- Greeting Cards.
Cards are a useful way of informing the general community about a new dentist. Once they know about it, they should begin to make appointments.
- Community Involvement.
It helps if a dental consultant becomes more involved in the community, particularly if they work with children. This allows people to become familiar with the staff and consultants, which will lead to more customers signing up.
- SEO Usage.
To ensure that your website appears near the top of any internet searches made, make the content SEO heavy. Having SEO content will bring the name of your business higher in searches, and draw people in.
- Offer Dental Discounts.
Offering discounts is a good way to draw new customers into your business – new customers who will hopefully become repeat customers! Before offering any kind of discount, do research to ensure that you aren’t offering similar deals to others.
- Offer Business Discounts.
In the same vein, offering a separate discount to patients who book appointments early will serve two purposes. Not only will it bring in new customers, it will also encourage people to turn up for their appointments.
- Engage Your Customers.
The increased digitalisation of the business world has made it imperative that businesses engage with customers directly. Social media, customer review sites, internet marketing in general – they all need to be used.
- Collaborate With Other Businesses.
Collaborating with other businesses can be a useful way of drumming up new business, particularly if you are working with an already established firm. The best businesses to collaborate with are other healthcare providers in the area.
- Send Out a Newsletter.
A newsletter is useful for a number of reasons – you can send large amounts of information to many people at the same time, you can announce collaborations or discounts, and you can reach new people.
- Retool Your Web Presence for Mobile Users.
It’s important for businesses to ensure that their web presence is usable on mobile platforms, since more and more people today are using tablets and smartphones (among other things) in their day to day lives.
- Be an Expert.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but be as knowledgeable as you can about your field. People like to know that they are in good hands when they go to a healthcare professional.
- Use Videos to Market Yourself.
A common feature of many dental practices is to use videos to show customers and potential customers the training that is being done, the discounts available, or the people who work at the business.
- Make it Easy to Contact You.
This may seem self-explanatory, but it should be very very easy to get in touch with your company. Add your address, email address, phone number and social media usernames to every single page.
- Focus On Results, Not Services.
There aren’t many people in this world who like going to the dentist. Instead of focusing on what you do – fill cavities, clean teeth – remind customers that you can give them a beautiful smile.
- Identify Your Target Audience.
While getting customers to contact you is the main goal, at some point you will need to specialise. Is your dental practice staffed with people who specialise in children, older people, or adults?
- Be Consistent in Marketing.
Much like ensuring you have your contact details on all material, make sure that whatever branding you are using in consistent across all forms of marketing. It will keep your image consistent in people’s heads, and remind them of you whenever they see it.