Attracting new dental patients to your practice is a necessity when it comes to having an expanding and successful dental practice. It is recommended that, in order to grow, dental practices welcome around 20 new patients per month and with traditional marketing practices no longer as effective, dental practices must adapt.
Consumers are now much more likely to go online to find local services, such as dentists and when looking for a new dentist, around 77% of patients will likely search online. It’s clear that a new digital marketing era is here when it comes to healthcare, so if you’re not sure how best to attract new patients to your dental practice, let’s take a look at some tips.
Optimise Your Google My Business Page
When you want to increase the number of local patients, then there is no better place to start than with Google My Business. Google My Business is a free tool from Google which helps all business owners display their business information, services, special offers and map listing.
Once you have created a Google My Business listing, this will generate a Google Maps location, meaning that when people search for “dentist Leamington Spa” for example, a list of the nearest dental surgeries will show up. Ideally, you want to appear in the top 3 listings on the Map, as this means users will be more likely to click through to your website. You can optimise your listing using keywords so that when users use these in their searches, your website is more likely to show up, add reviews from patients, upload images and provide information on the services.
Use SEO On Your Web Pages
SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the process of editing your website’s code and content so that search engines such as Google can understand and read the content. Then, this means that your website will appear higher up in the search results, which can then help to generate more enquiries and new patients. SEO is complicated as it is dependent upon the Google algorithm, which is hugely complex and ever-changing. There are many different processes involved with SEO from keyword research to alt tags, so if you’re not familiar with the process, you might benefit from investing in SEO through an agency or in-house team.
Ask Patients To Leave Reviews
Reviews can be invaluable when it comes to attracting new dental patients. A lot of patients tend to stick with their current practice due to fear of going somewhere that they may not like. Displaying previous patient reviews can be enticing for new patients and can put them at ease for joining a new dental practice. Around 72% of patients will look for reviews online when they are searching for a new healthcare provider, so try to encourage patients to leave reviews following their appointments. Email newsletter reminders are a great way to keep in touch with patients and send them a follow-up email after their appointment with a reminder to leave a review. If you offer specialist or in-demand treatments, such as dental implants in Leamington Spa, then be sure to get as many reviews for these treatments as possible.
