Are You Making These 7 Worst Dental Marketing Mistakes?

Dentistry is a highly competitive industry, so effective marketing is crucial to ensure patients choose your practice over your competitors. Here are 7 dental marketing mistakes that you should be avoiding and how to correct them.

You don’t Understand Your Ideal Client
It’s easy to say that you cater for everyone. In fact, all dentists do. That is, however, up until you choose a location for your practice. Your ideal client is simply the type of person who lives in the area that your clinic is located. It’s important to research your demographics, even before you open your practice. Understanding your target demographic will help you market properly towards those types of people.
You’re not Asking for Referrals
Internal referrals are one of the most effective marketing tools, especially for medical professionals. That’s because people trust other people’s opinions.
Often people too nervous to ask for referrals, however you’ll find that your patients are actually happy to refer you to their friends and family – provided, of course, you demonstrate superb services. Gain feedback from your clients by simply getting your receptionist to weave it into conversation. Online reviews and star ratings are just as crucial, as people really do pay attention to these when judging your practice.
You’re not Working with What You’ve Got
Relevant to dentists who are purchasing existing practices or opening in a medical clinic, work with the leads you already have. Use these contacts to send a courtesy SMS or email to let them know you’re open and offer them an incentive, such as a voucher, to visit your practice. Note that this is not about buying leads or breaching privacy.
You have an Ineffective Website
Two of the biggest mistakes are having an outdated website and not having one at all. An effective website is modern, visually appealing and conversion friendly. Converting patients via your website means adding consistent and visible CTA’s (e.g. “Book an appointment”), sending patients to separate, relevant landing pages and turning leads into paying clients.
See our Blog : “10 Key Tips Every Dental Practice Websites Need”
You’re not Visible in Local Searches
There’s no doubt you’ve heard of SEO and what it can do to attract and convert patients. However, SEO is only as effective as the work you put into it. People who search Google for dentists are looking for practices in their area. So, make sure your website is specific to your suburb. Simply use “dental practice in (your suburb)” regularly in your website content, rather than just “dental practice.” Your marketer can take care of the rest.
You’re not Personalising Your Approach
The three important steps to dental marketing success are attracting, converting and nurturing. Once you’ve converted your patients, don’t take them for granted. Nurture them by rewarding them, adding value to them and demonstrating that you’re appreciative, especially if they’re loyal customers.
An exciting dental marketing trend is to create your own app. Mobile apps are effective at personalising customer experience and delivering messages directly to your patients. An app can send appointment notifications or birthday rewards to nurture patients. Patients appreciate these simple, yet significant gestures.
You’re Working with Marketers Who don’t Understand Dentistry
A big part of SEO is blog writing to add relevant and valuable content to your website. Some dentists choose to tackle this themselves.
However, most soon realise that they don’t have the time to – being a dentist is already demanding enough. Outsourcing a marketing team takes that pressure away from you. Having said that, it’s important to work with a team that specialises in dentistry, to ensure accurate information and a dental focused marketing strategy.
At 360° Dental Marketing, we specialise in attracting, converting and nurturing clients.