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Dental Digital Marketing, Cont.

Social media management

Monitoring and managing social media can be challenging. It’s nearly impossible to put a value on having a professional manage your accounts for you. Not only this, but social media managers can help develop strategies and content that best fits your practice.

Part of a social media manager’s job is to engage with potential patients, answer questions, respond to comments, and create quality content. By using automated posting tools and scheduling posts in advance, you can save time throughout the week so that more time can be spent on other practice marketing tasks.

Another benefit of social media management is the potential for negative comments. When a post receives a negative comment, rather than responding directly to the patient, a social media manager can curate and craft a response from your practice that still answers the patient’s question or concern. Since you’re not replying to an individual person, it prevents any type of confrontation between patients and the staff responsible for handling social media accounts.

Website design

A beautifully designed website can bring together all of the pieces of your dental marketing puzzle. Websites can showcase your latest content and blog posts, as well as provide a welcome to potential patients. A dental website also allows you to register new patients and collect leads from visitors.

Although websites are sometimes overlooked in the world of dental marketing, they are an essential component to any dental practice’s growth plan. Not only do they act as a hub for all other forms of online marketing, but they also make it easy for potential patients to get in touch with you directly through email or phone if they want to schedule an appointment or have more questions about your services.

Dental practice management

Because the digital world is ever-changing, it’s also constantly changing your dental marketing strategy. For this reason, you need to have a team or group of people working with you on managing multiple aspects of your dental practice.

Typically, a good dental office management group will include :

Digital marketing manager :

handles content creation and social media posting tasks for the practice. Also manages paid advertising campaigns.

Digital media team member(s) :

develops and maintains SEO strategies and keyword strategies to increase organic presence in search engines such as Google. This person may also be responsible for monitoring analytics to determine the most effective keywords and strategies for your practice. Sometimes this role is combined with the digital marketing manager role.

Graphic design team member :

may also be part of the digital media team, or may handle all graphic and content creation needs for the practice. Or, they may work with both marketing and social media.

Search engine optimization (SEO) manager :

this is a separate role from digital marketing manager in that this person can only manage SEO strategies for your practice. Usually, the SEO manager manages content creation around SEO topics and answers questions about search engine optimization on behalf of the practice.

Webmaster :

ensures that all websites are updated with information about new services, as well as any future changes to services or forms/documents required for patients to use your practices. Webmasters also update the website with any new news, information and press releases.

Web development team member :

works with the webmaster to ensure all practices’ websites are up and running, are accessible by all devices and updated regularly.

Web content creator :

manages website content that is rich in keywords and copywriting that can be easily indexed by search engines. This person is also responsible for any long-form copywriting needed for print materials, like dental brochures or newsletters.

Web designer :

creates the user experience of your dental office’s website. This person uses wireframes to help determine interaction between users (new patients) and the practice website (your practice). They also manage the aesthetics and usability of the site.

Web marketing team member :

manages the daily content that is shared on various social media platforms. This role is responsible for creating, scheduling and removing content from social media accounts as needed, as well as writing up any tweet/status updates or blog posts that are needed or requested by the practice’s social media team.

In the United States, spending on internet advertising will reach $81.9 billion in 2018, an increase of 12.8% over 2017. This increase is largely attributed to increased spending on mobile advertising which is set to overtake spend on newspaper and magazine advertising for the first time in history during 2018.

A campaign consisting of patient testimonials and endorsements can have a major impact on the adoption of a new product or service by increasing credibility and sales volume. The use of humor in marketing has been growing as an effective business tool that not only helps boost brand personality but also can help drive sales growth through increased brand engagement.

Growth plans and marketing strategies for dentists should include the digital side of the practice. While these plans should have great content and good ideas, there is still a need for digital agencies that have the tools and experience to create and manage campaigns on several different platforms. Here are some tips for finding a digital agency to help grow your practice:

Once you’ve found a digital agency that specializes in your market sector, make sure you ask them how they’ll measure campaign performance. It’s also important to go over budgets before work begins so there aren’t any surprises later on.

Digital marketing is not limited to online campaigns only; although it does bring significant value in this area. A study by McKinsey & Company in 2015 evaluates the impact of digital media on consumers’ purchase decisions. The results of the study indicate that digital media has had a significant impact in changing consumers’ behavior and purchase decisions, particularly in new and emerging markets like India.

Digital marketing is not just a buzzword for dentists; it can be used to grow your practice’s organic visibility, which gives you more control over your brand and how people contact you for appointments. With the average person spending almost 3 hours online daily, it makes sense to harness the power of this consumer behaviour to increase your visibility.

Dentists should focus on the internet, television, radio and print to reach their target audience. Here are four simple principles that can help you understand how this form of marketing works:

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to online marketing for dental practices. It all depends on what your particular audience wants, how much money you have to spend and where you want your practice to be in the long term. There are also many options for online advertising that include display ads (ads that appear on websites), search ads (ads that appear in search engine results pages) and social media ads (ads created by advertisers to promote their products or services).

Dentists who are considering using an online marketing campaign should keep in mind that it is a delicate process. While digital media may be more cost effective than other forms of advertisements, the effectiveness and success of a dental practice depends on the online media chosen to create and promote its services.

Here are some tips for advertising online :

Before you start your online search for a digital agency, make sure you have an idea of what you’re looking for. You can ask friends, family members and colleagues to recommend agencies they’ve worked with in the past. Make sure you talk to at least three different agencies before deciding which one will be able to create your plan.

Which dental marketing services are best for my practice?

There’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach to marketing services. On the contrary, each dental practice requires a customized plan for its specific goals and objectives.

With our proven integrated marketing services, you will gain a competitive edge! We’ve built-in your practice’s informational needs into every stage of the marketing process – from conceptualization through execution. Our expertise allows us to ensure that your message, execution, and message placement all deliver on expectations.

Our marketing services are designed to create a highly-focused presence in the marketplace. By leveraging our expertise, we can ensure your message is delivered accurately and consistently. We provide you with team members who have extensive in-field experience and a history of positive customer results. Our customized results will attract new patients, build trust within your patient base, and enhance overall brand recognition.

In addition to traditional paid media, our integrated marketing services provide more opportunities for engaging patients. Our digital marketing services allow you to capture emerging patient behaviors, providing high ROI opportunities that your competition will not be able to match.

Our integrated marketing services provide a consistent approach to all elements of your marketing plan. As a result we understand your practice’s unique goals and objectives and can make recommendations that will produce the highest level of ROI for your practice.
Successful dental marketing means presenting the best possible image and message to your target audience. Our marketing services are designed to help you reach the right people with the right message – your ideal patients!

Engaging your target audience with a consistent message will increase brand awareness, improve image perception, extend credibility and build trust through word-of-mouth marketing. With our integrated marketing services we can work with you to establish both a creative and an effective platform for communicating with your patients.

Effective dental advertising communicates value. We focus on building a unique and consistent brand identity that provides credibility and conveys trust.

Our dental marketing services start with a professional consultation to determine your practice’s unique marketing objectives. Our team will then develop a strategy to achieve these goals. From there, our specialized marketing services team will implement the plan. End result: your message will be delivered in a highly effective and credible way.

Our marketing services have been successfully implemented by scores of dental offices nationwide. Dentists from practices as small as one office, to large corporations, are providing us with referrals because of the positive results they are experiencing.
We have worked with practices of all sizes and in many different markets to provide integrated marketing services that deliver outstanding results.

Dental Marketing the Right Way

Are your current dental marketing efforts producing any meaningful results?

rather than passively waiting for referrals, and waiting for patients to somehow magically find you, consider how purposeful, intentional dental marketing can be vital to continually and steadily growing your dental business.

However, most patients and potential patients still don’t know where to find your practice. If they’re a patient you can always ask them to contact you directly. But for the other 85% of potential patients, they’ll need to be referred by somebody, and a highly effective way of doing that is through digital marketing.

How does digital marketing bring in new patients?

The most effective way to get leads through digital marketing is through social media. It’s how people are finding their current dentist, and it’s what you want your potential patients to do as well. Social media is the quickest and easiest way to contact people, build trust and confidence with potential patients and current patients, bring in new leads, increase brand awareness, and improve search engine rankings!

But the surest way to get leads is by word of mouth. Ask your friends or family who they would recommend for a dentist appointment. If you have enough referrals from those types of sources or if leads come from your company site (which is marketing itself).

Dental marketing is not the same as dental advertising. If you want to market your dental practice then you need to think about long term. You’re not just selling a product; you’re helping people with something important that will become a necessity in their everyday lives.

You also should remember that your site is not only for new patients but also for existing patients who still need some convincing or a reminder of why they liked your service in the first place. So your marketing needs to focus on improving retention, increasing word of mouth and referrals, and, finally, growing your business through advertising.

You’ve got a lot of options when it comes to advertising and marketing your practice. But the most effective approaches are the ones that are personalized to your practice and focused on building brand awareness, online visibility, and increasing referrals.

Here are some things you should do for dental marketing:

  • Make a list of all the people who have seen your website or heard about you in some way before. Begin to build a contact list so that when you make changes to your site or launch new content, you can reach out to them and remind them about what they’ve seen before while also guiding them to new content you’ve added or updated since last time they visited.
  • Start a blog. People are drawn to new and interesting content, especially when it’s on a topic they care about or are interested in hearing more about. You can post regular articles that talk about new developments in your industry, give readers information about their oral health habits, discuss your practice or your approach to dental treatment, and much more. The key is to regularly produce new and valuable content for your blog readers!
  • Don’t forget the importance of email marketing. Email marketing is a great way to build brand awareness online by reaching out to potential patients via their inboxes and reminding them of what you have to offer. Start a newsletter for your practice and invite people to sign up. Also, send out regular content updates that promote digital marketing and explain why you think your practice is a great place to come in for treatment.
  • Share valuable content. Put a lot of energy into creating great dental content that will be useful to your readers, whether it’s through social media posts, your blog, Instagram, or other similar channels. Make sure it’s educational and informative so that people will want to share it with their friends!
  • Invest in a content management system. If you want your dental marketing to be successful then you need to invest in a really good content management system like the one from Dental Tribune. CMS has several great features that will help make your digital marketing and digital presence much more effective. Here are some examples:
  1. Allow you to update your site as often as necessary and as often as possible so that it’s always current.
  2. Makes it easier for people to share your site’s content with others by providing social media buttons that make it easy for them to quickly take action and share your content with their friends, family, and other contacts.
  3. Allow you to drill down into data about your site’s visitors so that you can see what types of content are most popular, who your visitors are, and more!

Dental marketing doesn’t need to be complicated. Focus on building brand awareness and trust, attracting new leads, and encouraging word of mouth with your existing patients by providing valuable content that will resonate with people. Digital marketing can help you reach people where they already spend a lot of their time online as well as provide them with the information they need to make better decisions about their oral health.

If you want to learn more about dental marketing and get the most from your digital marketing, Dental Tribune is the right choice for you. It’s a ridiculously easy-to-use content management system that will help you organize and optimize content for your site, maximize on your digital reach with search engine optimization (SEO), and improve customer service!

Go ahead and give it a try today!

Creating a Dental Website that (Actually) Bring in New Patients!

If you’re in the market for selecting a trusted vendor to create an amazing dental website for you, you’ll more than likely see two options available to you:

Selecting from Dental Websites that are truly custom, or Template Dental Websites

What exactly are you getting?

The minimum cost for a dental website built by a single developer

That’s $4,500-$5,000. This is the lowest price you can get. For this kind of price, you’ll receive a one-page website with no customization – and that’s it! There will be some basic functionality: A contact form, an order form, basic website functionality (a few pages), and possibly an events calendar.

This option is good if you want to show off your business (at the most basic level) to potential buyers and clients. It allows you to showcase your name and specialty – but doesn’t allow for much customization or additional pages.

If you want to go a little bit further, the cost will vary between $5,000-$6,500. For this price range, you’ll get a 2-4 page dental website with some basic functionality in it.

Some possible features:

An events calendar (if you already have events scheduled), contact information on your website, an “about us” section with your biography and photo – so on and so forth. You’re getting slightly more than what the minimum option gives you. But, still nothing major or life-changing.

Hitting the right price point often requires a clear understanding of what you want your website to do for you.

How do you get a basic website started?

Before you finalize on a price, make sure that you know what you want your website to do for you. Not only that, but how much can you spend on getting it done?

Here’s the downside to spending a large amount of money with one vendor.

You may get one or two features in your website, but if they’re poorly designed and not really functional or user-friendly, it can be frustrating for you and your clients.

We’ll teach you what it’s like to work with a client and how to work with them to get the best price for your dental website. (And that’s not just lip service – we mean it!)