I believe that there are three key steps to dental marketing success. Those are attracting, converting and nurturing.
ATTRACTING
Attracting is simply the process of getting clients to notice you. In many ways, it’s the easiest step. Let’s have a think about where you’re spending your marketing budget. You’re likely to be spending thousands of dollars on marketing tools such as SEO, Adwords, social media, newspaper advertisements, EDM and SMS. So that’s it? That’s marketing, right? Wrong! That’s only the first step to marketing your dental practice!
CONVERTING
Once you have attracted your patients, you then have to convert them into buyers. Converting is all about engaging and encouraging them to visit your dental practice. The best way to do this is by demonstrating what you have to offer to them. Here are some ways to create conversions:
Content
Not only is blog writing helpful for Dental SEO, but it demonstrates your expertise and should answer any questions that your target marketing is asking when they search Google. Optimising the content on your website encourages patients to explore your website and services. It’s also important to direct patients to separate landing pages with a call to action.
Incentives
Incentives are a way to encourage patients to do business with you. The simplest method for this is offering a voucher or a discount for new patients.
Personalisation
Personalisation is all about customising your approach to converting leads into buyers. This should take into consideration what the patient needs from you and is also a great way to reward patients.
Call to action
Of course, none of these methods of conversion will work without a “call to action” directing your patients to your practice. A CTA can either be a sign-up form that your patients fill out (e.g. to book an appointment) or a link to your practice’s contact page (e.g. to inform them of your telephone number or street address).
Conversion is also necessary to measure where you patients are from and what marketing technique attracted them to your business. The easiest way to find this out is to include the question, “How did you hear about this dental practice?” at the bottom of a new patient form. Otherwise, it doesn’t hurt to ask in conversation. This necessary part of conversion will actually help you in the stage of attracting, by determining what marketing tools work and where you should spend your marketing budget.
NURTURING
Once you have converted the patients, nurturing is all about keeping them for the long haul. When you nurture your clients, you’re demonstrating that you care for them and will offer them the best services. It’s about asking yourself how you can add value to them and what more you can do for them to encourage them to be loyal customers.
Nurturing your clients is the key to getting referrals, which I truly believe are one of the most powerful marketing tools for dental practices.
All three steps of this funnel, attracting, converting and nurturing, are necessary to build a quality database of patients at your dental practice.
Need some advice on how to attract, convert and nurture clients to your dental practice?
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