Four Ways to Effectively Market Your Dental Practice

Having effective marketing techniques is the key to success for any dental practice. If you haven’t updated your practice’s marketing strategy in a few years, you could be missing out on valuable clientele. Marketing your dental practice can appear difficult initially, but these four strategies are sure to help increase brand awareness and yield the best results.

  1. Create a Well-Designed Website. On average, users spend about ten to twenty seconds on a web page before leaving[i]. With this in mind, it is essential to clearly communicate the value and purpose of your business in a short time span. Functionality and aesthetics play a huge role in maintaining a user’s attention; therefore, it is important to go with a simple and intuitive design with easy navigation. Also, be sure to update any information and pictures of your practice. Additional features you may want to consider adding to your website can include:

These best practices combined can create a solid online presence and make a great first impression on potential patients.

2. Tailor your SEO to Local Results. Search engine optimization is the practice of increasing traffic to your website through search engine results. Whether you serve up paid ads or organic traffic, it is important to attract quality traffic that is genuinely interested in your services. For example, it doesn’t serve your practice much justice if you are based in Seattle, Washington and someone in New York City finds your orthodontic practice. Local SEO utilizes keywords directly relative to your specific profession and area by allowing you to rank higher for terms such as “best Seattle orthodontist” instead of “orthodontist.” Local SEO also gives you an advantage with voice search engines, like Siri or Alexa, where users may verbally locate a local provider near them.

3. Mail out Postcards and Promotions. Sending promotional mail, such as greeting cards, brochures and flyers, can help familiarize your local audience with your practice. Although this may seem more of a traditional method, it is still effective in promoting brand awareness. Mailed offers, such discounted exams or cleanings, is another great way you can attract new patients, but be sure you’re not offering the same special as other practices in your area.

4. Improve Your Rankings and Reviews Online. Rankings and reviews can play a significant role for patients looking for dental providers. The number of reviews listed and the frequency of those reviews can directly correlate with your SEO ranking. If your business is already doing great and has outstanding reviews, continue to encourage your patients to provide positive feedback on sites such as Yelp and Google. You can make it easier for customers to leave these reviews by inserting links in confirmation and follow up emails. If your practice’s reviews have taken a turn for the worst, it’s not too late to improve your reviews! You can always turn negative reviews to loyal customers by following a few steps:

  • Be proactive and aim to respond to negative reviews within 24 hours.
  • Refrain from deleting negative comments, but rather post a professional response letting your audience know you are willing to offer solutions in compensation for negative experiences.
  • Make the customer feel appreciated in your response and offer a sincere apology.
  • Follow up with the designated customer via email or phone.

Rankings and reviews serve as a way to benchmark yourself against your competition. Whether it’s a positive or negative review, it is crucial to understand how your customers feel about their experience.


What do you think? Do you use any of these marketing strategies to attract new patients? Let us know!


[i] Nielsen J. 2011. How long do users stay on web pages? Nielsen Norman Group. [accessed 2019 January 4> https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-long-do-users-stay-on-web-pages/


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