Top 5 Strategies to Effectively Attract New Dental Patients
Whether you are a new practice, or an established one, prioritizing new patients is an essential part of your success. Here’s how to effectively get new patients through your doors, and even how to keep them coming back.
1. Create a comprehensive dental marketing plan
Optimize your digital footprint and be there when patients search
Increase visibility through paid search:
71% of people looking for a dentist run an online search before scheduling an appointment. How you show up on search engine results pages (SERPs) — like Google or Bing — is crucial to your business. Utilizing Google or Bing Ads can help you maintain top of page rankings, reach a wider population of patients, and drive more clicks to your site.
Prioritize organic search and SEO:
Organic search results appear based on the relevance of your site to a user's query, and are earned through factors like website and content quality and authority.
If you’ve ever searched for “restaurants near me?”, it’s likely hundreds of potential patients in your area are entering something similar to find the nearest dentist.
Working to enhance your local and on-page SEO can significantly amplify your online presence, attracting patients near you and helping you appear higher in results without paid placements.
Consider leveraging tools such as Google My Business and fine-tuning your website's content to align with your location and overarching keyword strategy.
Print still matters in dental marketing — supplement your online presence
Earn higher response rates
Print materials are still an extremely effective way to increase your brand recognition and credibility. In fact, print advertisements receive an average response rate of 9%, while other digital media receive about 1%.
It’s important to track the performance of your print advertising when working to acquire new patients. Utilizing a trackable QR code or link shortener helps simplify performance management.
Reach offline patients
Enhancing accessibility to information about your practice can be pivotal in reaching seniors and communities who may not find their information online.
Increase brand recognition over your competition
Print marketing helps you compete where competitors may have lost focus. Consumers are also more likely to remember you! When your competitors are strictly digital advertisers, print provides an opportunity to set your practice apart.
Increase practice visibility through events and community involvement
Find your community
Start by visiting local community centers, libraries, and town halls for information about upcoming events such as health fairs, festivals, or fundraisers.
Utilize social media platforms, local Facebook groups, and community websites to stay updated on event announcements and opportunities for involvement.
You can also try reaching out to your chamber of commerce and network with other local businesses and organizations to deepen your relationship within your community.
Build and establish trust
Whether you help sponsor health fairs, offer free check-ups, or host educational workshops, these activities demonstrate care beyond the dental office. Engaging with your community makes your practice more approachable and trustworthy, encouraging prospective patients to choose you from the start.
2. Understand your patients and address their needs
Develop the ideal dental patient profile
Identify your target demographic
Focusing your marketing efforts on your primary patient demographic, whether it's seniors, pediatric patients, or a specialized field like dental implants or sedation dentistry, can drive demand for your practice within that target market.
Get to know your patients preferences
Valuing patients' preferences extends beyond treatment methods and anxiety management, it can encompass aspects like scheduling, communication, and financial or coverage options. By understanding these specific preferences, you can create a more comfortable and personalized experience.
Personalize dental services and treatment plans
When personalizing treatment plans consider factors such as patients' dental history, preferences, and budget constraints, ensuring they receive the most effective care.
In addition, offering a custom coverage option like a dental membership plan can help ensure your uninsured or inactive patients can regularly access and afford necessary hygiene and treatment services.
Use what you know to craft compelling marketing campaigns
By crafting campaigns that resonate with your target audience demographic, and highlighting the ways your practice tailors its offerings to patient preferences, you can effectively attract more of your ideal patients.
Know the dental health ranking and PPO landscape of your community
How to find your state’s dental health ranking
Dental IQ has released an interactive map with best and worst dental health per state. This tool can be incredibly useful for dental leaders seeking to understand the overall oral health rankings in their region and what prospective patients need from their provider.
Know the market share of payers in your area
If you operate in an area dominated by insurance payers, it might make sense for you to keep your higher-performing PPOs so you can continue to attract patients within their network.
Alternatively, in areas where payers have less market share it’s important to find alternative ways to make care and services accessible. Accessibility can mean offering an in-house membership plan or a patient financing solution, both are great for patients and can drive significantly more revenue back into your business.
3. Provide an Elevated Patient Experience
Lean on technology, reduce dental anxiety, and drive referrals
Utilize the most advanced technology
According to Urban Smiles Dental, there are 5 main advantages and benefits of technology in dentistry as followed below:
- Improved accuracy and precision
- Improved patient comfort
- Increased speed of diagnosis and treatment
- Improved safety, and increased efficiency
Overall, the integration of advanced technology in dentistry results in more effective and safer patient care, significantly enhancing the overall patient experience and fostering greater loyalty to your practice.
Make your practice welcoming
Dental Anxiety is estimated to affect approximately 36% of the population, with a further 12% suffering from extreme dental fear. A few ways to make your practice more inviting may include, offering a complimentary beverage, providing cozy waiting areas with comfortable seating, and ensuring friendly interactions with every patient. These small but impactful gestures can help patients feel at ease.
Launch a referral program
Referral programs are a powerful tool for expanding your patient base while rewarding existing patients for their loyalty. By implementing a patient referral program, you can incentivize current patients to spread the word about your practice to their friends, family, and colleagues.
Encouraging customer reviews, showcasing testimonials, and providing excellent customer service further enhance your credibility.
Provide superior customer service that prioritizes patients
Take notes for a personalized touch
Making patients feel welcomed, and keeping updated notes in their ledger about their family, vacations, or major life events provides an extra step of customer service, plus gives you something to talk about each time they come in. This helps patients feel prioritized and safe in your space.
Establish a high standard of care through staff training
Investing in ongoing education and skill development for your team is essential for maintaining high quality care, ensuring patient satisfaction, and generating positive reviews and referrals to attract new patients. With a well-trained and motivated team, your practice can establish itself as a trusted provider.
Automate reminders for patients
Automated notifications, reminders, and payment processing make it easy for patients to stay on top of their appointments and manage any additional payments or charges. This takes the burden off of your staff, and simplifies the experience for patients.
4. Be Transparent With Pricing
Make care more accessible
Minimize cancellations caused by price-anxiety
Price transparency is not just about listing costs; it's about empowering patients with clarity and confidence in order to eliminate any lingering feelings of price-anxiety. When patients know exactly what to expect, they can plan their dental care more effectively. Plus they become less likely to cancel at the last minute.
Share detailed treatment breakdowns
Provide patients with a comprehensive summary of the costs associated with each treatment or procedure. This includes fees for the procedure itself, any additional materials or medications required, as well as any applicable taxes or administrative charges.
Implement a no hidden fee policy
Commitment to a no hidden fee policy to demonstrates your dedication to transparency and honesty in pricing. Make it clear to patients that the price they see in their breakdown is the price they pay.
5. Set yourself apart from the rest
Launch a dental membership plan
Diversify your dental practice
By offering a membership plan, your practice stands out in a crowded market appealing to a greater demographic of patients. From retirees who have lost benefits to patients working in industries that don’t provide them — and everyone else in between membership plans help patients and their families access the oral care they need.
Customize membership plan offerings to fit patient needs
Tailor your membership plan to meet the diverse needs of your patients, by offering several options for plan inclusions and pricing. Adjust the terms and benefits of your membership plan based on patient feedback and changing market conditions to ensure your plan best serves your patients and is profitable for your business.
Keep new patients coming back with a commitment to care
Patients who enroll in membership plans are committed to your practice, and more likely to schedule regular visits and follow-up appointments. This leads to better oral health outcomes and stronger patient-provider relationships.
When fostering new patient loyalty through membership, you'll want to rely on a high-quality dental membership platform.
With Kleer and Membersy, you'll gain a powerful membership plan solution that not only helps you provide subscription-based coverage directly to patients but automates plan management, integrates with your PMS, provides expert strategy and support, and ensures air-tight compliance.
Learn how you can keep more of your new patients and maximize your revenue when you meet with a plan expert today!
About the Author
As the Content Marketing Strategist at Kleer and Membersy, Stacey brings over 7 years of expertise in B2B and healthcare content creation. Harnessing her experience she works to craft actionable resources for dental teams to help fuel their growth.
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How to Measure ROI on Your Dental Marketing Program
Marketing is an investment in the growth of your practice. In dentistry, there can be a stigma around marketing, specifically with it being a costly investment. Still, it is an investment in your growth the same way training, hiring talented staff, and purchasing equipment and technology are investments in your growth. Marketing is no different. However, when investing in marketing you want to ensure you make the most of it.
22 Nov 2023
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