A strong social media presence is essential for any dental practice. Not only is dental care essential for health, our teeth paint a picture in other people’s mind about what kind of person we are. Our smile is one of the very first things people judge us by.
Those looking for top-notch services and great deals can easily be swayed to give your dental practice a chance when you maintain a strong social presence, using a smart strategy as to what content and ads get posted on what platform.
Our friends at Lydiard Street Dental Clinic shares some tips you can use to give your practice an immediate social boost.
1. Start conversations rather than constantly plugging your services
Going to the dentist is a big and quite literal pain for everyone. The bill is never light on the wallet. Without adequate insurance, most who use your service will have to take out a loan or at least save for a while before visiting you.
Then, there’s the discomfort involved with getting poked and prodded by you and your technicians. Start a conversation, find out what their biggest concerns are, then you can target cross-platform content and ads that help alleviate their concerns and get those with poor dental health fantasizing about how you can make their smile sparkle again.
Great conversation starters include:
- What bothers you most about your teeth/dental health?
- What’s your biggest concern when going to a dentist?
- What’s the worst experience you’ve had at the dentist?
- What do you like to do with your free time?
- Would you consider going to, or switching from your current dentist for a free/discounted cleaning?
People love to make comments and ask questions on social. Ask them what they want, and they’ll tell you.
2. YouTube presence is essential
Too many dentists put up a single video on their YouTube, talking about their practice, and inviting people to come into their business. There are thousands of such accounts out there with nothing more than a video or two. Potential clients don’t get to know much more about your staff other than you all have perfect white smiles.
Explainer videos, with you and staff answering FAQs is a great way to draw people in. Especially when you cross-promote them in local paid search, and also post them on your website. Promoting your videos to local search and local social media followers is crucial here, as you don’t want to waste ads spent on people in Delhi, India when your practice is in Denver, Colorado.
Answer common questions to show your knowledge and build trust by letting viewers see your real personality and professionalism:
- How to best protect against cavities.
- Do people have to brush after every meal/beverage?
- How many times a day one should floss.
- Mouthwash recommendations.
- Signs of dental problems that need attention.
Obviously, with the patient’s permission, before and after videos of dental restoration procedures such as veneers and implants, or testimonial videos should all be included on your channel. The more prospects can get to know you, the more likely they are to schedule a visit.
Don’t forget to geo-target your Adsense campaigns, Facebook, and Instagram ads when promoting videos, so potential clients see your practice often while watching all their favorite videos and YouTube influencers.
3. Instagram
Any dental practice without a well-thought and highly active presence on the world’s most visual platform surely would have to be stuck in the dark ages. There are so many opportunities to share your client’s smiles. Particularly when major restorations are performed, or if you can find a local influencer to get pictures with, most clients that are happy with their smiles will be more than willing to allow a photo snap for the gram.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BpihwPpDCTc/
Obviously, running targeted ads through the platform is a must if you want to reach more local clients. Swipe up ads with great images and compelling offers, with short clever copy in each post description can be very effective. Share pictures of common problems and how you can fix them. Swipe up ads are very effective on Instagram. You can also share swipe ups in your stories after you’ve reached 10,000 followers, so don’t dismiss firing off stories as often as you can.
Allowing prospective clients to look in on you and your customers during procedures is a great way to, again, let them get to know you. If they’ve been putting off a visit for fear what awaits them inside the dentist’s office, great images, post descriptions, and stories combined with swipe up ads will have you killing it in no time.
4. LinkedIn and Facebook ads
Online social media marketing, and branding expert, Gary Vaynerchuk believes Facebook will always be king for advertising on social media. It’s much easier to target locals on the platform too, as you’ll most likely have mostly local followers (whereas, Instagram, etc., can bring in followers from all over).
Considering his resume, dealing with only high-brow clients, it’s safe to say that if Gary is telling you to invest heavily in Facebook marketing, you really should. In a recent episode of his podcast, he recommended LinkedIn swipe up ads to a group of entrepreneurs seeking to gain more exposure to the decision makers they were targeting.
Simple swipe up copy like “Looking for affordable dentistry in Savanah” can really pay out a great ROI, despite their somewhat expensive fixed price model for ads.
5. Build your social presence by “incentivising” clients to become advocates
The importance of putting potential clients inside your business with each post, letting them to know what you can offer once their sitting in the chair, has been touched on already. However, a lot of dentists out there fail to cultivate social media advocates effectively. It isn’t enough to ask clients to “Like us on Facebook” anymore.
Happy customers aren’t going to stop seeing you unless they move far away. Considering the high customer lifetime value of each patient in this industry, why not offer them $10 or $20 off their next procedure for making a verified post on their favorite platform using your business’s official hashtag.
Facebook is likely to be most effective at local targeting, as most people use the platform to keep in touch with friends and family, whereas Instagram, Twitter, and others will often be diluted with people and businesses from all over. Don’t encourage them on what to say, as each post needs to “feel” natural to followers.
That’s it for this list of social media marketing tips. Put just one of these tips to work for you and your engagement rates and conversions will start to go up considerably. Think long term, don’t expect overnight results, and maintain consistency with your plan and you’ll find more success.
Disclaimer: The tips and advice expressed in the above article is general in nature and may not be compliant with legislation, regulations or guidelines governing the dental profession in your country or state. You should check and be completely satisfied that the tips and advice given above is compliant in your country or state prior to acting on it.