Dental Marketing Strategies: A Complete Guide to Growing Your Practice

According to a Google survey, 71% of people look for a dentist online before making an appointment. If you don't have a dominating online presence, you might get lost in the noise.

The good news is that it’s possible to outshine your competition. All you need is a smart, targeted digital content strategy that puts your practice front and center. Partnering with a digital marketing agency for small businesses can help you get a tailored dental practice marketing plan that can amplify your reach and bring in more appointments.

In this blog, we will cover some essential benefits of investing in digital marketing for dentists and give you a complete guide on utilizing web design, local SEO, email marketing, social media, and PPC to kickstart your plan.

Ready to bring your dental practice into the spotlight? Let’s begin!  

Why You Should Focus on Dental Practice Marketing

Plenty of small businesses out there are bringing in tons of revenue growth through digital marketing — why should your dental practice be any different? But if you’re still on the fence, here are a few key reasons that should convince you:

• Better Visibility: You might be the best dental practice in your area, but that won’t make a difference to your bottom line if people don’t know about your services.  That’s why being visible is important, and that’s exactly what digital marketing helps you achieve.
• More Revenue: When your dental practice is sitting on that sweet spot at the top of search engine results pages, you start getting more traffic, more leads, and an increasing number of appointments, all of which translate to more money in the bank!
• Enhanced Online Reputation: Nearly 50% of consumers consider the online reputation of a business before making a decision. This means that nearly half of your audience might not trust you if you don’t have a credible online presence. What will earn their trust is an optimized Google Business Profile, an attractive and informative website, and an engaging social media presence.
• Sustainable Growth: We’ll let you in on a little secret: strategies like SEO and social media for dentists tend to snowball. The work you put in now pays off more and more over time, which drives your dental practice to sustainable growth and provides opportunities to scale up

Digital Marketing for Dentists 101

Digital marketing changes fast, with Google releasing new algorithm updates literally every week. If you are running a dental practice, it’s hard to keep up. So here are a few dental office marketing strategies that can give you a head start:

Dental Practice Website Design

A functional, informative, and engaging website is the first thing to have before diving into dental marketing strategies. Here are some must-haves in your dental website to send appointments through the roof:

• Mobile-responsiveness.It’s a ranking factor for Google.
• Faster load times. Most people wait less than 3 seconds for a website to load. If your site takes longer than that, your visitor is gone.
• Easy navigation. You want a visitor to spend as much time on your website as possible, and then hopefully book an appointment.
• Good UX/UI. Research by Clutch shows that 83% of visitors appreciate when a website is attractive. What do we mean by attractive? Ideal font size, perfect image resolution, and clear and concise information, accompanied by CTAs like “Book an Appointment” or “Call Now.”

Local SEO for Dentists

When someone Googles "dentist near me", you want your clinic to show up. That's why local SEO is your best friend. If you do it right, it can drive tons of traffic to your dental practice website and get you more patients. Below are a few ways to go about it:

• Target Localized Keywords for Web Content. Your core audience likely lives in the same city as your dental practice. So when you’re developing content for web pages, target localized keywords, such as “dental practice in New York,” “NYC dentist,” “best NYC dentist,” and so on.
• Optimize Your Google Business Profile. A great Google Business Profile with an optimized overview of your services and accurate contact information can truly change the game for your dental practice. GMP Listings also make you more prominent on Google Maps and local search.
• Get Listed in Local Business Directories. Get listed, reviewed, and rated in local business directories like Yelp, Angi, and BBB. Over time, your dental practice’s presence on these directories produces immense results and brings in more patients.   

Email Marketing for Dental Offices

Email marketing is a great way to retain old patients and build a solid connection with potential ones. However, if you’re investing in email marketing, you can’t rely on occasional, generic emails. So what really moves the needle? Targeted emails to each patient. Here are a few protocols to follow:

• Segment your audience based on their age, gender, geographic location, and user behavior. Address each patient directly.
• Don’t be overly promotional. You don’t want your emails to end up in spam.
• Ask new website visitors to provide their email. Even a small incentive (like 10% off their first visit) can give people that extra nudge to join your list.
• Don’t be generic. Make sure you send a relevant message and treat each patient uniquely.
• Trigger your emails on specific dates that are good opportunities to let your patients know about discounts and deals.  

Social Media for Dentists

Let’s face it, not that many dental practices know how to make social media work for them. Ironically enough, that's good news, because those who do can pull ahead fast. Want to build lasting connections with people through referrals, word of mouth, and impressive content? Social media works like a charm. But you don’t need to be loud on every platform. Instead, what you can do is:

• Choose mainstream platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok
• Promote transparency in your dental practice through posts about your office space, processes, team, and successful procedures
• Share informative resources periodically, including links to new blog posts on your website
• Encourage reviews and feedback through comment sections, DMs, or links to proper forms in bios.
• Always be engaging through polls, comment replies, and options like “Ask me a question.” Keep a lookout for opportunities to invite people to call or book an appointment.

It’s very easy to get busy finding that “virality” factor that you might miss out on producing quality content. Remember: you’re not here just to be viral. You also need to be trustworthy and credible.

PPC for Dental Practices

Dental practices utilize PPC (pay-per-click) ads when they need instant results. Unlike SEO, which takes time and consistency, PPC delivers faster results... IF you know how to use it right. You can plan each aspect of your ad, including time, location, and patient age, and target your audience precisely. That said, it’s not as easy as it sounds. A few pointers to keep in mind:

• Create a solid keyword strategy. Target localized keywords like “dental services in New York”, “dentist in NYC,” and “best dentist near me.”
• Craft compelling ad copies that persuade people to click.
• Design conversion-focused landing pages to keep the bookings coming in.
• Use localized Facebook Ads (these work really well for dental practitioners)
• Be strategic and efficient to avoid wasting resources.

How to Get Started

From better visibility and enhanced reputation to more revenue and sustainable growth, digital marketing is a growth engine for dental practices. As we discussed in this blog, the action plan for online marketing for dentists includes a functional and responsive website, great content, Local SEO, social media, PPC, and email marketing.

But how do you get started? You can’t tackle everything alone. That’s where a secret ingredient comes in: a digital marketing agency for small businesses. Partnering with the pros can help you get a personalized dental office marketing plan that drives growth and boosts revenue.