Take a minute to visualize your ideal patient. What kind of person are they like? How does the conversation go when you present the case to them? If you want to be effective in your marketing, it’s important to start with the end in mind. Then, develop marketing strategies to attract this patient.

Dental Implant Marketing Has Changed For 2021

Gone are the days where a marketing campaign meant running a direct mail promotion or renting space in the yellow pages. The world has gone digital, and so have implant patients. Well over half of prospective patients use Google and other search engines to find a dentist. Additionally, social media and dental practice websites play a larger role than ever before. This creates the need for a holistic approach to your marketing efforts, rather than something with less focus.

Creating your marketing campaign involves more than just running a single advertisement. An ad is part of it, but there is more to take advantage of, if you want to attract the ideal patient for you. It requires digital visibility, focused messaging, and social proof. This must be in place from their very first search all the way to your case presentation. You need consistency across paid ads, social media pages, web pages, and case presentations.

At Driven Dental, we want every dentist to have a $50,000 patient in their first month (Yes, it’s possible!). With the right marketing, you can do it. If you build these elements into your marketing campaigns, you can attract a steady flow of ideal implant patients.

Be visible where your prospective patients look.

Since we know that more individuals use search engines and social media than ever before, this informs our strategy. The key is to have a presence in the same places that your ideal patient searches, so that they always see you at the start of their journey. For most, this requires a newfound internet marketing approach.

Understand the dental patient’s journey.

In any business, you must understand the buyer’s journey. This is especially true for high-ticket implant patients. It starts when they become aware of their need for a dental implant. It typically comes in the form of a moment in their life where they lose a tooth, or the pain of missing teeth becomes too much to bear. That’s when they start considering the options in front of them. Your business needs to be at the forefront of their search as soon as it starts. This requires an investment in search engine and social media marketing (SEM and SMM respectively).

After a patient becomes aware of the problem, they will start to consider their options. This is your opportunity to demonstrate your competence and warmth. They want to see that you care about their individual story, and that you are capable of helping them with their problem. You should make sure that your marketing campaign has an element to meet them at every step of the journey, from the awareness stage all the way to accepting your case.

Leverage search engine and social media marketing.

Since these are the most common places that patients look, you must have a strong presence in them. Does your practice have a Facebook page? Does the imagery and messaging of your page match the ideal patient that you imagined? Does somebody respond to messages quickly on your page? Do you post frequently? If the answer is no to any of those questions, then start there.

Additionally, you cannot neglect the power of search engines for attracting the ideal patient. How are you positioned for a patient’s specific searches? If someone in your area searched for “dental implant service,” would you show up on page 1 of Google? If not, it’s time to focus on search engine optimization, Google Adwords campaigns, or both. 

Focus the messaging of your marketing campaign.

As your ideal patient moves through the buyer’s journey, they should encounter consistent messaging every step of the way. You should not incorporate a certain tone during one moment and then switch it up the next moment. For example, a hyper-formal Facebook ad may attract a select prospect, but if your landing page is more casual, it will cause a disconnect.

Speaking of your landing page, you need to have a dedicated implants landing page on your website. Do not run an ad for your dental implant services, with it linking to your main webpage. Your prospects will decide in roughly 8 seconds whether you can help them, so make sure they land on a page about your implant services instead of something else.

Systematize the intake process.

Without a system of patient prequalification in place, there’s a risk of spending valuable chair-time with patients who aren’t ready to say yes. There’s also a risk in spending time on the phone to chase and educate those patients before they’re ready to come in. It’s important that you have a system in place to manage that risk and make sure you’re spending your time with the right prospects.

You want your energy and effort to be commensurate to the patient’s level of commitment. The best way to gauge this is by prequalifying your leads through a Virtual Patient Advocate, or VPA, program. A VPA makes sure that your office time goes to serious patients seeking high-value treatment. This way, your focus goes where it needs to: transforming the lives of your ideal patient!

Show proof that you can deliver high-quality dental implants.

The final piece of the puzzle resides in social proof. This term basically means that when a prospective patient sees that the crowd approves of and recommends your practice, they are more likely to commit. Social proof builds authority, credibility, and trust. A great way to gain that is to document your success with photos and testimonials.

A patient wants to see similarities between their story and the stories you show them. With the permission of your current patients, take and display “before” and “after” photos of your best cases. Accompany them with a quote from the patient if you can. This could lead to a longer-form case study or testimonial that you show on your site. It could also turn your biggest successes into advocates for the transformation you bring. Many implant-focused pages have a section devoted to testimonials to read through.

Related: How Your “Charlie” Can Help You Attract More Patients and Change More Lives

Demonstrate your authority with content marketing.

The content throughout your practice website not only shows your knowledgeability and passion for your work, but it establishes authority and helps you perform better in search engine results lists. Keep in mind that your website is just one piece of digital real estate to share your message and connect with your ideal patients. Your patients are also surfing myriad social channels. When you link your website and social channels together, they become your digital brand platform. The content that you create can be distributed across this platform to connect with your audience wherever they may be hanging out online, and draw them to you.

Hopefully you’ve come out with some solid information on how to enhance your dental marketing. See what elements you can add to your process in the days to come! If you want more help honing your implant marketing, schedule a free strategy call today.