Resources

8 in 10 Canadians have a dentist and 64% of American adults between the ages of 18 and 64 have at least one dental visit in a year. These statistics show that patients need dentists. That said, several dentists are vying for the attention of these patients.

Below are 20 tips to help you and your practice have a successful, profitable 2021. Most of our suggestions don’t require you to spend any money, but rather require you to look back at 2020 and reflect on the good, the bad, and the ugly. Even though 2020 was an exceptionally unusual year, it’s important to ask yourself the following questions…

The nature and quality of your patient experience have an impact on your dental practice’s reputation and productivity. If your current patients aren’t satisfied or happy after an appointment with you, chances are they may be unwilling to return and hesitant to recommend your service to prospective patients.

Many dental practices have websites that aren’t optimized for mobile devices. The dentists, who run these practices, are unknowingly losing leads and patients by the day. Even worse, they are being left behind by the rapid changes in digital marketing and consumer behaviours.

Local SEO has never been more important for dental practices and dental marketers. If you want to give your dental practice the best chance of boosting its brand reputation online and attracting new patients, you have to prioritize your local SEO strategy. In its recently released Local SEO industry report, Moz outlines the top 9 local ranking factors that impact SEO in 2020.

The quantity, frequency and diversity of online reviews shared about your dental practice accounts for 15% of signals that Google’s search engine optimization (SEO) algorithm uses to update its ranking and listings. Your online reviews allow Google to learn more about the service you provide and the value you offer dental patients.

A high-converting and well-curated website should bring you new patients. It should consist of essential design features, effective call-to-actions and industry-specific content that attracts, retains and converts web visitors to active patients. You can get a better ROI for your marketing investment by reviewing, updating and optimizing your dental website from time to time.

Introduced by Robert Cialdini, in his 1984 book, Influence, social proof refers to the phenomenon that people make decisions and take actions based on the decisions and actions of others. For dentists, this happens when your prospective patients choose to book an appointment with your dental practice after seeing or reading your current patients’ reviews or remarks about your dental care service.

Patient feedback plays a crucial role in the long term growth and success of a dental practice. It is as simple as this: you can’t get better if you don’t know what you are doing wrong. In the dental industry, your patients are the best indicators of what you are doing wrong – or right.

Amongst several factors that can negatively affect the growth of a dental practice, patient attrition is one of the least talked-about. While it is great to establish and implement marketing strategies that result in new leads and more patients for your dental practice, it is even more beneficial to have a system in place for retaining your current patients.