The many advances of the 21st century have ushered in a new era of marketing. The digitization of almost every facet of our lives coupled with instant access to roughly 5 million terabytes of data1 (the current estimated size of the internet) has completely changed how we promote businesses, practices, organizations, and ourselves.
Whether you recognize the term or not, most of what you do to promote your dental practice falls into the category of digital marketing. Digital marketing is any promotion that appears on an electronic device. So, if you can see it on your computer, smartphone, or tablet, it’s digital.
Digital marketing includes your website, retargeted Google ads, social media posts, and any other marketing tool accessible by electronic devices. Anything in print, on the radio, or TV is considered traditional marketing. A good rule of thumb is that if you can touch it, it’s traditional.
Now that 93% of Americans use the internet,2 85% own a smartphone,3 and 31% admit to being online almost constantly,4 digital marketing is the primary path to reaching most dental patients. But just because everyone uses the internet, doesn’t mean you can easily reach your customers there.
For the best return on your marketing budget, you can’t just deploy one type of digital marketing and expect to reap the full benefits. Your practice needs to adopt many different digital marketing tactics simultaneously to realize the full advantage. According to a recent study, businesses properly engaging several types of digital marketing have an 89% customer retention5 compared to 33% for companies with weak omnichannel marketing.
With that in mind, here are five high-impact basics you should be using to create a successful digital marketing strategy.
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
When looking for a dentist, most potential patients start with a Google search. The top five organic search results get two-thirds of all clicks.6 Investing in SEO will help you get to one of the coveted top spots, so more patients click on your website and begin their patient journey with you.
2. Quality Content Marketing
Content marketing, often achieved through blogging, has exploded in the last two decades. Since 2015, the number of blogs has increased by 12%,7 and many of them belong to businesses, including your competition.
In the modern business world, customers aren’t just pleasantly surprised by entertaining content, they expect it. Eighty-five percent of customers8 want companies to regularly produce helpful, original content they can use. When your content marketing is properly optimized, you’ll find that up to 70% of your leads are a direct result9 of this effort.
3. Robust Paid Search
Paid search is a great way to give your business a boost if you just can’t seem to crack one of the coveted top five search results on Google. Dental practices and other companies using paid search, like pay-per-click advertising, usually see their leads increase by more than 60%.10
4. Active Social Media
More than half of the world’s population is on social media. If your dental practice doesn’t have a social media presence, you’re missing out on an excellent digital marketing solution. Ninety-six percent of content marketers11 say social media is their most popular content medium. And it’s easy to see why.
Instagram has emerged as an excellent social media platform for promoting your practice. About 90% of Instagram users12 follow at least one business, and 83% admit to using the app13 to find new products and services, like dental care.
5. Minding Mobile
More than half of all web traffic is mobile. When patients look at your site on their phone or tablet, what do they see? If you don’t have a mobile-ready version of your site, you’re definitely losing potential leads. In fact, 40% of users will leave14 if it takes your website more than three seconds to load. Prevent this by creating a mobile version of your site.
Digital Marketing Strategies for Dental Practices
These strategies are just a few threads from the giant tapestry that is digital marketing. The internet has opened up a new world of promotional opportunities. All you have to do is grasp it. Dreamscape Marketing can show you how. So contact us today at 877.958.9180 to embrace the digital marketing revolution.
For a list of references, please contact us.