As an orthodontist, you’re probably aware of the noticeable spike in patients seeking orthodontic treatment. An increased awareness in the types of treatment available, coupled with rising expectations, has meant that some orthodontists are seeing patient increases of up to 75% year on year. The question is….. are you? Read on to find out.
According to the British Orthodontic Society (BOS), approximately 77% of UK adults suffer from malocclusion (crooked teeth) in one form or another. To put this into perspective, more adults suffer from malocclusion than they do visual impairment, hearing impairment, and hypertension. This makes it one of the most prevalent conditions in the world. Yet, despite rising patient figures, it’s also suggested that approximately 98.5% of people who suffer from this condition have yet to undergo treatment.
So what does this mean for you?
The potential to reach out to those seeking orthodontic treatment is HUGE, but only if you actively seek to engage and inform the wider UK population.
While the internet has revolutionised the way in which people look for services, the dental profession is one industry that has yet to harness its full potential. For example, in a 2009 study* carried out by the BDA, the results showed that even back then, 34.5% of patients surveyed were searching online for information about a current dental or oral condition.
While you could argue that the above data is old news, look at it this way…
Internet usage has grown exponentially, and so too has the number of patients actively seeking dental treatment and conditions online. In fact, according to recent figures, a whopping 92.6% of the UK population is now connected to the internet.
With 50 million or so UK people needing orthodontic treatment and many looking for your services online right now, you already have a wide audience wanting to connect with you. For this reason, dental professionals should be looking to ramp up their marketing efforts if they want to tap into this gigantic market.
So how do you do that?
The truth is that in this day and age it’s no longer a case of simply throwing up a website and waiting for a glut of new patients to start rolling through the doors. Instead, if you really want to grow your orthodontic patient-base, you need a dental practice marketing plan that promotes awareness, interest, desire, and finally action. Once you get this right, you will see your marketing costs take a steep nosedive and your new patient numbers skyrocket. Some of our clients have seen a 200% return on investment in their first month using our solutions and there’s no reason that you can’t achieve the same either with or without our help.
Let’s take a closer look at what doing it yourself entails…
A strong social media presence
Increasing numbers of young adults are concerned about their personal appearance and more so the effect it may have on their careers and personal life. As such many are seeking cosmetic and orthodontic dental treatments.
It’s this age group (20-30 something’s) that make up the largest percentage of people looking for these types of procedures. For this reason, it makes sense to engage with them on a level that they’re very familiar with – and that’s social media.
Having a strong and current social media presence on sites such as Instagram, Pinterest and video sharing sites such as YouTube Vine, as well as the gold standard of Facebook and Twitter, is a great way of reaching out to what is potentially your No.1 target market. Here are some hints and tips…
• Post regularly but don’t spam
• Provide links to helpful dental content
• Provide links to where people can find relevant treatment advice
• Don’t just promote your services.
• Throw in some personality but remember to keep it professional
If done correctly, a great social media presence across several platforms will not only show you as an authority in your field, but will also place you as the ‘go to’ orthodontist of choice in your area. Just imagine what a difference it would make if even a small slice of the millions of potential orthodontic patients were to come directly to you!
Blogging
Nowadays dentists shouldn’t be asking the question “Should I blog?” Instead, the question should be “How often should I blog?” It really is that important!
Successful blogging is not only a great way to get information out to your target audience, it also helps to increase virtual traffic. This, in turn, drives more patients through your door.
In fact, according to an inbound marketing survey carried out by a leading digital software company, there is new bench-mark data** to suggest that those businesses who blog 21-54 times or over, generate 45% more traffic than those who blog just 11-20 times, so consistency really is key.
Here’s a point to remember – What blogging isn’t is a quick fix solution that generates immediate results. Instead, it’s a long-term strategy that if done well, will continue to deliver great results for many years to come.
When you also take into consideration that over 64% of dentists have got new patients as a direct result of their blog, yet only 26% of UK dentists currently run an active blog, those who aren’t blogging could well be missing out on huge growth.
Optimising your website and content for local searches
Beating your competition in the local search stakes could make all the difference to your dental business.
Here’s a scenario… Let’s say that you’re a dentist in Chester offering orthodontic treatment. When a potential patient types in the search term ‘orthodontic treatment in Chester’ you just so happen to be the very first search result. As such, the person clicks through to your website, likes what they see and books a consultation.
While it’s fair to say that not everyone who types in that particular search term is actively looking for treatment, roughly 70 people per month are entering that specific search phrase. While that figure might not seem huge, it could, in theory, be another 600 -700 patients a year sitting in your dental chair rather than your immediate competitors.
Obviously figures will change depending upon where you’re located, but conceivably that’s X amount of patients who have found you without you having to actively seek them. That’s the power of localised search if done correctly, though this can be difficult to pull off without the necessary skills. That why we take the time and effort out of this process for our clients and keep it risk-free by guaranteeing the results.
Paid search marketing
As well as organic Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) methods like those listed above, there are also a whole host of paid Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategies that digital marketing companies can use to help your dental practice get noticed. These include techniques such as
• Paid Search Ads
• Pay Per Click (PPC)
• Cost Per Click (CPC)
• Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM)
Paid Search is the process of gaining website traffic by paying for advertising space on search engines such as Google, Bing and Facebook. This is by far the fastest way to ‘guarantee’ that your dental practice appears at the top of the search engine results and is particularly useful in areas where competition is stiff.
Irrespective of whether you opt for natural/organic marketing paid marketing, or a culmination of both, it doesn’t have to be complicated. Instead by following a well-organised plan of attack you’re more likely to see your share of new orthodontic patients far quicker than if you sat back and did nothing.
Remember: What got you here today, probably won’t get you there tomorrow. So the question is… What are you going to do differently right now to get your slice of the action?
External resources
* – http://www.nature.com/bdj/journal/v207/n12/full/sj.bdj.2009.1137.html#B13
** – http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/blogging-frequency-benchmarks#sm.000tzfhs517p6evztdt22x4v0crmk
