How to Attract New Patients to Your Dental Practice

A successful dental practice is composed of a huge collection of moving parts. From the providers to the equipment you choose and the team members you hire, all of these little elements contribute to the overall popularity of your practice. Which, in turn, will determine how many new patients will come to your dental practice every month. 

There are thousands upon thousands of dental care practices in North America. As an oral healthcare practitioner, you need to promote your dental services in order to attract as many prospective patients as possible. But, with so many dental services out there, creating content that attracts readers outside of your current patients can be challenging. 

In this article, we’ll explain the connection between your marketing strategy and patient engagement levels and we’ll also share 10 tips on how to attract new patients to your dental practice.

Your Success Depends on Marketing

Before going over our tips on how to get new dental patients, let’s go over the role of our marketing strategy in your local success.

The only way to connect with patients in your local area is to develop a marketing campaign targeted at these specific individuals. It’s important to understand that patients conduct online searches to find all types of products as well as services, and dental practices are no different.

Patients often use search engines, business listings, review websites, and similar local platforms in order to find oral health specialists. Therefore, you need to build a strong website, focused on garnering online reviews, and update your contact information on websites that list local businesses. 

Here are three reasons why you should focus on marketing to attract patients:   

Unveil Valuable Data About Your Patients

The best approach to building engaging marketing campaigns is to tailor your content to your audience. But, the only way to understand your potential patients is to analyze their behavioral patterns. So, you should start by looking at your existing clients, creating segments based on their similarities, and using this information to create better marketing materials. 

Connect with Potential Patients Through Their Favorite Channels

It doesn’t matter how good your marketing materials are, if your patients can’t see your content then your advertising efforts will never yield results. For this reason, you need to ensure that your content is located where your audience members will see it. This concept is very similar to the one followed in conventional marketing. 

In the case of digital dental marketing for new patients, finding the right channels means publishing content through distinct platforms. For example, if you find most of your patient questions on Facebook and similar platforms, then your best bet may be to launch a social media marketing campaign.  

Learn What Features and Services Attract Your Patient Base

Just like dental practices, every single demographic patient group is different. Instead of assuming that your products and services are attracting your audience, the right digital marketing strategy can help unveil the features that your patients like the most. 

For example, if you notice that you’re getting negative reviews because of a dental product or device you’re using, you can find alternative ways to perform the treatment or change the process altogether. 

10 Top Tips to Attract New Patients to Your Dental Practice

Now that we’ve covered the basic connection between your marketing efforts and the success of your dental practice, it’s time to go over general steps to help you get more patients. 

Keep in mind that every dental team has a different set of resources and goals. Therefore, you should evaluate each tip and ensure that every step you take contributes to the success of your dental marketing strategy. 

With the above in mind here are 13 tips on how to get new patients in your dental office.

1. Study Your Target Audience

The first thing you should do to attract more patients to your dental practice is to study your target audience. As we mentioned earlier, existing patients are the key to this process because you can analyze the steps they took before contacting you in order to identify the patterns. 

But, you should also go beyond your existing patients and assess dental industry trends as this will give you more data to work with. 

2. Prioritize the Patient Experience Above All Else

One of the biggest mistakes that practitioners make when trying to attract more patients is focusing on products. Instead, dental professionals should prioritize the patient experience and make sure that every element in their individual practices cater to their clientele. 

3. Create a Dental Membership Plan

Dental membership programs are superb in-house plans that dental professionals can offer to their patients. The idea is that patients pay for a monthly subscription in order to access high-quality dental services at a discounted price. 

This allows you to set up a predictable revenue stream every month while also increasing the number of services and products you sell thanks to a higher number of patients.  

4. Launch Paid Advertising Campaigns

If you’re wondering how to increase patient volume in a dental office immediately, then online paid ads should be close to the top of your list of solutions. 

Pay-per-click or PPC campaigns through Google Ads and similar platforms can help you increase the number of patients that go into your practice as soon as you launch your campaigns.

5. Leverage SEO Strategies

The main difference between search engine optimization (SEO) and PPC is that the former is an organic or unpaid method. Not only this, but SEO generates gradual results. So, even though it’s a great way to exponentially increase the number of patients you attract, keep in mind that it may take a few weeks or months before you start seeing better search results rankings. 

6. Keep Your Local Listings Updated

Patients use Yelp and similar listing sites to read reviews but also to find contact information. If your contact information is not updated on these major listings, you run the risk of losing credibility. To avoid this, you should claim or create a profile on all relevant listings and keep them updated with the most recent information.  

7. Offer a Web Chat Service

A few decades ago, only large corporations had the resources to offer web chat services. Today, chatbots and the presence of marketing professionals that cater specifically to dentists have made web chat services more accessible than ever before. 

You should take advantage of this and create a chat service to help patients answer questions, book appointments, and handle other basic tasks.  

8. Encourage Patients to Share Their Experiences Online

The power of word-of-mouth is well-documented, especially in industries like dental care. This trend has translated to the digital realm in the form of online reviews. 

Rather than leaving your reviews up to chance, you should influence them as much as possible and encourage patients to share their positive experiences online. You can do this verbally as well as in written form via email, chat, or SMS, all of which allow you to include a link to your preferred review site.  

9. Consider Developing a Referral Bonus System

If you want to get a consistent number of referrals each month you should consider developing a referral system for your patients. The system can have whatever structure you see fit, but it should involve a discount for both the referred patients and the referring individuals to make it appealing for both sides.