What worked in the past won’t necessarily work in the future. Just look at phone books, which used to be a great channel for advertising, but are hardly even used anymore these days.
The same goes for dental marketing and the tactics and techniques dentists can use to attract more patients and bigger cases like dental implants.
Things have even changed significantly in the past few years, due to COVID-19 restrictions and other factors. Let’s take a look at how dental marketing has changed in 2022.
Consultations
In the past, you had to rely on word-of-mouth recommendations and traditional advertising to get new patients in your doors. These days, not only are in-person consultations not necessary, many people prefer to do video consultations. While your chances of selling a bigger case are higher in person, attracting new patients might be better if you offer a video consultation option on your website. It doesn’t have to be long; just enough to see if the patient is an ideal candidate and interested.
Social Media
Websites replaced storefronts as the first impression for a dental practice. But that is quickly becoming obsolete in itself, due to the rise of social media. Nowadays, more people care about whether you have an active Facebook page than a working website. It makes sense, as many people use social media daily and features like messaging, promotions and regular posts can easily market your practice in several different ways.
Video
While images once reigned supreme, video is the king of content today. Especially short-form video is taking off in popularity, as more and more dental practices are discovering that short 10-15-second videos can quickly show off different procedures, solutions and happy smiles. They also are ideal for patient testimonials and can build trust if you create a video featuring yourself and your staff.
SEO
SEO is always changing, so there is no surprise here. Even if you’re following best practices from a couple of years ago, chances are pretty good that you need to update them. Google’s algorithm has changed countless times the past decade and it’s important to stay updated about what search engines look for and prioritize when leading people to your practice. Finally, local SEO is much more important than it was in the past, as there is more competition than ever.
These are just a few examples of how dental marketing has changed in recent years. The good news is that a dental marketing agency can take care of what’s most important with your marketing strategy. To discuss marketing efforts for your practice and see if we can help, contact us today.