The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Best Dental Marketing Agency

Do you want 40 more new patients every month?

Well, who wouldn’t? But there’s a difference between wanting to maximize new patient appointments and getting more new patient appointments. 

Digital marketing for dentists is what helps you bridge that gap and places your dental practice right in front of potential patients. Digital dental marketing enables you to attract in-market patients and convert them into new patients while improving your conversion rate, retention rate, and patient acquisition cost and boosting your ROI by at least 200-250%. 

 

Traditional marketing is all about telling the world that you are a rockstar. Digital marketing is about showing them that. 

 

And just like a real-life rockstar needs a manager who knows his strengths and takes care of all the behind-the-scenes stuff that allows the rockstar to focus on his music, you need someone who takes care of your digital marketing and enables you to focus on your core skills and job. And that’s what a dental digital marketing agency does.

You may ask, what does Digital marketing agencies do? How does the right Dental marketing company turn around the fortunes of a practice? Or what type of agencies are ideal for you, and which ones should you avoid?

These are some of the questions that would most likely be floating around in your head, especially if you are not acquainted with dental marketing. But as always, we are here to help you find answers to these very questions (and a few more!) 

 

Why Do Dental Practices Need Digital Marketing?

Before we get into the need, importance, and selection of a Dental marketing company, let us first learn why digital marketing is crucial for dentists. Dental practices need digital marketing because:

• Patients Have Moved Online: 90% of Americans use the internet. To get more new patient appointments, you need a form of marketing that targets and attracts potential patients where they are. Traditional marketing can’t do that anymore, at least not as effectively. Digital marketing for dentists takes your practice to the patient in an environment where they are most comfortable and where they spend a lot of their time. 

 

• Digital Marketing Drives More Qualified Leads: You can reach many people at the same time with traditional advertising mediums such as print ads and TV ads. However, only a minuscule percentage of them would be looking for a dentist. In short, while you may generate brand awareness with traditional dental marketing, you are not going to generate enough revenue. With digital marketing, you can target people who are looking for a dentist through paid advertising. Digital Dental marketing would thus drive more qualified and targeted leads to your website and office.

 

• Digital Marketing Strategies Could Be Customized to be Relevant for Every Patient: With digital marketing, you can customize your message and selling point to make them suitable for different people with different preferences and requirements. For instance, you can use online paid advertising to target in-market patients. You can use social media to dole out dental care tips and stay at the forefront of patients’ minds. Similarly, email marketing could keep current, former, and potential patients in the loop about new treatments, services, and promotions.

 

• Digital Marketing is Cost-Effective: The cost of print, radio and TV ads far outweighs the cost of PPC ads and social media advertising. Also, traditional marketing requires massive investment to keep the campaign going. Digital marketing, on the other hand, is way more sustainable with several tactics and processes that could be continuously implemented with low investment. Lastly, as discussed before, digital marketing drives more targeted leads, maximizing your revenue and giving you a higher ROI.

 

• Result Measurement & Optimization: Would you drive a car without a speedometer? You need to measure the rate at which you will follow all the traffic rules and be safe, right? The same logic applies to dental marketing.

Measurability of the marketing campaign gives you the speed at which you are going (progress report) and allows you to stay safe (avoid budget wastage). With digital marketing, you have hundreds of metrics and accurate data at your fingertips that will enable you to track, monitor, and analyze your marketing campaign. The data and advanced insights help you optimize your marketing campaign, i.e., minimize your budget waste and maximize ROI.

 

With digital dental marketing, you can target a potential patient with the perfect message, delivered at the ideal place and time and through the perfect channel.

 

What Does a Dental Marketing Agency Do?

If you are unfamiliar with the world of dental digital marketing, you may have thought, ‘Well, What do marketing companies do, and what is their role?’ Well, here’s a brief explanation that should help answer that question.

A Dental marketing agency has a digital marketers team with years of experience and expertise in devising and delivering optimal marketing strategies. They should continually ensure that you have a marketing strategy proven to bring new patients as cost-effective as possible. They would also analyze and use your current marketing strategy and its effectiveness to design a more efficient marketing plan with better results.

 

A dental marketing company targets your practice’s right patients and hits all your dental marketing goals within your specified budget.

 

Typically, a dental practice agency will perform the following roles for your practice:

• Target and attract more new patients to your practice (Check here how SEO helps in achieving that)
• Increase the quality of engagement with visitors.
• Evaluate the existing marketing strategy, identify its strengths, and diagnose its flaws
• If the current marketing strategy isn’t up to the mark, develop, and implement a new, optimal, and more effective Practice Growth Strategy.
• Create a branding strategy that brings out what your practice stands for and resonates well with potential patients.
• Curate, implement, and manage advertising campaigns across Google Ads, social media, email marketing, and other mediums.
• Develop high-quality content and optimize your website to improve its ranking on search engines.
• Track, monitor, and analyze regular reports on the progress and performance of digital marketing campaigns.

 

How Does a Dental Marketing Agency Help Your Practice Grow?

Now that you have the answer to ‘what do marketing agencies do?’, let us take a deep dive into this article’s essential part – How do dental marketing companies help you achieve maximum dental practice growth? Well, here are some ways in which they do that:

 

1. They Design a Conversion-Friendly Website

Your website is the engine room for your practice’s success. It is like your digital office and the focal point for all interactions with potential patients. A dental website design company helps you focus on the areas of a website that are most important to generate patient appointments. 

They will:

• Create an aesthetic website design
• Optimize it for search engines – SEO
• Publish quality content
• Make it responsive for mobile devices.
• Enhanced user experience for better conversion rate

All these factors together make your website a powerful platform for maximizing conversions. Learn how to generate more patient appointments with an optimal website with us.

 

2. They Leverage Social Media Sites to Reach New Audiences

Social media could be a slippery slope for many dental practices. But it is a slope you must scale to achieve sustainable dental practice growth. 

Getting the audience interested and engaged with a dental clinic’s social media is tricky because, from the outside, it may seem to be devoid of any exciting content. But an experienced dental social media marketing agency will be able to create content that engages your audience. 

They would mix different content forms to appeal to different demographics and various social media platforms. You will consequently build a substantial following on social media and reach out to patients locally, and beyond that, you wouldn’t have been able to access otherwise.

 

3. They Improve Your Search Engine Rankings for Local Searches

When potential patients in your area want to find a local dentist, where do you think they will start their search? For 9 out of 10 of them, a quick Google search is the most preferred option. Hence, you must rank on the 1st page of Google, preferably among the local 3-pack, to increase your chances of being found by potential patients. 

A dental practice is mostly a local business. And because more than half of people don’t look beyond the first results page, you must rank high for relevant local search keywords. A dental SEO company would help you do just that. They will list you on all local directories and create SEO content to put you in front of potential local patients.

 

4. They Manage Your Online Reputation to Create Positive Perceptions About Your Practice

In continuation of the previous point, patients will also check your online reputation when they look up for dentists on Google or other review platforms like Yelp or Healthgrades. Online reviews influence 67% of patients before they decide to make a purchase or hire a service! Also, online reviews are one of the seven most essential ranking factors for the Google algorithm. 

A dental review management agency can help you to create and sustain a positive online image. Their reputation management experts will establish a review generation and review management system for your practice to increase positive reviews and limit negative ones to make a trustable first impression on potential patients. 

 

5. Dental Marketing Agencies Can Strategize and Implement Smart PPC Ads to Target and Attract In-Market Patients.

Paid ads are arguably the most critical components of a practice growth strategy for targeting in-market patients, i.e., patients actively looking for the services you offer.

Dental paid advertising agencies can use pay-per-click advertising tactics such as Google ads, and Facebook ads for dentists to ensure local patients find you when they are looking for a dentist. Such a PPC strategy usually has a high conversion rate and a low cost of acquisition. It also minimizes budget waste as you only have to pay for the ad when a user clicks on it.

 

6. They Create and Distribute High Quality, Brand-Building Content

Ask any successful dental marketing consultant about content marketing, and they will say that creating and distributing relevant and informative high-quality content is one of the best dental marketing practices you should use to position yourself as a market leader.

When you educate your audience about your industry trends and offer your expertise for their best interests, you gradually carve out an image as a trustworthy and knowledgeable practitioner of your specialization. Not only the audience loves such brands, but also search engines consider you as an industry authority and rank your site higher on search result pages. A dental content marketing agency will ensure that such content is regularly created, updated, and sent out to your audience.

 

7. Digital Dental Marketing Agencies Stay On Top of Trends and Technology to Give You a Competitive Edge.

Trends and technology can drive practice to new heights as nothing else can. 

A dental marketing agency always stays on top of the trends and incorporates them into your marketing strategy to increase audience engagement. They also integrate the latest technological advancements such as dental chatbots, appointment scheduling software, and other such features into your website to improve patient experience quality. This doesn’t just help attract new patients, but it is also very effective at retaining existing patients.

 

Do I Need to Hire a Dental Marketing Company?

“Alright, I understand how digital dental marketing helps me. And I want to invest some time, money, and effort into it. But do I need a Dental practice marketing firm? Or should I do it myself?” 

Well, you can do it yourself. But the question is, how well can you do it? And at what cost?

An online marketing agency knows everything there is to know about dental marketing. They know every trick in the book; they’ve been there, done that. However, you, as a dentist (or anyone from a different profession, for that matter) won’t have the knowledge or expertise to determine what marketing strategies will produce the best results. Dental marketing isn’t a field where you want to adopt the trial and error method; the costs and losses would escalate far too quickly!

Also, let’s say that you have some knowledge about dental marketing or invest a lot of time learning about it. But would that time be worth it? Also, would you have the time to regularly implement, monitor, test, and optimize the strategies? 

Lastly, professional agencies use tools and software to monitor and manage marketing campaigns. Not only do they cost a lot, but it requires an expert to make full use of them, which involves a lot of time and resources for you to have that expertise, and it would be too costly to buy these tools and employ an in-house expert to manage them.

 

Hiring a dental marketing expert’s services is thus far more cost-efficient than going down the DIY route.

 

Your sole focus should be on running your practice, treating patients, and providing them with a wholesome experience. The task of bringing in new patients should be left to the marketing experts. You can check how much dentists should spend on marketing.

 

How to Find a Dental Marketing Agency?

If you were to go out looking for a health and fitness coach, who would you instead choose – a coach who looks fit or a coach who looks out of shape? The same logic applies to finding an excellent dental growth marketing company.

So the very first thing you should do to find a dental marketing firm is to do a quick Google search for “dental digital marketing agency” or “dental marketing company.” Any agency that appears in these search results on the first page of Google is doing an excellent job with their SEO or Paid Ads. Showing up on the Google search result page indicates that these agencies follow SEO best practices and know to do their own paid advertising!

However, this isn’t the litmus test for an agency. Many agencies do their job well but don’t rank on the first page of Google because, well, there are hundreds of agencies at any given location, and only 10 of them can rank on the first page. 

One of the best ways would be to check their website and social media presence. See if their website is designed well and has good content. Check the page loading speed. Analyze if they stay on top of trends on their social media and whether they deliver value-adding content there. Any agency that does these things can be trusted with reasonable confidence.

Make a shortlist of the first five digital marketing experts or firms on the results page; get in touch with them to find out how they can help you, what strategies they have in mind, and what sort of results they are looking to achieve.

 

Look Out for These Qualities to Identify the Perfect Dental Marketing Agency.

Once you narrow your search down to 4 or 5 top online marketing consultants or companies, keep an eye out for the following qualities to separate the best from the rest:

 

Solid Track Record

The best digital marketing agencies have a proven track record of delivering ‘better than industry standard’ results for their clients. Ask the agencies about their past work and growth metrics they’ve achieved for other clients with similar budgets.

 

Experienced Where It Matters

Dental marketing companies who are well-versed with your industry and target audience can expedite your practice’s growth. They would know what marketing strategies work in your industry. They know how to attract new dental patients, retain existing ones, enhance your reputation, and establish your practice as an industry leader.

 

Regular Communication and Reporting

You wouldn’t want to work with an agency that doesn’t communicate regularly, do you? The best dental online marketing companies will get in touch with you regularly to update you about the campaigns’ progress and implement new promotions or strategies. They will submit progress reports in a standard, easy-to-understand format to avoid miscommunication or misrepresentation of essential data.

 

 Good Reputation

You would know from your own experience how important it is to have a solid reputation. Reputation could be one of the most vital driving forces behind steady practice growth. So check what previous clients have to say about the dental marketing agency you are looking to hire. Don’t just look at the customer testimonials on their website; also check how they stack up on Google reviews, social media, Yelp, and other third-party review sites.

 

Integrity and Professionalism

Quite often, we give too much weightage to a company’s technical and core competency qualifications only to forget the essential qualities that make a great dental marketing company – professionalism and integrity.

Does your marketing agency respect your time? Do they get in touch with you at the scheduled time of a telephone meeting? Do they reply to your emails within a business day? If they don’t, then they simply aren’t worth your time and money.

Also, it isn’t uncommon for dental marketing companies to inquire about a business that is a direct competitor of one of their existing clients. The virtues of professionalism and integrity mandate the agency to turn down the new lead. But there are so many who don’t. 

 

 

What Digital Marketing Agencies or Consultants Should You Avoid?

Like every industry in this world, there are many scams or fraud agencies in the digital marketing industry. And many susceptible dental practices fall prey to such companies. The promises of instant results and exorbitant ROI are just too difficult to resist sometimes. If you are among those unfortunate ones, we sympathize with you. But at the same time, you also need to ensure you don’t repeat the same mistake; that is where we’d like to help you.

Here are a few common traits of most scammy or incompetent marketing agencies. Keep an eye out for these traits, and more often than not, you’d avoid falling into the pit again.

 

They Don’t Give Clear and Definite Answers.

A smart strategy to identify dubious agencies would be to judge how transparent they are in answering your questions. The most genuine dental marketing agencies will give clear and transparent answers that are easy to understand even for a layman. The unethical ones will try to fleece you by making things sound a lot more complicated than they are. They will use complicated jargon to sound professional while, in reality, seasoned professionals try to explain their clients’ technicalities as easy to understand as possible). Please stay away from them!

 

They Haven’t Uploaded Their Case Studies and Results On Their Website.

No marketing agency worth its salt would have a website without case studies or client testimonials (along with its name and logo!). These are the things that attract new clients! So if you come across a marketer who doesn’t have ‘proof’ of achieving the results, they promise you and turn them down politely.

 

They Promise to Deliver Unachievable Results.

“With us by your side, you will rank 1st on Google for every relevant keyword within 3-4 months! Your practice will also get 400% more patients within three months!” This is a lucrative proposition, no doubt, but it’s also a white lie! Dental marketing does work wonders for practice, but not overnight. It takes some time. Anyone who promises instant results is either a fraud or has no idea what they are talking about.

 

What If the Dental Marketing Agency Offers You a Low Price?

Getting services for cheap is not always right, especially when hiring a professional marketer for your dental practice to help you grow your business. Most agencies that offer their dental marketing services at dirt-cheap rates would do you more harm than good. Reason? A results-driven marketing firm to develop strategies and implement them effectively requires tools and highly qualified personnel that cost a decent amount of money!

A cheap-priced agency would not have the requisite tools and cannot afford to hire experienced marketers to deliver the results for you. Their incompetence may even cause short to long-term damage to your practice, both online and offline. Ultimately, this could mean that not only do you have to pay more to a professional marketing agency to clean up the mess the cheap agency created but even worse, you’ll hand the possible patient appointments to your competitors! Ouch!

Finally, there’s a little something you should always be on the lookout for when you offered cheap rates – hidden charges! Quite many agencies include hidden charges in their packages to make up for the low initial offer. And they would also bind you in a long-term contract to give you no leeway to walk away from them. 

Some scammers would ask you to buy an ‘upgraded premium package’ a few months down the line with the promise of better results. To cut a long story short, low prices usually equate to incompetence and untrustworthiness. The most genuine digital marketing agencies will always be transparent with their pricing and the services they are under the contract.

 

Key takeaway: If you think the price being offered to you is too good to be true, you are right! 

 

 

Conclusion

This article attempts to acquaint dentists with the benefits of hiring a professional dental marketing company (or consultant) and how that step can set your practice on a path of consistent growth. However, you must be a little careful while choosing an agency to ensure that you pick the right one for your requirements. Following the tips we laid out in this article would be a great start!

Here’s a brief recap.

A Dental Practice Needs Digital Marketing Because:

• Patients have moved online, and you can’t target them without digital marketing.
• Digital marketing is cost-effective and generates easy-to-convert leads.
• Digital marketing campaigns should customize based on your business goals, competition, and audience.
• The progress and results of a Digital marketing campaign are measurable.

 

A Dental Marketing Agency Can Help Your Practice Grow By:

• Designing a conversion-friendly website
• Expanding your audience reach through social media
• Improving your ranking on search engines through SEO
• Creating and distributing quality content.
• Implementing PPC ad campaigns to target and convert in-market patients.
• Managing and improving your online reputation and creating a solid practice image.

 

The Ideal Dental Marketing Company Would:

• Have a solid track record and outstanding reputation
• Have experience in your industry
• Be professional and transparent in its conduct.
• Always be available to answer your questions.
• Indulge in fair pricing and not include any hidden charges
• Set achievable goals