5 innovating ways to market your dental practice
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Learn how to effectively market your dental practice online.TRANSCRIPT
Brought to you by: www.whypaymoredental.com
5 Innovating Ways to Market Your
Dental Practice
ATTRACT
NEW
PATIENTS
Why Pay More Dental 5 Innovating Ways to Market Your Dental Practice ǀ 2/17
5 Innovating Ways to Market Your Dental Practice
Creating a Competitive Edge Using Digital Strategies to Reach New Patients
The world of marketing has changed significantly in the last few decades, and as a result, so
must the manner in which dental practices attempt to attract new customers while retraining their
existing patients. While no guarantee can be attached to any one method, proven or otherwise, a
certain level of dependability does accompany newer strategies for advertising. In fact, one
might equate the development of modern marketing strategies with the creation of the
competitive advantage enabling one to garner a strong database of patients.
What Does Having a Competitive Edge Mean?
It’s simple. If your practice has a competitive edge, it stands out in some way when compared to
other dental facilities in the area. Either it’s easier to find, more affordable to use, simpler to get
an appointment, helps busy patients remember their appointments, or offers recent reviews of its
staff members and office. Without this edge, your dental practice is less likely to experience a
consistent surge in new patients or retain the patients that it already has.
COMPETITIVE EDGE = SUCCESSFUL
NON-COMPETIVE PRESENCE = INVISIBLE
Competition within the Industry
With a new influx of dental graduate students each year, the total number of active dentists is
expected to continue rising, despite retirements and life circumstances. As a result, the need to
create an edge in your marketing efforts is going to be a critical component of any measure of
success that you have. Moreover, the manner in which you advertise needs to get in line with the
digital age if you want to keep up with or standout amongst your competition.
According to a survey conducted by the American Dental Association (ADA) in 2013,
more than 195,000 practicing dentists existed in the United States during that time. The
competition for patients is sure to have become even fierce over the last few years,
creating holes in the schedules of most dentists across the country.
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Patient Availability Isn’t Something That a Dental Practice Can Rely on – Ever!
In addition to the competition provided by active dentists practicing in a specific geographic
location, the availability of patients varies not only according to the number of people living in
the area but also because of prevalent opinions regarding the need for dental care, the expense
associated with visiting a dentist, and the time involved to make an appointment and keep it. At
any given time, a large portion of the adult population is foregoing dental treatment. Sadly, the
dental health of many children is also being neglected. This behavior is occurring for a number
of reasons, and the details don’t always circulate around money.
The data included in the following tables has been compiled by the Health Policy Institute,
formerly known as the Health Policy Resources Center, an organization dedicated to sourcing
critical knowledge for the benefit of the dental care system in the United States. The statistics are
from the year 2014. Each table shows a breakdown by percentages of patients seeking dental
treatment during that particular year.
Visiting the Dentist Percentage of Adult Patients
Every 6 months 52.30%
Once a year 15.40%
Every 2 to 3 years 11.00%
Not in the last 5 years 21.30%
While adults are less likely to see their dental care provider on an annual basis than children, the
numbers are still staggering. At least 10% of children below the age of 18 have not visited their
dentist in the last five years. The numbers show that a large percentage (47.70% of adults and
36.40% of children) of the American population is in need of more frequent dental care. What if
you could innovatively market your services to some of these individuals?
Visiting the Dentist Percentage of Patients Under 18 years
Every 6 months 64.60%
Once a year 20.30%
Every 2 to 3 years 4.40%
Not in the last 5 years 10.70%
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Traditional Marketing No Longer Delivers the Desired Impact
Relying on traditional methods to reach new patients is an ineffective endeavor that delivers slow
growth for a dental practice if any at all. The ease of using a search engine has changed the way
in which most people find any type of business or service that they are interested in today.
In particular, using the internet to search for something provides consumers with instant results,
allowing the individual to act immediately. Your dental practice doesn’t need to be the one the
patient finds first, it just needs to be one that can be contacted immediately or the office that
stands out against the competition as having better options.
Traditional advertising can hold a debilitating negativity. It always relies on a targeted audience
following through during normal business hours, creating the opportunity for the individual to
make a different selection, one that is less than favorable for your dental practice.
The survival of your dental practice depends on your ability to embrace changing times,
eschewing traditional marketing strategies that limit your business growth for innovative
techniques that increase the likelihood of filling empty patient slots in your daily schedule. This
is what being found on the internet can do for your dental facility:
Click Here to Set Up an Appointment = New Patients
How Did Consumers Find Dental Providers in the Past?
Decades ago, people turned to what was known as “The Yellow Pages,” a thick book compiling
businesses and their contact information by category. Today, “The Yellow Pages” has become an
online resource that allows people to access the names and contact information of providers
picking up where the hard copy left off. However, this type of search doesn’t allow for
comparisons of multiple providers, creating a guessing game as to whether or not the consumer’s
selection is going to be a good fit.
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How Are New Customers Finding Their Next Dentist?
Recent studies have shown that more than 90% of consumers who turn to their computers in
order to make a purchase or find a provider begin their activity by initiating a search. Most
likely, they begin with a simple search that includes the words dentist and a geographic location.
If you don’t have an online presence, your facility might not even turn up in the results. In fact,
this type of search typically generates a few ‘paid-for’ advertisements, a small collection of
dentists, whitepages.com, yelp.com, and the yellowpages.com.
Since today’s internet savvy consumers know that the information they want is available
somewhere online, they are now searching for a topical website that provides a highly specific
list of results. This is where websites like WhyPayMore Dental are becoming so popular. They
provide the consumer with exactly what is desired – a place to compare dentists by everything
that is important to the consumer.
For some individuals, the criteria used to conduct a search might include:
Dental specialties: Orthodontics, pediadontics, endodontics, oral, and more.
Location: Whether or not the office is easy to get to or located nearby.
Hours: Whether or not Saturday or evening hours are available.
Insurance: The names of the insurance plans that are accepted.
Discounts: Whether or not there any discounts for new patients.
Harnessing the Power of a Topical Search
Consumers are fully taking advantage of websites that cater to users looking for a specific type
of information. This practice is known as topical searches, and it has been growing in popularity
over the last few years as consumers discover how easy it is to find what they want, in the
location that they desire, and at a price they are willing to spend.
Topical websites create a win-win situation for advertisers too, because they create an online
presence that generates traffic and the possibility of brand new customers. Since advertisers on
the site have a level field, your area of expertise and any special features that you offer is going
to put your practice at the top of the list for many potential patients.
In fact, online marketing has never been so easy. With topical searches gaining ground as a
popular method of finding a dental provider, it only stands to reason that individuals actively
searching for a dentist are going to set up an appointment as well. Topical search websites can
generate a reliable stream of prospective customers in order to promote profitability and growth.
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Why It’s Important to Reach Out to Customers Digitally
Americans today are searching for information online today in greater numbers than ever.
According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life
Project, 74% of adults in the United States currently use the internet. Of that number, 80% make
use of the internet to find health-related information. Once all calculations are completed, this
data means that 59%, or a majority of American adults, are using the internet to search for
health-related topics. Two points that you should recognize and accept include:
Without an online presence, your dentistry office is virtually invisible.
Without an interactive online presence, your dental practice loses potential patients.
Accelerate Dental Practice Growth through Effective Digital Strategies
With the digital opportunities available today, your dental practice has the ability to reach
hundreds of potential patients each month. While you won’t be able to secure each one as a new
client, you are going to discover your patient roster growing larger. Filling empty slots in your
schedule is no longer going to be an arduous task. Instead, your facility will grow with an influx
of new patients who find you instead of the other way around!
Designing an Innovative and Successful Marketing Strategy
Harnessing the power of the internet to craft a unique and powerful marketing campaign offers
advantages that cannot be obtained as easily through traditional strategies. It is the simplest
method for reaching potential patients in large numbers. Since the majority of adults within the
United States use the internet each week, particularly when searching for services and health
information, it is critical to the financial success of your business to utilize this particular avenue
of reaching out in order to expand your patient database.
HELP THEM FIND YOU
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How Can You Ensure a Successful Marketing Plan?
It isn’t just enough to create an online presence. You need to implement a virtual plan that is
highly effective in meeting your goals of drawing new clientele to your office.
After all, your patient database determines the success of your practice.
Moreover, in order to attract new patients who follow through by making an appointment with
your facility, your online presence needs to offer value. A single page featuring the name,
address, and contact information for your dental practice is not going to be sufficiently engaging
to achieve your intended goal.
The most successful online websites and marketing strategies provide something of value not
only to the originator of the website, but to the users of it as well. You can break these facets
down into those that benefit the website visitor and those that solely benefit your practice. Your
primary goal should be to get your practice visible on a topical website where it will have the
exposure it needs to grow your practice.
To meet your business goals, your marketing strategy should be:
Easy: Once implemented, your strategy should do all of the work for you.
Positive: Your dental practice is portrayed as a helpful, caring, and knowledgeable
facility.
Effective: Your online presence should reach out to individuals living or working near
your practice.
Searchable: Your online presence should readily appear for any patients looking for a
dentist in the area where you are practicing dentistry.
Your secondary goal should be to capture the attention of potential customers by offering exactly
what it is that they are searching for when trying to find a dentist.
To effectively attract and retain customers, your marketing strategy needs to be:
Useful: Provides something patients are actively looking to use.
Simple: Setting up an appointment should be just as simple as finding you.
Easy: An intuitive design should do all of the work for the patients.
Desirable: Presents your dental practice in a positive manner.
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Search Filters That Make a Difference
Today’s patients are looking for dental care providers using unique search filters that weren’t so
easily accessible just 20 years ago, enabling them to search by parameters that make a difference
to their lifestyle, personality, and wallet. Some of these criteria include upfront pricing, distance
and number of locations, insurance plans, and patient reviews.
After all, choosing the right dentist is something that is uppermost in people’s minds today. Most
people don’t want to go through the same process over and over again, so they want to get it
right the first time, choosing a dentist that they know they can stick with for many years. It’s up
to you to make this possible.
Pricing transparency allows patients to compare costs amongst dentists in order to give
them a reference point for treatments offered.
Practical features such as the location of your office and the types of insurance plans
you participate in are of real importance to most patients who are looking to save both
time and money.
Unbiased reviews provide a reliable opportunity for patients to find the best fit for their
needs, because it gives them a glance at what a visit at your office is going to mean for
them. Quality selections are created for patients by offering the option to access patient
reviews. While a few of the reviews might appear negative on the surface, they simply
provide details that might or might not be important to the next patient.
For example, a patient looking for a visit that takes little time is going to appreciate a
review that states “down to business, no small talk,” whereas a patient who needs to feel
safe and comfortable is more likely to gravitate to an office that showcases the following
review “Why does this matter for your dental office? The answer is simple. Not only do
you want to find new patients, but you want to find patients who are going to stay with
you, coming back each year at least once if not twice for cleanings, x-rays, and exams.
Reviews Simply Allow Your Dental Office to Retain Existing Patients
and Attract New Patients.
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Innovative Marketing Strategies Designed for the Digital Customer
Prospective patients are consistently looking for desirable elements when searching for a new
dentist. They want to know certain things before signing up, such as the affordability,
professionalism, and location of the office. They also want to know what to expect once they
arrive, details that are provided through online reviews from previous customers.
Plus, most patients want to feel comfortable that they are making the best choice, something that
is accomplished by providing comparisons with other dental providers in the area. Ultimately,
they also want the ease of signing up online as soon as they find a practice that meets their needs.
If you want to grow your business, then it is your job to find a way to allow patients to search
using parameters that matter to them – distance, hours, pricing, office amenities, and services –
while also making it easier for the individual to find you. In order to achieve this goal, you
should:
Create an online presence on a topical website.
Enable online booking that sidesteps the need to complete the task of setting up an
appointment during normal business hours.
Provide options that make your practice shine with amenities, such as inexpensive initial
appointments, phone call reminders, and the option to listen to music during procedures.
Enable easy, online comparisons of your dental office with other facilities of interest to
the patient.
Instill confidence by providing access to patient reviews.
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Optimizing the 5 Innovating Ways to Market Your Dental Practice Today
As you’ve previously read, optimizing the growth of your dental practice is more readily
accomplished using 5 innovating ways to promote its visibility and selection as first choice
amongst patients. Here is a closer look at what that entails.
1. Create an Online Presence
The easiest way for patients to find a dental provider today is to perform a simple online search.
As a result, the financial solvency of your practice relies, in part, on your ability to attract new
patients online. Due to the popularity of social media, the majority of American adults are online
at any given time. If your dentistry office hasn’t yet established an online presence, then it is
virtually invisible, cutting it out of the competition for each new patient who is actively
searching online for a new dentist.
In particular, millennials (the age group between 1980 and the middle of the 2005) expect to find
everything through the internet. Why shouldn’t they? Having grown up with ready access to
computers, smartphones, and tablets, this age bracket embraces modern technology and the ease
with which a simple engine search can provide access to virtually everything imaginable. If your
dental practice fails to become part of cyberspace or does it poorly, it could suffer irreparable
setbacks in growth and stability.
2. Facilitate Setting up Appointments by Offering Online Capability
Convenience is a major factor in attracting patients to your facility. Busy schedules and the fast
pace of living today lead to a desire for immediate gratification not only in pleasurable aspects of
life but also in task-related ones. People simply don’t have the time or desire to sit around
waiting for normal business hours or for your scheduler to finish a phone call with another
patient in order to make an appointment. They want to move on to a different task right away.
For people who work the daytime shift, it can be difficult to find the time to allot for making
health and dental care appointments. Enabling this task online simplifies the process for patients,
making it possible for them to do so in the peace and quiet of their home after the kids have been
put to bed, the pets have been fed, played with or walked, the dinner dishes are stacked in the
dishwasher, and the house is quiet for the night. There’s no waiting until normal business hours
to speak with someone in order to schedule an appointment when you provide online access.
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3. Provide Office Amenities
Although some patients don’t consider the type of office amenities that you provide as an
influencing factor, some patients will put a great deal of importance on it. For example, families
will appreciate a child-friendly facility offering a small play area, and busy individuals will
immediately recognize the value offered by phone call reminders. Some dental practices even go
so far as to provide light refreshments to accommodate patients who are willing to schedule their
appointments at the earliest hours of the day. Listing the amenities provided by your facility, no
matter how small or inconsequential they might seem to you is a critical component of standing
out amongst your competition.
4. Offer the Option to Compare Dental Providers and Explore Pricing in a Single Location
In lieu of recommendations from family members, neighbors, co-workers, and friends, online
comparisons provide a valuable resource for patients in search of a dental provider who is going
to meet their needs. Initially, potential patients judge the professionalism of a practice on the
appearance of its website, its inclusion in a website offering access to quality dental facilities,
and its placement in the listing of search results.
However, their opinions become more formalized as they explore what a practice has to offer
through dental specialties, experience, prices, technology (DIAGNOdent, VELscope, and
intraoral cameras), location, and hours. Providing all of this information on a website that
implements comparisons among dentists is a positive way to showcase your facility and what it
has to offer that other dental offices do not.
Two well-known examples of topical websites that patients are utilizing today include
healthgrades.com and vital.com. They provide viable options but don’t always include the kind
of details that potential patients are searching to find.
According to its website, healthgrades.com delivers information to more than one million
visitors each day searching for health care providers, dentists, physicians, and hospitals.
Vitals.com acts as an online portal for consumers looking to learn more about the health
care providers in their local area in an effort to enable consumers to make informed
decisions about their choices of hospitals, physicians, and dentists.
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5. Make Reviews on Dental Providers Accessible
Today’s prospective dental patients want to feel comfortable with the decision they make
regarding the selection of a new dentist. While this is true for most individuals, it is even truer
for patients suffering with dental fears or phobias. Simply finding a list of dentists isn’t enough
to dissuade fears of making a poor choice. Today’s patients want to find out how other people
enjoyed their experiences at a particular location.
According to some sources, the majority of internet users today report that they practice each of
the following behaviors:
Read reviews in order to determine.
Trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
Consider using a business with positive reviews over one without reviews.
Act quickly to set up an appointment after reading several positive reviews.
While looking at the Better Business Bureau or Consumer Reports online can assist consumers in
getting the answers they need, many people prefer to look elsewhere to gain valuable insights.
Instead, they search for and read the comments provided by individuals who either enjoyed their
experience or found something that did not appeal to them.
Online reviews are considered to be just as valuable as peer recommendations. They offer virtual
opinions that can provide valuable insight. People have become comfortable taking the word of
someone posting online due to their own personal experience managing social media accounts
like Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and similar websites.
The importance of providing new patient access to online reviews about your dental office
couldn’t be clearer. If you want to draw a continuous flow of new patients to your facility, you
must provide an opportunity for them to get to know you through the reviews of existing
patients.
Create a more positive image and help them make better decisions.
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What Are the Primary Goals of a Successful Dental Practice?
Although each individual defines success according to what it means personally, the primary
goals of a dental practice striving to be successful are quite clear. These goals ensure the future
of the business, while also providing a comfortable living in the present.
The 3 main goals required to create a successful dental practice are:
Retain existing patients.
Create a high conversion rate for new appointments.
Grow your patient base by attracting new clients.
The principles that you should follow if you want to expand your patient base include:
Respond to Modern Needs: today’s patients want and expect online access to the
information they need, including details for dental and health care services. In addition to
a business website, your practice should be listed where it will be highly visible.
Provide Something of Value: the information that you list on any website should be of
value to the customer, so it should include the kind of details that today’s patients are
interested in finding. This includes pricing, services, and reviews.
Extend an Offer: few things get faster results than offering something for free or for a
highly discounted rate, so you should consider providing an offer of some kind.
Connect with Your Customers: retaining patients is more likely when you offer them a
chance to “get connected” with your business. It’s time to become a member of social
media websites if you haven’t already done so.
Why Digital Marketing Is a Necessity Not an Option
The new patient experience requires you to stay competitive with digital marketing if you want
to grow your business. Some of today’s patients don’t even know what the yellow pages are. It’s
up to you to become part of an online portal where patients can find you.
Online portals:
Match patients with top-rated dentists in their geographic location.
Allow patients to find the best dentist for their personal needs.
Provide dentist overviews, including treatment savings, payment options, experience,
specialty, languages, and more.
Showcase dental providers in a positive way.
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Key Principles Necessary for an Effective and Successful Digital Presence
As the world continues to change from one generation to the next, everything about it is put to
the test. Technological advances exist in nearly every aspect of life today, making life easier,
more interesting, and faster. As a result, the need to jump in and join this revolutionary
transformation of the world as we know it, today’s dental industry must embrace the internet and
the opportunity it provides to create a virtual presence that gets the name of your practice before
potential patients who are actively searching for a dentist. If you want to outperform the
competition, you must be willing to prioritize digital marketing for your practice.
WhyPayMore Dental for Dentists
WhyPayMore Dental is an innovative website delivering valuable patient lead flow for the dental
industry. It opens up the doors to hundreds of potential new patients, who are searching for
dental providers using the parameters that are of the most importance to them. As a result, the
patients are matched with dentists who best fit their needs, creating the likelihood of a long-
lasting relationship. Your profile showcases your strengths and capabilities, highlighting your
practice in positive ways that differentiate you from local dentists in your area.
The benefits attached to this service include:
Increased profitability: you gain access to a greater number of fee-for-service patients,
increasing your revenue.
Greater success: you obtain a higher number of long-term patients due to the self-
selection process.
Risk-free advertising: you only pay for those patients who request an appointment at
your facility.
Equal exposure: the playing field among your competition is level.
Enhanced Validation: profile information validates your pricing by highlighting your
experience, educational background, areas of expertise, industry technology, and patient
reviews.
WhyPayMore Dental – Make It Work for Your Dental Practice
WhyPayMore Dental delivers an easy-to-implement program that works for you. Once you set
up your profile, the site brings new patients to your doors. Start now and discover just how easy
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it is. Today’s prospective patients conduct searches using criteria that matter to them, including
price, reviews, and convenience. Why not help them to find you?
Getting Started with WhyPayMore Dental
All of the work is accomplished in the beginning of your membership, creating a simple and
easy-to-use marketing program that does most of the work for you. During the initial phase,
you’ll create a business profile that showcases your practice in a positive way by listing each
unique offering that you have, differentiating it from other dental offices in your area.
It includes pertinent details about your practice, including:
Educational background and/or experience
Specialties
In-office technology
Upfront pricing
Patient reviews
Location and hours
Office amenities
Insurance plans
Open appointment times
Delivering Prospective Patients to the WhyPayMore Dental Website
Utilizing the expertise of Lenfest Advertising & Marketing Services, WhyPayMore Dental
intends to capture the attention of dental consumers residing and/or working within the
Philadelphia market through a television campaign designed to educate potential patients about
the benefits of using WhyPayMore Dental.
In particular, the campaign will stress the advantages of using WhyPayMore Dental to enable
patients to find a dentist capable of meeting their specifications (available services, location,
language, hours, discounts, experience, dental specialties, and more). This campaign will be
reinforced through an internet marketing campaign designed along the same lines, capturing the
attention of individuals living within your area of practice.
Enjoying a User-Friendly Pricing Element
The program is designed to offer risk-free advertising at a price you can afford. You only pay for
patients who follow through and schedule an appointment with your practice. Your
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WhyPayMore Dental Business Development Specialist can provide more details and answer any
questions that you might have regarding this aspect of WhyPayMore Dental.
Targeting Patients within Your Geographical Area
The program is designed to charge you only when a potential customer follows through by
making a request for an appointment. It targets prospective patients in your location, increasing
the odds of growing your patient base tremendously.
Limiting Leads on a Monthly Basis
If for any reason you wish to limit the number of leads that you receive, you can arrange to do
so. You determine the number of leads you want to handle in a month’s time. Once that limit has
been reached, your profile no longer appears in the search results until the next month. While
you might not want to use this option, it is there in the event that you experience a high influx of
leads.
Cancelling Due to Relocation or Any Other Reason
WhyPayMore Dental offers a risk-free cancellation policy – anytime and any reason! No
questions asked.
The Importance of WhyPayMore Dental for Patients
Prospective patients have the opportunity to compare what you have to offer with what other
area dentists are offering, enabling them to make an informed decision and creating confidence
in their choice. Once they have made their selection, patients can request an appointment online
streamlining the process. This eliminates the factors that sometimes derail the patient’s decision
to make an appointment – interruptions from co-workers and family members as well as wait
times to speak with an office representative. New patients appreciate the value of our service.
WhyPayMore Dental Operates on 3 Simple Principals That Lead to Patient Conversions:
SEARCH. COMPARE. BOOK.
Grow Your Practice and Get the Patients You Need at the Times That You Want!
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We sincerely hope you found the information in this whitepaper valuable for your dental
practice. If you would like to learn more about the services that WhyPayMore Dental offers or
the cost to include your dental practice in our website, please visit them at
www.whypaymoredental.com at your earliest convenience. Someone will respond to your query
promptly.