It’s no secret that the economy has suffered since the COVID-19 Pandemic began. From restaurants and malls to individually-owned local businesses and dental practices, everyone has had to temporarily close their doors, however, it’s been a bit different for dental practices. While restaurants and stores were able to offer their customers with an online shopping experience and ship products right to their doorstep, dental offices have had to keep their doors closed and cancel appointments regardless of urgent requests.
If you own a dental practice, you know how hard it can be to maintain the attention of your patients online since you can’t exactly offer an online shopping experience. That’s why it’s important to play your cards right and invest your dollars into an effective dental marketing strategy that’s still going to provide recurring and new, potential patients with relevant information regarding 2020 dental marketing trends, changes within your personal dental practice and what you’ll be doing differently due to COVID-19.
How To Adjust Your Dental Marketing Plan For 2020
No one could have seen this coming, however, as a dental practice owner, you don’t have to feel like there’s no hope. Digital marketing is still very much alive and always will be, regardless of having to have had to close your doors for months. Marketing never stops, so you don’t have to either.
In order to retain your patients’ focus on your practice, here are a few ways to adjust your digital marketing plan for 2020:
1. Develop A Strong Social Media Presence
Many dentists use social media as a way to engage with their patients, find new patients and update their followers with important office announcements or relevant information regarding the industry. But social media is more than just that. Whether it’s Facebook or Instagram, your followers are very much influenced by imagery, especially in 2020 as people have had a bit more free time to scroll through their timeline. You need to capture their attention and make them stop scrolling, but how?
High-Resolution Photos
While this isn’t necessarily just a tip that dentists should follow, it’s important to remember that your patients are relying on you to share engaging content that showcases your work. They also want to get to know the faces behind your practice, especially if they’re new patients and have yet to truly get to know you. This is especially important as 2020 hasn’t exactly offered us the ability to get to know people in person! The higher the quality of your photos on social media, the more likely your followers and new patients will engage with you. No one wants to see a pixelated photo of teeth or a blurry portrait of their new dentist.
Creative Videos
Videos have always held a powerful edge over digital marketing. In fact, 80-85% of online users watch videos and are more likely to engage with your business because of your videos rather than photos or written content. Videos can be posted on your personal social media profile and in your Facebook or Instagram Stories. Since COVID-19 has forced people to isolate, Facebook even admitted back in March of 2020 that the amount of users watching videos has drastically increased. With over 2.5 billion monthly active users, it’s easy to see why.
Mobile-Responsive Ads
Most of your recurring and potential patients are on their mobile device browsing through your website, services and social media profiles, therefore, when you’re running ads, they should be mobile-friendly in order to increase your chances of engagement. This doesn’t mean you should completely disregard desktop-friendly ads, but search engines like Google will penalize your website and not rank it as high (organically) if it’s not mobile-responsive.
2. Email Marketing Is Still Effective In 2020
You may hear people say that email marketing is dead in 2020, but we couldn’t disagree more. Email is still a preferred messaging platform for people, especially when they’re busy at work. It’s also affordable for those with a tight budget during COVID-19 and can increase your website traffic as you guide them to relevant, valuable and informational blog posts. It can be a great way to promote specials you’re offering too.
3. Continue To Collect Online Reviews
Just because your doors have been closed doesn’t mean you can’t collect online reviews. Even during COVID, people are still in search of a new dental practice, particularly if they’ve recently moved or require emergency dental services. If your dental office offers emergency services, ask them to leave a review so others will know you’re available for emergency support. Those in search of a new dentist will see your recent reviews which can drastically affect their decision to reach out and trust you before even meeting you. Online reviews are one of the top things new potential patients will turn to in order to decide if they want to work with you or not, so the more positive reviews you have, the better. They can be left on Google and Facebook so your audience who doesn’t have social media can still read them on the search engine.
4. Provide 24/7 Support
You may not have thought about it before, but dental websites can benefit from chatbots just as much as retail websites. Chatbots are actually one of the top marketing trends, especially in 2020 as more and more people are relying on the internet for shopping and browsing purposes. Chatbots can improve your online presence and the trust established between your practice and your patients since they know their questions and concerns can be answered even outside of your office hours. While you’re easily accessible via social media, phone and email, chatbots allow patients to reach out to you directly on your website and have their questions answered immediately.
5. Voice Search
Dental marketing trends are ever-changing and now that it’s 2020, many people are actually relying on voice search optimization. According to the Marketing Journal, 50% of patients relied on voice search over manual search to find what they’re looking for which can come in handy as people are driving, working and multitasking. With the help of dental marketing professionals, your website can be optimized to make your content as relevant as possible for those relying on voice search inquiries.
How Do You Market A Dental Practice?
These dental marketing trends are just a few ways to produce effective results, but there’s more to it than just posting on social media or creating engaging email content. While 2020 has definitely been a different year, digital marketing and traditional marketing efforts haven’t really transformed and can still bring a new wave of success to your dental business the same ways they did prior to COVID-19.
1. Local SEO
Above, we talked about optimizing your website so it’s searchable via voice search, but your website also needs to be optimized so local patients can easily find it too. By investing in a local SEO program, you’re investing in establishing your presence, raising brand awareness and increasing website traffic. By optimizing the content throughout your website’s pages, as well as a Google My Business page and more, people searching for similar services you offer in your specific area will easily be able to find you, read your reviews, business hours and how they can reach out to you. Local SEO studies have proven that people will visit a business within five miles of them after conducting a search on Google.
2. PPC Ads
PPC, which stands for pay-per-click advertising is a cost-effective way to drive more traffic to your website and potentially turn those users into paying patients. Marketing professionals heavily rely on PPC ads to attract quality leads as they can be carefully optimized and focus on a specific audience. The key is finding the proper keywords, which can easily be done after a local SEO audit is conducted. They should have a clear call to action (CTA) and lead the users to an attractive, engaging, high-quality landing page that provides further detail about your services and what they can expect from your team.
3. Mailer Programs
Mailer programs are one of the more traditional marketing trends, but they can be extremely effective for those in the dental industry. As a dental office owner, you need to target a specific audience in the area you’re located in, so what better way to do that than by delivering a high-quality, visually-appealing and creatively written mailer card right to their front doorstep? The content should be carefully crafted and engaging, but straight to the point. This can improve brand awareness by helping you establish your local presence.
Are You Ready To Improve Your Marketing Efforts In 2020?
The Coronavirus has obviously negatively affected a lot of people this year, including dentists who’ve had to close their offices and not be able to treat their patients for months. Even since the Ministry of Health lifted restrictions in June of 2020, it hasn’t exactly been business as usual. Many dental offices have had to make drastic changes to ensure the health and safety of their staff and patients. But while these changes have been made, there hasn’t really been a drastic change in the digital marketing world for dentists. Many are still heavily relying on their social media platforms to continue to engage with their new or recurring patients, email marketing campaigns, SEO, Google ads and overall content. Since COVID-19, people are turning to the internet and social media so you need to capture their attention with engaging and high-quality content whether it’s visual or written.
