So you’ve got a dental website and you’ve discovered that no one is finding it, so what gives?
The internet has changed how we do almost everything from ordering food to checking cinema times and yes, you’ve guessed it, finding a dentist.
You need to position your business in front of potential patients when they want to see you, which let’s be honest is fairly difficult.
This is the genius of digital marketing and marketing in general though. With a high-quality campaign, you’re increasing the likelihood that someone is going to choose your business over the competition time and time again by projecting your business in its best light to your potential audience.
Help your dental practice stand out in the digital world
In 2023, your business needs to be online and not just online but rocking an epic online presence.
#1 Sort your branding out
It’s extremely common for businesses like dentists not to put too much thought into branding but how your business appears to potential customers is incredibly important.
You want to present your business professionally whilst appealing to your target audience.
The use of colours like light blue and light green gives dentists a professional, clean and modern feel, decide on two or three colours that you want to use, get an epic logo, along with a cool tagline and you’re ready to unleash your brand on the world.
#2 Make a decent website
You don’t have to be spending a lot of money to have a good website. What you need is a content management system like WordPress that makes light work out of web designing and development.
Using WordPress you don’t need to be spending £10,000 on a custom website, your budget can be between £1000 – £2000 which from a good designer will get you a beautifully clean website.
In our opinion, you shouldn’t go for cheap website builders that give your website a generic look, you need a website that will stand out.
#3 Focus on copywriting
Having a great website isn’t enough.
The content used on the page is incredibly important, it will either make people want to click through and enquire about your business or it will make them go back to the search results and find another dentist.
Copywriting is important on every page but none more so than the home page and your important service pages, they need to be optimised for both the search engines and the user.
#4 Set your website up for SEO
Most websites fail to be set up correctly to be found in search engines. If you don’t put any thought into how users will be finding your website then you’re going to be leaving a lot of money on the table.
Setting up a website for SEO is fairly simple.
#5 Create an SEO strategy for success
An SEO strategy can be the difference between your website being a success or a failure. With so many dental websites online it can be difficult to make yours stand out, that’s where SEO comes in.
If you set up your home page and service pages to adhere to SEO best practices you’re already going to be ahead of many of the competition as they won’t even have bothered to do that.
SEO isn’t the fastest though, so you’ll need to have other marketing methods too, especially in the short run but also in the long run as you don’t want to rely on just SEO.
#6 Create a content marketing plan
Google and your potential audience love content. If you’ve got a website that’s just the home page and your service pages, the likely hood of your website ranking anytime fast isn’t likely.
Google and other search engines love something called authority.
Authority is gained when other websites, which are relevant in your niche/industry link out to your website. The more links you have, the more trustworthy you’ll be seen in the eyes of the search engine.
#7 Pay attention to local SEO
If you’re operating a local dentist then your website must appear in the search engines for local keywords.
This can include searches like dentist [city name] dentists [near me] or teeth whitening [city name] and various other searches.
Local SEO campaigns are lower budget than nationwide, for a high-quality campaign you should be paying around £500 – £1,500 per month depending on the exact needs of your business.
#8 Make a Google My Business Profile
One of the most powerful local SEO techniques is to utilise a google my business profile.
As people are searching in the local areas, using a GMB profile helps your business to show up on the maps and put your services in front of your local audience.
When users search for a local service, there are three map results which will show relevant businesses close by.
Creating a GMB profile is simple, add images, your services things like opening and closing times and a link to your website to help get your business more exposure.
#9 Focus on getting reviews
If you’ve got a GMB, then you need to be proactive when trying to secure reviews.
Asking or incentivising your patients to leave epic reviews will help your business grow, so stop being so scared and just ask them, realistically if you’re offering a high level of service and you’re likeable, then your customers will likely have no problem leaving you a positive review.
#10 Build an email marketing list
Building an email marketing list is one of those things every business wishes they did sooner. If you’re getting traffic to your website, it would be highly beneficial to get their e-mail address to stay in touch.
You know how it is, you go on a website and see an email sign-up, or there’s a pop-up when you’re about to leave that says hey, do you want XYZ for free? Just sign up for our newsletter blah blah.
Well, you might think oh no one will, but it’s all about having a high-quality lead magnet. A lead magnet is something so attractive that it will encourage your audience to give you their e-mail in exchange for something of value.
Email marketing is all about shaping the e-mails to your audience to have a higher engagement rate.
#11 Create social media profiles
It’s fast and easy to get started on social media however you need to have things to post.
Vanity posting where you just brag about your business saying it’s the best isn’t necessarily the best plan of action, you need to analyse what content your target market loves and create content centred around that.
You don’t have to be on every social media platform however you must get on the ones where your target audience is.
This means selecting a few, looking at the competition and seeing what they are doing then creating your own social media strategy to help your business get more awareness and drive more leads.
#12 Keep adding to your blog
SEO and content creation aren’t just one-time things. Google loves active websites, the ones that post regular high-quality content. Think about it, if you were the search engine, what type of website stands out more, one with very little content or one that’s consistently publishing content?
The key isn’t the frequency, it’s all about consistency. You don’t need to be publishing new blog posts every day however, you need to do it with consistency.
Whether that’s one blog post a week, two a month, or three or four per month, you need to be publishing content to help build your website’s domain authority, as it’s more likely to be linked to by other websites than a website that has very little content.
#13 Look into Social Media ads
The engagement has dropped on social media in recent years as the platforms look for more ways to squeeze money from their users and advertisers.
Five years ago, organic posts on websites like Facebook and Instagram used to get a lot more exposure and engagement, however now if you’re not paying for ads, this means it’s likely your posts won’t be seen too much.
Paying for ads doesn’t just mean boosting social media posts. Things like boosting posts can be effective however it’s more than likely the engagement with these posts will be alike, which won’t lead to any monetary benefits for your business.
You need to draw attention with a high-quality video explaining the benefits of your dental practice and then retarget the people who interact with them.
You know the type, you see and add then for the next week you’re bombarded with the same ad. Whilst this can be annoying, it’s also known to work, plus it’s much cheaper to retarget your current audience than find new ones.
#14 Create linkable assets
Linkable assets are what encourage people to link to you. This can involve almost anything, however, in recent years things like infographics, listicles and 20 best ways to X are incredibly popular.
Why? People love information and things like the above can keep users engaged and be like, oh I like that, my audience will find that useful so other websites will link to yours naturally.
Linkable assets can be tools also, for example, let’s say your dental practice offers teeth whitening, this means you could have a page focused on the ultimate experience of teeth whitening, 15 things to know before you get your teeth whitening or 100 items that’ll stain your teeth.
Creating linkable assets isn’t fast, it takes work, however, if you put the effort in to create content that your audience will love, you’ll be rewarded by the search engines.
#15 Create high-quality videos for marketing
You have some people who love reading, however, now more than ever, video content is overtaking traditional text content. Why?
Videos are so easy to digest, they can get to the point much quicker, but do you want to know why video is also epic?
Videos engage the user more which means they are more likely to be spending time on your website, which if they are coming from the search engines, shows them users are clicking on your website and spending time there, not just bouncing back and looking for a better result.
Videos can be cut up into sections too, great for publishing on social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and wherever your target audience is hanging out.
Video content doesn’t have to be expensive either. Now, we know, almost everyone hates getting on video, we look weird to ourselves, and we sound weird but you need to get passed that.
Plus think, do you have those judgements when you see people on videos? Realistically not, so don’t be scared to get the camera out and address your audience’s issues.
You can make videos showing people around your dental practice, answering FAQs or explaining procedures in more detail to help them understand why you’re the dental practice they should be visiting and not your competition.
#16 PPC Campaigns
Pay Per Click campaigns can be great for businesses, however, they can also drain your budget incredibly fast. To have a PPC campaign, it’s always best to speak with a professional, we’ve spoken to so many businesses who have gone through funds fast and they’ve had terrible websites.
If you’re looking at paid ads, you must know it’s crucial to set up a landing page that is optimised for conversions.
The truth is that you may have a good offer but if you can’t project that to the user, then they are going to leave your website, which is incredibly frustrating considering you’ve just spent £9 to get the user to the website.
17# Monitor your progress
If you can’t monitor your digital advertising you’ve got a problem. You need to know where your leads and results are coming from.
This helps you to double down on ones that are working and avoid others that aren’t doing so well which might be down to execution rather than it being bad.
For example social media, there are a lot of users who are wasting time on social media because they aren’t doing the right things.
The most important aspect of marketing is generating attention for your business, if there’s no way to grab the attention of your target market then it’s likely your campaign won’t be effective.
