How To Market A Dental Clinic
Marketing is a crucial aspect of any business, even more so in service-based practices like a dental clinic. In general, a private dental clinic needs at least 20 new patients every month to remain successful. However, getting new clients can be a daunting task for both new and existing dentists and the market for dental clinics is competitive. That is why we have put together a comprehensive guide to help you with ideas on how to market a dental clinic.
Contribute To Your Community
You need to cultivate the right public image in the community where your dental clinic is located. Since it is a local business, and these are your potential customers, you need to relate well with them. Sponsorships, speaking opportunities and your practice’s participation in some community festivals or celebrations is important. Also, consider doing things like sponsoring local teams or schools. Having visibility during competitions or school drop off line will help to foster valuable relationships, and aid with getting referrals.
Create Incentives For Referring Patients
Whether you are already existing practice or just opening a new dental clinic, designing a referral program will open a new patient stream that you might not have thought about before. For instance, for referring someone who ends up in your clinic, the referrer might get a discount, a dental product, a gift, or a free service. Consequently, this will motivate your current clients, friends and employees to take part in the referral process.
Leverage Google My Business
This is one of the most accessible marketing strategies with a significant return on investment (ROI). By listing your dental clinic on Google My Business, your business shows up when a potential customer does a location-based search, such as in Google Maps. Furthermore, to get maximum value, you need to fill out all the essential details like business category, description of your services, clinic location, and phone number. The more information and reviews your business listing has, the better it will appear in search results.
Have An SEO Optimized Dental Website
The first contact a patient will have with you is usually your website. As a result, its look and functionalities go a long way to determine who stays and who leaves. Faster loading sites tend to get more business, as do sites with lots of useful content that contains your keywords.
For instance, if your website does not load within three second, more than half of visitors will turn elsewhere or go back to the search page. Since that’s the last thing you want to happen, consider your website’s responsiveness and speed a priority. Also, adding a security certificate/protocol makes you more authentic to clients and also is important for SEO.
Start An SEO Keyword-Focused Dental Blog
One way to demonstrate expertise, topic authority, and proficiency in your field and showcase that knowledge is to start a blog. What’s more, a dental blog with a properly implemented SEO strategy will rank high in search engine results pages (SERPs). Meanwhile, you should select a handful of keywords that you would like to rank high for. When doing this, however, be sure to put your location into consideration to feature in local searches.
Register In Appropriate Dental Directories
In addition to the strategies mentioned above, listing your dental clinic in relevant directories will generate some traffic. For instance, general online directories such as Yelp and Google My Business are good places to start. Not only that, but there are also more dental-specific ones like The Dentist Hub, Every Dentist, Zoc Doc, Super Dentists, Dentists.com, and Dentist Directory, among others.
The above list is one of the most extensive and exhaustive on the subject. However, you cannot implement all the strategies at the same time. Pick one or two and test them. With time, your results will show you the most appropriate way to go on how to market your dental clinic.
If all of this seems like too much, consider hiring a marketing firm that understands the dental market, Health Media Experts specializes in marketing and SEO for medical and dental businesses.