Affordable Dental Marketing For 2023

As a dentist, you have likely spent time looking for ways to market your practice, ways to up your production, and new patient numbers. Who can blame you? Marketing can be expensive, and the truth is that the more you put in, the more you will get out. Or in the case of marketing, the more you spend the more you will gain (if you have a great marketing strategy that is).

However, there are still ways around spending a ton to increase the growth of your practice, but you have to dedicate your time.

When it comes to successful digital marketing for dentists, you can look into implementing these low-cost dental marketing ideas:

1. Get active on social media

One of the best, and easiest places to start, is with your social media accounts. Of all the low cost digital marketing strategies, this one may be the most simple for those who don’t have any background in marketing.

If you don’t have social media accounts, make them. We suggest utilizing Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Linked In, and even Pinterest. When you are creating your social media accounts and developing your marketing strategy, there are very important aspects to focus on:

• Aesthetics. Ensure your accounts looks nice, clean, and modern. If you don’t have a good eye for aesthetics, ask a staff member who does to help you out.
• Only use high-quality photos. Don’t post or use photos that are blurry or pixelated. Luckily, most smartphones these days have really awesome cameras.
• Post often, and consistently.
• Show viewers what your practice is all about. Do this by sharing photos of staff having fun together or interacting with patients.
• Encourage engagement. Posting content that encourages people to interact with you and your page is great for organic SEO.
• When you are creating content as well as tailoring your social media accounts, promote your brand’s personality, your USP (unique selling point), to your viewers. What makes you better than the dentist next door?

Need help with developing your social media marketing strategy? Check out these tips from Hootsuite.

Learn about our dental SEO services here.

2. Implement a blog onto your website

Blogs are awesome tools for improving your organic SEO. Find relevant topics that your target audience is interested in. As in, what kind of things would your patients be searching for that is relevant to you? For example, if you are a pediatric dentist, your target audience (parents) may search a term such as, “helping my child’s fear of the dentist.” Get into the mind of the target consumer and do some research on what kind of information they are looking for.

When you are creating blogs, there are few really important things to remember. In the case of SEO, quality comes before quantity. Google and other search engines pick up on quality content, so when you are creating your blogs, make sure of the following:

• Keep your blog topics relevant
• Ensure your content is of high quality and informational
• Your writing style must be proficient
• Keep your tone relatable to whoever the reader may be (professional but with personality)
• Always use headers and subheaders for organization and easier navigation
• Utilize keywords
• Always use high-quality images (& don’t skip out on adding images!)

3. Try out email marketing

Email marketing is another low-cost way to market your practice. This strategy is more focused on existing patients rather than new ones. So, what kind of growth do you want to see from email marketing? Production numbers. It is just as important to make sure your existing patients are coming in regularly as it is to obtain new ones. Use email marketing to send out newsletters, patient reminders, deals and discounts, and more.

4. Target new patients by advertising on social media

Advertising on social media like Facebook and Instagram isn’t free, but it can be a lower-cost strategy in comparison to some of the bigger dogs like Google Ads. (But don’t get us wrong, we do, highly recommend utilizing Google Ads when you do have the budget available).

If you use social media platforms appropriately, you can reach the right audiences and establish your brand in the minds of potential patients. So, to understand the gist of it, when it comes to advertising successfully on social media you must:

• ensure you know and target your appropriate demographic,
• use high-quality photos that catch the eye that demographic, and,
• implement verbiage that will attract viewers to give you a call or click through to your website.

If you aren’t sure where to start, we recommend Facebook. It has proven to be one of the more relevant social media platforms for dental advertising. To learn more about getting ads out on Facebook, check out this guide.

5. Ensure your website has quality content for SEO

Of all the low cost dental marketing ideas for dentists we have, we really like to put an emphasis on the importance of organic SEO. Aside from implementing a blog to increase your organic SEO, you want to also make sure the content on your website is SEO friendly.

In order to do this, you must utilize important keywords in the content of your website, as well as metatags and descriptions, and so on. Your content needs to be high quality, relevant, and valuable to the consumer. When it is not, Google does pick up on it and it will not bode well for your search engine ranking.

6. Manage your GMB listing

Make sure all the information on your Google My Business listing is up to date, i.e., your hours, phone number, website, etc. You can also utilize this space for sharing posts and deals, say, for example, 10% off teeth whitening, and so on.

7. Try out video marketing

Videos are a great way for your patients and potential patients to get to know you better. If someone feels like they know you better, they will feel more comfortable with you. And if they feel more comfortable with you, they are more open to scheduling an appointment with you.

Take videos of the staff and the dentists chatting about what makes your practice different. Make a clip about a memorable patient and share that emotion with the viewers. You can even bring in a special patient to talk about their experiences with you.

However, don’t let videos bring you down, this low-cost marketing idea only works if you are creating high-quality videos. High quality means good content as well as good lighting, good audio quality, and good editing.

8. Encourage patient reviews

Patient reviews say a lot about your practice. In most situations, the consumer is more likely to trust another patient over the person selling the service, in this case, the dentist. Encourage your patients to leave you reviews whenever they are leaving the practice (that is if you think they enjoyed their experience). You can even have small graphics made (printed or digital) asking patients to leave reviews and like your Facebook page, etc.

What’s Next

Utilize all these strategies wisely. With a bit of time, research, analysis, and patience, we are sure that you will find success with the implementation of these low-cost dental marketing ideas for dentists.

In the digital world, the learning is never-ending, so if you are looking for more on digital marketing for dentists, keep an eye on our blog, or even better, give us a call. While some marketing ideas can run at a low cost, they do require time and skill, and whatever your marketing needs are, here at Pain-Free Dental Marketing, we can help.