Social media can be a fantastic way to reach new patients and to keep in contact with existing patients. The best way to market is to go where your target market is located online, as most of your local patients are using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other sites each day to socialize and entertain themselves.
As a dental practice it can be challenging to figure out what to post, how frequently you should post, and how to engage your audience when they have so much content to read online. These top 5 proven strategies can help you answer these questions and improve your marketing efforts on social media.
Consistency
I see so many practices set up their Facebook pages and other social media accounts and then just let them sit and collect dust. To successfully market your practice on social media, you need to post on a regular basis. You cannot post once a month or once a week. You need to post at least a few times a week or even daily. The biggest challenge for most practices is finding or creating enough content to share on their social media accounts. This is why so many social media accounts stagnate.
Quality Photos & Content
Your marketing content should always be a reflection of you, a quality dental practice. If you post low-quality content that doesn’t allow your audience to interact with you online, you’re not getting the most out of your post. Like I said, it’s a hassle to constantly find or even create professional content for your social media marketing.
I recommend hiring a designer to help you with your social media content. Or, you can buy social media kits for your practice. Posting quality content to your social networks is essential, because people will look forward to seeing your posts, and they will respond positively to them.
Humor
Using humor can be a great strategy to make people remember who you are and create positive feelings towards your dental practice. Good humor always goes viral online, and it can really help you spread the word about your practice. People love to be entertained, and creating humorous posts about your practice or about dentistry can be a terrific way to engage your patients and allow them to build a relationship with you online.
Education
Education builds trust. Most patients don’t know much about oral health. As the doctor, you should constantly focus on educating your patients about certain procedures and how to stay healthy. Using social media to help educate and share interesting facts about dentistry is a huge way to stay in touch with your patients and with potential patients. By consistently posting new and interesting facts about dentistry, you will attract a bigger audience with many potential new patients.
Calls to Action
It’s important to set a goal to try and get new patients out of your marketing efforts. Placing a call to action on each post or image like “Don’t forget to schedule an appointment today” or “Call our office to schedule an appointment” can be a tremendous way to encourage and remind your patients to make an appointment with your office. Most people are busy and forget to make appointments with their dentist. Social media can be a considerable tool to be that extra reminder to call your office and get their teeth cleaned, so make sure you include calls to action in your posts to help your business thrive.
Conclusion
Marketing can be simple if you are consistent and have a solid message and enough content to share online. If you take what you have learned here and apply it to your practice, you will be successful in marketing and growing your audience online. If you need more content for your practice for the back-to-school season, you can download a social media kit and start marketing your practice today!
Jordon Comstock is the founder of BoomCloud Apps, a software company that allows dental offices to accept payments via their websites and create in-house membership programs. He also owns RocketFire, which provides dental offices with a small team of Web designers for an affordable subscription. He can be reached at 801-753-8586 or rocketfiremedia@gmail.com.
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