5 Things Your Dental Website MUST Have

Your dental website is an integral part of your online presence and dental marketing efforts. Here’s how you can ensure it makes the right impression.

For businesses today,  including your dental practice, a homepage is just as important to your dental marketing efforts (if not more so) than an actual physical storefront. With just a momentary glance, today’s consumers assume volumes about your practice, your team, and even the quality of your treatment.

If your dental website is outdated, difficult to navigate, or has poor design direction (or no direction at all), potential patients will also see your practice as outdated and inconvenient.

If it’s cleanly designed, content-rich and mobile-friendly, your practice website can begin to build relationships of trust with potential patients before they even give you a call. It’s a central part of your online presence and digital marketing efforts and can be one of your best tools to attract, educate, and retain the people who will most help your practice thrive.

My Social Practice understands how crucial it is for you to have a fast, modern, user-friendly dental website which is why we are offering free dental websites for clients who bundle with our award-winning social media service.

Here are five essential things you need in your dental website to make it a truly effective dental marketing tool:

5 Dental Marketing Essentials for Your Practice Website

1. Intuitive, Mobile-Friendly Design

People will use search engines to find your dental website and will use a variety of devices, from phones and tablets to laptops and widescreen desktops. And, with over half of all internet searches coming from mobile devices, you need to make sure that however potential patients interact with your professional dental website, it’s easy to navigate and allows them to quickly find what they need. Site design is essential to professional and trustworthy marketing.

Of all of the elements mentioned in this post, this is where it’s most worth hiring some professional help. Unless you’re both a dentist AND a web design expert, don’t waste your time trying to hammer a free website template into something you can use. Don’t trust this essential part of your online presence to your nephew who “knows some code.”

Make the investment in a custom-designed professional dental website that showcases your practice and enhances your dental marketing efforts. Your dental website design is a large part of your overall marketing strategy.

2. Emphasis on the Human Side of Your Practice

Think nobody’s going to look at your “About Us” page? Think again! The About page is typically one of the most-visited parts of a dental website. Take advantage of this valuable dental marketing opportunity to build trust and share your practice’s story.

Your About page is a great way to introduce potential patients to your team and practice culture. Having an individual photo and short bio for each team member creates connections with potential patients — before they ever call or visit your practice! Update these bios periodically or as team members join and leave.

The bottom line is people like to do business with people they know. In dentistry, where relationships are especially important, a strategic personal online presence offers doctors and their team’s opportunities to connect with patients and prospective patients on a meaningful level. This is an essential part of great dental websites.

3. Consistent New Content

What do we mean by “consistency” in your online presence? Primarily, it’s making regular attempts to connect authentically with your audience by posting high-quality content, such as blog posts, and responding to readers’ interaction.

There a degree of transference that takes place in patients’ minds when practices consistently provide new content. Therefore, if you’re consistent and reliable in providing honest human content through your online presence, people make an assumption about you. That assumption is that you are likely to provide the same consistency and leading-edge standards in everything you do. This includes your dental materials and procedures and the patient benefit-driven technologies you ascribe to. This also includes the way you respond and treat people, the CE you attend, etc.

My Social Practice has great dental marketing ideas. We make it easy by providing subscribers a new, professionally written dental blog post every week.

4. Highly Visible Social Proof

What others are saying about your practice online has an enormous influence. What others say about you solidifies trust in existing patients and inspires trust in prospective new patients. Which is why the best dental websites in 2020 provide plenty of social proof on their pages. In the case of your dental practice, building this “social proof” is one of the best things you can do to attract new patients and retain the ones you have.

One of the easiest ways to provide social proof is to feature your dental patient reviews on your website. Because of their popularity, we suggest highlighting positive reviews from platforms such as Facebook and Google.

With a dental website from My Social Practice, it’s simple to feature positive patient reviews where people will see them. In addition, any negative reviews are immediately passed on to you so you can follow up with the patient.

5. Calls to Action

Ask yourself what you want people to do when they visit each page of your dental website. Then give your website visitors a clear path to do it that is immediately visible. For instance, upon reaching your homepage, do you want people to make an appointment? If this is your goal, make sure there is a button in the top section of your homepage that says “Request an Appointment.”

Place a button that asks users to “Schedule Free Consultation” on your pages regarding dental care or smile makeovers. We suggest placing this button in the middle and at the end of the page. Everything about your site should direct users to take action regarding their dental care.

The more easily you someone can progress from learning to taking action, the more effective your dental marketing will be. The best dental websites turn website visitors into patients with strong calls to action.

Get a Gorgeous, Blazing-Fast Website for Your Dental Practice

Whether you don’t yet have a  website or you’re looking to upgrade, My Social Practice has a solution. My Social practice provides a turnkey dental website solution and marketing services that will make your practice look fantastic. Plus, you get a free dental website (a $4,000 value!) when you bundle with My Social Practice’s social media service. Learn more and request a demo to see how a gorgeous, blazing-fast dentist website will help turn your online presence into your best tool for attracting and retaining ideal patients.

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New Dental Instagram Feature: Instagram Reels

Instagram has launched a new short-form video format, it’s comparable to the short-form video app TikTok. This new feature called Instagram Reels, allows you to record and edit short videos with audio and music soundtrack options to play over the video.

Here is what we know about Instagram Reels and how dental and orthodontic practices can utilize them for their social media marketing efforts.

How do I create an Instagram Reels video?

Instagram Reels exists inside Instagram stories! You can access and create stories by tapping the camera icon at the top-left of your screen.

There is a carousel of options on the bottom of your screen with “Live” “Story” and “Reels” options. Once you tap on “Reels” you’ll be able to take a video and use the edit options on the left side of your screen to add music, clips, and effects!

Take some time to play around with Instagram Reels to become familiar with taking and editing videos. You can create test videos without sharing them and don’t worry, if you unintentionally do share a video you can delete your Reels anytime!

How do I know which posts on Instagram are Reels?

When scrolling through your feed or searching the explore page, you’ll be able to easily tell which Instagram posts are Reels videos by the clapperboard icon in the bottom left-hand corner of the video.

What do Reels videos look like on Instagram?

Viewing Reels is similar to viewing Posts and Live videos on Instagram. You can like or comment on Reels videos, and click through to see what audio track was used in any particular video.

Where can I find my Reels?

A new tab has been added to every Instagram users’ profile to showcase their Reels in one place. This new tab is located beside the tabs that allow you to see recent posts, view IGTV videos or videos a user was tagged in.

There are many reasons your dental marketing strategy requires the use of video marketing! We have seen hundreds of practices increase their reach, build their reputation, and get new dental patients through their door by utilizing video in their dental marketing plan.

Schedule a quick demo of My Social Practice services to find out what custom dental marketing strategy will boost your practice into a super successful year.

Ready for a quick demo of our social media service? Fill out the form below.

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5 Orthodontic Marketing Ideas You Can Do This Month

If your practice is not utilizing social media in your orthodontic marketing, you are missing out on significant growth opportunities. Traditional orthodontic marketing just isn’t cutting it in today’s digital world.

Almost 80% percent of patients research a practice online before calling to make an appointment. So, what does that mean for your orthodontic practice? It means that social media orthodontic marketing provides a powerful way to grow your orthodontic practice without breaking the bank.

Orthodontic digital marketing allows you to leverage the unique parts of your practice to build a solid reputation in your community. Marketing your orthodontic practice using social media means building trust before a patient even walks through your door. 

Your social media pages are a place to display your team culture and show off the relationships you have with your patients. Every one of an orthodontist’s social media posts can build relationships and credibility, as well as lead patients to introduce their practice to family and friends, you just need a solid strategy.

You may think your followers don’t want to see posts about braces on social media, but trust us, this is not the case. We have heard from countless orthodontists about how surprised they are to get many likes, shares, and comments on their posts.

Patients and fans are happy to engage with orthodontic practices that share relevant, useful, fun, and personal posts! Your social strategy should focus on providing meaningful content to your followers. Encourage them to participate and be a part of your practice family.

Your followers will want to share their experiences with their friends and family when your practice makes it easy.

Kick-start your social media efforts with 5 orthodontic marketing ideas for a month’s worth of content!

1. Recognize Patients

Teddy Roosevelt’s quote, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” is more relevant than ever when it comes to acknowledging your orthodontic patients online. When you give a shoutout and write a congratulatory post about your patients, prospective patients get an idea of how they will be treated when they come to your practice.

2. Ask a Question!

There is no better way to get engagement from your followers than to ask a question in one your posts and ask for answers in the comment section!

3. Talk About a Piece of Practice Equipment

A big part of digital marketing in orthodontic offices is educating potential patients on the cutting edge technology your practice uses for the best treatment possible.

4. Snap and Share a Team Photo

Show off your team! Including the team in your posts keeps your practice on the top of your patient’s minds, and shows prospective patients the friendly faces of your office!

5. Shout Out Team Member

Build a postive team culture by dedicating an individual post for each of your team members. Tell your fans fun facts about them and express how grateful you are to have them on your team.

Share content that meets their needs and encourages them to get to know your team better. You know your patients best. As you build relationships with your patients in-office and online, they will be more willing to introduce your practice to family and friends. This helps you find new patients and grow your practice.

Need some help? Coming up with consistent orthodontic marketing ideas is challenging. As an orthodontic marketing company, My Social Practice client gives specific one-on-one training on how to use social media effectively.

Let us do all the heavy lifting. Don’t spend another minute struggling to find just “something to post.” Schedule a free demo of our services!

Ready for a quick demo of our social media service? Fill out the form below.

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The 3 Types Of Dental Posts You Need During COVID

We have seen the power and usefulness of social media skyrocket as recommendations, updates, and information regarding how to manage to spread of COVID-19 has been changing by what seems like the minute.

Small businesses around the globe have harnessed the strength and influence that social media has given them during this time, and the results have been incredible.

Not only are small businesses like dental practices reaching more people than ever before, but they are also becoming authority figures in their local areas as they keep their communities knit together with engaging, informative content.

There are dozens of ways to optimize dental social media content for engagement. The most important thing to keep in mind is that your content has to be worth your patients’ time.

Create content that connects with patients and fans on a personal level, naturally leading to more shares, likes, follows, and eventually dental new patients.

Here are the three types of posts your practice MUST have to take advantage of the potential and power of dental social media marketing through COVID.

1. Fun Content

Although it may not look like it on the surface, fun content does do a lot to help the growth of your practice by building report and trust with your patients online. We’ve seen hundreds of dental practices use fun content to attain a big following. Too often dentists get too wrapped up in the logistics that they forget to ask themselves one important question: “Are my social media posts something that anyone would be delighted to see pop up on their social media feed?“

Examples of fun content

Giveaways – Host and share a giveaway to get attention and also show your patients and fans that you appreciate them

Charitable Efforts – Share photos of charitable efforts that your practice is involved with.

Just for Fun – Share photos of patients in the office, team members goofing off, or a group photo just to say hello!

2. Educational Content

Use your social media platforms as a place to educate and inspire your patients and fans to take good care of their teeth and oral health. Oral health is a big part of overall great health, keep your patients safe and informed by offering expert tips.

Examples of educational content

How-To Video – Take a short video reminding patients and fans how to floss properly, how to clean their retainers, etc. Explain how to look for signs of oral health problems and concerns. Use your expertise to suggest and encourage your social media followers to keep their mouths healthy.

Product Education – Choose a service or product that you use or have in the office. Explain to your followers why an electric toothbrush, WaterPik, or night guard is important to their oral health. Encourage them to come into the office to check out the products you suggest or offer local shipping!

Service Education – Describe what service you offer in your practice Explain to your patients how you treat cavities, root canals, what types of fillings you give etc. Expound on the services you offer — make sure to include whitening too!

3. Safety Content

Your social pages are the ideal place to illustrate to your followers that you take the safety of your patients very seriously. Use safety content to reassure and comfort your patients and potential patients.

Examples of safety content

New Practice Procedures – Record a short video or create and share a couple of posts that outline exactly how your practice is seeing patients during COVID. Does every patient need to wear a mask? Are patients waiting in their cars or the parking lot instead of in the lobby? Did how you receive payment change? Give your patients all of the details about their new experience at your practice.

Dental Practice Cleanliness Content – Share photos or videos of what your team is doing to keep the practice exceptionally clean and sanitary. Build trust and by showing your patients the measures you are taking to guarantee the practice is sanitary before and after every patient. Explain what kind of products you use to kill bacteria and assure patients that they are in good hands at your practice.

How to Stay Clean at Home – Give tips on how to keep your toothbrushes safe from bacteria and when to change out your toothbrush. Encourage patients to use toothpicks and floss rather than their hands to get food out of their teeth. Explain how keeping your mouth healthy and clean assists in overall great health.

Remember, the best content for dentists meets people’s needs, connects with them on a personal level, and is interesting. When patients come across your content, the goal is to get them to engage with you. Fun and educational content are what causes positive top-of-mind awareness.

When you’re on your patient’s mind, they are more likely to introduce your practice to family and friends.

The importance of social media for dentists and orthodontists cannot be emphasized enough. Set aside some time to make a social media plan using the post suggests mentioned. There is no better chance to showcase leadership, establish new relationships, and provide support to your patients.

My Social Practice is a digital and social media marketing agency for dentists and orthodontists. We specialize in growing your practice using the power of social media, websites, online reviews, and more. Find out how we can help your practice grow!

Ready for a quick demo of our social media service? Fill out the form below.

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