I’m often asked by dentists: ‘how can I get more patients?’
It would seem a reasonable question for a dentist looking for practice growth and increased financial success.
But in my opinion, it’s not ideal. It implies that patients can be acquired, much like a commodity, which is bought or sold.
I propose this is a more useful question to ask yourself:
‘If I were a potential new patient, what would encourage me to visit?’
You can sense how turning around your thinking in this way opens up an enjoyable thought process. It encourages a paradigm shift.
I therefore urge you to spend some time with your team working on this question (and yes, you should also discuss what might currently be putting off potential patients).
Three suggestions on what appeals to potential patients
Here are three suggestions on what appeals to potential patients to get you going:
A sense of the emotional difference you make to your patients:
Your patients can’t judge your clinical skills, and therefore, they must trust that these are in place.
What they’ll connect with is how you make them feel and how you’ll create a difference in their lives.
So, ask permission to share your patient stories. However, ensure that these stories have an emotional context.
You can do this by asking a few questions of patients after finishing a course of treatment or when they have seen a notable improvement in their dental health.
Ask them how they felt before, during and after their treatment.
You care about your patients. Make sure potential new patients appreciate this.
An appreciation of how you are remarkable:
It’s worth repeating that to be remarked upon, you need to be remarkable.
So, consider how you can enhance the experience your patients have.
Where can you provide more or do something the patient wouldn’t expect?
What can you do to deliver a more remarkable experience which goes beyond the patient simply sitting in an average waiting room, being called through, hearing the dentist relay lots of information they can’t understand to the nurse as they lie in the chair, before making their next appointment and leaving?
Patients, like patients of any business, appreciate small, thoughtful touches.
You can focus on these without needing to make grand, expensive gestures.
Explore ideas for a remarkable patient experience.
What your existing ‘ideal’ patients value:
You know the patients you like to see and who rate your practice. You want more of these types of patients.
So, seek to understand and learn from these people. Ask them what matters to them about visiting their dentist, what they value about you, and how you could do better to create a difference for them.
You can do this informally or via a patient survey, which goes beyond simply asking whether they were able to park easily and whether they like your waiting room.
These points matter, of course, but are part of a much bigger, emotional picture.
Guide to running effective patient marketing.
Can’t I just do my own Google marketing?
Through our own independent research, we’re seeing that patients who come from the Internet are more loyal and spend more over their lifetime than those who come from other, less effective marketing methods, such as coupons, word of mouth, or advertisements.
But Google doesn’t make this easy. To reach the top of the rankings, one requires a specific series of data points spread across multiple channels (on-site, off-site, social media, etc.).
Unless you’re in the internet marketing business and studying the enigmatic subtleties… odds are you’re going to screw it up and get buried on page 12 (where NO ONE will ever find you)!
Additionally, there is a significant amount of misinformation about offices that misleads patients and results in doctors being placed in the Google “sandbox” (also known as the Google penalty box) or being closed for business online.
This also results in ZERO patients for any practice.
You need someone to help you do it right. Contact us to discover how we can help your practice thrive with effective dental SEO and marketing.
For more reading on dental SEO, see Moz’s comprehensive dental SEO guide or Search Engine Journal’s tips on dental marketing.
