One of the greatest perks of the internet is that it’s free. It costs you absolutely nothing to share photos of young patients with their first lost tooth, post information about seminars you plan to offer, or forward a dentistry-themed GIF.
You may be wondering, then, why you should bother paying for any of your online marketing. The real question should be how many people you would like to become aware that your practice even exists.
Organic Traffic
Organic traffic refers to the visitors who come to your site from a search engine such as Google or Bing. It is certainly valuable, but it’s not as predictable as paid traffic. Best practices that support organic traffic include:
- Having unique content on your website
- Soliciting positive reviews from patients on Google
- Posting fresh content to your website such as a monthly blog with strategic use of keywords
- Staying active on social media
Even if you implement all of the above, there are enough variables involved that your search engine ranking can be tricky and take some time to improve. Still, if you don’t do what you need to in order to support organic traffic, ranking is going to be the least of your concerns.
Paid Traffic
Paid traffic refers to visitors who come to your site via ads that you have paid to have posted elsewhere on the Internet. It is studied, and studied, and studied, which allows marketers to predict with great accuracy how consumers will respond.
Paid traffic can also be controlled (which puts you in the driver’s seat), measured for efficacy, and quickly modified to obtain more desirable results. The most effective types of paid marketing include:
- Google Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
- Social media ads
- Remarketing
The Perfect Balance
You know what they say about putting your eggs in one basket. This is definitely the case for organic versus paid marketing. For optimal marketing results, focus some of your efforts on maintaining your website, online reputation, and social media sites. The rest of your efforts should be focused on paid campaigns.
Doing both will maximize the number of people who see your practice. Better yet, some of those people will be near your practice, within your target demographic, and looking for specific services that you offer. When your future patients find you, it’ll be a match made in Heaven—just like organic and paid marketing.
With more than a decade of experience in corporate dental laboratory marketing and brand development, Ms. Ulasewich decided to take her passion for the dental business and marketing to the next level by founding My Dental Agency. Since starting her company, she and her team have helped a wide variety of business owners all over the nation focus their message, reach their target audience, and increase their sales through effective marketing campaigns. She can be reached at (800) 689-6434 or via email at jackie@mydentalagency.com.
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