How To Attract More Patients Online
I’ve compiled my top 10 marketing tips for dentists below to help you make more of your online presence and get more patients in your local area.
- Use emails to reduce appointment no-shows
Patients who don’t turn up for appointments cost you money. If you take an email address for every new patient as well as a mobile number you can send them reminders a day or two in advance of their appointments.
- Use videos on your website to help put patients at ease
Showing your dental surgery on video as well as short staff introductions will help to put new patients at their ease and let them know what to expect.
- List your dental practice on free web directories
There are many free web directories where you can list details of your dental practice. The benefits of this are two-fold; firstly it will help drive more visitors to your website and secondly, it will create incoming links to your site which may have SEO benefits.
- Integrate your online and offline marketing
It’s a good idea to integrate your online and offline marketing. One way of doing this is to place an advert in a local paper offering a promotional code that’s only available on your website.
You could also run a competition for something like a free teeth whitening treatment and ask people to go online to enter so you can capture their email addresses and mobile numbers.
- Write oral health tips and articles
Search engines love fresh content so writing regular tips and articles on oral health will benefit your patients and improve your online rankings.
- Create an online patient referral scheme
What better way to market your dental practice than through word of mouth?
Having an online referral scheme whereby current patients get rewarded for recommending new patients will help you grow your practice in a cost effective way.
- Allow people to book an appointment by email
Giving your patients a choice of how to book appointments will be well received. As well as telephone bookings, why not let them book by email too?
This could be done through a simple form on your website and you could then send a confirmation email.
- Use patient testimonials on your website
Genuine testimonials of people’s experience of your practice will help to attract new patients. If you can find any patients to agree, video testimonials are even more powerful than written ones.
- Use social media to boost your profile online
Most people wouldn’t expect to find their local dentist on Twitter or Facebook so there’s an opportunity there to promote yourself.
Having an online social media presence will help to break down the barriers between patient and dentist and help you to attract new local patients.
- Make sure your website is optimised
Whether you’ve got an existing website or having a new one designed you need to make sure it’s optimised for the search engines. It’s all very well having a beautifully designed site but it’s worthless if people can’t find it when they search online for a local dentist.
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