I\u2019m often asked for my opinion regarding which marketing techniques are likely to be most popular for securing new dental patient enquiries as we progress towards a new year. So today I thought I\u2019d share my thoughts on this and how the events of 2020 have shaped how things will likely look in 2021.<\/p>\n
Here are the top five areas where we expect to be putting in a lot of effort for clients, new and old, in the year ahead. Oh and one \u2018dodgy\u2019 thing you need to look out for!<\/p>\n
This is an ‘ever present’ and as the emphasis moves increasingly to online dealings, having a stand-out dental website<\/a> is more important than ever. Not only will websites need all of the usual engaging features and be mobile-friendly, they will also need to focus on how the practice delivers patient safety in this new \u201cCovid\u201d world. Even with vaccines and better therapeutics rolling-out, this is just the start and Covid controls are likely to be with us for some time yet.<\/p>\n If you aren\u2019t convinced about the important of this, please take a look at a few sets of patient reviews left for dentists on Google and see how many mention Covid safety features.<\/p>\n When it comes to patients finding your website in Google, we expect 2021 to be a big year. Whilst Google updates all the time, they recently announced a significant ranking algorithm update being introduced in May. This will look closely at user experience on a website and how well the site meets user\u2019s needs. Google can measure all sorts of factors such as how fast pages load, how easy the website navigation was to use, did the sites use intrusive pop-ups etc. So if your site isn\u2019t technically sound in those key areas, then expect to see your Google positions suffer. We are already auditing lots of sites with this in mind to ensure client websites remain robust in the face of these big new SEO challenges.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is already a major channel dentists use to complement the \u201corganic\u201d SEO used to improve Google positions. Google and Facebook have become very adept at forcing businesses to pay for ads if they want to secure a proportion of the increasing level of enquiries originating via paid channels \u2013 you have to be \u201cin it to win it\u201d as they say.<\/p>\n Whilst you do need a realistic budget to sustain a paid ads campaign as explained elsewhere in this blog, the rewards can still be excellent \u2013 but please seek assistance to ensure that campaigns are set up and managed expertly. For example, we are already helping lots of dentists fill open days for implants and orthodontics using paid ad techniques, as well as bringing in regular new treatment enquiries using regular awareness campaigns.<\/p>\nGoogle and SEO<\/h3>\n
Paid Advertising<\/h3>\n
Video Marketing<\/h3>\n