Everybody needs a dentist at some point in their lives. But when people need one will they find you? How will they know you are the right dentist for them? How can you take an active role in marketing your dental practice to potential customers, engaging with them, and promoting trust and brand recognition?
The good news is that it has never been easier to connect with potential customers. Like many other businesses, social media is one of the best tools available for you to grow your customer base, your income, and your bottom line. So you’re probably wondering what specifically you need to know when it comes to marketing your dental practice on social media.
Let’s start with a little more about this important marketing channel.
The exponential growth of social media over the last 10 years has created marketing opportunities that many professionals have learned to exploit for the benefit of their practices. Millions of users sign into social media daily. According to Brandwatch statistics, there are nearly 3.5 billion active users of social media. Each spends on average 142 minutes a day on the various platforms.
Mastering social media for marketing your dental practice, can provide a cost-effective way of connecting with your target market. You can develop a social media strategy that will help you to strengthen ties with current clients and connect with new ones.
Why is social media important for dentists?
Social media provides an effective tool to improve relationships with your clients and patients through communication and sharing. Social media, for dentists, offers patients and potential customers a means to reach out and ask questions.
You can help to remove the fear and anxiety that many people experience when they face the prospect of a dentist appointment or dental procedure. Using messaging functions and even automated responses for common patient questions via channels like Facebook Messenger can enhance the overall customer experience.
Regular clients or patients may visit your practice just twice a year so it can be difficult to build strong relationships with them. A well-developed social media plan can help you to stay connected to your existing customer base every day of the year. Keeping front of the mind via social media can encourage clients to remain proactive in their dental care and remind them to make appointments.
You can also use social media to promote other products and services beyond once/twice-yearly check-ups.
Social media is also a great way to reach out to new clients. Many people, who are looking for new service providers will search via social media. According to a PWC report around 40% of healthcare consumers are looking for health information such as customer reviews via social media. Just one marketing tactic you can use is asking satisfied patients to leave reviews on your social media pages.
Social media also gives dentists a platform for promoting information such as geographic location, and the services you offer, increasing the chance of prospective clients in your area finding you.
Leveraging social media, for dentists, can allow you to showcase your expertise and knowledge of the industry, instilling confidence in visitors to your social media accounts. You can create posts and video content that highlights technology, and modern techniques that you use in your practice, as well as your team. Knowing that your business uses the best in modern equipment and has friendly professional staff can help dispel anxiety and attract new patients to your growing practice.
Branding in social media for dentists
Creating a cohesive and recognizable brand will help you to stand out from your competitors. Branding gives your practice character, and it will help your patients to remember your business. Create cohesion by choosing a brand color and imagery, then using it in all your social media posts so that it is easily recognizable as belonging to your practice.
Powerful branding starts with marketing psychology. Read here!
Key social media tips for dentists
- Always reply to comments and questions via social media quickly and in a professional manner.
- Social media content is an opportunity to show off your knowledge and expertise.
- Use sponsored content and social media advertising to find new audiences in your region who don’t already follow your business.
- Make sure that your social media profile/about sections are up-to-date, professional and include key information such as opening hours and contact details.
Social media marketing has the power to introduce the world to your business. When it comes to a dental practice, the market that interests you is the one right on your doorstep, the local community. This is the area upon which you should concentrate, the place where you must actively build relationships.
To encourage local interest, publish content that interests the local community, and your target audience.
Of course, social media marketing for dentists is not just about attracting followers and visitors to your pages and website. It’s the conversion rate that matters. Converting traffic to sales is the ultimate objective. You can take positive actions to improve your conversion rate.
Choosing the right social media sites to market your dental practice
Different social media channels attract different audiences. Your strategy should focus on content aimed at your target audience on the channel(s) that the audience is most likely to use.
Facebook is a popular choice for many businesses to build online relationships. It has more than a billion users and represents a wide spectrum of demographics. Here you can also collect reviews from happy patients, which will encourage others to pay you a visit. It is also ideal for sharing news about your practice, your community, and your industry.
Facebook ads offer dentists a cost-efficient and effective way to promote your services by targeting users based on interests, activity, gender, age, and location. It is an excellent place to market new products or cosmetic procedures offered by your dental practice. Use your Facebook page to show your physical address, phone numbers, and website information.
Use Facebook to:
- Share useful information with visitors
- Update practice information
- Run promotions
- Answer visitor questions
- Offer tips on dental care and oral hygiene
- Use Facebook Live videos to show procedures such as whitening or veneers.
Add a tab onto your Facebook page for email signups. You can use the email addresses for thoughtful marketing such as sending birthday wishes, appointment reminders or promotions.
YouTube
According to Brandwatch, YouTube is the biggest video sharing platform and the second largest search engine on the planet. A billion people watch six billion hours of video footage every month. Furthermore, the popularity of video is growing.
How to market your dental practice using YouTube
- Take a walk through the practice and introduce your staff
- Offer educational snippets on dental health and oral care
- Share cosmetic improvements
- Get happy customers to give you testimonials.
Instagram is one of the biggest social media platforms, with more than one billion active monthly users almost evenly split between men and women. And these users are relatively young with 90% under 35. This demographic could present an opportunity to attract younger patients by focusing on the beauty aspects of dentistry.
Instagram is perfect for publishing before and after photos (with permission of course) and short videos to show potential patients your cosmetic procedures such as teeth whitening and straightening. Include pictures of your staff with a small introduction so that your patients know just who to expect when they come through the doors.
There is something creative in having to say it all in just a few words. To enjoy the benefits of a Twitter following make sure that you monitor newsfeeds and post often to keep your followers interested. Link back to content on your website or even Facebook.
Use Twitter to:
- Answer customer questions
- Share latest news, procedures, and technology
- Ask questions and start a conversation
- Host a poll.
When you’re up-and-running on Twitter, you can learn how to make your content more attractive to engage with!
According to the LinkedIn site, it now has 660 million users. Don’t overlook this social media platform. It is a great way for professional people to network and sell their brands, particularly to other businesses and professionals. Use LinkedIn to show your industry knowledge and share industry-specific and general business insights.
Engaging content a key in social media for dentists
One of the best ways to reach your target audience is through engaging content. Focus on the needs of the audience. Know your target market and pick the platform with the content and the target audience in mind. For example, LinkedIn is a platform for professional engagement and so business-related content is best suited here.
Learn from your opposition when putting together your social media strategy. Check what they are doing. Combine this with what you know about your patients. You can use the time that you spend with your patients to discover what interests them and then use this to engage them with the content that you publish. Keep your content light and humorous to take any anxiety out of the mix.
View this post on Instagram
Don’t forget that the purpose of content is to attract engagement so that you develop your audience and grow your dental practice. Good content is what will draw your audience in and will keep them coming back for more.
Master social media marketing for dentists
In the age of the internet and with the prevalence of social media you can’t afford to be left behind. If you’re not attracting patients through social media you can bet your bottom dollar one or more of your competitors are. Stand out from the competition. Create a social media presence that can’t be ignored.
Your core business is dentistry, so you will want to find ways to minimize the time spent on managing your social media marketing efforts. A great option is to use a social media management tool to take care of the hardest parts for you.
