How to Effectively Connect With Patients and Market Your Dental Practice during the pandemic

This global pandemic has affected various dental clinics as close contact is needed to operate emergency procedures and most dental associations have strongly recommended not to engage with non-emergency procedures.

It has caused most dental practices across the country to become limited in how they could serve patients and postpone non-emergency procedures.

We both know that there’s no certainty of when this pandemic will end. The key is to remove your patients’ fear of potential virus infection and create a sense of certainty when they set clinic appointments.

The best thing that you can do is to focus on what you can control right now such as your consistent connection to your patients and dental marketing efforts.

Embracing the new normal can also mean adapting to new strategies to keep your business open using the power of dental marketing to target your existing and new patients.

There are tons of ways in marketing for dentists like you, but here are some of the best ways that we think that can help you effectively connect with your patients, market your dental practice, and thrive even during a pandemic:

Be patient, and think like a patient.

Before you start creating dental marketing strategies for your dental practice, you have to put yourself in your patients’ shoes.

Understanding their pain, and fears of why they won’t go to your dental clinic can help you strategize what would be the best way to send the perfect message to your patients.

Check what could be the possible questions they could search online.

They might ask:: “Where is the nearest dental clinic that can perform a dental implant during a pandemic?” should have an answer, and that is to make sure that your dental clinic site is also on the top search result when they search.

If not, you might want to consider optimizing your website through dental marketing companies available online.

It’s time for Site Updates

Have a quick look at your website and check the loading speed and the links.

Create a FAQ page and be as detailed as possible from the office hours, contact numbers, or link for an online appointment, what to bring or wear before you enter the clinic, to specific procedures you only accommodate within a quarter.

Try creating a weekly blog that shows your clinic’s complete sterilization setup or tips to maintain your oral health during quarantine. This type of content can help ease your patients’ anxiety in attending your clinic and gain trust to book an online appointment from your site.

Your site reputation is important, so make sure that your website is on the top search results. You may consider asking for consultation from a dental marketing agency for further insights.

Social Media now is Your New Best Friend

One of the best ways to reach your patients is through social media since most of us are staying at home browsing the internet to be informed and entertained.

You can create a simple Facebook banner to show your clinic hours, or an infographic post showing your FAQ list.

Post at least 1-3 times a week on two online platforms. Make it positive, informative and personal while keeping the designs consistent. Use hashtags and your website link on every post.

Lastly, add a call to action to your Facebook page to book an appointment directly on your social media handles.

Videos, videos, everywhere…

Video marketing is booming right now, considering that online users have a short attention span, videos can help you engage, can create transparency, credibility, to your patients online.

You can also create a dental care video showing your clinic’s sterilization process, or a before and after a dental procedure video to boost your brand reputation and availability to execute specific procedures even during a pandemic.

Creating your own videos is possible, but If you want to lessen the stress of figuring things from scratch, there are reputable dental marketing agencies that can execute this type of content.

Personalise your email updates

Use your patients’ email to connect to them. Email marketing is another powerful dental marketing strategy that you might overlook.

Remember that social media platforms may close for good as well as your followers’ contacts, but as long as you have your patients’ email, you can still connect with them.

Send an email blast for all the important operational updates to your patients’ email.

Ask if they are still okay. Connecting with your patients on a personal level, will definitely create rapport. Some of your patients are located in a different area and a quick email update can save your patients’ time and travel effort for sudden travel restrictions within your clinic area.

A Final Thought

This global pandemic has affected dentistry tremendously with limited services available due to safety precautions for patients worldwide. However, you can always control how you communicate with patients and market your dental services through dental marketing. In this blog, we showed some of the simple and effective ways on how to do it.

Since most of you are focusing on personally serving your patients, it is better to seek a professional and reliable dental marketing agency to outsource your dental marketing needs.

If you are still not sure where to start, you can always get a free 30-minute consultation call to help you walk through the process for your dental marketing needs.