How Effective Dental Signage Can Attract New Patients
Your Dental Sign Is the Face of Your Office
Even with effective digital branding, people eventually come to a location for treatment, so your office building is an essential branding element. Patients and prospective patients already drive past your office frequently—on their way to work, school, and the grocery store. They live nearby (most within a 7-mile radius), and they notice more than you think. Consciously and subconsciously, they are making judgments about everything, from the quality of your landscaping to the number of cars in the parking lot. Because most people understand very little about dentistry, they use superficial factors to assess quality and value. In other words, you might be the best dentist in the world, but if your office has a stale, worn look, people will assume your dentistry is shoddy as well.
Your dental practice sign is perhaps the most important part of your exterior branding. This one element must correspond a lot in a relatively small space. Unlike your website, where you can display countless images and write paragraphs, your sign has to deliver the same message with only a few carefully selected graphics, colors, and words.
Put a Tooth on It
A sign should captivate attention and correspond information quickly. Most people are driving, so your sign must connect instantly and reveal the nature of your business. Thankfully, dentists have an image that universally identifies them: a molar. Even from a distance, a molar is recognizable and synonymous with dentistry; it immediately lets people know that your office provides dental treatment.
The image of a tooth says everything, and because less is more when it comes to signs, any additional language should be kept to a minimum: “Family Dentistry,” “Pediatric Dentistry,” and “Orthodontist” might be words to accompany the practice name and tooth image, but listing dental services should be avoided. Signs that include specific treatments become very cluttered. People assume you’re a professional, providing complete dental care. They will look to your website or call for specific details.
Your Practice Name in a Digital World: Creatively Keyword, Not Nebulous
Dental practice names fall out on a spectrum, from wildly creative and nebulous like “Dental Art” (Do they actually sculpt tooth art?) to “Springfield Dental” to just “Dentist.” What is the best type of name? What name will attract more new patients? The answer comes when we think in terms of search engines and ranking. In a digital world, your practice name must benefit you online; this means incorporating primary keywords (dentist, dentistry, dental, and your location). Google ranks websites according to their relevance, authority, and keywords. In this case “Springfield Dental” includes both keywords “dental” and location “Springfield.”
Of course, there are a lot of practices named after the dentist. This was common in the past, but now, in our digital world, more dentists understand that an online brand is a valuable asset that takes substantial time, talent, and resources to build. For example, consider a 15-year-old practice with a great website, YouTube channel, social media, and hundreds of 5-star Google reviews. If all this work is branded with the dentist’s name, it has no value to whoever buys the practice; the new dentist must change the name and forfeit all that online real estate (unless, that is, by some extraordinary coincidence, the new dentist shares the same first and last name). Today, the most valuable part of a dental practice is its online brand, so transferable names like “Springfield Dental” allow dentists to sell the brand (the online presence)—in addition to the group of patients, the building, equipment, etc.
Dentists Rank High in Google with These Techniques
What Really Matters to Google Google’s Mission From the beginning, Google has maintained one objective: to develop a search engine that provides the most valuable content to its users. In order to sift through the growing mountain of information on the Internet, founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin designed an
Cool Colors Are the Best
Research has found that colors affect our emotions. Cool colors (green, blue, and grey) have a calming effect; conversely, warmer colors (red, orange, and yellow) evoke feelings of anxiety. Considering the fact that 75% of US adults have some degree of dental fear, it becomes clear that a red sign with the word “dentist” is a bad idea. A dental practice sign should do all it can to soften people’s fear of dentists; using cool colors will do much to produce this calming effect.
Consider the two signs below. Which one is more soothing?
Warm colors heighten emotion and evoke feelings of anxiety.
Cool colors relax people.
Maximize Visibility, Light It Up, and Change It Up
Before placing your sign, consider the people driving by. Think about how you can take advantage of the traffic patterns to expose your sign to the most views; consider height, distance from the street, angle, and local zoning ordinances with one goal: to reach as many people as possible. Trim back any bushes or tree branches that might be limiting the visibility of your sign. Also, many people will drive past your office at night, so adequately lighting your practice sign is crucial.
People who pass the same sign every day actually stop seeing it; they get what’s called “sign blindness,” so changing the look of your sign is a great way to re-engage your audience. Dental practice signs are important, so investing in new designs from time to time is good business. New colors and visuals keep the community engaged and give the entire practice an appealing, fresh look.
Is It Time to Go Digital?
Some areas allow for digital LED signage. This can be a great way to create consistent engagement. In addition to your central branding (practice name, logo, etc.), you can highlight specials, thank local first responders, celebrate a birthday, and—most importantly—remind passersby to schedule their routine dental cleanings. In our modern world, it takes a lot to capture people’s attention, and the competition is fierce. Video, colors, and variability can break through all the noise, create a connection, and make an impact.
