Oversupply of dentists sparks fierce competition in big Canadian cities.
If you are a dentist and see that headline, you already know that the competition for new patients as well retaining current clients can be an uphill battle. This article will give you actionable advice, tips and dental patient marketing strategy, to help your dental clinic stand out amongst the rest (especially when it comes to ranking on Google).
As an experienced dental marketing company, Hiilite has achieved incredible results for our dental services clients throughout various cities including Calgary, Kelowna, Vancouver and many more. By following the strategy discussed in this article, we have been able to increase traffic to our client’s website by 64%! And while traffic is nice, at the end of the day dentists care most about new patients. In this case study, we were able to increase our client’s conversions (phone calls, emails, contact forms) by 100%!
The first step is, of course, having a website that potential customers can find your services at. But with such a variety of dental clinic options in big cities, it has become a necessity to have a sound digital marketing strategy to continually generate new clients. SEO for dentists is paramount as people are constantly searching for dental services. For example, the search phrase, “dentists near me” generates 673,000 searches per month. That’s insane!
The marketing strategy tips discussed here will help you land customers that are already searching for your services. By reading this article you will understand the process we used to help our clients stand out in this competitive industry, generating high quality leads and revenue.
Want more dental practice marketing tips delivered to your inbox?
1. Create A Visually Appealing Website (For All Devices)
We touched on this briefly earlier, but it bears repeating. For a dental clinic to separate itself from the pack online, the website design needs to warrant a visitor’s attention, increase the amount of time spent on your dental website and encourages new patient contact submissions.
Before we touch on the elements we like to include in our dental client’s website design, it’s useful to understand some facts related to the average customer journey and what they are seeking:
- You have 0-8 seconds to make a compelling headline and landing page. After 8 seconds, the majority of visitors leave.
- Approximately 96% of visitors that come to your website are not ready to buy.
- The more landing pages you have, the more leads you are likely to get.
- Product videos can increase purchases of the product by 144%.
- A 1 second delay in your site speed can result in a 7% reduction in conversions.
- A/B testing is becoming the preferred method that has brought a lot of the companies the most success.
Source: Neil Patel
What does this mean for your dental website? It needs to be visually stimulating and communicate a clear value proposition. For our dental services provider and dental clinic clients, we will have a Discovery & Research dental marketing services strategy session to nail down on what makes them unique so as to communicate this message on their website.
We encourage our dental clients to identify a tangible, unique value proposition that can really separate themselves from the competition. This forms the basis for the unique visuals and friendly user interface that we create when putting together the web design for a dentist.
Put yourself in the visitor’s shoes. If you see a dentist offering quality service (like everyone else), or someone who in addition to providing quality dental services, also provides next day bookings, free parking and a free chance to win an at-home teeth whitening kit, which one are you going to choose?
As dental marketing consultants with years of experience, we have found that website structure is of upmost importance not only for overall user experience, but for the sake of Google and other search engines.
To rank highly on Google, dental website designs should contain an architecture that is easy to crawl (fancy SEO term – think of Google as a robot spider that continuously crawls websites to understand their content to better provide searchers with relevant results). The simpler we make the website, the easier it is for Google to understand the site and our client’s incredible content, thus increasing the chance it is shown to searchers.
Finally, as nearly 60 percent of searches are from mobile devices it is crucial to have your website be designed for easy navigation and accessibility on mobile. Search engines consider mobile-friendliness when generating search engine results. Contact one of our representatives to if you need help ensuring your website is mobile friendly.
2. Developing A Content Marketing Strategy For Dentists (That Understands Consumer Trends)
Understanding, developing and executing a content marketing strategy can have immense benefits for dentists looking to increase their reach (and thus, potential for new patients). The problem is, often our clients are unsure about how to create a strategy or are focused on the wrong (for lack of a better term) areas.
Content marketing is meant to be a longer-term strategy, providing an additional opportunity for your dental practice to rank online for relevant search terms. With the constantly changing, competitive landscape for dentists, it is not enough anymore to simply create your practice’s website and expect results. You NEED to be creating fresh content on a consistent basis to win precious search engine rankings.
Understanding the latest trends within your industry and creating content related to it provides benefit to potential customers as well as you, the dental services provider. It can provide an answer to their query, and because of them landing on your website, can increase the likelihood that they contact you for further questions or to book an appointment (if that is where they are in the customer journey).
Our content and strategy and development for dentists usually involves the following:
Blogs
We design a content marketing strategy for our dental clients based on the stage their practice is in. In the initial stages, our blog content is aimed at driving brand awareness and traffic to the website. As the client gets more well-known and seen as an expert within their industry and region, we might shift to comment more on the latest trends and provide expertise that answers consumers questions. These blogs are meant to be thorough and provide additional online visibility that a dental practice may not have.
FAQs
For some people, the dentist can be a scary venture. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) sections of a website can go a long way in not only answering any concerns that a potential patient may have, but (you guessed it), provides an additional opportunity to rank on Google for search queries that your patients are searching for – as a dental marketing company, this often the angle we pursue with all strategies.
For example: we may notice that a lot people in the Vancouver area are searching ‘root canal recovery time’. In this case, we can add a section to our FAQ section that answers this question and potentially secure a new patient that requires a root canal because created more relevant content for our target audience that may not have stumbled upon our client’s site otherwise.
Newsletters
These are a great option if you feel you can provide your patients with relevant offers and/or news, tips and advice that they are seeking.
Dental Reports, Ebooks, Guides
This content marketing strategy is intended for our clients that seek to become the authoritative voice for a trend, issue or service in the dental industry. An extremely powerful factor which we won’t go into extensive detail here) for ranking highly on Google is the ‘authority’ of a given website. If visitors link to or share your dental report, ebook or guide, Google recognizes that you are an authoritative figure within the dental services industry and is more likely to show your website for related search queries.
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) For Dentists – Keyword Research
Search engine optimization is the practice of optimizing your website to make it ‘search engine friendly’. At the root of SEO is keyword research, understanding what queries, and the intent of each, your target audience is searching.
Our dental marketing consultants are well versed in the keywords that increase your presence online, while generating high quality traffic, more likely to submit a new patient request. The specific keywords chosen for your site depend on a variety of factors including which services are available at your practice. For most of our clients, a long-tail keyword (3-4 descriptive words) focus is typically ideal. For more information on the types of keywords, see the infographic below:
Source: Online Marketing For Dentists (SEO)
4. On-Page Optimization For Dental Clinics
After conducting keyword research for a dental client, we shift focus to on-page optimization for high-value pages. For dental practice clients, typically these will consist of the homepage, services pages, content pages and any promotional pages.
Does your dental website require further on-page optimization?
Our dental marketing company services provide opportunities for clients’ sites to rank for unique keywords and search queries for each of their high-value pages. This is done by ensuring these pages contain primary keywords in the following areas on a given page:
5. Off-Page Optimization For Dentists To Dominate Locally
Off-page optimization refers to practices and techniques, designed to boost your search engine rankings by increasing the perceived legitimacy and authority of your dental practice (as briefly discussed in part 2).
Off-Page Dental Marketing Strategies To Increase Patient Volume In A Dental Office
Google My Business (GMB) Listing
This free listing increases the legitimacy of your practice while also improving its online visibility (these profiles make up almost 50% of the screen real estate, making them impossible to miss). They provide more in-depth detail to your practice and services offered, as well as location and reviews. A top quality dental website design without claiming their GMB listing is missing out on a significant number of potential new patients.
It is vital that these listings be optimized in such a way to provide the greatest value to potential patients. This includes providing a summary that contains relevant keywords as well as local photos of the business location.
Citations
Citations refer to any mention of your name, address and phone number (also known as ‘NAP’). It is very important that these citations remain consistent where ever present as this will increase the ‘trustworthiness’ of the information from a search engine’s perspective.
Directory Submissions
You may have already been told that Google is the new Yellow Pages. While this is true, increasing your web presence by submitting your site profile to the well-known directories is a must when it comes to local SEO for dentists. Our dental marketing company has been leveraging these resources for years to increase our clients’ search engine rankings. By including consistent client profile in general, national, industry specific and local directories it not only increases website traffic but also provides further authority value.
Testimonials and Reviews
It’s not always the most creative dental marketing ideas that provide the greatest return on investment (ROI). There is much to be gained just by encouraging and responding to your Google My Business reviews and similar review websites.
Getting positive reviews further increases the perceived authority of your website and conveniently provides another way to attract new patients to your dental practice. By taking the time to request a review from a patient (usually via email outreach following a consultation) and respond in a professional, timely manner, new dental patients are guaranteed to filter in.
Still not sure how to generate reviews for your practice?
Dental Marketing Company Case Study
How We Increased Our Client’s Conversions (100%) & Traffic (64%) In One Month!
Our client came to us with an outdated site looking for a unique dental website design that would stand out amongst its competitors.
Along with the modern website design, we also provided videography and photography services to communicate the brand’s value proposition and elicit an emotional response from potential patients.
Once the site was redesigned, we began optimizing the site (on-page and off-page) to increase the number of keywords and search phrases the client showed up for on search engine results pages.
Finally, in addition to claiming the Google My Business listing, we submitted their business profile to several relevant directories. We also developed a review strategy that encouraged patients to leave a review, further increasing our dental client’s website authority.
The result of this dental marketing strategy was an increase in site sessions by 64%, and conversions (new patient contact calls/forms) by 100% in just one month!
