(Newswire.net — August 30, 2019) — Unlike most other healthcare professions, dentistry is rarely covered by insurance so patients have more leeway in choosing a provider – but they also tend to be more avoidant. Many people have serious dental anxiety, and even if they don’t, the cost of dental care can be prohibitive. Because of these distinguishing factors, dental practices require higher quality marketing strategies than other healthcare services.
For dental practices working to grow their patient base and promote their services, these marketing strategies can provide the necessary boost, while also providing financial advantages. With digital marketing changing so quickly, a combination of SEO and other forward-thinking approaches are just what the doctor ordered.
Center Your Services
When it comes to choosing a dental practice, the primary thing that dental patients want to know are what services are available and, ideally, the kind of pricing they can expect. For example, many patients don’t look for a dentist until they’re facing an emergency, so offering and promoting emergency dental care can be a real boon to a practice’s business. Other services that practices should ensure are front and center on their sites include cosmetic services, no fear or gentle dentistry, as well as low-cost or membership programs.
Show Up With SEO
Promoting specific dental services is all well and good, but it won’t take a practice far if they don’t employ quality SEO practices. As such, dental practices should ensure they have a comprehensive digital marketing strategy and work with a specialty dental SEO firm. Dental SEO specialists have the skills necessary to provide an organic rankings boost, quality content writing, and analytics that provide for constant improvement. SEO standards are constantly changing and the average dental office can’t be expected to have the marketing knowledge needed to comply with these requirements.
Keep It Local
Unlike the world of ecommerce, dentistry is an inherently local industry. Patients want to see a dental team in their own neighborhood, or at least their own city. With that in mind, dental practices need to ensure that patients can easily find and contact them by listing a phone number and address on their websites. A map and contact form can also increase conversions.
Stay On Trend
Dentistry may be elective and costly, but for those reasons it’s also considered to be a status symbol in the United States and it’s important for practices to stay on trend if they want to be successful. Right now, one of the most popular offerings is holistic dental care, so practices should consider establishing an expertise in that area, creating content focused on holistic practices, and making holistic care a core component of their profit model.
In a crowded dental services sector, marketing isn’t enough to keep a practice afloat; the top dental practices are masters of differentiation. While it’s fine and indeed necessary to provide basic services like cleanings and fillings, then, it’s the practices that can offer something a little different from their neighbors who will attract the most patients and hold on to them for years to come.