I was recently invited to a Zoom call with a new practice to discuss the development of a suitable SEO strategy to generate new patient enquiries from Google. However what became evident right at the start of the meeting was that the practice believed that SEO \u2018was\u2019 their overall marketing strategy and that they considered that my team was solely responsible for it \u2013 i.e. a full remit for all of the practice marketing.<\/p>\n
Whilst this was a compliment in itself and I thanked them for their trust in our services, I was duty bound to explain that \u2018SEO\u2019 alone does not constitute a marketing strategy and is only a functional aspect of a much broader plan.<\/p>\n
So at that juncture the meeting changed from one about the ins and outs of search engine optimisation, to a more high-level understanding of what the practice needed to develop as their overall marketing plan, together with the component parts you would typically find within it. It struck me that the practice clearly had limited business experience outside of the day-to-day practice management and clinical expertise, but that\u2019s actually not uncommon in a lot of UK dental practices unfortunately. However, what we discussed should help them to develop a usable and productive marketing plan and one where we can assist with its development and implementation ongoing.<\/p>\n
This is a very broad question and the answer will vary depending on individual circumstances and requirements. The elements within such a plan will also change over time and so regular review is required to make sure that current business needs are being addressed. So where do you start?<\/p>\n
This really depends on the type of business you want and the mix of treatments and services you wish to offer. Will you be aiming for a ‘high-end’ niche, something middle-of-the-road, or perhaps more tailored to functional dentistry to process as much treatment volume as possible?<\/p>\n
Once you\u2019ve determined this, and this in itself may evolve with time, then you can decide what tools you need to start gaining momentum. In conjunction with that you\u2019ll also need to evaluate the local competition to establish what type of businesses they are running, where there are hurdles to overcome and also niches to exploit. The best start-ups will of course do all of this ground work before they go ahead and set-up in a new location.<\/p>\n
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Here are the main issues to address when developing your marketing plan:<\/p>\n
There are various versions of this but in my experience they all boil down to pretty much the same thing. So if you can answer those questions above and perform consistently against the challenges they pose, you\u2019ll be well on track.<\/p>\n
In this article I\u2019ll take a look at the last three elements in the list; including reach, the channels you\u2019ll consider, budgetary considerations and how you\u2019ll measure success. The first three elements you\u2019ll be undertaking in-house and will also be driven by your personal aspirations. If you need assistance, we can also guide on the initial elements, but that would fall more into the realms of a coaching proposal. Please let us know if you also need help there and we can certainly provide some guidance.<\/p>\n
So having decided on your target audience, you then need to establish how to reach them and there are numerous ways dentists typically achieve this including:<\/p>\n
These are the main ways or \u201cchannels\u201d you will utilise to advertise your business to people in your local area and indeed adjacent areas where you think it\u2019s practical for patients to travel to you.<\/p>\n
Before we continue it\u2019s worth touching on advertising versus marketing and the why they are different. We\u2019ve loosely talked about a \u201cmarketing strategy\u201d and also \u201cadvertising\u201d so what\u2019s the difference? You should perhaps think of marketing as the process whereby you identify the needs of your target market and then determine how best to meet those needs \u2013 it\u2019s the holistic, high-level plan if you wish. Advertising is one vehicle within the marketing plan and is the functional way(s) in which you promote yourself via various channels to help reach your target audience. Typically advertising will involve some form of payment to use those third-party channels, but not always.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s quite common for businesses to drop into advertising without fully understanding how that fits into an overall dental marketing plan<\/a> and we saw this demonstrated by the business I mentioned at the start of this article.<\/p>\n This one isn\u2019t going to take off right at the start of opening a new business but you need to be prepared for it and to nurture it as soon as possible. Indeed for an established dental practice, on average, word-of-mouth referral brings in the most new patient enquiries. So you can see just how important it is. It would be possible to write several articles about word-of-mouth referrals but it\u2019s beyond the scope of this article today. Suffice to say here that how well you and your team do their jobs and how well they are trained to nurture and build excellent relationships with patients, all play a crucial part. Get the patient experience right and the referrals and recommendations will follow.<\/p>\n Dental website design is very competitive and these days you need a great site to help you stay ahead of the competition. Something basic or DIY almost certainly won\u2019t cut it, so please make sure to get professional assistance. You don\u2019t need to pay the earth, indeed please look out for a few dental design agencies who charge huge fees, but you do need to be sure that your website looks great and works well for patients and Google too.<\/p>\nWord-of-mouth referrals<\/h3>\n
Websites and Search engines \u2013 SEO<\/h3>\n