Did you know that more than 3 million people across the United States currently have dental implants? Each year, 500,000 people are added to that list creating a wide market of opportunities for dentists that offer this service. Dental implant marketing will make the difference between your practice thriving or your practice remaining stagnant – or simply failing.
Marketing brings in the new patients you need and also helps you to retain your existing patients. The idea of marketing as a whole is the same for advertising a certain product or service. With competition rising and new technology challenging how dentists market their practices, the tactics you use will truly set you apart and make you more trustworthy to those in need of implants.
Standard dental offices often fall in line with the status quo without exercising creativity or daring to be different. To generate more patients, you need to be bold and stand out from the crowd. With just a few minutes to deploy even one tactic, you could start generating more patients within the same week. Of course, it’s all in the effort you put into it.
Here are 25 marketing ideas to attract more dental implant patients.
1. Social Media Is Powerful: Use It to Target Potential Local Customers
Your community is an important piece of leveraging your marketing techniques. Those local to your office are often easy to reach. If you offer high-quality services, people will pay for the convenience of a short distance along with premium treatments.
2. Make Sure Your Business Is on “Google My Business”
Google is more than a search engine and an email provider. It’s a hub of tools and resources that dental practices often forget to use. Google My Business is a free tool that will help you keep your practice information current and visible online. Not to mention, it’s a top way to help consumers find you!
3. Don’t Limit Yourself to the Social Media Channels Your Practice Uses
On average, people will hop from one social platform to another—close to 7 different social media outlets to be exact—so don’t limit yourself to just one. Always use what’s the most popular like Instagram and Tik Tok, but also use outlets that your audience seemingly prefers.
You might want to hire a social media manager for your practice because at least 79% of consumers have a high expectation for a practice to respond to their inquiries within 24 hours. In reality, the response rate sits around 25%. Your practice could change that.
4. Combine a Promotion With Social Media Tactics
80% of people online who use social media are actively looking for topics related to health. This means that you have the chance to reach all 80% of those users, if not more. One of the best ways to get and keep their business is to give them a promotion. Also, try to implement “first-time” patient sales if you haven’t already to boost those odds.
5. Consider Using Before and After Photos on Your Website
Before and after photos are a good way to provide future patients with visuals of your work. If you do this, ensure your imagery is high-quality and properly labeled. Consider using clickable captions to take them to either the corresponding service page or your promotion link for that service displayed in the photo.
6. Use Paid Google Ads Campaigns
The good thing about Google ads is that there is no minimum. This is an excellent way to strategically try out paid ads with a limited budget or even one that’s fairly large. You’re only going to pay when someone clicks on your ads, but you’re likely to turn those clicks into customers and your ROI will be easy to track.
7. Create an Engaging Blog and Ask Your Patients What They Want to Know About
Did you know that 72% of marketers claim that creating content is a top option for effective SEO strategies? Blog content is included in that. With this type of content, you can provide useful resources for your audience. This is your chance to provide them with topics they want to know about. Plus, you can add links, images, sales, and promotions throughout the text to divert them to your site.
8. Create Campaigns Specifically for Those That Are Most Likely to Want Dental Implants
Targeting those who would truly benefit from dental implants will increase your chances of engagement. More often than not, patients will find this appealing to their interests and needs, making this a good way to put your dental implant services right in front of them.
9. Don’t Be Afraid of Print Media
Print media is still well-trusted and well-used so consider using this medium. Whether a newspaper or a magazine ad or even keeping attractive infographics in the office or turning them into postcards, people appreciate having less to do. Print material takes 21% less effort cognitively to consume compared to digital options.
10. Feature Patient Success Stories on Social Media Outlets
Telling your patient success stories drives not only trust but the curiosity in others for their own results. Feature patient stories (with their permission) on your website and social media. You could even use it as the theme of your direct mail campaigns.
11. Take Advantage of Direct Mail
Direct mail isn’t dead so use it to your advantage. What this does is allow you to reach new audiences well outside of your neighborhood. That’s a good thing because Gen X and Millenial, according to Patient News, actually prefer direct mail over an email, and the open rate of direct mail is at least 4.5 times more than email. The great thing is, there isn’t too much direct targeting you have to do because everyone needs dental care.
Even if the recipient isn’t in need of dental implants, you could still get new patients for general dental work. Not to mention, direct mail is often better understood than digital advertisements. A dental practice sent out 5,000 postcards, and it received 35 phone calls and seven brand new patients. So don’t sleep too soundly on this method.
12. Improve Your Website’s UX and Use Chatbots to Drive Curiosity About Dental Implants
You need to provide a clean and easy-to-navigate landing page with great UX properties. At least 88% of those online have said that they’d never return to a website just from a bad user experience, so do your best to retain them with a good design, a stellar promotion, and a chatbot on your page specifically mentioning your promotions on dental implants.
The bot should also ask your patient if they’d like to find out more about the service or schedule a consultation. Make everything possible to do through the bot to keep their attention through simplicity.
13. Have a Live Q&A Session on Social Media About Dental Implants
Content that answers questions will help drive traffic because you’re giving consumers the answers they need in an informal setting. Doing this on your “live” channels through social media is also a good way to increase engagement. If you want to take it a step further, offer a special promotion only for those that attend and participate in your live Q&A.
14. SEO Will Drive the Traffic You Need if You Do It Right
If you rank on the first page of Google, you’re likely to see more than a 90% increase in traffic. You can use SEO-based strategies in all of your content. From blog posts to the copy on your landing page, and even your social media posts, everything should be optimized for search engines.
15. Attractive Email Marketing
For advertising efforts, the open rate for email marketing is about 18%. You can increase this by leveraging creativity. Come up with clever headings and subject lines, try to keep the text under 75 words, and make it clickable, leading the consumer to not just your site but your social media pages or a special offer page. Give timelines to promote urgency as well, which is likely to increase the engagement rate of the email.
16. Create a Fun Series of Social Media Posts Designed for Interaction
Design your social posts to fit into a series. In this case, dental implants will be the focus of your series. Make each post fun to look at, funny, and “punny,” and keep in mind that the goal is to make your posts clickable. It would be best to target your patient demographic that could use this service. Try using patient personas to help.
17. Center Your Expertise in Dental Implants on Your Website
Your first impression with your customers will often be your website, so your skills should be the focal point. You can showcase this through customer satisfaction with imagery and reviews, and you can also showcase any awards or recognitions you’ve received.
On average, you’ve only got about 15 seconds to capture someone’s attention before they decide to leave your page or stay, so make that time count. As soon as a customer lands on your page, they should be able to tell that you’re an industry leader.
18. Feature the Reviews Your Patients Leave on Your Website and Social Media
Positive reviews should be out front and center. Adding them to your social media will both build trust in your services and allow you to reach a broad audience. 98% of those marketing online have found that Instagram has been the most influential option.
Base this on your audience and what they prefer. Use a poll to get their input, and ensure your posts are featuring what others are saying.
19. Advertising on Television Never Gets Old
After seeing something on TV, consumers are 85% more likely to buy that product or service after seeing it on the ad. Also, keep the time of day in mind. Between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. are the best times to advertise because everyone is generally at home, off work, and more likely to see TV advertisements.
Also, 72% of brand awareness comes from using TV to your advantage.
20. Start Marketing Internally
The #1 thing about internal marketing is that it’s free compared to external marketing efforts. Oftentimes, your customers are more likely to act on an internal suggestion than what they may see being traditionally advertised. For dental implants, ensure that you’re only internally marketing to those that actually need them.
21. Personalize Treatments and Reward Your Top Patients to Get More Referrals
Sure, with different patients come different procedures, but they are all done in the same way, right? Technically no—each patient responds differently to treatments, they all have different circumstances and stories. Expand on that and personalize the work you do for them.
If you know your patient has anxiety while in the chair, surprise them on their next visit with a unique stress ball. If your patient has an event coming up, mention it and ask how you can help. These actions are likely to get you more referrals by word-of-mouth because people enjoy paying for an experience and a personal touch.
22. Do More Than Your Competitors and Use Video Marketing to Show Off
The point of market research is to learn your market, and that includes your competitors. Find out what your competitors are doing and do more. Make your offers better, increase savings opportunities for patients, and throw in some incentives. Don’t just say you’ll do it. Put it into practice, get patient reactions on video, and then create a video marketing campaign.
23. Adjust Your Automated Phone System to Advertise Your Dental Implant Promotions
Most dental suites will have an automated phone directory or message system to help direct existing and new patients when they dial in. Consider advertising a special on dental implants within that message, especially if you have high call volumes. This could give the patient the option to learn more about implant savings while they wait for the next receptionist to answer or return their call.
24. Add Your Reviews to Your Ads
Aside from the fact that Google simply loves reviews when it comes to the ranking factor, anything positive said by other patients could attract new patients. This is a trust-building tactic, and it also shows off your customers’ satisfaction with your work. Adding these reviews to your ad campaigns is a great way to not only show what you offer but that you’re an industry leader for those services.
25. How Many of Your Competitors Have a Billboard? Get One to Elevate Your Brand
Here’s one that will get you a lot of attention and enhance your brand. Use puns and fun colors, be specific enough to target the needs of those in your area and get to the point quickly. Billboards can increase sales by 54%, so put your creative mind to the test.
