Is Your Dental Practice Thriving Despite The Increasing Competition?
Making sure your dental practice stands out among your competitors to attract as many new patients as possible is a goal every dental professional shares. However, in areas where there are a high number of competing practices all attempting to attract new patients, making your practice the go-to for new patients using marketing for dentists can be difficult.
Do You Have A Clear Understanding Of What Sets Your Practice Apart?
Does your practice offer sedation? Sleep apnea services? Orthodontics? Same-day appointments?
Identifying what makes your practice unique to new patients is the first step in ensuring you’re able to successfully compete with the other dentists in your area. Even showcasing the types of insurance you accept and alternative financing options can be a unique feature that will attract new patients.
Make sure to include your staff members in the discussion, explain the purpose of the discussion, and dig deep to identify your practice’s competitive strengths.
3 Easy Questions To Help Identify Your Practice’s Marketable Strengths
- What are your credentials and those of your staff members? Are they unique in your area of practice? (i.e. oral conscious sedation, oral and maxillofacial surgery or prosthodontics)
- What services are you offering that your competitors aren’t? (i.e. wide range of elective services, the latest technology, a spa-like patient experience, etc.)
- What special conveniences do you offer that your current patients love? (i.e. accepting dental insurance, evening or weekend hours, etc.).
Once you’ve taken the time to outline your practice’s strengths, take the time to look at areas in which you could improve. Identify areas where your practice could use an update, consider expanding your services and be honest with yourself while determining areas that need improvement.
Dr. David Pinsky with State of the Art Dental Group in the Washington DC metro area, which boasts the highest per-capita rate of dental practices in the nation, has found ways to differentiate their practice and increase their monthly new patient flow by 35% per month.
He was able to offer multiple specialized services under one roof in order to keep new patients in-house. Being able to identify and expand this unique feature of his practice was just one of the ways his practice was able to increase their attraction to new patients in their highly competitive market.
To discover how State of the Art Dental Group “cracked the code” to maximizing online advertising in order to increase his new patient flow dramatically in just 3 months, read the complete case study
Set Up Your Practice To Be As “New Patient-Friendly” As Possible
Some dentists are in areas that experience a high turnover of people moving in and out due to the job market and other factors. This means that you need to be constantly assessing your practice to ensure it is as friendly and attractive to new patients as possible. With a high number of dental practices competing in your area to attract all these new patients, you need to make sure you’re investing your time and finances in the right places to ensure your practice brings in the majority of these potential new patients.
If every 2-3 years you’ll be experiencing a new influx of patients who have never heard of your practice before, how do you make sure that you’re attracting your share of these patients? Especially when your competitors are investing heavily to the same.
“There is a window of opportunity when someone is in pain and their dentist can’t see them. You get them in that day, show them you care, and you’ll have a patient for life.”
- Dr. David Pinsky, State of the Art Dental Group
What Do New Patients Look For?
- Same-day appointments
- Convenient early morning or evening appointments
- A wide variety of dental services
- Consistent high-quality services
- Payment plans or “do you accept my insurance?”
Ask your current patients what they value at your practice. They are your most precious resource, so seek out their opinions.
State of the Art Dental Group takes it a step farther when it comes to asking patients for their input. In addition to asking new patients how they found the office, if the new patient mentions the Internet, Dr. Pinsky asks what specific keywords they typed into Google to find the practice. Then they can use those keywords to optimize their marketing campaign even further.
For more details on State of the Art Dental Group and how Dr. David Pinsky achieved incredible results,
click here to read the complete case study
Create A Patient-Focused Website That Clearly Communicates Your Practice’s Value
Creating a website that clearly communicates the value of your practice to new patients leads to a strong online presence, which leads to a healthy influx of quality new patients. If your website is outdated it actually hurts your reputation and will work against you as you try to build trust with new patients.
Features Of A Strong, Patient-Focused Website
- Answers all potential patient questions (i.e. Will it hurt? How much will it cost? Can I schedule appointments that fit my unique schedule?)
- Features high-quality professional photos of you and your staff
- Lists clear, simple “calls to action” to move new patients toward booking an appointment
"The website is everything now. All the millennials are growing up with computers and smartphones. It’s all web-based, it’s all internet marketing.”
- Dr. David Pinsky, State of the Art Dental Group
By viewing your dental practice as a small business that needs to advertise, it’s hard to deny that having a professional, patient-focused practice and website are vital components to any type of marketing campaign.
By optimizing the content on your website to clearly showcase the unique features of your own practice, you increase your odds of attracting new patients that might not have been reached before. This is doubly true for potential patients who have recently moved to your area. In areas with a high turnover rate, it becomes even more important to make sure your website delivers.
Dr. Pinsky with State of the Art Dental Group is a fantastic example of someone who was “all in” when it came to marketing his practice online. Being committed to doing whatever it took in order to be successful is what is ensuring his continued domination of one of the most competitive dental markets in the country.
By instituting online marketing techniques that went beyond the screen and into his office, Dr. Pinsky was able to increase his new patient flow by 35% in just 3 months.
To discover the 3 marketing techniques Dr. Pinsky’s practice is using to stand out and dramatically increase their new patient flow, read the full case study here.