Add value wherever you can. As a general rule, you’re going to be better off competing with value than competing with price.
For example, you can offer the following for “free”:
- Teeth whitening
- Electric toothbrush
- Consultations
- Botox/fillers
Of course, they aren’t actually “free”. They are marketed that way, but you need to have your prices high enough to compensate for the additional service. The higher ticket services would obviously be more connected to more costly free services. That is because you are competing on value and not price.
These sorts of offers add perceived value that your competition may not be offering. It also may give patients an incentive to choose your practice over others.
Adding value doesn’t just have to be something tangible; it can also be something intangible like a friendly atmosphere or personalized service.
Specific, odd numbers are often best for pricing
The specific pricing that you display in your marketing can have a psychological impact on a patient. For instance, advertising a procedure for $899 as opposed to $900 can make a big difference in perception. Even though it’s only a $1 difference, you might be able to get twice as many people to take the offer.
The reason behind this is simple. People will often only take the first number into account when considering the price. The perception is often that it is $100 cheaper, for that $1 difference.
Additionally, odd-numbered prices are commonly viewed as more attractive and cost effective. The more specific the number, the more likely someone is to trust that the pricing is appropriate. So, instead of marketing implants at $5,000, you might try $4,857.
Happy patients are one of your most powerful forms of marketing
Everyone in business loves referrals. We all know that, because a referral comes to you “pre-sold”. They have already been shown social proof that you are a good dentist.
However, you can leverage your happy patients in more ways than one. Passively waiting for them to send you their friends and family is just one method. You should be doing all that you can to generate as many happy patients as possible. When you have a happy patient, ask them to write a Google review or testimonial. Use great testimonials on every piece of marketing that you send out.
You can also leverage your happy patients by asking them to post about you or communicate with them on social media. If they have a large following, this could be even more effective than a single referral.
Conclusion
In conclusion, marketing is an important part of running a successful dental practice. With these tips and tricks, you should be able to create an effective marketing plan. Utilize patient psychology, risk-free guarantees, value-adds, specific pricing, and happy patients to ensure that you are getting the most out of your marketing efforts.
Do you need help with your dental digital marketing? AdPro4U gives you personalized, responsive assistance with your dental marketing strategies. We’ve helped our dentists generate millions of dollars in revenue for their practices. We can remove the marketing burden for you as well.