Tips and Tricks to Turn Your Happy Patients into Your Best Marketers
Running a dental practice is no easy feat. Between managing appointments, providing top-notch care, and keeping up with the latest dental technology, it can feel overwhelming. One area that often gets overlooked is marketing—specifically, how to boost patient referrals. Word-of-mouth is one of the most powerful tools in your marketing arsenal. Here, we'll discuss practical strategies to help you tap into this resource and grow your practice.
Why Dental Referral Programs Matter
Word-of-mouth marketing is incredibly effective. When a happy patient tells their friends and family about their positive experience at your practice, it carries more weight than any advertisement. A strong referral program can:
- Build trust: Recommendations from friends and family are more trusted than traditional ads.
- Increase patient loyalty: Patients who refer others are more likely to stay loyal to your practice.
- Boost new patient numbers: New patients referred by existing ones are more likely to trust you and stick around.
1. Start with Exceptional Service
The foundation of any successful referral program is excellent patient care. Happy patients are more likely to recommend your practice. Here are a few tips:
- Create a welcoming environment: A friendly staff and comfortable waiting area can make a big difference.
- Be punctual: Respecting your patients' time shows that you value them.
- Follow up: A quick follow-up call or email after an appointment shows you care about their well-being.
2. Make Referrals Easy
Your patients are busy, so make it easy for them to refer others. Consider these methods:
- Referral cards: Hand out cards that patients can give to friends and family.
- Email templates: Provide a simple email template patients can use to refer others.
- Social media: Encourage patients to share their experiences on social media and tag your practice.
3. Offer Incentives
People love rewards. Offering incentives for referrals can motivate patients to spread the word. Some ideas include:
- Discounts on future services: Offer a discount for both the referring patient and the new patient.
- Gift cards: Give small gift cards to local businesses as a thank you.
- Exclusive services: Provide access to exclusive services or promotions.
4. Leverage Your Online Presence
In today's digital age, your online presence is crucial. Here's how to use it to boost referrals:
- Positive reviews: Encourage satisfied patients to leave positive reviews on Google and Yelp.
- Social media engagement: Engage with your patients on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
- Share success stories: Highlight patient success stories (with their permission) on your website and social media.
5. Implement the 5-C Method
At Dental Marketing, we believe in the power of the 5-C Method. Here's how it can help your practice:
1. Custom Photography
We ensure that every client we work with is connected with one of our professional photographers to do on-site photo shoots. Sure, the internet is full of stock images we could use in your advertising and landing pages. But we’ve found that no stock images in the world can do a better job of selling your dental experience than professional shots of the real thing itself. You’ve put a lot of thought, energy, and capital into making your practice one of a kind. We want to help you show it off. There’s no catfishing here—what your leads see, they get. And that, in turn, builds familiarity.
2. Customer Intent
Unlike our competitors who build marketing materials around dental procedures, we build funnels and drive traffic based on the intent of the potential customer. We’ve done our research and we understand the needs of your ideal patients. They aren’t looking for “CEREC.” They’re looking to “fix a broken tooth” and they want to “replace a cracked tooth." By reframing your lead generation funnels with a customer-centric focus, we’re able to attract leads that are better primed for appointment booking and spending money in your dental practice.
3. Clicks to Landing Pages
Landing pages with clickable call-to-actions and copy that have gone through A/B testing = unreal results. Each of our service pages is structured as a stand-alone experience. (Headlines, offers, FAQs, etc.) We build procedure-specific sales funnels that can bring in a $4k-$50k patient in just one month.
4. Conversion Optimization
It’s completely normal for ads to fatigue or get stale. Even high-performing copy, images, and videos need tweaking after your audience has seen them for so long. We pride ourselves on staying ahead of the curve by addressing fatigue before it’s a problem that costs you money. That’s why we test your ads every week so that we’re constantly improving conversion rates and drawing your ideal customers in.
5. Cultivate Leads
If getting hot leads is difficult, getting them to actually show up is darn near impossible. That’s why our 5-C Method for dental marketing not only has the potential to fill your appointment book with hot leads but it’s also designed to ensure that they’ll show up when they book. We’ve invested in online automation—one that integrates with most PMS—so that we can go above and beyond booking clients. Our software sets up appointment reminders via email and sends SMS reminders to close the gap and get leads to actually show up.
Bonus: Collaboration
As well as we know this industry, no one will ever know your unique business as well as you do. That’s why we use Pastel—a marketing collaboration software that allows our clients to be part of the creative process with us. And it doesn’t matter if you have sparks of creativity in the middle of the night, we work side by side with you to deliver unlimited ads, promos, and services we’ll advertise for you.
We're so confident in our 5-C Method that we offer a guarantee. If after 90 days of going live with your site, funnels, and automation you haven’t averaged 30 leads per month, we’ll give you a free month of our marketing services. Because if you’re not getting the results you deserve, then the least we can do is get you back to profitability before you leave us.
Take Action Today
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Ready to grow your practice? Schedule a call with our team at 1-855-980-0091 and let us help you boost your patient referrals today!
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