As more patients use the internet to find a dentist, paid marketing methods like Google Ads are essential for practices to grow. But with limited budgets and a highly competitive marketplace, dentists need to be certain they are producing the best possible results.

The key to unlocking more efficient paid marketing is measurement – and the most important metric of all is return on investment (ROI).

What Is ROI (Return on Investment)?

ROI indicates the net financial impact of an investment. The simplest way to calculate it is to divide your total revenue by your total costs. If, for example, you spend $100 on paid marketing and generate $200 in new patient bookings, your ROI would be 2x or +100%.

Why is ROI Important for Dental Marketing?

Marketing is only worthwhile if it helps your practice generate more profit. But it’s easy to lose sight of the bottom line impact of marketing and focus on the visible benefits, such as how many new patients you’ve acquired. As a result, you might mistakenly assume your marketing is working well – even if it’s producing a net loss.

Measuring the ROI of your marketing helps ground your decisions in the reality of your business economics. It enables you to:

• Quantify how effective your current marketing strategy is
• Find ways to make your marketing spend more efficient
• Avoid overspending on strategies or tactic that don’t produce measurable results

Three Reasons ROI is Particularly Important for Paid Marketing

1. The impact of paid marketing is exclusively about your bottom line

While brand building or developing a website could be seen as long-term investment that produce intangible value by increasing patient awareness and trust, the only reason to buy Google Ads is to produce measurable results.

You can reasonably consider your website a sunk-cost – and therefore not worry too much about its short-term ROI. But paid marketing that produces losses should be dispensed immediately.

2. The ROI of paid marketing campaigns varies wildly between practices.

Research shows that top performing paid marketing for dentists produces results more than 10x better than the industry average – so there is a big gap between marketing strategies that “work” and those that produce a major competitive advantage. Measuring your ROI helps you benchmark your existing performance and see how much you could improve things with the right strategy.

3. The common errors dentists make in paid marketing are easy to mitigate

You could be overspending on keywords that don’t produce quality leads or simply bidding on the wrong keyword altogether. But these mistakes will quickly be revealed by a solid ROI calculation and can be fixed with relative ease. That means ROI is not just a retrospective measure but something that can be used to proactively improve your marketing within days.

How to Measure the ROI of Your Paid Marketing

A simple ROI calculation does not capture the full complexity of paid marketing. Instead, a truly accurate assessment of your marketing profitability should factor in:

• The cost of your total paid marketing spend
• The number of patients you generate
• And your average patient lifetime value (PLV)

But even that misses out key factors that determine the true impact of your paid marketing.

Why? Because every marketing channel and strategy involves opportunity costs. Your marketing budget is limited, and the true “cost” of your paid marketing is not just the price of your ads – it’s missing out on other marketing methods.

Dentists should always ask themselves: could we get a higher ROI from a different service? Because while paid marketing may produce positive ROI, you may still be making a loss if the opportunity cost is too high.

3 Ways to Fix Poor Paid Marketing ROI

1. Refine your keywords

Dental searches range from extremely broad (“dental practice”) to extremely specific (“root canal surgery in Casper Wyoming”). This creates a huge scope for dentists to bid on the wrong keywords that produce unsuitable patients.

Assess which keywords have produced the highest conversion rate and turned into actual patients. This will help you refine your strategy, remove underperforming terms and zone in on ads that actually produce a return.

2. Change your bidding strategy

The cost of paid marketing varies wildly depending on the level of competition for keywords. Many dentists assume that competitive keywords are inherently more valuable, but this is often not the case. In fact, most dentists are served by highly specific keywords that have fewer bids but more accurately capture your ideal audience.

Your best strategy is to determine the ROI of specific keywords and find a balance between volume and profitability. Get rid of ads that cost too much, as well as ads that are underperforming in terms of their CRT. This process of optimizing will quickly improve your overall performance and leave with only the most effective ads.

3. Experiment with new platforms

Don’t get stuck on one form of paid marketing. While ads can yield a strong ROI, you may be better served by a patient acquisition platform like Opencare that connects you directly with dental patients.

This doesn’t have to be either/or: you can experiment with both and compare the results. If you find one produces significantly higher or more reliable ROI, then you can progressively alter your digital marketing strategy to focus on that approach.

How Opencare Delivers Best-in-class ROI

No upfront fees

Our platform doesn’t charge set-up fees or fixed fees, and you won’t have to pay if a patient doesn’t show up or is under 18. This helps keep the initial investment low.

Zero-risk model

We only charge you when our platform produces a paying patient. As a result, you will only have to pay when you start producing revenue from our service, which removes the risks associated with lead generation agencies.

Extensive marketing

Our long-term investment in SEO, social media and content marketing has helped us build a strong brand and a reputation for expertise in the dental space. We rank for the majority of organic Google searches for local dentists, and our popular referral programs brings in a large volume of new users each month.

Long-term relationships

Not only do we help the average dental practice win 5-10 new patients per month (and some as many as 40!); the patients we produce are loyal. Our average rebooking rate is 85%, producing a high life-time value for every patient.

The result? A zero-risk, highly efficient service that helps you generate and retain lots of high-quality patients – and produce an average ROI of 640% within the first year alone.

Boost Your Bottom Line with Opencare

The average paid marketing campaign produces 200% ROI, but Opencare delivers considerably higher ROI – and is considerably more reliable. If you are currently using paid marketing but want to try a different approach, book your free Opencare demo today.

The post How to Maximize ROI From Your Paid Dental Marketing appeared first on The Floss By Opencare.

Digital marketing has become the most important way for patients to find new dental practices, which means having a high-quality website is no longer an “optional extra”. However, as more dentists get websites, a new problem arises: how to stand out and successfully use your website to acquire new patients.

The reality is many dental practices are actively losing new patients because their website is not properly optimized for patient acquisition. And in this article, we explore…

3 Important Aspects of Digital Marketing Most Dentists Miss

1. Visibility

Why it matters

The whole point of having a digital presence is to ensure more patients discover your practice. In fact, a recent survey found that 18.4% of patients are most likely to pick the dental practice which ranks highest on search engines.

But simply having a website is not enough to make this happen: most patients will still never stumble upon your website if the site isn’t optimized to appear high in search results, especially as the number of dental practices grows and competition online increases.

Even if a patient has heard about your practice from a friend or social media, they will still likely visit your website before booking an appointment. For many patients, this is a form of due diligence. And if your website is not easily searchable or doesn’t include key information such as insurance details and a list of your services, they will take it as a negative signal – and most likely go with a different dentist.

What you can do

Dentists need to understand that there are multiple ways for patients to find your practice. Generating more search engine traffic comes from Search Engine Optimization(SEO), where dentists improve the volume and quantity of content on your website which is essential to help your site rank. But you also need to think about the various other avenues through which patients might discover your practice.

A strong presence on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok can provide a huge boost to your overall visibility and brand recognition, as can being featured on dental discovery platforms like Opencare and Zocdoc.

Cover these bases and your practice will be far more visible than most competitors.

2. Easy Booking

Why it matters

Consumers expect online transactions to be easy, and 18% say they abandon a purchase because the checkout process is too complicated. This applies to dental patients too: most will simply go elsewhere if it is not quick and easy to book an appointment online.

What you can do

First, it should be extremely clear how to book an appointment through your website. There are a few ways to achieve this:

• Make your phone number visible on every page
• Use scheduling tools like LocalMed to make it easy to book online
• Include a link to your Opencare page

Second, you should ensure there is plenty of quality information about your practice and what patients can expect throughout your website. Most patients will not make a booking online if they are unsure about the quality, cost or people involved.

Your website should therefore list:

• Your services and pricing
• The length of appointment
• When you have available appointments.
• Which insurance you accept
• Profiles of your staff

High-quality images and case studies can also help boost confidence and entice patients to book an appointment, as can…

3. Social proof

Why it matters

With a large number of practices to choose from, patients need a way to determine which dentist will provide the best value – and which they can trust. One study found that 43.3% of patients choose the dentist with the best online reviews, making reviews the single most important factor in selecting a practice.

What you can do

Your practice needs to encourage as many patients as possible to write reviews and rate your service online. The best way to do this is by making it easy to post a review and prompting patients to do so immediately after their appointment. These reviews should then be showcased across your entire digital presence, from your website to your profile on Opencare and Zocdoc.

Enhance Your Digital Presence with Opencare

Having a quality website is essential, but a patient acquisition platform helps you connect with more patients and cover all bases in your digital marketing. Our extensive investment in SEO and social media marketing has helped us become the trusted source for quality dental practices.

We help dentists:

• Increase visibility via our popular marketplace. Opencare ranks highly on nearly all “dentist near me” searches and has a strong presence on social media, meaning your practice will be seen by far more people.
• Make booking simple with our intuitive user interface. Patients can find your practice, learn about your services, see your reviews and book an appointment with just a few clicks.
• Generate more social proof. Our system enables you to automatically request reviews after every appointment, increasing the total volume of reviews you get and helping you stand out online.

As a result, we produce up to 40 new patients each month for many leading practices.

Want to learn more about our zero-risk approach to digital marketing for dentists?

The post Is Your Website Preventing You from Acquiring New Patients? appeared first on The Floss By Opencare.

Every dental practice needs a reliable flow of new patients. It’s how you keep the lights on, the bills paid, and your staff busy. But from prioritizing patient care to ensuring daily operations run smoothly, you likely don’t have the time and resources to focus solely on patient acquisition.

As a result, many dentists rely on dental marketing agencies to find, nurture and convert new patients. In this article, we explain the value an agency brings, as well as how and when to hire the right one for your practice.

Why You Should Consider a Dental Marketing Agency

With the number of dentists expected to grow by 10% by 2040, patients will have far more choice and dentists will face a lot more competition. Excellent service and quality care is going to be more important than ever, but word of mouth will only get you so far.

Instead, you need to actively pursue new patients using digital marketing methods. From building a quality dental website and improving your search rankings to creating content and building a presence on social media, there are multiple ways patients discover practices today. The problem is most dentists are not skilled in these areas – which is why they turn to professionals.

There are many different kinds of digital marketing agencies, from generic firms to patient acquisition specialists. But all of them help you navigate complex digital marketing channels and build your practice – allowing you to focus on caring for your patients.

When is the Right Time to Work with a Dental Marketing Agency?

When You Are Establishing a New Practice

Whether you’ve recently gone into business or are starting out on your own after working at another dental office, you’re going to need marketing to establish a new practice. For patients to book an appointment, they have to be aware of your practice – and a digital marketing agency can help with that.

Patients need to know:

• Where your practice is
• What hours it’s open
• Who you are as a dentist
• What you offer that competitors don’t.

All this will be made clear through digital marketing, from the copy on your website to your listings on a platform like Opencare. So that when you open your front doors, you already have patients lining up out the door.

You Would Like to Grow Your Practice

You’ve established your practice and have been around for a few years. There’s a reliable patient list, and cash flow isn’t a problem. But your practice is at a point where you’d like it to grow, and without bringing in brand-new patients, that’s not going to happen.

You need a constant stream of new appointments in order to justify bringing on new staff members, onboarding other dentists, and purchasing more equipment. The right digital marketing agency will help you plan a long-term strategy to ensure you bring in new patients at a reasonable cost to ensure not only does your practice grow – your marketing ROI steadily increases over time.

What You Should Be Looking for in a Dental Marketing Agency

When considering hiring a dental marketing company, you should look at three key factors:

1. Experience

A good agency understands the dental industry and has a proven track record helping dental practices grow. They know how practices are run and what patients want, as well as having expertise in key patient acquisition techniques.

This will help them better target and acquire patients on your behalf, and ensure everything you do is geared specifically to the dental market.

2. Long-term goals

Acquiring new patients is one thing, but you also need to retain them. An agency that focuses on patient loyalty – building customer loyalty through improved patient experience – will deliver higher patient lifetime value, and therefore a higher ROI.

3. ROI

Whether you’re establishing a new dental practice or growing an existing practice, you want to see a return on investment. The number one concern of any agency you hire should be to help you maximize your revenue, and they should be able to provide concrete evidence that they have delivered measurable ROI for other practices.

What a Patient Acquisition Company Like Opencare Can Offer You

We’re not a marketing agency, but we do offer all the benefits of a great dental marketing agency, along with an in-depth understanding of the industry, your patients, and how to grow your practice. Our entire focus is on helping dental practices grow – whether they’ve just opened or have been around for decades.

Our processes are simple, smooth, and effective, requiring little to no effort on your behalf. We have invested heavily in SEO and social media marketing, building a strong reputation and a large network of high-quality patients that trust us to connect them with dental practices.

The best part? Unlike dental marketing agencies that require a retainer, we only receive payment once your patient has paid. There is no risk of paying for a lead that never actually comes to an appointment, and we have produced an average ROI of 7.8x!

Get Started with Opencare Today

Our platform has produced an average of 207 new patients for our dental partners, with most patients booking over 5 appointments.

Want to see similar results?

The post Looking for a Dental Marketing Agency? What You Need to Know! appeared first on The Floss By Opencare.

A business plan. Your practice simply has to have one. It’s going to lay out all the detailed information that helps you set your practice on the road to success. It’ll include market analysis, a marketing plan, competitive analysis, cash flow projections, and more. 

In essence, a business plan allows you to track, monitor, and evaluate the progress of your practice over a period of time. It allows you to gauge how your practice is progressing against your original projections for your business. This, in turn, will make it easier to make an objective evaluation of your practice’s progress. 

And it functions as an essential marketing document. It helps show stakeholders in your business that your practice is sustainable and worth investing in, whether that investment is monetary or time-based. 

Your business plan should be a living document. As you gain experience and achieve goals, the plan should be modified to reflect changing goals and knowledge you have gained during the time the practice has been in operation. 

Business plans provide you with a detailed guideline on what steps you need to follow in order to ensure your practice is a success and that it achieves both your short-term and long-term goals. They are an invaluable strategic tool that every dental plan should carefully consider and craft before opening their business. 

Each individual business plan will be unique to you and your business. However, here are some guidelines you can follow to make the process of creating your business plan easier. Some basic elements any business plan should incorporate include:

Executive summary

The executive summary is perhaps one of the most essential parts of the plan. It’s a short section at the start of the plan that summarizes the plan as a whole. Typically, this section is one to two pages in length.

Some elements that should be summarized as part of the executive summary are:

• Legal structure: Key to establishing your practice, determine what type of business it will be. If you’re setting up a partnership, this section should also include percentage ownership of each partner. Other elements that you should mention include resources like attorneys and accountants who will be part of your support team.
• Services provided: Explain which dental services you will be providing in your practice. This section will also clarify what your practice’s unique value proposition will be — what sets it apart from those of your competitors and other dentists near you.
• Goals: List the overall goals of your practice by priority. You should start with the mission statement and then list out the specific goals.
• Market analysis: An analysis of the dental landscape in your area and your practice’s ability to meet your identified needs.
• Marketing strategy: A quick summary of which strategies you will be employing. This section should be a response to the market analysis, and you should go into more detail in the marketing plan part of the business plan.
• Break-even point: This will also be part of the financial plan and analyses how viable your practice is at the current time.
• Operations plan summary: Summarize what systems you have in place in order to increase the growth of your practice. You will need to go into more detail in the operations plan section.
• Organizational / staffing structure: A summary of how many staff you have, their responsibilities and roles, and a forecast of personnel needs.

This section is key when you approach lenders for loans. It should be enticing to potential lenders and explain how you plan to make your practice a success. Therefore, it should be persuasive and compelling.

While this section goes at the start of your plan, you should write it last. This is because it is a summary of the rest of the plan, and you will need to have a detailed plan completed before you can write it.

Description of products and services

In this section, you should elaborate on the types of services your practice will provide patients. Explain whether specialty services will be performed in-house or will be referred to outside practices and doctors.

If you’re acquiring an existing practice as opposed to opening a new one, clarify any changes you’ll be implementing to the products and services the practice is already offering. 

Operations plan 

This is where you detail the operational systems that will help you run your practice, meet your goals, and measure how effective you are at achieving your aims.

It will describe how you will procure the products needed to keep the business running, what personnel will be part of your business, and how you will manage your inventory. You’ll also detail factors like hours of operation, any licenses and permits you’ll require before opening, dental insurances that your practice will and will not accept, schedule for equipment maintenance, and so on.

One of the most important parts of your operations plan is detailing a one-year action plan. This will serve as a template for you to follow and help you detail what steps you need to take to ensure your plan is a success.

This section is the ‘nuts-and-bolts’ part of your plan and is likely to be the longest section of your business plan. Managing operations efficiently helps increase profitability and decrease stress. Without an efficient operations plan, you will find meeting objectives and goals a challenging task. 

Market analysis and marketing plan

This is where you’ll document data on how your competitors operate. Some parts of your competitors’ practices you may want to look at include their online presence, SEO rankings, how they manage their digital content, and any other marketing efforts you think is relevant.

Once you have conducted a market analysis of your competitors, you’ll also need to document your own marketing plan. Elements you should include as part of your plan include an overview of your intended market and the type of patients you plan to target, their income level, age, and lifestyle.

You should also clearly set out how you plan to set your business apart from competitors and maintain your own customer base. For example, if you operate in close proximity to another dental practice, how will you ensure patients looking to find a dentist visit your practice over that of your competitor?

Make sure to conduct a SWOT analysis. This is an analysis of your practice’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as the market opportunities you can take advantage of and the threats that your practice faces. This will help you better personalize your marketing plan to your goals while also considering outside factors that could hinder those goals and detailing how you will overcome those issues. 

Your marketing strategy should focus on developing awareness of your practice amongst prospective patients. This will include the use of internal marketing (brochures, posters, newsletters, etc.), external marketing (direct mail, email, advertising, online marketing through websites and social media, etc.), and customer service to ensure your patients have a good experience and keep on returning to your practice.

One key element of the marketing plan for modern dental practices is to map out their website design. Having a well-designed website can help you stand out from competitors and can be hugely beneficial in attracting patients. For example, suppose patients are able to make a dentist appointment online quickly. In that case, they are more likely to choose your practice over a competitor that makes it difficult to schedule an appointment. 

If your marketing strategy is going to be significantly different from that of your competitors, you should also explain the rationale behind your choice as part of your strategy.

Financial plan

A financial plan is a key component of the marketing plan and will be the section that’s of most interest to potential lenders. If you’re approaching banks or other individuals for a loan, this section will help them make an informed decision over whether or not to lend to you. Due to its importance, this section should be carefully planned out and meticulously written.

For new practices, the financial plan will be based on 12 and 24-month financial projections, as you won’t already have an existing performance to base it off. Some key elements that you should include in your financial plan include:

• Income projections over a 12 and 24-month period
• Your personal financial statement 
• Collateral you’ll offer in exchange for a loan
• The total amount of funds that will be required by your practice for a 24-month period
• A plan for how the funds will be allocated
• Cash flow forecast
• Historical financial analysis looking into the viability of a dental practice
• Supporting documents that may be required by the lender, including a copy of your credit report, historical financial statements, five-year financial projections, and any other relevant document

Your financial plan should lay out a plan that accounts for the impact of outside financial influences that will affect your finances. These influences include competition, the economy, seasonal variations, and business cycles, as well as any other factors that will impact your practice’s financials. 

Business plan checklist

If you’re just getting started on creating your business plan, there are a variety of templates and checklists that are easily available online. One free downloadable and printable checklist that you can use is this one.

Before you get started on making your business plan, the American Dental Association (ADA) you make sure to ask yourself some important questions, including: 

• Can you describe your potential dental practice in detail?
• Do you have an actionable marketing plan?
• Who is in the market? What are they doing right — or wrong?
• What pricing and payment policies are you considering?
• What’s your growth strategy?

These will help provide you with a guideline you can refer back to when writing your detailed plan.

The ADA also provides a business plan checklist that is tailored to dental practices. You can download the checklist here.

FAQs about dental practice business plans

• How much does it cost to open a dental office?

While start-up costs will differ based on where your practice is located and the types of services you plan on offering, the estimated cost of starting a dental practice can be upwards of $450,000, with up to a third of that being equipment costs.

• How profitable is a dental practice?

On average, dental practices can have about a 25% profit margin. This profit margin can be more, depending on your specialty, location, and overhead costs. It is also possible to increase the profit margin of a dental practice in a variety of ways. For new practices, it your business plan allow you a profit margin of at least 40%.

• How much does a dental office make a year?

The amount you earn is dependent on the type of services your practice offers, including whether or not you offer specialty services. On average, general practices earn around $770,000 a year, while specialty practices can make around $1.1 million annually. 

• How do I write a business plan for a mobile dental clinic?

If you’re planning a mobile dental clinic, the process for writing a business plan is similar to that of writing a plan for a traditional practice. The steps you need to follow will be the same, and any lenders will expect you to present the same information as part of your business plan.

Remember, the executive summary and the financial plan are two key aspects of your business plan when approaching lenders. A well thought-out and well-written business plan does not only make your practice more appealing to lenders but it also provides you with a blueprint to follow in order to achieve personal and business-related goals. So when you’re writing out your business plan, regardless of whether it is for a traditional practice or a mobile clinic, make sure to include all the relevant details.

The post How to write a business plan for your dental practice appeared first on The Floss By Opencare.

Your patients are the most valuable asset your practice has. Because of this, patient loyalty is vital to the success of your practice and it’s important you optimize the lifetime value of each patient. For this, you need an effective email marketing and nurturing campaign. 

It helps you to keep your patients informed and keep them coming back for more. Email is one of the most cost effective and conversion-rich forms of digital marketing today. It can get you impressive results without spending a bunch on marketing.

Email marketing allows you, at a low cost, to re-engage patients and bring them back for more services. It can be a healthy return on investment. So, the math is quite straightforward; a well-thought-out email marketing strategy will make you money, no doubt about it. 

Let’s explore.

Why email marketing for patient retention?

Email marketing has the highest return on investment for small businesses. This means you get a lot, but you spend little. That’s the perfect equation for any marketing or nurturing strategy.

Also, roughly 80% of marketers have reported an increase in email engagement over the past 12 months. So, if email engagement is up, it means a more effective strategy.

With an effective strategy, you get more engagement, and you get more leads. In fact, mobile readers who open an email for a second time from their computer are 65% more likely to click through. Also, 64% of small businesses say that the email copy is very effective.

So, what can email marketing do for your patient retention efforts? Let’s look at some of the things you can do with an effective email campaign:

• You can remind a patient of an upcoming dentist appointment, when they might be due for a checkup, or any other appointments required or suggested in a treatment plan.
• Even things like a simple “happy birthday” email campaign can go a long way to show your patients that you care. Remember, you don’t even have to include an offer for it to be effective. The key is you’re showing the patient you care.
• When year-end comes, you can think about a year-end campaign to remind your patients to use their insurance benefits by the end of the year. They may have insurance benefits remain or funds set aside in a flexible spending account or healthcare savings account. The end of the year is a perfect time for them to schedule an appointment so any payments can be applied before the benefits are reset. 
• If your practice participates in community outreach efforts, email is the perfect platform to ask your patients for participation or to remind them to bring any items that they can drop them off at their upcoming appointment.

Keep in mind these are just a few examples of what you can do and that they are many others.

The important thing is, irrespective of what you do, you want to engage and communicate frequently with your patients to build strong relationships beyond just seeing them in your consulting rooms every six months. 

And email and SMS let you do this because you get to nurture, educate, remind, and rebook your patients.

Best practices for email marketing

Subject lines

Think about this, what’s the first thing a patient will see when your mail arrives in their inbox. Yes, that’s right, the subject line. No matter what anyone says, people judge emails by the subject line. 

So, subject lines need to be compelling enough so that your patients open the mail. Make them catchy and be specific, keep it under 40 characters for optimum readability, and you’ll be well on your way to an excellent click-through rate. 

You can also consider adding personalization if possible. Here, if a patient sees the subject line with their name in it, it’s already more engaging.

Preheader text

If the subject line was the first hook to get your patients’ attention to the email, the preheader text is what convinces them finally to open it. Because of this, your preheader text should complement the subject line and help communicate any points you couldn’t in the subject line.

What should the patient see when they open the email?

Let’s be clear from the start, the email should be clean and easy to digest. If you add too many buttons, colors, or banners, you’ll lose your patients’ interest as fast as a kid loses teeth. 

So, considering this, you want patients to easily grasp what you want them to do, Keep it simple.

Call to action

When you create your email campaign, one of the most vital components is the call to action. It grabs the patient’s attention and encourages them to act. 

This means your call to action should stand out and be easily clickable, while also being clear and showing the patient exactly what is required of them. It should also give them a very good idea of what will happen if they click the call to action. Here, think of things like, “Click to make an appointment” or “Click to find out more”.

Nailing the messaging

Every email message you send to one of your patients should have a point. This means, if you want to promote a service, that should be the only point in the email message. Likewise, if you want to provide valuable content, that should be the only point in the message.

If you go too far, you lose your patient’s attention. Remember, you basically have a three second attention span to work with so keep it simple and to the point.

Frequency

Now, the question is how often should you be sending emails or messages to each patient? Depending on the circumstances, you will want to email your patients at least monthly. This could be more or less, and you’ll have to decide what the right number is. You could need some guidance, though. 

For example, if you’re trying to get patients to book an appointment for a six-month check-up, you might want to start emailing them at four months to remind them they should book an appointment. This could be once a week or maybe twice a week. If they don’t book by six months, make sure your messaging becomes more urgent to drive action.

Also, if you’re also sending SMS, try to set the frequency so patients don’t get both an email and SMS from you on the same day. Remember, you want to be consistent, but you don’t want to over communicate because then it seems like spam.

If your campaign is based more on content like articles or infographics, you can consider sending a monthly newsletter to patients. In this way, they’ll find value in you trying to provide this type of content to them in addition to recommending exams and treatment plans.

Personalization

Message personalization is the number one tactic used by email marketers to improve performance of a campaign. And it is simple to see why. When you use a first name in the subject line or the body of your email to greet the patient, you help build a one-to-one relationship in your marketing efforts. 

For the patient, it feels like you’re talking to them on a more personal level and they like knowing they’re remembered. This overall, improves your strategy significantly.

What should a follow-up email look like after their appointment is complete?

The next question is how a follow up email should look like if a patient’s appointment is complete. 

First, you’ll want to thank the patient for visiting your practice and ask them for feedback. Now, this feedback could be given as a Google review, Facebook review, Yelp review or something similar. Remember, there are many platforms like these available online. Provide a link to do so.

If they had a negative experience, make sure someone reaches out to gather more information about their experience and to help mitigate the issue. At the most you should answer briefly on the feedback, but you must be careful not to become embroiled in a dispute with the patient on a public platform. 

For example, if there is negative feedback you may answer, “Thank you for your feedback, we’ve referred the matter to our office manager”, or something similar. If there really is an issue, it can be sorted out in private and not public.

Also, if the patient didn’t book an appointment before leaving, this email is a perfect opportunity to remind them to book and you could also add a call to action to an online portal to make a booking, or to call your office to schedule an appointment.

How can you use an e-mail campaign to educate and communicate with your patients without bugging them to come back?

The most important thing you can do to educate your patients without bugging them to come back, is to move away from a mindset of selling, and moving to a mindset of helping.

In other words, in this campaign you’ll want to provide your patients with content that is relevant and valuable, while at the same time solving their problems.

Now, to accomplish this, you’ll have to consider why your patients come to you. Well, simply, it’s to ensure their teeth stay healthy. To provide relevant and valuable content you’ll thus have to focus your content on this pain point of your patients.

You can, for instance, remind them of the importance oral health has on total body health and what diseases or issues they could potentially avoid if they visit the dentist every six months.

You can expand on this and educate them on when to see a dentist outside the six-month mark. For instance, when they have toothache, swelling, red gums, or any other problem relating to their dental health, it might be a sign they need a professional opinion.

You can also provide content that shows them what to expect when they come for a routine check-up. Remember, a lot of people are afraid of the dentist, so if you provide this content, you’ll put their minds at ease.

When you provide these types of content, you, over time, become a resource your patients will use if they have any issues or problems. And when a suspected problem turns into a real problem and your patients want to find a dentist, guess who they will call first? Yes, the resource they’ve been using online to find the information they need.

The bottom line

Email marketing is a powerful tool you can use to retain patients, create loyalty to your practice, and increase the rate at which appointments are made. When you provide patients with relevant and valuable information, you’ll become a resource for them that they can use if they need any advice on dentistry.

In turn, this will create loyalty and, ultimately, more return appointments. 

If you need more information about email marketing, about our services, or our revolutionary revenue cycle management system, visit our website or contact us for more details.       

The post How to create an engaging email campaign to keep your patients coming back appeared first on The Floss By Opencare.

Based on reports from the American Dental Association, the average new patient retention is 41%. Overall, dentists keep just 4 out of 10 new patients after their first appointment. Just a 10% improvement in these statistics would add thousands of dollars in revenue every year.

So how do you improve dental patient retention? What kind of strategies and efforts should you implement to get patients to return to your dental office? Let’s look at four things you can do to help create an ongoing engagement with each patient.

1) Treatment planner

Making reminders and appointment scheduling is not enough for successful dental patient retention. You need to hold your team accountable and measure their success. This will help boost your performance and retention.

According to the Dawson Academy, a dental office needs treatment planning protocols. These protocols should feature a practical and easy-to-use checklist. The process can be useful for any patient, regardless of how complex their dental issue might be. 

With an option like this, dentists can get proper quality control throughout the entire process. The planning begins with the dentist completing a two-dimensional functional-esthetic analysis. This checklist helps them address macro and global esthetics. As well as occlusal stability. 

They would then need to add their treatment plan to 3D models. When they stick to this planning process, dentists can provide better patient care and function smoothly. That’s how they build loyal dental patients in the long haul. 

Not sure if you can make the cut? Opencare can provide full insurance verification breakdowns. We can also help you make confident and effective treatment plans for your dental office. The platform can help you grow and manage your business. 

2) Effective patient education

Almost 3.5 billion people around the globe have oral diseases. Experts believe 2.3 billion suffer from dental caries. While 10% of the population has severe periodontal disease. The reason for that is relatively simple. Many people are simply unaware of how bad their teeth diseases can get.

If you want to get patients to return, you need to give them a reason to. It’s up to the dentist to educate patients and inspire them to book a dentist appointment. 

For example, tell your patient if they ignore the cavity, it will continue to expand. If a tooth decays, it will make you vulnerable to brittle teeth. It might cost $200 to get the teeth fixed now. But, if you don’t treat the issue and more oral diseases emerge, then you’ll be spending $2,000 down the road.

Simply put, a dentist needs to build trust and rapport with patients – and master their soft skills.

3) Provide flexible payment options

The cost of regular dental services is usually the main reason people don’t want to find a dentist. Regular dental care is just too expensive. According to a University of Michigan National Poll, 69% of people surveyed said they couldn’t afford regular dental care. It just wasn’t in their budget.

By offering clients flexible payment options, you can overcome these financial pitfalls. For instance, you can give constant patients special discounts, financing, or even a fun points system. With every visit, patients can collect points, which can serve as a discount. 

Another practical idea is to help them understand their insurance coverage. So, the next time a patient needs to book an appointment, they’ll be more inclined to use your affordable services.

By joining our Opencare platform, you can optimize your revenue cycle management. With our services, you can learn useful practices for verifying the patient’s insurance. Our team of experts will guide you every step of the way. We make treatment plans easy with full insurance verification services. 

4) Help patients make the most of the care they pay for

Many insurance plans have high out-of-pocket costs and deductibles. Unfortunately, figuring out the insurance policy can be overwhelming. You can win over patients by helping them get the hang of their expenses. 

Today, dental patients have high expectations. They want their dental practice to take care of their treatment, scheduling, and insurance. If you don’t give them the service they need, some other office will. 

To keep loyal dental patients, start by preparing simple brochures. These brochures should explain everything about copayments, insurance, and coverage. Mix that information with practical examples they can find in real life. This will help orient patients.

Don’t forget to talk about your copayments in detail. Some dental offices require complete up-front payments. Others prefer up-front copayments. Whereas some services don’t even ask for copayment until they have acquired the insurance reimbursement. 

Basically, you should become an advocate for your clients. That’s how you build effective dental patient retention. 

Final thoughts

Working on your patient retention rate is no easy feat. There’s plenty of effort that goes into building a loyal clientele. But, with the right strategies and the proper approach, you can turn the tide. All the options listed here can help you overcome these obstacles. What matters is that you put as much attention into the patient’s financial needs as their dental care. 

The post 4 tips to help improve your patient retention rate appeared first on The Floss By Opencare.

No matter how tight of a ship you run at your dental office, attracting new patients will always be something on your radar. Whether you’re a veteran office or a brand new practice, it’s key to keep a consistent patient flow and build your patient base to grow your business. Let’s discuss how you can attract new patients to your practice.

As of 2016, 62% of Americans in an Adult’s Oral Health and Well-Being survey reported visiting their dentist at least once annually. That number went down to 58% in 2017. Relatedly, a whopping 85% of Americans recognize and believe that oral health is important. 

So, why aren’t they getting the care they want and need? 

Most people say it’s one (or more) of the following reasons: 

• The costs that are likely to get incurred. 
• Difficulty in finding a convenient place and appointment time. 
• A fear of dentists. 

Perhaps, as a dentist, you should focus on the 85% who recognize the need for better oral care and give them reasons to come in for a dental appointment rather than excuses to avoid them. After all, the numbers don’t lie. So capitalize on the positives and create a thriving dental practice. 

It’s estimated the global dental market will be $37 billion this calendar year. 

Here’s how to do grow your patient base: 

• Start with a solid plan 

What exactly is your marketing strategy? Flyers, billboards, and mailers? Maybe you should just take a breather and come up with a targeted plan. Do you know what’s a key indicator of marketing success these days? Digital marketing and advertising. See our guide here to help start your strategic marketing plan.

• Build a website 

A good website that converts leads to client, provides practice information, helps patients understand services, and can really drive bookings in your calendar. People looking and surfing quickly through your site before leaving doesn’t bode well for business. Get their attention and keep it. 

A few tips to achieve this:

• Use a meta description to get their attention on the Google search results page. This is known as Search Engine Optimization.
• Optimize your home page and other main pages with commonly searched terms and phrases. 
• Ensure the website is mobile-friendly with an easy-to-use, intuitive interface. 

• Maximize SEO 

How do you intend to increase patient volume in a dental office if people can’t find you? The odds increase significantly with a few simple strategies. SEO is an excellent tool to increase your visibility on the search engine results page, but only when you do it right. 

Unfortunately, Google SEO seems like a bit of a slippery slope to navigate for most people. Lucky for you, we’ve got the lowdown on how to use it best.  We break it down below, but see our full comprehensive guide to SEO for dentists here

Here’s what you need to know for SEO: 

• Avoid keyword stuffing. There’s a limit to how many times a potential client can read the word “dentist” on your post before they are sick of it. 
• Avoid unnatural links or over-optimized anchors.
• Use more long-tail keywords.
• Structure your content properly. 
• Create a blog with quality articles (search engine optimized articles) that are engaging and educating. 
• Local SEO goes a long way in helping to reach people in your area.

• Social media marketing 

You didn’t think social media marketing was just for businesses with products that influencers can sell, did you? Previously, dentists would rely on reputation, credentials, and references to build up their clientele. Times have changed. 

Social media is invaluable for more than just marketing. Remember the stereotypes people have about dentists being scary? Social media is your best bet to change their minds and let them see just how wrong these impressions are. 

Also, social media can help a dentist to attract new clients, foster better relationships, and showcase their talents. It provides a great space to build up a brand.

See our full guide for social media marketing for dentists here.

Pro tips:

• Start a YouTube channel where you go beyond typical dental stuff. An office tour, a day in the life of a dentist at work, dental tips, and more are sure to keep people tuned in and likely to reach out. 
• Use a social media content calendar to organize your posting schedule and content.
• Consider outsourcing your social media marketing to a social media marketer/agency. 

• Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Another popular digital marketing tool, PPC is an online advertising strategy where you pay each time a person clicks on an ad. 

Activating PPC on your dental website means you get to pay for an ad listing in the search results of certain words. 

A great platform for this is Google AdWords. With this, the search network is available to you. This lets you run ads that are seen on other websites, potentially helping you bring in new patients regularly. 

Start here:

• Ensure your ads are high quality. 
• Scope out the competition and use the information to improve your business, perhaps by adding more features and incentives. 
• Set a maximum cost-per-click (CPC) and a maximum daily budget to maximize this strategy. 

Remember, PPC is not SEO. Unlike SEO that drives organic traffic, PPC is paid advertising for your dental website. Note the distinction. 

• Reviews 

Your credentials as a dentist are great for making people feel comfortable around you. But there’s only so much these can do in the grand scheme of things. Do you know what makes people feel confident and sure of a product/service? Other people! 

Your dental service is a product. For most people, a positive experience from a trusted person or even a random person on the internet can be the difference between them accepting you as their dentist or going somewhere else.

Most reviews are collated by an independent platform to make it more genuine, but you can also provide a comment section for people to leave their reviews. Whatever you do, avoid using fake reviews. This could cost you your professional integrity.

See our full guide to nailing down your dental patient reviews here.

• Testimonials 

Unlike reviews which are gathered by third-party sites, testimonials are often requested by the business owner. These recommendations are also often written by happy customers detailing their experience before and after receiving your service. 

Testimonials serve to affirm the value of your work. To ask for this, you have several options including asking via email, postal mail, or even as a survey. And, we realize that it might feel a bit weird to ask a patient for a testimonial, but you should give it a try. 

Here’s how you can gather testimonials: 

• Be nice and straightforward with the request. You might even offer incentives like discounts in exchange for completing a testimonial.
• Make it easy to complete the feedback with an e-mail campaign or an incentive to  leave a review on Google.
• Tell them their input is needed and will be highly appreciated. 

If your work is good, it should speak for itself. 

Pro tip: for both reviews and testimonials, you don’t have to deal with getting or arranging them. You can employ the use of software that gathers customer or a platform that gathers customer reviews or testimonials. These neutral sites do this professionally and post on your page. 

See our full guide to nailing down your dental patient reviews here.

• SMS marketing 

Text messages are one of the cheapest digital marketing tools today, one you should definitely consider adding to your dental practice digital marketing toolkit. Engaging with patients is key in running a successful practice. 

Here’s how you might engage with patients and get them to come back through SMS:

Send reminders. Remind them of their dental appointment as a form of ‘Patient Reminders.’ You can link your reminder to a text and send it as an SMS to a patient. Remember, with an SMS strategy, you can be certain your text is received, unlike emails that sometimes get lost in a spam folder.

 Pro tip: make it a two-way channel so they can respond with questions or inquiries.

• Use direct mail marketing 

Direct mail marketing…good old postcards sent out in the mail. Because, contrary to popular opinion, direct mail marketing is still very much alive. It even has a 29% median ROI in marketing strategies, coming in a close third after email and social media marketing. 

Here are two great tips to get you started:

• Ensure your postcard design is informative but simple. 
• Use a targeted marketing strategy to ensure you send it to the right people – potential clients who live close to your location. People want to find a dentist with a clinic close and easily accessible. Give them that. 

• Get some professional help 

From diagnosing and treating oral infections to taking care of cavities and lots more, dentists are excellent at all things oral health. 

However, advertising, marketing, and bringing in clients? Perhaps not so much. 

Help is available in the form of Opencare, the platform dedicated to changing the way patients and their healthcare providers interact. We help potential patients get in touch with the right healthcare provider, their forever dentist.

From growing your patient base to managing dentist’s appointments with them, we are here to handle these. 

Dental practice management tips to help you grow your dental practice

• Automate the process

It’s often a challenge to keep track of all that happens in your clinic. Automate basic marketing tasks so you have one less thing to worry about. This will also provide you and your staff with ample time for primary duties. 

• Use customer relationship management (CRM) software 

Customer Relationship Management software is invaluable in growing your business. You can use it to manage all interactions with your patients. With this tool, you can integrate all patient data in one location making it easily accessible to you at all times. 

• Show some credibility 

Beyond the white coats and confident smile, people want to feel they’re in competent hands. Exude confidence. 

A few tips to achieve this:

• Your website should be built by a professional web designer and developer.
• All the necessary information about you should be readily available.
• Show off! An award here, a professional affiliation there, and of course, a photo with that very white coat and you’re on your way to a waiting room full of patients. 
• Partner with a trusted platform like Opencare. We only work with top-rated dentists in each location and we vet dentists on the platform to ensure that patients are getting the top care they need.

• Track your performance 

You can do this with one of the many performance tracking tools out there. You might not see the need for this until you do it. You’ll be shocked to find out which strategies are bringing in most patients.

Go ahead and figure out a way to make improvements as needed. 

Ultimately, the dental industry has a ton of great potential. As a dentist, you are definitely in the right profession. But there’s only so much you can do without patients. 

Talk about power-packed, top-notch marketing for your business! Good luck. And cheers to lots of happy patients.

The post Dental marketing strategies: Strategic ways to attract new patients appeared first on The Floss By Opencare.

Is this the year you mean to grow your practice, build accountability, and usher in a transformation? Perhaps you’re focused on attracting new patients, expanding your social media engagement, or improving profitability.

Whatever goals you may have for 2021, it’s wise to ensure they’re SMART. That stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. Setting SMART goals will help you boost dental practice productivity, eliminate inefficiencies and enjoy higher revenues.

Here are seven power-packed strategies to incentivize your staff, innovate your dental practice management and up your productivity. 

1) Discover new ways to motivate your team 

It’s natural for your team’s productivity to fluctuate. But how can you promote a motivated and focused team that firmly believes in your goals for your practice? It starts with finding creative ways to incentivize and motivate team members.

There are no one-size-fits-all solutions when it comes to motivation. While some staff members will be motivated by authority and delegation, others will be by financial rewards or recognition. Employee of the Week and Month awards are age-old and traditional strategies that remain popular today. You can also explore (COVID-protocol-friendly) team-building exercises, luncheons, and activities to create a strong team spirit and a sense of community. 

Several experts believe a daily huddle is an excellent strategy to boost motivation levels and productivity. Before the working day begins, call your team for a quick meeting or a short session. You can revisit the week’s or day’s schedule, suggest changes, and take feedback for improvements. If an early morning huddle isn’t possible, you can schedule one right after lunch or at the end of the day. 

It’s also essential to build one-on-one relationships with employees and help them actualize their true potential. 

2) Master new marketing channels 

Dental practices rely on social media and digital marketing tools to acquire new patients and maintain client loyalty. More importantly, potential patients seek social verification to establish the credibility and credentials of a dentist. For instance, a patient looking to find a dentist will perform a Google search to explore directories, Facebook listings, and more. (Typically, Facebook introduces users to reviews from existing patients and clients.) 

If you’re still struggling to master digital marketing in 2021, you’re putting your dental practice at a significant disadvantage. So, what should you do? Aim to master one social media channel each quarter. It’s a SMART goal, and you can gradually work toward embracing multiple marketing channels over the course of a year.

For instance, start by revamping your Facebook layout and boost engagement on your website. Facebook is an excellent platform to generate leads and uplift your overall SEO game. In the next quarter, embrace email marketing to cement loyalty across new patients you’ve acquired through Facebook.

Mastering new marketing channels and tools will help you increase dental practice productivity by creating a dynamic marketing mix. 

3) Embrace paperless intake and treatment plans 

What’s one of the best ways to make your office more efficient and well-organized? Go paperless and embrace the numerous digital tools available to store and manage patient records. It’s a strategy that offers numerous advantages, such as making dental practice management eco-friendly and well organized.

If you have multiple employees to manage and handle paperwork, you’re wasting resources and resisting innovation. Today, many patients (especially your younger ones) seek digitized and paperless interactions, given the rise of telehealth and e-health records. Some patients may feel more comfortable filling out online forms or using apps to make a dentist appointment. 

Additionally, going paperless eliminates the clutter and promotes a well-organized and healthy workplace. Cloud computing, ehealth records, and digital tools also eliminate the possibilities of human error and boost efficiency. Digital check-ins and records also improve coordination and save loads of resources and time. 

Once you start reducing (and ultimately eliminating)  office stationery, printers, and storage costs, your dental practice can save thousands of dollars annually. You can spend all that money instead toward innovating, embracing new dental technologies, and revamping your practice. Efficient paperless transactions and communication will also help you win over patient trust and confidence. 

4) Promote transparency 

Be up front with your patients. It’s the first step in building their trust and confidence in your practice. Adopt a transparent and upfront method of presenting treatment costs.

You can print out brochures or pricing plans that patients can explore online and in-person while visiting your clinic. Outlining the costs without any hidden charges proves immensely effective at securing patients and increasing revenues. 

Patients fear dental services are likely to cost more than general healthcare services. You can build trust by shattering this belief. Maybe use your first consultation session to discuss treatment costs and insurance coverage. Walking your patient through their insurance coverage is instrumental in acquiring new patients and establishing loyalty. 

5) Use revenue cycle management processes

An efficient revenue cycle management system can help you expand your dental practice’s earning potential. Most dental practices struggle with claims management, EOB reconciliation, aged claims, and verifying insurance. Luckily, today there are numerous management tools and processes that offer superior convenience and ease. Find out more here.

You can explore revenue cycle management to innovate claims submission using your existing management software. You can also hire a trusted third party to verify the benefits and eligibility of payors on your behalf.

Employees often struggle to review and manage aged outstanding receivables and follow-ups. Luckily, you can outsource this sensitive responsibility by engaging a competent third party for an accounts receivable analysis. Essentially, revenue cycle management helps increase dental practice productivity by allowing employees to focus on core operations. 

6) Embrace the power of automation 

In 2021, automation powers some of every industry, be it healthcare, entertainment, tourism, or energy. Automation is the key to enhancing the consumer experience, building a powerful brand identity, and emerging atop the competition. 

As a dentist, you can’t ignore the potential automation offers to reduce expenses and drive dental practice productivity. You can automate numerous processes, such as financial bookkeeping, customer service management, appointments, and much more. There are multiple automation tools and solutions designed to automate marketing, accounting, employee salaries, and other activities.

Embracing these tools will free up your business resources and save up more money for core business innovation. Automation will also help promote efficiency and make dental practice management more effortless and straightforward. For instance, you can automate patient appointments through online forms and maintain an efficient digital schedule. 

These small but meaningful innovations have a far-reaching impact on boosting dental practice productivity. 

7) Revisit goals and progress

Ultimately, you can increase dental practice productivity and stay steadfastly focused on your goals by holding yourself and your team accountable. And doing that doesn’t have to be hard. Start by  organizing weekly and monthly meetings to revisit goals and examine the team’s progress. The key to boosting dental practice productivity is setting achievable milestones, evaluating progress, and celebrating growth. 

These goal evaluation meetings will help you motivate your team and ensure everyone is on the same page. Evaluate the contributions made by each employee, recognize their potential, and underscore their weaknesses. As a leader, you must increase dental practice productivity by identifying outdated practices and ushering in innovation.

It is also essential to get feedback from your team members, value their opinions and incorporate them effectively. If your team members feel unheard, they’re unlikely to align their goals with your ambitions. 

Final thoughts

Besides ensuring patient safety and quality treatments, you must also strategize to ensure profitability and dental practice productivity. This agenda requires you to adopt the mindset of a leader and innovator. In 2021, you can deploy multiple technological tools to boost efficiency, eliminate human errors and improve the patient experience.

If you’re just starting with a private dental practice, these SMART goals will help you create a well-organized foundation. It’s vital to prioritize digital marketing tools because potential patients rely on digital media to find credible dentists. It doesn’t have to be difficult, but with some dedication and energy, you can make your practice everything you want it to be. 

The post 7 tips to increase productivity and efficiency in your dental practice appeared first on The Floss By Opencare.

Today, offline and word-of-mouth marketing aren’t enough to grow your client base. Marketing practices have changed and social media has been a major driving force behind that. 36% of Americans have searched for a dentist through social media. 44% of them were happy to establish contact with dentists through social media.

Dentists, like all professions, need to keep up with the latest trends. And we at Opencare understand how challenging it can be to adapt to endless changes. If your business is to survive, you need to stay on top of the rest in the competitive market. 

How can I attract more dental patients?

It’s a great question, but basically put, to get more dental clients, you need to ensure you have a strong web presence. Sites like Yelp, Opencare, and Google My Business can help increase your flow of patients, simply by creating a profile for your business. This profile tells online users about your working hours, the and the services you offer, and includes a direct link to your website. 

It’s best to add SEO-optimized content and commit to paid advertising. 

Why is social media marketing so important for dentists?

Social media is a key marketing strategy. It creates constant interaction, builds trust, and helps dental practices remain relevant among their clients. 

The National Institutes of Health prepared a digital survey for over 22,000 US dentists, with the goal of studying the impact of social media on the dental industry. Results showed 52% of dental practices used social media for marketing — mainly Facebook. 

Over 91% used social media for advertising. Also, younger dentists (under the age of 45) relied on social media more frequently than older dentists.

What are the ideal social media platforms for dentists?

• Facebook

This platform has 2.41 billion active users each month, making it the third-most used site in the world. 71% of American users are adults, and 74% log in every day. This can be valuable for a dental practice.

Facebook is particularly effective for creating constant communication, sharing newsletters, updates, education, or awareness content. Many offices rely on dental Facebook posts to get closer to their clients. Dentists share the articles they write online and get steadier traffic. 

But, regular articles are not the only thing that matters. Facebook is an ideal option for befriending customers. Many clinics share photos of the staff, which helps create a strong bond with all clients. You can also use this option as a turning point for a start-up business.  

• Instagram

Over 1 billion users log in to Instagram every month. That’s why over 75.3% of American companies use this platform in 2020 to advertise their services. It connects clients locally and shares information globally. And clients want to look at photos of previous clients’ results, the office, and even the staff. Visually appealing and varied images can help define your brand. 

But, to achieve these results, you must post original (unedited) content of your services. Customers want to know what they’re paying for. It helps them trust you. And adding hashtags can help ensure more people will read your stories and visit your page. 

• Twitter

63% of the users on Twitter are 35 to 65 years old. Many oral issues tend to affect older patients, so this is the core of your client base as a dental office. If you want to expand your engagement and reach, this is the platform to go for. 

Millions of people use Twitter each day. Therefore sharing facts will build authority and credibility with clients. As long as you opt for a content that resonates with all ages, you can get yourself noticed.

• YouTube

Video content is another effective promotion strategy. Video content is often welcome among the younger generation; it helps them feel at ease when they choose a dental service. 

Videos also give personality. The content resonates with viewers and makes the clinic appear approachable. Even though it requires more time and effort, it will be a turning point when advertising your office. The more content you create, the easier it will be to climb up the marketing ladder. 

• LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a professional social networking platform that is hyper-focussed on work, employees, and professionals. LinkedIn is a great way to reach a niche market and advertise your business professionally. Linkedin is also great to target people with benefits or insurance given to them by their employer.

You can lean into seasonality about using up dental benefits while they’re still active, understanding your dental benefits with new employers, and help professionals understand what they’re covered for.

How about social post ideas?

To get traffic, you have to be creative. It’s about appealing to a wider audience with quality content and useful information. For example, make infographics about interesting dental facts. Clear out any misconceptions or common mistakes people might be facing when they think of going to the dentist. 

Post “before and after” photos of patients who have visited your practice. This will provide the audience with visual proof of your expertise. Plus, if you implement memorable captions and relevant hashtags, you get to boost the search even more. 

Also, add surveys and quizzes. Or better yet, host a Q&A session. When you go live, you can enhance the organic reach and get more patients. Dentists also post videos when they want to communicate directly with patients. 

Some of them use this opportunity to provide clients with a virtual tour. They introduce their clinic, employees, and the technology they use. This will become a practical strategy for any campaign in the future. 

Here’s a social media calendar template!

Plan your marketing efforts strategically and well in advance. This will make the advertising a breeze. But, instead of spending all your energy day by day, you can create a calendar that will organize all the little details. It gives consistency, organization, and coordination. 

To make a calendar, start with:

• Aligning your advertising goals and objectives
• Identifying the target audience
• Defining the competition and brand position
• Establishing a foundation for every advertising effort
• Providing a clear path for growth
• Ensuring an efficient way of using all the resources available
• Creating a metric that will help you track progress 

Think about the followers, traffic, sales, and content you want to create. See if it created any leads by the end of the month and update the strategy from there. Take a look at the template example below. 

Each spreadsheet you create should be as detailed as possible. You can use dates, descriptions, URLs, or anything else you might need to explain your column. Weekly or monthly themes can be even more helpful. 

Social media is essentially about being active and engaging with your followers, The more active you are, the more attention you’ll get. With efficient planning, you can make the whole process go a lot smoother. 

Social networks are a valuable option for promoting dental practice. Since people are embracing these networks as part of their daily lives, you can use them to improve your business. This will create a noticeable advantage and help you outshine the competition. It’s no wonder why so many dental offices use social media as a marketing tactic.

The post Intro guide to social media for dentists: Where to start appeared first on The Floss By Opencare.

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic truly changed dentistry. Life has definitely entered a period of adjusting to “the new normal.” People have been staying at home and social distancing from their family and friends. The mass lockdowns across North America really impacted patient flow to dental offices across the United States and Canada.

2021 is the year of regrowth and adjusting to the new normal. In the competitive field of dentistry, it’s important to stay ahead of the game. That’s why we put together this list of 101 dental office marketing ideas you should know to help grow your practice in 2021. —Remember: The more marketing you do , the more your practice will thrive.

What’s inside

Chapter 1 | Dental Office Marketing Ideas for Dentists Who Need to Attract New Patients

• How to Create a Top Dentistry Website
• Tips for Enriching Your Dentistry Blog
• How to Promote a Dentistry Practice on Social Media

Chapter 2 | Dental Office Marketing Ideas to Help Dentists Keep Their Patients Happy

• How to Design a Dental Waiting Room Patients Enjoy
• Ways to Make Wait Times More Enjoyable

Chapter 3 | Dental Office Marketing Tips for Providing Great Customer Service

• 3 tips for providing the best patient experience during COVID-19.

Let’s get started! Enter a few details below to unlock your free ultimate guide. Your download will start immediately upon submission.

*Check your spam folder if you don’t hear from us

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