Did you know that the average patient attrition rate is 40% in the dental industry? Compared to the average growth rate of 20-30%, most practices have an ongoing deficit that prevents them from sustaining a profitable operation.
Want to beat the odds?
Its simple math. You need to gain new patients more efficiently and keep existing patients more effectively. In this article, we’ll look at the new patient side of the equation and show you the best dental patient acquisition channels.
Book a demo to find out how tab32 can help you in creating these acquisition channels.
To increase your patient acquisition rate and get the most of your marketing budget, you need to meet your patients where they’re at.
This is one of our favorite channels because it’s highly cost effective. Build a culture of loyalty in your practice, and your patients will not only stay with you but also tell others about you. Use the patient communication tool in your dental practice software to stay in touch with your patients. Don’t be shy — ask them for referrals and testimonials!
46% of Google searches are for local information. You need to establish a strong online presence that will attract searchers who are actively looking for a dentist to your website. Follow local SEO best practices (e.g., claiming your Google My Business listing) and optimize your website with relevant keywords and high-quality content.
Consumers trust online reviews as much as they trust recommendations from friends and family. Develop a patient review strategy and claim your listing/profile on various online review sites (e.g., Yelp.) Ask your patients to post reviews by making it easy to do so — e.g., you can use tab32’s built-in review tool to collect patient reviews when they’re at your office.
Listing your practice on online directories can help get found by more prospects and build backlinks to boost your SEO. Dedicated sites, such as toothache.care, attract people who are actively seeking a dentist in your area and allow them to book an appointment with you right away to lower the friction to conversion.
People look for recommendations and interact with businesses on social media. These platforms are great channels for you to build relationships, stay top of mind, and answer questions. Focus on sharing educational content on these sites and monitor comments to engage with your audience. Also, check your direct messages regularly to provide timely responses to prospects’ inquiries.
Webinars offer a great venue to educate prospects about their conditions and your treatments. They also help you speed up the “like, know, and trust” factor by associating your dental practice with a face. You can take snippets from a recording and repurpose the content to use in your video marketing strategy to boost your presence on marketing channels such as YouTube.
Our dental practice management software allows you to send mass emails to prospects and patients. You can build credibility with valuable content, stay top of mind with new announcements, and drive conversions with special promotions. You can further increase the effectiveness of your email campaigns by segmenting your list and personalizing the content.
The best patient acquisition strategy won’t bring you sales if you lose your prospects at the action stage of the marketing funnel. Therefore, you need to make it as frictionless as possible for potential patients to book a visit and then make sure that they attend the appointment.
Implement an online scheduling tool on your website, so prospects can book an appointment any time that’s most convenient for them. You can also offer a teledentistry option to attract prospects who need care right away, want a second opinion, or prefer to avoid in-person appointments.
Additionally, use a dental practice management platform with a patient communication feature to send appointment reminders via text or email so you can minimize no-shows. You can also have patients complete their paperwork using online forms before their visits to streamline workflows while increasing their commitment to attending the appointment.
tab32 is a dental management software platform that offers all the tools you need to optimize the effectiveness of your patient acquisition strategy. Request a demo to see how we can help.
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