Marketing for Dentists is the only thing that Corona Marketing Limited do. If you are dentist in the UK or Ireland, who needs help, new ideas and even dare we say it, a bit of hand holding, then we are the dental marketing agency that you need to speak to!
Marketing for Dentists was hard enough before 2020 brought us the wonder of Corona (not us, the other one) and it has only got more difficult.
10 marketing for dentists MUSTS for 2021
Actually, there are probably about 1010 things that you and your practice could improve/change in regard to your dental marketing, but if there were just 10 that you could do NOW and for 2021, these would be the 10 that we would recommend:
- Systemisation of reviews
If something is not systemised, it means it will not happen. How many times have you and the team discussed patient reviews at a team meeting and said, “we must get more of them. We’ll really try this time.” And then, nothing happens! Do not be too hard on yourselves – you need a methodical approach; it cannot be done just on a whim.
When a patient has just completed a course of cosmetic treatment they are delighted and will never be happier than at the moment that the braces come off/smile is revealed etc. It is at this point that you need to be speaking to patients and looking to gain one/all of the following actions:
- Video testimonial – on an iPhone, a heartfelt 30 second testimonial can do wonders on Instagram and Facebook
- Google Review – more and more, when people search for a new service provider, they look through reviews first
- Facebook Review – as above
- Referrals – even if patients do none of the above, they need to be given 3 referral cards and encouraged to pass on to family and friends
In your weekly team meetings, you need to identify those patients who will be completing treatment, (who has a Gmail address) and then a team member needs to take responsibility for asking those questions.
- F**k It!
The ‘F**k It’ patients are out there and ready for your messages! All the surveys that have been taken, seem to show the UK population falling into two distinct groups post Covid. One, are still fearful and nervous and will have to be convinced of their need to visit the dentist and the safe environment that they will find when they get there. The other, will exhibit the ‘F**k It’ factor. Some people will have sat at home for months on 80 or 100% of their salary, with very little to spend their money on! In previous recessions (and there is going to be a big one) we have seen that people spend any disposable income on ‘affordable luxuries.’ Focus on making the dentistry you offer affordable (not cheap – that is different).
‘F**k It’ patients will react to marketing messages such as:
‘Have you always been meaning to do something about those crooked teeth/gap etc’? You can come for a FREE consultation and find out all about the treatment and whether it is relevant to you. And, we can offer finance to make it affordable for you in these straitened times.’
- Web Chat/Bot
“I’ve seen Chatbots and they don’t work.” True – some of them don’t. However, there are a number of Chatbots out there that are more than just online chat – they are effectively website concierges and lead the visitor through the site. Typically, a website can expect a 2-3% contact rate from visitors. Some of these bots change that to 10-12% – that makes a massive difference to your numbers!
- Video conferencing
These have got to be a must. They enable people to find out more about various treatments at no cost to themselves in the comfort of their own home. They enable your practice to schedule consultations, so they do not interrupt clinical time, they allow you to see patients at different stages of the buying journey with less risk. If you have a TCO then they are a no-brainer.
- Finance
If, for any reason, you weren’t offering finance before 2020, you need to rectify that immediately. Today’s consumer expects to be able to spread the cost (think Netflix and Amazon) and finance allows them to do that. It doesn’t even have to be interest free – just the ability to pay over 12-24 months will do the trick.
- Guarantee
We all know that plan patients are more likely to attend, look after their oral health and pay a monthly fee that allows the practice to budget and avoid peaks and troughs. The pandemic only made the value of these types of patients even greater.
There is now an opportunity to add further value to these patients’ plan as well as entice new patients by offering a genuine guarantee (https://www.mydentalguarantee.co.uk/ ) – in a post Covid world, the peace of mind that a guarantee offers is of great value.
For Instagram to work for your practice, you need to make sure that you have a library of fantastic Before and Afters. And remember, they don’t need to necessarily be the most interesting dental case or absolute perfection – they need to convey to patients the type of dentistry that they can expect.
The taking of photographs must become systemised in the same way that the collection of reviews is. https://www.coronadental.co.uk/dental-marketing-services/social-media/
- Google Ads
Many practices turned off their Google Ads back in March and haven’t switched them back on since. I strongly urge you to ensure that your campaigns are back up and running in time for the New Year. January is traditionally a strong time of the year for elective dentistry anyway as many look in the mirror and think, “I want to do something about that”! We expect in 2021 there will be even more people who are looking to improve their appearance and frankly don’t have anything else to spend their money on! https://www.coronadental.co.uk/dental-marketing-services/ppc/
Ditto! Facebook Ads are very targetable and allow you to serve up messages to those who have previously visited your website but perhaps not made an appointment/taken action.
- Marketing Champion
For all this to happen, someone in the practice needs to be on top of all your campaigns and act as a marketing ‘champion.’ They need to know the numbers and also be able to drive other members of the team on when it comes to items such as reviews, cases and engaging social media content. You may well work with an external agency and that’s great (we would say that wouldn’t we!) but you still need someone ‘on the ground’ who can liaise between the two to deliver the best results.
In conclusion
For many, marketing for dentists is not a job that they look forward to! They want to be clinicians, not spend their time marketing for dentists and patients.
At Corona Marketing Limited, we understand that and try and take some of that pain away from you by allowing you to get on with what you do best – dentistry.