Dental Office Marketing Ideas
When it comes to dental marketing, there is so much information out there and so many “experts” telling you to do this and to do that. We have a better idea, we are just going to show you the results from our dental client and tell you how we got them there, and how you can to. This is a long term strategy that takes time and commitment, if you’d prefer to outsource it, you can contact us.
This comprehensive guide is going to show you the very best tips and tricks to make the most of your dental marketing strategies and maximize the amount of people calling and emailing your dental practice and becoming lifetime clients. We have developed and hones some of the most creative dental marketing ideas that just work!
A lot of blogs and digital marketing sites will tell you to start a blog, post on social media, invest in video marketing and all of that, but for dental practices, that’s all just a waste of time.
You don’t need to spend all of your time trying to convince people to go to you, instead go after the people that desperately need you with just three strategies, that’s it! Simple.
There’s an enormous amount of potential customers out there who are in need of a dentist as soon as possible and aren’t really going to spend their time researching who has the best Facebook page and who has the prettiest website, they just need someone now, and they’re the people you’re going to target, the people who want fillings, dental implants, teeth whitening and so on.
Straight of the bat, as you can see with our methods, our client below had 845 clicks to their custom landing page in 45 days, and they had 214 calls and 86 emails in that period. $1,000 for 309 dental leads! Yeah, that’s value.
And on top of that, when we took over their Google My Business account, it was sitting at position 10 in the 3-pack, and with our help, they’re now #1 in the 3-pack with our strategy.
Before we took over they were getting around 10-15 calls a month from their map listing, and now, well we are closing in on 260 calls a month through GMB now!
What we want to do is show you exactly how you can do it, how to best put your money to work, and how you can utilize your online presence you already have to get some quick wins, this article is about marketing ideas for dental offices that are easy and simple.
Google My Business
If you’re looking at going the cheaper option to begin with, then we have to suggest your Google My Business, you know, the listing that shows up in the Local 3-pack.
Having your Google my Business completely optomised is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your business.
Its at the top of search results (under the Google Ads of course) and can drive a huge amount of traffic and referrals to your website.
There are a hand full of things that you can do to really help your chances of ranking in the local 3-pack under a wide variety of keywords.
Regularly Upload Images
Its no secret that Google loves consistency and fresh content, its what its whole algorithm is based on. If it has been a few months, or even years since you’ve uploaded new photos, get some up. Google really favors listings that are fresh and up to date. This can be a big ranking factor for your map listing.
Fill Out All Of your Services & Information.
In the info tab, there is a large assortment of information that can be put in about your business. Its best to go through each and every single one and fill them about as much as possible.
Your name, address, number, opening hours, services, company bio.
The more information that you fill out, and the more in-depth, the more Google has to read about your dental practice, which intern will help them rank you in the Local 3-pack for more keywords.
If you have a website, you want to make absolute sure that all of the information like name, address, number and opening hours match up on your website and listing.
It can actually hurt your rankings and exposure if they are different, so please double check everything is in sync.
Posts
Posts within the Business listing are becoming a more crucial part to ensuring the maximum amount of exposure, and trust me, Google My Business posts are far more effective than just posting on your Facebook page.
When you make a post, it will last up to 7 days before finishing, but if done right, can drive an enormous amount of people to not only your listing but your website.
We recommenced doing at least one post a week, and making it something that is inviting to click on.
We have completed numerous tests with posts and have found that over a period of time (a few month) if you’re regularly completing posts, your Business listing will move up for multiple keywords withing the Local 3-pack.
Reviews
For the love of god, if you’re not asking happy customers for a review on your map in some way, start doing it! Reviews on your listing are the number one way to spark interest in people looking for your service.
If you have more reviews than your competitors, you’re going to get the majority of the calls.
If you hang a sign at the reception desk saying “happy? Leave us a review on Google” and add a link to your Google listing asking for a review on email invoices etc etc, you will get more reviews.
A lot of people don’t know this but the reviews are actually a huge ranking factor when it comes to getting in that Local 3-pack, as Google is obviously going show the business that have the most high quality reviews, as it provides a far better user experience.
Don’t be lazy, just hang up a sign at the front of your office and it could be one of the best investments you ever make.
Last but not least, Citations.
One way to really power up your listing is to have business citations made on sites like yellow-pages, hot-frog, yelp etc. Building these isn’t really to try and get business from them, but it helps solidify your Google my Business listing as a more legitimate and trustworthy business.
Don’t Fret! You don’t even really need to do this yourself, there are services out there that will build you 100+ citations for as little as $100.
This Service is without a doubt one of the best. All you have to do is fill out all of the information in the fields, and make sure that it matches what is written on your Google My Business, and then choose how many citations you would like built. We would recommenced 50-100, its really one of those “the more the better” scenarios.
Don’t stress too much if the business citations aren’t the prettiest or filled out with photos and information fully, no one is really going to see them for the most part, its just to build power and legitimacy to your Google Business Listing.
Google Ads
You may not wan to hear it, but Google Ads just work. A lot of people may say you can get around not using it, but you cant. If you want the most amount of calls, then using Google Ads is going to be the best way to get there.
If you’re not willing to spend $1000 a month on a Google Ads budget, then what are you even doing in business?
We have some clients spending a few thousand a month on their budget, but are generating over $50,000 a month in new work.
The return on investment can be fantastic if done right and optomised right, which we are going to show you how to do.
This may be a more complex strategy than most, but if you follow our guide, you should be fine.
I personally have been testing and testing different Ad campaigns and I found one that works perfectly for dental practices, and generates them a massive return on the money they put into it, and it has worked the same for different cities and locations.
If you’re thinking about taking on an AdWords campaign, then were going to show you the exact step, although a bit complicated, on how we generate 300+ leads a month for our dental clients with a small spending budget.
Step 1.
The first step is to head over to the Ads homepage and get your account started. Just go to the page and sign in with your gmail or outlook account. Then it begins.
Step 2.
The main advertising goal window will pop up first after you login, all you will want to do is click “experienced with Google Ads?” if you don’t, it will auto prompt you into Adwords Express, and trust me, you don’t want that, as it has a lot less control and
Google has been known to adjust bidding and change daily budgets without people knowing, its terrible.
Step 3.
Once you click that it will ask what campaign type you want, from our experience the best one to pick is search, as this will display your ads to people specifically typing in dental keywords.
Step 4.
You will then be asked to pick a goal type, whether you want more sales, leads or website traffic. Website traffic is going to be your best bet.
Step 5.
One you click website traffic, you will then be asked to put in your website URL. Simple, then click continue.
Step 6.
One you click continue you will come to the main details screen. First enter a campaign name. Make sure the “Search Network” and Display Network” are ticked.
Step 7.
Scroll down from there and you will come across the “Targeting & Audience” section. Here you will put in the area you want your ads to show up ie. your city, town, suburb or where-ever.
Step 8.
Next you will want to pick your daily budget, the amount you are willing to spend everyday. This is going to vary depending how big your city is, how much competition there is etc, so its all up to what you can manage.
Don’t worry about putting in a Maximum CPC budget yet, that comes later down the line.
Step 9.
Once you go through all of those steps, it will take you to the set-up ads groups section.
Here Google will suggest a bunch of keywords that you can use in your campaign, and while you can scroll through them and choose, we only usually use 4-5 Broad Modified keywords in our campaigns. As you can see below we have used the keywords.
- +dentist +Melbourne (change to your city)
- +emergency +dentist
- +family +dentist
- +dental +implants
- +dentures
These 5 keywords seem to work extremely well. You may be asking, whats with the + at the front of each word.
That makes the keyword broad modified, meaning that those keywords have to be in the sentence that the person is typing in Google for your ad to show up.It coverts better and just straight up works.
Step 10.
Once you click save and continue from the keyword section, you will be asked to make your first ad. You can see below what we have typed in for the heading and the description.
Something along the lines of what we have written should work wonders for your campaign.
Step 11.
After you are done creating your first ad, you will be prompted to the payment section, in which you will have to enter all of your details, credit card info (Google deducts the amount you have spent every month)
Step 12.
After yo have entered in your payment information, you will be brought back to the main dashboard (we have blurred out some information as this is an actual clients dashboard)
From here we are going to finish up the basics of the setup by tweaking a few settings.Click to the left of the screen on a tab called “Ads & Extensions”
Step 13.
Once you have clicked on that tab, you can make more ads here, which we highly recommend.
Google usually recommend making 3 ads. Once you have done that, click the Extension tab at the top.
Step 14.
From here click the blue circle with a plus in it, this will bring down a drop down menu of a ton of extensions you can add you your Google ad. We suggest the Call Extension as this will put a clickable phone number on your ad, making it far easier for people to call you quickly.
Another great extension is the Location Extension which will list your address on the ad. You can find out how to achieve that here.
Step 15.
Next you will want to click on the “Ad Schedule” tab to the left of the dashboard. Here you can set up a custom time schedule of when you want your ads to be running eg.
Monday-Friday 9am-5pm. Its bets to put in your business hours because if you don’t, your ads will how after hours and people may try calling you then when no one is there to pick up the phone, cutting into your return on investment.
Step 16.
The last step is a little tactic that most processional never utilize, the devise bid. Essentially what this does is it will increase how much you are willing to bid on a click on certain devices.
This is a great option, and usually we just put a 10% bid adjustment on mobile, as more or less the majority of the people who are searching for you will be on mobile, giving you the advantage to have your ads showing higher in the results.
Facebook Dental Post Ideas
Facebook, ah Facebook, what used to be a lead generation machine has slowed down over the years.
While Facebook can still generate leads, they’re not as targeted as they used to be, but we have tested and come up with a few Facebook post ideas that can get some really incredible engagements that could convert into paying customers.
This is a scenario in which the most attractive and well written post is the one that is going to get clicked on, so you need to be very careful with the images and copy that you choose.
Simply putting “Dentist City” as the heading of the post isn’t going to do anything, to be completely honest, its just boring and doesn’t snap up an attention.
What do you want, an bunch of clicks, or a ton of money!
One thing that we always tell our dental clients to do is to have some sort of offer, you will not believe the power of an incredible good offer and how much it increases the CTR of a Facebook post.
The image above is the perfect example of an amazing Facebook post idea, its fun, its attractive and it could potentially make you a hell of a lot of money!
One thing that has been done amazingly is the use of attractive emojis right next to the important information, this creates a sense of excitement, but it also draws the eyeballs to the content that you want them to see.
The image is also fantastic, a tooth holding two gift vouchers! people love gift vouchers! Even if people weren’t thinking about going to the dentist yet, they may change their mind and go “Oh well I might as well get the looked at now and win a voucher”
The best types of Facebook posts are the ones that are fun and light hearted, but can still generate you new clients and income.
There’s no real point in doing Posts about
“how often you need to go to the dentist”
“here’s a photo of a dog smiling” those kinds of posts wont do anything in terms of money generating and new client sign ups. You might get a few likes here and there, but that doesn’t really mean anything.
You need to create almost a sense of urgency in your dental Facebook posts, a type of “Oh I better do this soon as ill get something free, or a discount!”
This! this post right here, You would not believe the amount of clicks and form submission this thing got! I’m talking in the hundreds.
Now while this was an Ad, the actual Ad spend was tiny, and it built a whole new list of clients.
This is the kind of stuff you need to be posting, give something away for free, have a chance to win something.
If people know they can get free teeth whitening by becoming a new client, they will sign up even if they don’t need it!
If you’re going to be running Ads or posts like this, you will want to ensure that you have the user going to either your contact page, or better yet a high converting landing page.
If you can get people to fill out their name and their email address, not only can you then email them about the free product, chance to win promotion, then you have their email! and potentially hundreds of other, which you can then put into a data list and use for future email promotions, thus generating more money!
That’s It!
These are the two strategies that we use for our dental clinic clients and it has worked with amazing results every time.
You don’t need to be wasting time building up a Facebook page, Pinterest page, Instagram following, as those people aren’t really going to convert to clients.
Our three strategies are targeting the people always looking for you as they NEED you!
We have turned some of our dental clients $1000 ad-words spends and generated them $30-40,000 a month in work from it, so just do what works, as the real reason you’re here is because you want calls and customers.
Michael is the founder of Home Giraffe Digital Marketing. With over 12 years of experience in the SEO, AdWords & Marketing sector, he has built up a wealth of knowledge and skill in the industry over the years.