How to Make Your Dental Practice Stand Out in a Cluttered Dental Market

Are you meeting the number of new patients you would like to each month? Are you attracting the type of patients you enjoy working with?

If you’ve answered no to either of those questions, it may be time to reevaluate your marketing strategy. 

You may be competing in a saturated market that makes it difficult to stand out. But there are a few things you can do to successfully attract the new patients you want to see even in a cluttered market.

Consider these five tips.

#1: Determine What You’re Up Against

Supply and demand determine how heavy your competition is, so it’s essential to evaluate and measure your marketplace to understand what you’re up against when designing your marketing strategies. This will help you decide where it is best to spend your money.

For example, a dentist in Sydney will have a much different marketing strategy than a dentist in a more rural area of Australia. The Sydney dentist needs to strategise their marketing budget and utilise multiple ways to attract patients in a more saturated dental market.   

If you’re not sure what you’re up against in your own market, a professional marketing company can help analyse the data for you.

#2: Adjust Your Expectations

If you do happen to be in a saturated market for dentists, it will take time and dedication to a marketing plan before you see results. So, it’s essential to adjust your expectations accordingly.

Being consistent and staying the course with your plan is also the key to marketing success. If your expectations of what your ROI should be right away are very high, you might be disappointed and tempted to move on to another marketing strategy or company that you think can better help you achieve your goals. 

However, if you do that, you’re now starting back at square one in the process, which will again put you further away from your goals.

By measuring your marketplace to understand what you’re up against, you can set realistic expectations and stay the course with your marketing plan until it’s successful, which it will eventually be.

#3: Diversify Your Plan and Your Budget

Use both online and offline marketing strategies to diversify your plan, especially in a cluttered marketplace. You want to be available to patients both when they’re searching for a dentist and when they’re not.

For example, your online presence through your website and social media accounts will help patients find you when they’re searching for you. 

However, offline marketing like direct mailers or radio ads put your dental clinic and your name out there for patients who might not be looking for a dentist yet but may remember you when they do start looking. You want to budget your marketing plan for both types of strategies.

Keep in mind that you’ll have to put yourself out there several times (multiple mailers or radio ads) before someone who isn’t looking for a dentist is likely to remember you when they do need you.

 #4: Track Your Results

This is essential, and the more diversified your marketing is, the more accurate the tracking needs to be so you can act appropriately and spend your money where it is most effective.

If your social media accounts generate new patient leads, maybe you use some of your marketing budget to pay a staff member to focus on the social media accounts and keep them engaged.

If your direct mailer is getting responses, perhaps you send two mailers out each month or begin to target a surrounding community with mailers.

Use your tracking to help you spend your marketing money and increase your volume where it’s most effective for your dental clinic, whether that’s online or offline.

#5: Identify Your Ideal Patient

When you and your team have a clear vision of the type of patient you’re looking to attract, it can also direct your marketing strategies.

Maybe you love working with children and families. Your social media coordinator might be able to engage with Family or Community Facebook groups that families in your area are members of.

Perhaps you love doing cosmetic dentistry. Maybe you send out a mailer that offers a teeth whitening special targeted at people who are new to the area.

Keep in mind the types of patients you want to attract as you are strategising your marketing plan.

Final Thoughts

Reaching new patients in a cluttered dental market doesn’t have to be as daunting as it might seem. Here’s a recap on what to keep in mind:

• Measure your marketplace – understand what you’re up against
• Adjust your expectations accordingly – know that it will take time to see results
• Diversify your marketing plan – employ many different types of marketing strategies
• Track your results – spend your money where it’s most effective
• Identify your ideal patient – adjust your marketing strategies to attract the patients you want to work with

A marketing professional can help you understand your market, strategise your unique marketing plan, and reach your target market if you need help.