Whether you’ve just started your dental practice or you have an established practice, you need to add more patients. Your business will not prosper if you do not have a steady stream of patients. In the current highly competitive market, the success of your dental practice depends on your ability to get found online and be chosen by new patients. Your ability to get connected with existing patients depends on your digital presence. A dental practice without a digital presence is invisible to potential patients who are seeking oral care providers online.
Your practice must have an effective communication strategy to incorporate the patient life cycle, from attracting new patients, educating about your services through completion of treatments to referrals. Digital communication tool like SharePoint 2016 can help you to consistently communicate with patients throughout their lifecycle in the practice, from educating them about treatment to ensuring they show up on appointment, complete their treatment, pay their bills and engage them in maintenance care to referring family and friends to the practice.
Digital strategy can mean success or failure for your dental practice. Develop a digital strategy or a long-term plan that meets your business goals by communicating the right message to your patients and potential patients at the right time. There’s a variety of digital tools and platforms you can use for marketing communications. Choose the optimal digital tactics when putting the plan together. An effective digital strategy integrates several core elements to make sure the practice goals are met. Once a strategy is established, it’s time to choose the tactics or the platforms to be used.
Create a website for your dental practice, if you don’t have a website you are missing the opportunity to bring in new patients. Potential patients search the internet for information like business hours, location, services offered and even promotions before making an appointment. A study shows that 60% of internet searches are conducted on smart devices, make sure your website is responsive to any device. Your website can be a valuable tool for expanding your existing patient base. Patients can get information on your website and recommend you to their friends and family. Even if your potential patient heard you through word-of-mouth referral they are still likely to check on your website to see if you can fulfill their needs. Use your website effectively to start a long-term relationship with your patients.
Make sure your existing and prospective patients can find you. Dental practices are now beginning to compete in the online market place, it is imperative to be search engine visible. Effective search engine optimisation increases your website visibility by putting your site on top of the search page. In order to maintain top ranking in search listings, you can leverage SEO tools, social media and paid online advertising. Also making sure you have relevant and fresh content on every page of your website.
Pay Per Click guarantee your practice shows up at the top of the search engine results page when certain terms are entered. Using a paid search product such as Google Adwords, you can bid on select keywords that are relevant to your practice. You select a keyword and the amount you are willing to pay when someone clicks on your link. The amount of clicks you receive depends on your maximum budget. You will need to create ads containing a clickable link to your website, just make sure the ad contain the relevant keyword to your practice.
Use text messaging and email to confirm appointments, educate your patients about your services, send birthday greetings and send last minute reminders to patients. You can also use patient communication software that can be customised to create appointment reminders, birthday greetings and marketing campaigns you can send with a few clicks.
Social media takes the word of mouth to the next level. Patient recommendations can now be effectively broadcast via social media. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram drive patient retention and new patient referrals. Your potential patients are online, that’s why it’s important for you to be online to communicate with them. Social media is an effective tool because people are searching for health information online.
Online contest can be a powerful addition to your social media marketing efforts. Contest made via the social media drives patient engagement, appointment request and recommendations. It is important to pay attention to rules surrounding the online contest, social media guidelines and government regulations. Make sure the contest platform you choose helps in social media lead generation
by capturing viewers contact details for other marketing efforts.
Adding a blog to your practice website gives your practice a way to promote your dental brand, share information and educate patients and potential patients about your services. It is also a great marketing tool that you can update regularly with news, photos, videos and other information you want to share. Onsite blogging which is linked to your social media accounts can result in greater website traffic.
Millions of videos are watched every day on video sharing sites like YouTube. Videos are effective way of popularizing your practice on the web. It can actually give people a glimpse of your practice, it can show them how procedures are being done and you can even share patient testimonials. When people feel good about your videos they share it with their friends and family on social media. Even a short video with great content can boost traffic to your website and they also ranked high on Google searches.
Digital patient communication portal is a software that contributes to higher quality of patient care, production, collection and profitability. The right online patient portal can help you stay in touch with your patients by automating appointment reminders and ensuring patient show up on appointment schedule. It can also help manage collection by giving patient 24/7 access to their accounts and let them pay their bills online via credit card. Digital automation not only saves time but allows patients to become compliant with their treatment and financial obligation. Select a digital provider who is specific and focused on dental practice, and can integrate solution to all your digital communication and provide real-time effectiveness.
The internet has changed the way dental practice market their services. Your practice must have an effective digital strategy to meet patients’ needs. A well-structured website, social media, SEO, pay per click advertising and digital communication portal are an effective combined strategy for growing your dental practice. Going digital will push your practice’s brand as a technology-savvy oral care provider.