Top 7 mistakes of dental marketing

Digital marketing has become an indispensable part of the dental industry. With so many dental practices competing for business, it’s important to use any and all available resources to market your practice.

Unfortunately, there are also many mistakes that dentists make when marketing digitally. Whether you’re using Facebook, Google ads, a website, or email blasts, avoid these 7 common dental marketing mistakes at all costs to ensure the best possible chance of success.

Mistake #1: Not understanding the importance of SEO in dental marketing.

SEO refers to search engine optimization – which is how websites show up in results on popular search engines like Bing, Yahoo, etc… The goal of SEO is simple: get more people who want what you offer to find your site first. This means getting as much traffic from relevant searches as possible.

Google is the most popular search engine in the world with over 2 billion monthly searches. It accounts for about 65% of all web traffic according to StatCounter. That means if you are not optimized for it, chances are very slim that anyone will find your site when searching for something related to what you offer.

An effective SEO strategy is crucial for every dentist’s website and should be implemented right away after setting up a new dental practice. If done correctly, an online presence can help increase visibility, attract patients, improve conversion rates, and ultimately grow your business. Studies have shown that having a well-optimized dental website increases the likelihood of being found by potential customers by as much as 300%.

To increase your online traffic, focus on your keyword-related title tags and meta descriptions. These are some of the most important elements in terms of search engine optimization because they appear directly above or below each result page in Google’s organic results list. Optimize these two areas so that they contain keywords relevant to your service offerings.

Examples of popular dental keywords include: “dental implants,” “cosmetic dentistry,” “pregnancy teeth whitening,” etc. You can also use tools like SEMrush or Moz to tailor your dental marketing to what people are searching for.

 

Keyword tags and meta descriptions are just two of many factors that go into determining which sites rank higher than others. The other main factor is the quality of content. If you have high-quality articles with unique information about your services, then chances are good that you will be able to rank well in searches related to those topics.

Bottom line is, SEO matters! And if you don’t know how to do it yourself, there’s no shame in hiring an expert. There are plenty of reputable companies that offer affordable SEO packages, so check them out today!

Mistake #2: Trying to please everyone and not focusing on your niche audience.

It’s important to understand your target audience so you can effectively create content for them. However, if you try to please everyone that will lead to over-saturation and confusion which will then affect your conversion rates. A conversion rate refers to the percentage of readers who actually decide to book an appointment after viewing your page.

You can’t do it all, so you need to focus on what works for the people who are most likely to buy from you. This is where a good SEO strategy comes in handy because this helps you identify those keywords or phrases that have high traffic and conversions. You can even find keyword research tools that are specific to your local area, such as GetKeywords. Once you know these terms, you can use them when creating new blog posts, landing pages, ads, videos, images, etc.

Being unique is a crucial thing, and dental websites are a dime a dozen. Know the things that make yours distinct from others.

Mistake #3: Lacking a compelling story.

A practice is more than just a business concern, it’s a brand. Every brand needs a compelling story behind its products and services. Your customers should be able to understand what makes your company different by reading about it on your site. The best way to tell this story is through content marketing.

Content marketing is a strategic approach for businesses of all sizes to create valuable content that educates their audience while engaging them with an emotional connection. This type of content can include blog posts, eBooks, infographics, white papers, webinars, podcasts, video tutorials, case studies, etc. Content marketing provides the opportunity to connect with prospects at every stage in the buying cycle – building awareness, generating interest, gaining trust, closing sales, and nurturing relationships over time.

In layman’s terms, content marketing means creating useful information or products that your audience will want to read about or buy. In short, tell your story!

Mistake #4: Focusing only on social media for your dental marketing

Do not be confused. There are overlaps between SEO and Social Media Marketing but they do have their differences. You need both of them for a successful online presence. The best way is to combine these two elements together so you get the most out of them. If you focus too much on one element, then chances are that you will end up losing something more important.

New types of social media for dentists have emerged over the past decade as an affordable marketing tool. These include Facebook groups, LinkedIn Groups, Twitter chats, YouTube videos, blogs, podcasts, etc.

Some of these tools can also help with your search engine optimization efforts by providing links back to your website from within those pages or posts. In addition, some of these new forms of communication allow potential clients to interact and ask questions about specific topics in real-time which may be useful when trying to answer patient queries during office visits.

Many dental marketers only focus on social media in their marketing, which is a mistake. Social media needs to be supplemented with other marketing strategies in order to promote your services.

Research shows that patients who receive more than one type of advertising have better recall rates for the dentist’s name and practice location than those who received just traditional methods like direct mail, print ads, and billboards.

This means you need to use all available channels to reach your target audience effectively!

Mistake #5: Neglecting small business promotion methods such as word of mouth, referrals, and speaking engagements.

The key to good dental marketing is promotion. This can come in a variety of forms and with the rise of social media, it is easy to neglect the more traditional methods of marketing.

However, these are some of the most effective ways for dentists to get their names out there. Word of mouth has been proven time and again to be one of the best ways to generate new leads. Referrals from satisfied customers will help build trust among potential clients.

Patients who have positive experiences at your clinic will likely share those experiences online or offline. This means that if they’re happy with your service, then others may see this information and choose to visit your practice instead of another one.

Some ways you might go about implementing this include creating a hashtag or a social media page that allows you to share patient testimonials or pictures of their smiles after treatment.

It might also be worth considering giving patients an incentive to spread the word of your practice to their friends, whether that be a discount on their next visit or a small free gift.

Mistake #6: Not delegating the work

Dental marketing is by no means a small undertaking for any dentist. It’s important not only to have time in your schedule but it should also be allocated appropriately so as not to put yourself under undue stress.

One of your staff members may be a closet graphic designer, while another a meticulous organizer. Knowing your own strengths and those of others will help you identify the right person for each task and spread out the workload.

Before delegating the work, it’s important to have a cohesive marketing strategy. Without mapping out what needs to be done in a properly categorized table of actionable ideas, your marketing would be done in a haphazard fashion.

The last thing you need is a random, inconsistent, and unsystematic approach that is all over the place.

Mistake #7: Failure to set goals and evaluate your progress towards them.

How do you know you’re headed in the right direction without setting goals to measure success? Without quantifiable goals for what you are aiming to achieve with your dental marketing strategies, it’s easy to start getting lazy with posting or forget what your initial intentions were.

In order for your digital marketing to bear fruit, you need to work hard at it and aim for consistency, and a good way to make sure of this is to have goals that you are constantly aiming towards.

That said, setting a goal is not enough; you need to be able to measure how well you have achieved that goal. If you don’t keep an eye on these metrics, then you won’t get any feedback about whether you should change course or stick to your guns.

A good way to track your progress is to use Google Analytics. It can give you some pretty useful insights into the performance of different parts of your site, including which pages people visit most often, where they spend their time when browsing through your content, etc

Conclusion

To summarise, there are many marketing mistakes dentists make which can be detrimental to their success.

The key thing to remember here is that it’s not enough just to know what those things are; rather, you need to take action and do something about them if you want to improve your marketing efforts.

By avoiding the pitfalls covered in this article and following our dental marketing tips, you can ensure that your campaigns will be more successful and lead to a better return on investment for your business.