Let Your Dental Patients Build Trust For You

Scott Cook, the Co-Founder of Intuit, once said, “A brand is no longer what we tell the customer it is. It’s what customers tell each other it is.” Your practice grows when your patients participate.

One of the best ways to create advocates for your practice is to make it easy and fun for patients to be involved in what you share on your social media pages. Engaging with your patients on social media creates powerful word-of-mouth recommendations by allowing your patient’s friends and family members to see what a great experience and relationship they have with you.

A study found that 71% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals. What you say on social media matters, but what your patients are saying on social media matters more!

But how do dental practice get patients involved? We have found that to get patients to participate in your dental practice’s social media, it has to be easy and fun.

Make It Easy

It’s no secret that sticking to the schedule is critical when working in a dental practice. Make sure that your in-practice social media activities take two minutes or less. Both you and your patients have busy schedules and most of the time, patients want to get back to their day as soon as they can.

Some patients may not use social media often or aren’t familiar with how to use apps. To these patients, sharing something on Facebook or writing a Google review can seem like a daunting task.

Train your dental team on how to explain the simplest way to share on social media. (My Social Practice has an app to help!) Your patients will be willing to advocate for you if you make it easy and quick.

Another important point to keep in mind is “What is the patient getting for participating?” Small incentives go a long way. Whether your patient is liking your page to get the doctor to perform a fun challenge, snapping a photo to support a good cause, or writing a review for a chance to win a prize, keep it fun by making sure there’s something in it for them.

Getting your patients involved with your social media efforts will undoubtedly benefit your online reputation. Regardless of how someone first hears about your practice, learning more about your practice becomes digital and social. If someone recommends your practice over lunch or receives your direct mail postcard, the first thing they will do is take out their smartphone to look you up. When a potential patient sees the friendly faces of your office and patient photos on your pages, they will begin to like and trust you before they step into your office.

You’ll build trust and find new patients when you use social media as a platform for communicating your own unique practice story. Through people, and through relationships, your practice will shine online and be a reminder to your community that dentistry isn’t a commodity. The way you practice dentistry each day makes a difference which in turn strengthens relationships, increases reach and, builds a strong reputation.

Effective dental social media marketing belongs to dentists who care about people, who are conscious of the opportunity dental social media marketing provides, and who believe that genuine relationships matter.

The world looks a little different now. Social media is stronger and more important for businesses than it was pre-pandemic. Embrace what this shift in social media marketing can do for your dental practice.

My Social Practice has spent over 10 years building tools to make sharing your practice’s story online easy and intuitive. Find out how your practice can see success in 2020, chat with us!

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Quick Guide: Show Your Patients You Know What You’re Doing Amid COVID-19

As a health expert in your community, patients expect a lot from you in regards to keeping them safe and healthy. Potential patients are looking for a safe and reliable practice to trust with their dental care. You’ll need to have an active presence on social media to show your patients that you are taking every precaution. 

One of the main benefits of using social media is that it makes dental practices much more visible. Social media creates an audience for your dental practice on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. These platforms allow you to establish authority and build your practice reputation. 

Additionally, having an active social media presence makes it easy to answer your patient’s questions and concerns. Show your patients that your office is prepared, organized, and ready to treat patients.

Use social media to demonstrate the steps you’re taking to ensure your patients have a great experience. Go the extra mile to show how you are preparing to put your patient’s worries and anxieties at ease.

Remember, your dental Facebook page gives patients an idea of what it’s like in your office. Your potential patients can see your office, and meet your team before they ever walk through your door. Let your professionalism and competence show through your posts.

Typically, a lack of competence in a dental practice leads to negative online reviews. Although almost no business gets away without a few negative reviews, poor reviews hurt your online presence and your practice reputation. Show your competency by updating your patients consistently and providing valuable information.

Here are a few dental post ideas to demonstrate competence in your practice:

1. Share photos of your friendly and happy team members in their face shields and personal protective equipment.
2. Post photos and take a couple of short videos showing what your team has done to prepare your practice for patients.
3. Share information about your office hours on your social media pages. Explain that you are being flexible regarding scheduling appointments in order to accommodate patients.
4. Your team members are working overtime for the benefit of your patients. Show your followers that their dental cares by giving a shout out to your hard-working team.

Dental social media marketing moves quickly. Getting attention for your dental practice requires a different approach than even just a couple of years ago. Old dental social media post ideas and marketing techniques aren’t effective anymore.

Acquiring new dental patients entails using social media to create personal connections, show authenticity, and build a trustworthy reputation. Prove that you are a likable, professional, and trustworthy practice by sharing meaningful posts on your pages. Especially now, dentist office reopening procedures and protocols are an important part of what makes patients trust dental teams.

Having a strong social media presence supports your practice by giving potential patients a look into your practice. Posting current and welcoming content to your pages creates trust and makes potential patients more likely to give you a call.

Make sure to follow My Social Practice on Facebook and Instagram for some dental COVID humor to lighten up your day!

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The Best Way For Dentists To Address Health & Safety Concerns

As your patients ease back into the regular swing of life post-quarantine, they may have a few anxieties about visiting public places and healthcare facilities like their dentist.

Calm your patient’s apprehensions and concerns regarding their dental care by informing them of steps you are taking to keep them safe. The absolute best place to provide timely, educational, and interesting information is on social media!

Dental professionals are trained on how to keep their practices and operatories extremely sanitary and safe. Your social media is the means by which you can communicate your high standards of cleanliness to your patients before they even step foot in your office.

Show your dental patients that you take their health, the health of your team, and your community seriously. Use your social media pages to outline the measures you and your dental team are taking to guarantee they are well-cared for when they come into your practice. Illustrate the precautions you are taking before, during, and after appointments.

Encourage interaction with your patients by using your dental social media pages to explain your new safety procedures and take questions from your followers on what to expect while visiting your office.

If you find that a patient does not feel ready to come back into the office, validate their concerns, and schedule an appointment for a later date. Express your gratitude and appreciation for them and assure them that their safety is your top priority.

Ways to address safety concerns on social media:

1. Make a virtual office walkthrough video and describe the patient experience with the changes you have made

2. Show behind the scenes of sanitization at your practice. Take photos or videos of you sanitizing your dental tools, instruments, door handles, chairs, etc.

3. Create a post explaining what PPE is and how it works to protect your patients.

4. Explain measures you are taking like staggering appointments or the removal of non-essential items in the practice.

5. Explain wait times for retainers, crowns, dentures, etc.

Being active on Facebook and Instagram is one of the best ways to keep in touch and strengthen relationships with patients during times of uncertainty and confusion. Communicate your thoughts and feelings, as well as your plan of action and safety procedures to your patients to build trust.

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How Dentists Should Communicate Their Scheduling Game Plan Post COVID-19

Dental professionals are preparing for a new normal as they begin to open their practices again. Naturally, dentists feel the necessity to start seeing patients again considering the role dental health plays in overall public health.

While every dental practice will be abiding by their individual state regulations and their own personal judgment, there are things every practice should implement to secure a stable reopening. Keeping patients and followers in the loop on social media is one of them.

If you’re like many dental practices across the country, you have been forced to cancel routine dental appointments. As a consequence of the guesswork surrounding the current pandemic, most of these canceled dental appointments have had to wait to reschedule.

As soon as your practice has a reopening date, even a “soft” reopening, reach out to the patients who had to cancel their appointments. To build trust and strengthen your relationships, we recommend that dental practices reach out to every patient with a canceled appointment individually.

Dental practices can instill confidence in their patients and provide direction by keeping in touch online. Encourage interaction and communication with your patients by using your dental social media pages as a place to update patients about your practice’s re-opening. Post details regarding your rescheduling plan on your dental social media pages. The more clarity and information you can give to your patients, the better. Having a social media marketing plan for re-opening after COVID-19 is vital to your practice success.

Thanks to the amazing people in the dental community, there has been significant support and information to help dental practices navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. On the contrary, there has not been much information given to the patients of dental practices regarding what is going on and what their experience will look like moving forward. Use your voice as a healthcare professional to reassure and comfort your dental patients.

Address common questions and concerns on your social media pages

• Will you reschedule canceled appointments first?
• What treatments are being prioritized?
• How long should patients expect to wait before being contacted by your practice?
• Can patients expect a different reception or operatory experience?
• Validate concerns and address unnecessary anxiety and stress.

Create a sense of urgency

• Communicate the importance to schedule an appointment. Stress that appointments are filling up fast and to schedule soon!
• Express the importance of taking care of tooth damages that may have occurred during the quarantine.
• Explain the significance of good oral health and its impact on overall health. 

Utilize this time to sharpen your dental practice’s social media pages. Social media provides a way to maintain strong relationships with current patients and reach new ones online.

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7 Dental Marketing Ideas You Can Work On From Home

There are many things you can do to improve your dental marketing and social media pages from home! When it comes to improving your online presence, you’ll want to start with the simple steps that you can do right from your couch. Whether you are a seasoned expert or just starting, you’ll find these 7 dental marketing ideas to be valuable for your practice!

1. Continuing Education

Stay up-to-date on your CE credit by completing online dental continuing education courses. As a dental professional, you want to provide to very best experience and quality of care that you can. Information in the dental industry develops quickly. It is essential for dental professionals to keep up with new training to keep patients coming back to the dental office, know what new dental technology is available in the industry and how to keep current dental patients happy and healthy.

Dental CE courses online are becoming increasingly popular. There are various subjects available, from clinical care to the best way to run a dental social media campaign. Use time at home to watch webinars and complete certification without ever leaving your couch! Build trust by sharing your experience with your patients and followers online. Sharing your efforts in continuing education illustrates to your patients that you are improving your skills to better serve them.

Free dental continuing education online courses 📚

• Dental Digital Marketing Course (FREE from My Social Practice)
  
• Staying Successful During Social Distancing
  
• ADA Dental CE Courses

2. Send Appreciation Gifts To Referring Practice

Being a successful dental practice doesn’t only mean providing great patient care, it means uplifting and appreciating everyone that comes in contact with your practice. Sending appreciation gifts to your referring practices is a great way to cultivate strong relationships with the other dental professionals in your community and grow your practice. Referral marketing is one of the best strategies to grow your business. To keep a stream of referrals coming in, you have to cultivate mutual trust and friendships. Giving gifts is a perfect way to make a great impression and be remembered.

Gift ideas for referring dental offices 🎁

• Send a box of treats or gift basket
• Mail a gift card for a massage
• Send lunch to their office
• Send a heartfelt thank you note
• Make a charitable donation in their honor

3. Start A Monthly Newsletter

Newsletters are essential to your practice’s marketing strategy. Emails are still a prominent component of dental digital marketing. They keep your patients familiarized with your staff, updated on specials and office announcements and encourage patients to refer their friends and family. If you aren’t consistently sending a dental newsletter you may be missing out on some significant marketing opportunities.

However, coming up with newsletter ideas for your dental practice can be challenging. Don’t overthink it! Keep your newsletter helpful and fun. Your patients want to hear from you! Speak to your email audience as you do with patients who are in your practice. Remember, the purpose of a dental office newsletter is to maintain relationships and keep top-of-mind awareness.

Great Dental Newsletter Ideas 🗞

• Advertise new specials. Do you offer teeth whitening? Are you promoting cleanings for new patients?
• Talk about the products you sell in the practice. Do you have electric toothbrushes or WaterPiks? Explain what kind of in-office products are available!
• Give tips on how to have a healthy smile! Share a few tips on how to keep a healthy mouth in-between cleaning appointments.
• Share practice announcements! Shout out your team birthdays, talk about patient appreciation events or giveaways!
• Use content from your dental blog

4.  Ask Your Patients To Leave A Review

Online reviews play a major role in how to get new dental patients to find you. When a patient is looking for a new dentist the first place they will go is to local search to check out the reviews of the practice’s nearby. Reading through the reviews of local businesses before making a decision has become the new normal.

Studies say that one-third of online consumers in the U.S. used the internet to search for local businesses daily. And 72% of those customers won’t take action until they read the reviews. Positive online reviews are crucial for growing your dental practice and attracting new patients. The good news is, your dental patients love and appreciate you.

As a dentist, you already have a connection and relationship with your patients that many businesses don’t. This gives you an advantage because you can hand-select patients that you know will give you a great review. Honest feedback and positive reviews are crucial for building your dental practice. Let your patients know you rely on reviews to improve their experience in your office and to find more awesome dental patients like them! Chances are if you’re not actively asking for reviews, you’ll only get one when a patient is unhappy.

Here are 3 ways to ask your dental patients for a review from home:

• Email or Text Your Patients 💬
  Send your patients a personalized email or text message with a link that goes directly to your Google, Facebook or HealthGrades pages. You can easily manage your text and email marketing communication by using an online review management system.
  
  
  A sample email or text message:
  “Hi, [patient name]! thank you for being a valued patient. Here at {dental practice} we really rely on online reviews to help us know how to improve and to help people in the area find us. Will you help us out by leaving us a short review? Here is a link that will take you right to our reviews page. Thank you!”

• Create a Social Media Post 🌅
  Facebook and Instagram are great places to share positive reviews and ask your patients for feedback. Create a graphic asking patients “How did we do? Leave us a review!” Or, snap a picture of yourself holding a sign that asks patients to leave a review to add a personal touch.

• Call Your Patients On The Phone 📞
  Although phone calls may seem like an outdated form of communication, it’s a perfect way to reach your patients on a personal level, especially your older dental patients! Calling your patients gives you the ability to connect on a personal level and possibly help them figure out where and how to write it.

5. Host Virtual Team Meetings

Hold dental team meetings via video conferencing. Your team culture and your brand starts with what you to go the extra mile for your team members and your patients. Have a virtual dental team meeting to talk about how to make your practice an enjoyable place to visit and work.

Ask your team to bring ideas for a dental marketing ideas brainstorm. 💡
Does your team celebrate birthdays? What would be enjoyable team-building activities? What do you do to keep patients coming back? Have you recently given away a prize or congratulated a patient on a personal accomplishment? Talk about your accomplishments, set weekly goals, and bond as a team over a video conferencing chat from home!

6. Update Your Website, Social Pages and Search Listings

Making your website pages look friendly and professional and posting regularly is important, however, attracting dental patients to your practice requires some online clean-up. There are many factors that may be preventing people from finding your practice online.

Take some time to evaluate your practice’s consistency across your website, local directories and social pages.

Here are a few things you can to do to improve your visibility online 🔎

• Ensure that your practice address, phone number, and website are consistent across all your pages.
• Place links on your website that go directly to your social media platforms.
• Update the information on your reviews sites like Yelp, Google, Facebook, HealthGrades.
• Upload new photos of practice, team members, and patients to your website and review pages.
• Update your dental Facebook cover photo

Appearing in local search results is powerful and will help your practice become visible to new patients. Search engine optimization is complex. Cleaning up the online presence of dental practices frequently includes deeper issues that require expert help. There are dozens of factors that could be slowing down your dental website and hurting your local search ranking. Run an optimization check-up for your dental practice.

7. Create A Dental Marketing Calendar

Social media marketing for dental clinics is crucial for building awareness and highlighting the quality of care and relationships in your practice. A dental social media calendar gives you and your dental team a plan and some direction. Great ideas for dental social media posts include celebrating holidays (from major holidays to silly fun ones), staff birthdays, promotional launches, and practice events, and current events like local businesses opening or a new movie in your local theater.

When planning a dental marketing calendar, keep in mind that celebrating holidays and fun events creates the best opportunity to show off your practice culture and build interactions with patients and potential patients online. Your marketing calendar doesn’t need to be complicated! Your dental marketing ideas should focus on being friendly and inviting across all of your social media platforms.

Brainstorm and think through events happening in your practice this year. Are you planning on being a part of a charitable cause? Are you running referral campaigns or patient giveaways?

📅 Make a plan for at least one post a week for the next two months. If you find it challenging to know where to start or what good dental Facebook marketing for dentists looks like, get some inspiration from these ten dental practices that rocked social media last year.

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Join The Dental #WeStillCare Movement

We understand any anxiety and stress that you are feeling during this global pandemic means only that you truly care. Those working in the dental field care deeply about their practices, employees, patients, friends, and community. That’s a large part of what makes the current situation so troublesome. As we have learned lately, there is no plan for how the dental industry should handle something like this. That is why My Social Practice started #WeStillCare.

#WeStillCare is a movement focused on bringing dental professionals, patients, and communities together. It’s all about providing resources and helping those in the dental field discover ways to show their patients, community, and other practices how they still care for them outside of providing dental care. Relationships are at the heart of every dental practice, and “We Still Care” aids in nurturing those relationships through this tough time.

Here’s how it works:

1. We’ll email a new idea for engaging with your followers every day.

These dental post ideas will include photo ops, graphics to post, inspiration for video content, activities you can do, and even sample captions to help you post.

 

2. You take action and post what you’re doing on social media.

Follow the instructions in the email and make a post on your social media accounts using hashtag #WeStillCare. These dental social media ideas will work great on Facebook, Instagram, your stories, and even Linkedin and Pinterest.

 

3. You connect on a deeper level with your patients and community.

Your posts will be seen by your friends, family, patients, local businesses, and people in your community. You’ll be showing that you still care, you just care differently right now.

Join the movement and be a part of the growing network of dental professionals focused on spreading positivity and developing strong relationships in their local communities during COVID-19! Dental professionals across the nation will be using the #WeStillCare hashtag on their posts to be united with dentists and inspire others to join. To join, sign up with your email to receive ideas and inspiration right to your inbox.

Prospective patients take notice when what you post on social media reflects how much you care personally about your patients and team members. Staying connected to your patients and delivering meaningful value during social-distancing will help put your practice in a position to bounce back quickly when things are back to normal.

 

Things will get back to normal. Soon your team will be back together, patients will be in your chairs, and “social-distancing” will be a word of the past. Although at times it may not feel like it, this will shortly pass!

Don’t let today’s uncertainty stop you from acting now to build your practice for the future. Use this time to focus on your dental practice’s social media pages. Your social pages provide a way for you to establish strong relationships with current patients and reach new ones online.

 

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Why Giving Should Be A Part Of Your Dental Marketing

Sharing your charitable efforts on your dental social media platforms is an excellent way to grow your dental practice.

Why should your practice make giving a priority? There are a lot of reasons to make giving a central part of your dental practice culture. Giving improves team culture, builds unity, raises local awareness, and transforms your practice into something your patients are proud to share with others.

When it comes to social media for dentists, the conclusion is simple: giving and publicizing your efforts through dental social media marketing leads to increased case acceptance, more new patients, more referrals, and higher revenue per patient.

Giving Makes Your Practice Appealing to New Patients

The general thought seems to be that people have become more entitled and self-centered, but actually, data shows quite the opposite! Today’s consumers, especially millennials, are drawn to and want to support businesses that manifest a culture of caring and invest in improving their communities.

A 2018 study reports that people feel a powerful emotional connection and deep loyalty to purpose-driven companies. 68% of Americans said that they are more willing to share content to their own social networks from charitable companies and less likely to share from traditional businesses. Giving allows your dental practice to connect personally with your patients, increasing word-of-mouth advocacy, and building your reputation within the community.

When you mix smart social media marketing strategies with your giving efforts, potential patients will notice and remember you.

Giving Helps Build a Passionate Dental Team

For many dental team professionals, it’s important that the dental practice they work for is taking steps toward social responsibility and uplifting the community. If you are a giving practice, you’ll attract compassionate and dedicated people to join your practice.

Think of a few companies that are renowned as great places to work. What do they have in common? They give to various people and communities, and their efforts inspire others. They bring in passion people who are eager to make the world a better place through their work. By being a giving practice, you will attract dental professionals with this kind of mindset.

Giving Raises Awareness about Your Practice

Social media for dentists has made sharing about your practice’s giving efforts easier and more effective than ever. Giving back is a way to run a dental social media campaign but still stick to the main goal of improving people’s lives. Although giving to charity is a tool to improve social media marketing in dentist’s offices, ensure that the tone and wording on your social media posts focus on the charitable aspect rather than promoting your practice.

Publicizing your charitable efforts strengthens relationships with current patients, helps new patients find you, expands your audience, and connects you with local businesses. Connecting with other organizations will increase your reach and help grow your practice! Many of our clients have reported finding new dental patients through collaborations with other local businesses.

Your dental practice’s charity events are perfect storytelling opportunities. Show your patients that serving others is important to your practice by snapping and sharing lots of photos and videos. Also, to keep in mind, local media carefully watches social media to discover local stories!

Giving back to your community creates mutually beneficial relationships. When you help others, they have positive feelings toward you, and they are more inclined to help you in the future. Watch for opportunities to establish relationships out of goodwill; you never know what good may come of it down the road.

Make sure to couple your posts highlighting your charitable works with social posts that allow your followers to get to know your team better as well. Some dental social media post ideas include congratulating team members on personal achievements, asking your dental team members a few interview questions to show how much they enjoy working at your practice.

A general tip for all dental social media marketing is to demonstrate online how much you care about your relationships with patients. Choose a patient of the say, take a picture with them then share the photo on your dental Facebook and Instagram pages. Caption the photo with a couple of lines expressing how happy you are to see them in your practice!

These kinds of posts go hand-in-hand with publicizing your charitable efforts. Gestures of recognition go a long way in not only building relationships with patients but also showing potential patients that your dental practice is committed to your providing comfort and dental care satisfaction.

Patients checking you out online will take notice when what you post on social media illustrates how much you care about your patients, team members, and your community.

Social media for dentists can feel complicated or boring but it’s easy when you show gratitude and serve your community. Showing gratitude establishes your practice’s brand, strengthens patient relationships, and increases the chance that your current patients will introduce your practice to their family and friends.

Stay up to date on dental social media’s best practices by subscribing to the My Social Practice blog! If social media feels like too much for your practice to handle, or your simply not interested in digital marketing, My Social Practice will take care of dental social media for you.

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