Why You Must Examine Your Dental Practice Before Designing a Marketing Plan
Dental Marketing Audit in 5 Steps
When facing challenges, we often feel compelled to immediately charge out and do something, anything; it’s just comforting to know that action is being taken. And while it’s always good to produce results, when it comes to developing a marketing plan for your dental practice, it’s best to first push the pause button and take a completely objective look at your current marketing profile. This type of internal dental marketing audit ultimately saves time and money because it reveals strengths and weaknesses and allows you to allocate resources effectively.
Step 1: Examine Your Competition
The best place to begin an internal audit is outside the bubble of your office. It’s so easy to get caught up in day to day operations and forget that contrasting the competition is what ultimately determines your success. Unlike online retailers who sell products around the globe, dentists operate within a fixed, local market. This means that your team doesn’t need to be concerned about dentists on the other side of the country; your prospective patients are comparing dentists close to home, 7 to 10 miles from your office.
The main objective when examining your competition, therefore, is to discover ways that you might develop and establish a distinct brand. Generally speaking, it doesn’t matter if you’re promoting a new product or managing a political campaign—all marketing is ultimately about creating a clear and memorable contrast. In order to get noticed, your dental team needs to first stand out from the crowd.
Step 2: Focus on Web Traffic and Google
In our online world, Google ranking and web traffic determine the success of your dental practice, so it’s important to track your monthly website visitors and also the strength of your Google profile. Today, people turn to Google for answers, and one of the questions they ask is where to find a new dentist. You want your dental practice to be part of the answer. How do you do that? Well, it has a lot to do with your website. Google crawls every website and grades it or “ranks” it; this ranking is then used to present search results to users. The best, most valuable dental websites are ranked first, so it’s no surprise that these sites receive the most traffic and, consequently, the most new patients.
Equally important is your Google profile and more specifically your Google rating. Many prospective new patients will find you by searching for “local dentists,” “dentists in [city],” and “dentists near me.” Google will present a list of practices in the area and prominently display the Google rating for each office. As a culture, we constantly use ratings to make decisions, and in this case, the rating on your Google page is displayed next to the rating of every other dentist in the area. How does your office measure up to the competition? Do you have enough five-star Google reviews?
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Step 3: Examine Your Social Media
Of course, the best place to advertise your dental practice is where prospective patients congregate. Years ago that might have been the Yellow Pages, broadcast television, or the newspaper; today, however, it’s social media. More and more people are scrolling, clicking, and liking than ever before, which makes social media a critical part of any successful dental marketing audit. How is your office doing? Social media is a great tool if it’s used effectively, and the key is variation. Some businesses post advertisements 90% of the time or hire a company to post generic content every day; these are just two reasons why followers might grow disconnected and even annoyed with your content. Is your practice developing a wide variety of posts (educational, humorous, social, etc.)?
What about Instagram? Do you have an account? If you don’t, your practice is missing out on a lot of free, local exposure. Instagram is a great platform for connecting with local businesses and networking; for example, building online relationships with real estate agents, hair salons, and restaurants are some of the best ways to foster referrals.
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Step 4: Take a Look Inside
There are so many ways to reinforce your brand to existing patients. Your office should really function as a kind of resume that highlights strengths. Each appointment is an opportunity to demonstrate the altruistic words in your mission statement. Of course, you convey this through your personal interaction, but it can also be done with printed material around the office: pamphlets, displays, framed photos, patient artwork, before and after pictures, etc. Videos can also help patients learn about your services and your commitment to patient care. Is your office space set up to consistently sell your brand?
Patient comfort is a critically important part of your internal branding and dental marketing audit. Do you offer snacks and drinks? What about WiFi? These types of amenities are almost expected today, at least to some degree. Offices that fully commit to patient comfort will be remembered and referred. Your patients may not understand what you’re doing in their mouths, but they remember how nice it was to grab a coffee and check their email in the waiting room.
Step 5: Boots on the Ground
How are you connecting with the local community? Have you made attempts to stay visible and relevant to people living 7 to 10 miles from your practice? Even though our world is growing more digital, people still spend the majority of their day in the physical world. They drive to town, pick up their kids at school, watch parades, join charitable organizations, shop for groceries, and, yes, they still get mail (snail mail). Ask yourself how well your community would know your practice if they didn’t have internet access. If smartphones didn’t exist, what percentage of the population would know about your dental team?
Largely overlooked is what I call “boots on the ground” marketing efforts. These are campaigns aimed at promoting your brand non-digitally. Traditionally, small business owners mailed postcard advertisements and joined their local chamber of commerce to network, but there are so many other great ways to keep your dental practice visible without the Internet. Supporting a charity is a great way to help your community and illustrate a commitment to give back. Offering free treatment to veterans or people who can’t afford dentistry, collecting items for the local food pantry, or joining a city-wide cleanup effort—such actions demonstrate a sincere commitment to improving your area. There are also organizations to sponsor, like local athletic teams and clubs. Maybe there’s a scholarship for high school students pursuing a career in healthcare or dentistry?
Lately, I’ve noticed more dental practice vehicles on the road. These are cars or SUV’s with custom lettering. Some offices come up with a name for the car too (like Molar Mobile) and promote its travels on social media. If your office can afford it, I think it’s a great idea. People are drawn to language, so if they see your vehicle with a creative message, they are likely to remember it. You might even come up with a schedule in your office that loans out the car to employees, so it reaches as many parts of the area as possible. This car could also be in a parade; staff could walk alongside, handing out dental supplies with your logo and practice name.
Effective Marketing Plans Evolve
Marketing is always about adapting to a changing culture, about finding the techniques and messages that connect and convert. What attracts new patients today might fall flat tomorrow, so your team must constantly revisit your dental marketing audit in order to tweak the practice marketing plan.
