The healthcare industry is extremely competitive, and that doesn’t exclude orthodontic practices.
If you’re looking for the best way to drive patients to your practice, this article will break down the best orthodontic marketing strategies to utilize in 2023.
How Do I Attract More Orthodontic Patients?
Drive More Traffic
Search Engine Optimization
Consumers are spending more and more time online, which makes it easier and more cost-effective for orthodontic practices to find new patients if they properly utilize the digital marketing tools at their disposal.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a quintessential digital tool in any healthcare marketing strategy. When done properly, your business will rank higher in search listings when consumers type in things like “best orthodontist near me” or “how affordable are braces”.
The first step to optimizing your website landing page is to conduct keyword research on what consumers are most likely to search when seeking orthodontic care. Once you have your list of keywords, you’ll need to tactically place them throughout your site’s title tags, meta descriptions, and other content.
You can also boost your practice through local SEO. A stunning 86% of consumers use Google Maps when looking for local products and services, so it’s crucial that your business is optimized for this search function. To do this, create a Google My Business account and claim your listing. Google favors businesses with more 4- and 5-star reviews, so be sure to ask your existing client base to leave you a review online.
Content Marketing
You can gain a lot of organic traffic from optimizing your practice’s landing page and your Google My Business account, but you can compound this effect by creating informative articles and blogs that answer common patient questions.
For your content marketing strategy, consider writing on topics like “How to Choose the Right Orthodontist”, “Braces-Friendly Recipes”, or “The Rise in Adult Orthodontic Care”. By writing high-quality, informative blogs and articles, search engines will rank your practice higher in search listings because they favor brands with Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T).
It’s also a good idea to include those keywords and phrases from your SEO research in your blogs and articles to further boost your online presence.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Successfully optimizing your orthodontic practice’s website can be immensely difficult, but there is a paid advertising workaround. Your practice can rank in the top three search listings for key orthodontic search inquiries if you use Google’s pay-per-click (PPC) ads.
As the name would suggest, advertisers only have to pay Google when users click through a sponsored search listing. While this means that you only have to pay when prospective clients engage with your brand, bidding for competitive keywords and phrases can become quite expensive and cost up to $80 per click.
Social Media Marketing
Consumers spend 28% of their time online using social media platforms. So, if you want to reach prospective patients where they are, it’s key to have a social media page for your orthodontic practice.
A properly run social media page can put a friendly face on your business by using a combination of posts that can include informative topics, practice updates, and even humorous memes. This combination can help boost client retention and provide another touchpoint for them to engage with your brand.
To increase your social media following, consider hosting giveaways and contests on social media. You can also collaborate with bloggers, influencers, and other people who specialize in orthodontic care.
Wellness boards
If you’re looking for an engaging out-of-home advertising medium, look no further than wellness boards. Wellness boards can be installed at storefronts and pharmacy wait areas and dispense sanitizing wipes from below a prominently featured advertisement.
What’s great about advertising in pharmacy wait areas is that it provides an ideal contextual setting for any type of healthcare brand, including orthodontic ones. Plus, this advertising medium encourages consumers to stop for a moment, take a wipe, and engage with the sponsored brand.
Terraboost is a leader in this advertising medium and independent studies have shown that 66% of shoppers engage with their sanitizing kiosks and that 50% would take a coupon or brochure to learn more about the advertised business.
Traditional advertising mediums can help to boost general brand awareness, but it is nearly impossible to track impressions and engagements from them. Terraboost’s wellness boards solve this problem through digital capabilities like geofencing and retargeting that can track shoppers’ anonymized mobile data to analyze engagement and deliver online advertisements to their phones at a later date.
Build Your Image And Brand
Driving traffic to your online presence is essential– but you want your orthodontic website to be polished and ready to win consumers over. Consumers are spending more and more time online, and your orthodontic practice can’t risk discouraging potential clients due to an out-of-date website.
Obviously, you should consider redesigning your website to give it a modern look, but you should also consider making your website accessible to both desktop and mobile users. Another great idea is to take the best patient testimonials and online reviews and feature them on a section of your website to encourage prospective patients to trust your practice.
We previously discussed creating blog posts and articles, but you can also publish case studies and patient success stories on your website and social media pages. By creating more and more touchpoints for consumers to engage with your brand, you have a much greater chance of converting them.
Engage And Outreach
Social media engagement
Maintaining an engaging social media presence is an essential part of online marketing.
Having success on social media involves creating content that your existing and potential patients will want to see and interact with.
One of the best post formats for orthodontic practices is before-and-after pictures. These posts can inspire people who want to see a similar improvement in their own teeth and legitimize your practice by showing real results. It’s also a good idea to feature your latest promotions to entice new and existing patients into your office.
Email marketing
Other orthodontic marketing ideas can help you acquire new patients, but email marketing is all about retaining your current patients. After collecting the email addresses of your patient base, segment the list so that you can send personalized messages to different groups. Your email list can be segmented based on children, teen, and adult orthodontics, or even appointment history.
With your segmented list, you can send out monthly newsletters that discuss topics important to each of your subgroups, such as “Tips for Retainer Maintenance” or “How to Encourage Kids to Floss through their Braces”
Community involvement
Orthodontic practices can receive an impressive boost in brand recognition and credibility through local community outreach. What’s great about this marketing approach is that it doesn’t cost much aside from time and labor. Here are just a few community outreach examples:
- School presentations: Work with schools to educate students on the importance of oral hygiene, proper brushing and flossing techniques, and the role of orthodontics in dental health.
- Free Dental Screenings: Organize days for each year in which you offer free consultations and dental screenings for community members.
- Online Q&A Sessions: Use webinars to discuss with current and prospective patients and address their questions about oral health and service options.
- School Supply Drives: By hosting school supply drives where patients donate items for local schools, you can foster goodwill and show your commitment to your community and education.
Partnerships with local businesses
Partnerships can be a great way to increase your business via word-of-mouth marketing. Some businesses to partner with could include general dental practices, family doctors, and local pharmacies.
Many businesses are more than happy to partner with orthodontists because it can foster a mutually beneficial relationship in which you refer your clients to one another’s services.
Offer Incentives
With so many physical and digital advertising mediums for marketing in healthcare, businesses can forget the strength of word-of-mouth campaigns. Patient referral programs are a fantastic way to grow your practice. You can incentivize your existing patients to refer your practice to their friends and family by offering discounts, free consultations, or even gift card giveaways.
What makes referral programs unique is that they tend to result in long-term patients since they are more likely to place trust in an orthodontist they heard about from a close friend or family member.
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Creating a successful marketing campaign can be immensely difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. We at Terraboost have an extensive history of working with top healthcare brands and we can provide you with key industry insights as well as a free personalized quote.
Our network of 120,000+ wellness boards are located at the storefronts of supermarkets like Acme and Giant and the wait areas of pharmacies like CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid. If you’re looking to feature your orthodontic practice on an advertising network that delivers up to 8.8B monthly engagements, get in touch with us today.
