Dental Blog - Dental Focus Marketing |

What there is to gain by using social media for dentists

Wednesday 8th February 2023

Social media has become the perfect forum for people to discuss world issues, post informational pieces and keep in touch with friends from school or college.

However, for businesses, social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok and Instagram have also become a very cost-effective option to engage and communicate messages with existing patients, whilst also aiming to attract new ones. Social media also helps with brand recognition and drives traffic to your website without you needing to pay a penny for the overall page. So, it’s well worth having social media as part of your marketing strategy.

Our team at Dental Focus Marketing knows all there is to know about social media for dentists, and we are fully aware of how powerful this tool can be. Not only for ensuring a great customer experience, but for helping you to stay in touch with your current patients, and to inform them of upcoming plans for your dental surgery, offers and relaying any news that you may have about team members or your practice.

In short, social media helps to break down the mysticism surrounding dental teams and helps you to appear more human, which is great for patients! But what is there to gain for your dental surgery by engaging in social media for dentists? This article aims to break down that question in a bit more depth based on our experience.

Gains trust

One of the core things that having social media for dentists does is break down the barrier. It helps potential patients and current patients to see your team as human rather than the scary people who poke and prod in their mouths! The best way to approach this is by letting them know that they are in safe hands and talking about things on your social media page, such as pain-free dentistry and sedation options. It will also give you an interesting online personality, which people are more likely to engage with.

Difficult times- helped by social media?

It’s easy to assume that social media does not help during difficult times. But as the cost of living continues to rise, social media platforms can be a great way for your dental team to emphasise how they can help those who may be struggling with their bills. So, it is a better idea for many dental surgeries to advertise options such as practice plans or discounts rather than talking about things like dental implants, which are at the higher end.

Engage children

A lot of people allow their children to go onto specific social media pages, and this can help your team to gain access to this population of patients who may be less than eager about getting into the dental chair. By aiming some of your vlogs and blog pieces on your social media page at children specifically, it can help them to become educated about dental hygiene and can help them to become more comfortable about visiting your dental surgery.

Promote

Of course, if you have a special offer coming up at your surgery, such as 25% off dental whitening for the Christmas period, social media is the perfect place to put this information. Market research has found that you are more likely to have people enquiring about such treatment options if they see it on a social media page like Facebook. So, get promoting!

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Posted in Social Media for Dentists

Poor dental SEO habits that you need to stop!

Monday 6th February 2023

If you are finding that your dental website is not attracting people to your surgery in the way you want it to, it is probably due to an issue with your search engine optimisation or marketing.

Luckily, it is easily fixed! Our team at Dental Focus Marketing can help with all areas of dental SEO, from making over your website to writing original blog pieces. We can also oversee any social media accounts that you have to keep you engaged with your current and, hopefully, new patients.

But if your dental SEO is not working out so well, what might be wrong? Here are some common poor SEO habits that may need changing.

Plagiarised content

Never, never, never have plagiarised content on your website! This is a huge SEO no-no that can cause your site to drop in the rankings!

A good dental SEO plan means you have to have 100% unique content in the form of blogs and landing pages, and our writing team at Dental Focus can oversee this area for you to keep you high in search engine results.

Poor layout

You have probably been on a website at one point in your life that had an unattractive layout or was too busy.

Not only is this bad for people visiting the website, but it can be confusing for the Google bots who rank the page.

Our team at Dental Focus will ensure that your dental website looks great for human and bot visitors alike and will make certain that it follows a logical layout.

No social media page

In 2023, if your dental surgery doesn’t have a social media page, you need to have one made. Social media is great for promotion, patient engagement and interaction and for SEO. You need to have links to your social media page on your dental surgery website and vice versa.

Remember, millions of people engage with social media platforms like Facebook every hour, so this is an invaluable tool to have in your SEO toolkit.

No interaction

So, you have a social media page. Is that enough? No!

You need to be engaged with what is on your social media page by posting blogs and vlogs daily. This is hard to do, especially if you are already running a dental surgery. But never fear! Our team at Dental Focus is here to help with this issue, and we can keep your surgery engaged with everyone who comments on your page and asks questions. This not only looks good for PR, but it is also good for SEO.

No contact information

People who are visiting your website need to know how to find you. Indeed, even if they are on your social media page, they are going to need to know how to contact you to register themselves or if they have a dental emergency!

So, if your contact information is not prominently displayed on your web page and social media page, it is going to be bad for SEO and business. Luckily, we can oversee this and ensure that any changes to your opening hours, such as ones that may occur over the Christmas period, will be updated promptly, so you don’t have to worry!

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Posted in Dental SEO

Dental marketing: top tips for success with our team

Friday 3rd February 2023

The new year brings lots of questions relating to marketing. What will the new trends in marketing be? And how best should they be approached for promoting your dental surgery?

Luckily, it seems that the upcoming trends are not going to deviate too much from the ones that many people are familiar with. But in spite of this, it may be worth revisiting the trends of SEO and marketing of 2022 to make sure that your website ticks every box.

At Dental Focus, we know what it takes to have a successful dental marketing campaign and can ensure that when you come to us, your marketing campaign will be successful and will bolster your surgery’s growth and profit.

So, without further ado, in this article, we look at the trends of dental marketing that are set to continue in 2023 and will also explore why marketing is so important.

Why is marketing important?

Dental marketing is important because it spreads the word about what your dental surgery can offer while also helping to improve your surgery website’s search engine optimisation. By doing this, you will attract more people to your web page and will improve the chances of you converting those site visitors to real-life patients.

In short, if you don’t have marketing or an SEO plan, you are falling behind the competition.

That’s worrying! But what is needed in 2023 for a successful marketing plan?

Imagery

Your website will need to have a lot of original imagery on it in order for it to look appealing and to help visitors identify your team members.

Preferably, you will have original, professional images taken of your staff and your surgery placed across the website, as well as a page dedicated to staff biographies. This is useful for helping patients to identify who they will see when they book an appointment.

Positive content

Talking about dental care is important for your website for two reasons. Firstly, it allows you to showcase exactly what it is that you can offer to patients, and it also enables you to place keywords, links and other essential pieces across your web page to deal with SEO. The content should be upbeat and positive and have a chatty, friendly tone to it. This is becoming more important as people are using AI programmes, such as Siri, to find pages. So, the content itself has to conform to speech patterns rather than an essay-like script.

Fast website

Of course, the website’s home page has to load quickly and be easily accessible. Not only to site visitors but also to the Google bots who will be involved in the ranking of the page on the search engine results page.

Our team at Dental Focus can help with this, as we know what it takes to speed up a website’s loading time.

Mobile optimised website

Most people access websites via mobile devices, like tablets and smartphones. So, to compete online, your web page has to load quickly on mobile devices. This is technical, but our team can ensure that this box is ticked in your marketing plan.

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Posted in Dental Marketing

Top tips to get conversions for dental websites

Wednesday 1st February 2023

Are you finding that more and more people are bouncing off your dental surgery page? If so, this is an indicator that you have a low conversion rate and that your website is not drawing people in in the way that it should.

Our team at Dental Focus Marketing can help. We have designed thousands of dental websites and know exactly what is required to not only get your dental surgery page ranking higher on search engine results, but also to make it more attractive to those visiting the websites and keep them engaged.

With that in mind, what are some of our team’s top tips for dental websites to help you get the

conversion rates that you want? Read on to find out.

No stock images

Dental websites need to have original, professional images as a starting point. This means no stock photos and no pixelated or blocky images should appear on your web page, as this will turn people off and will also cause your website to look unprofessional. Such practices will, therefore, also negatively impact the conversion rate.

Keep it clear

Have you ever been onto a messy website? These are websites that have too much information displayed at one time and can cause you to become distracted from what you’re looking for. This is not ideal, and when it comes to website design, you need to keep everything as clear and as separate as possible for better website navigation.

Cater for mobile devices

Most people are accessing websites via mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, so it is important to have your dental surgery website able to adapt to these devices. This means that when somebody clicks on the page using their smartphone, there will be no lagging, glitches or pixelated images or slow loading time. This is a bit tricky, and our team at Dental Focus can oversee this area for you. This will get higher rankings in relation to search engine optimisation and patient conversion rates, so great!

Place contact information in accessible places

Have you ever visited a website and needed to scroll through multiple pages to find the contact information? It’s irritating, isn’t it? And when somebody is looking for dental surgery, they likely don’t want to be kept waiting.

Always aim to have the contact information for your surgery displayed on the home page, as well as in its own section, usually under ‘contact information’ or ‘contact us’. When you have a social media page, it should be displayed prominently there as well.

Fast is better

One thing that has to be considered when it comes to dental marketing and search engine optimisation is that websites that are slow to load are ranked lower. As well as this, it can also be a real click-off for those who are visiting your dental surgery web page. Research has found that in relation to the loading of pages or articles if it takes longer than 3 seconds, a shocking 98% of people will click off of the page, which is not great if you are looking for conversions. Our team at Dental Focus can ensure that your dental surgery page loads quickly and will thus help with that all-important conversion rate.

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Posted in Dental Websites

A guide to successful dental SEO from our marketing team

Friday 27th January 2023

Marketing is an essential part of any business expansion, especially in dentistry, as most dental surgeries and services are found online. And in 2022, moving into 2023, the most popular and effective option for any business is online marketing and search engine optimisation (SEO).

But with the swiftly changing algorithm on Google and other search engines, it can be hard to stay up to date with what is relevant to SEO and marketing. However, it seems that even with the changing algorithms, there are some staples that every successful dental website needs.

At Dental Focus Marketing, we know exactly what is needed for successful dental SEO, and we will also ensure that your dental surgery page stays up to date with the most current trends too! We have nearly 20 years of experience in this area and will be able to offer you a targeted and personalised plan for your dental surgery. Great!

So, what are some of the staples of dental SEO that we have noticed in our time doing this, and does your dental surgery page tick every box? Read on to find out!

Make sure the page is quick!

First things first, the loading of the homepage has to be quick, preferably under 3 seconds.

If it isn’t, you may lose up to 90% of the people who visit your dental surgery’s website. So, the first tick box relating to dental SEO and higher ranking is that your home page loads promptly, as this will be easier for Google bots to spot.

Keyword searches

Each week in dental care, different subjects become popular.

For instance, suppose a celebrity speaks about having their teeth whitened; the searches for dental whitening options will go up. This is why it is important for your marketing to have a team who knows what the trends will be, helping you to reach marketing success. We will perform keyword searches to help your website stay relevant, scattering them throughout your surgery’s blog and the content of your page.

Unique articles

Google and other search engines do not like articles that are plagiarised.

So, to stay relevant with your dental surgery’s SEO, you will need to have completely unique articles. This can be challenging, but our writing team at Dental Focus Marketing know how to write relevant articles while keeping them free of plagiarism.

Mobile-friendly pages only!

It seems that everyone has either a smartphone or a tablet, and with the increase in the popularity of these devices comes the need for all websites to be accessible by both. If not, someone may load your dental surgery page only to have it appear stretched or glitching.

Luckily, our team can ensure that all the sections on your website page are mobile-optimised so that you can attract more people to your dental surgery.

Useful backlinks

The articles that are written by our team are short and to the point and offer backlinks to useful and informative websites about dental care. Useful backlinks to websites like the NHS and Bupa help build the authority of your website, once again allowing you to rank higher.

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Posted in Dental SEO

Ways to encourage patient interaction using social media for dentists

Wednesday 25th January 2023

When you use social media to promote a brand or business, it is important to see this platform as something more than a page to simply post things and get likes.

When it comes to marketing and using social media, it is often best to treat these engagements similarly to a dinner party; be welcoming and encouraging when anybody posts a comment or review on your dental surgery social media page.

But more than this, social media should be used as a way to encourage patient interaction with your surgery so that they can build an association with your team and will feel comfortable contacting you in person.

Our team at Dental Focus Marketing knows the importance of using social media for dentists to help encourage patient interaction and promote brand recognition. We will always be on hand to help with any queries that you have related to marketing in social media for dental surgery.

With that in mind, what are some of the best ways that social media for dentists can encourage patient interactions and build trust via this online platform?

Analyse the tone

The first aspect you need to consider is the tone of the posts you make and the responses you give. You will want them to be chatty and cheerful and not use medical terminology, even though it can be tempting when it comes to dental care. Social media for dentists should be used to encourage patients to visit your dental surgery webpage and then become dental patients, so you will want to keep things lighthearted and not push sales.

Create valuable content

You should also want to create valuable content on your social media page, which should link to dental health tips. Or you could have days of the week for different topics; this is likely to keep your social media page followers interested in the content that you have to offer. But you should always aim to base it around the treatments that you can provide in your dental surgery, or there may be a miscommunication that can lead to people not liking your page.

Engage and talk

If you’ve been on YouTube, you will have heard the phrase ‘leave your comments below’, and this is important when it comes to social media pages such as Facebook as well. This encourages people to share their thoughts on dentistry with you and will allow you to answer questions, talk to them, get their insights and provide information to them about what it is that your dental team can offer. So, engage and chat!

Be quick!

It’s always important when using social media to have a fast response to any comments that are made. This is where our team at Dental Focus Marketing can help; we will ensure that any queries or questions relating to the services that you offer or complaints are answered quickly and that the patients are pointed in the right direction.

Show you are human

Many people are becoming somewhat irritated with trying to talk to a human online and coming across an AI bot. So it’s important to once again consider the tone and show that you are human, you are listening and that you are linked to the dental practice that is on the page; this will help your patients feel heard and will also help with feedback.

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Posted in Social Media for Dentists

New ideas for your dental marketing in 2023

Monday 23rd January 2023

It is nearly the end of 2022, and with a new year on the horizon comes a new marketing strategy for businesses, especially dental surgeries.

Even if you have a marketing strategy that is working, it may not be so successful in the coming year, meaning you may be losing out to other local dental surgeries.

So, it is always wise to ensure that your marketing strategy is up to date to help your surgery to stay ahead.

At Dental Focus Marketing, we can help. Our team has been working on dental marketing strategies for nearly 20 years and has overseen the SEO and marketing of thousands of dental websites. If you are looking for a team with proven experience and a positive attitude to oversee your surgery webpage, call us today!

Now, what are some of the top upcoming ideas for dental marketing strategies in 2023? Here are some of the top trends in marketing that we predict!

Video testimonials

Video testimonials look great on your dental surgery page and play a huge part in your dental marketing strategy.

Aim to get patients who have undergone different procedures to talk about your team and be sure that they are filmed and edited by a professional.

Voice search optimisation

Ever heard the phrase ‘hey Siri’ or ‘Alexa’ being said out loud? These are perfect examples of voice searching, and they represent a trend relating to screenless internet searches.

Your dental surgery webpage will need your opening hours, location and contact number, as when someone near your surgery is looking for a dental clinic, that is the information that they will want. So, we will aim to optimise your page for voice searches.

Patient experience

The patient experience is still at the heart of marketing and ranges from their experiences in the dental chair to their experiences clicking on your dental surgery page or social media posts.

Ergo, we will aim to put more emphasis on building good relationships with your patients online, thus increasing the chances of them becoming your real-life patients in surgery.

More or new photos

Photos are an ideal thing to have on your dental surgery page. But if you have new members of staff or if your dental surgery has recently undertaken an interior makeover, then be sure to add professional photos to your surgery page. We can even help with this!

Also, even if your surgery has not had any updates, it is always worth adding new photos of staff once a year etc., to keep the website more up-to-date.

Chatty tone to blogs

Imagine a patient logs onto reading a blog piece about root canals and then gets bombarded with text relating to the tools used, the name of the most common antibiotic and even the medical terminology for the teeth. Not ideal for a patient and not ideal for SEO.

Going back to voice searches, these types of browsing detect chattier, friendly types of blogs and texts, as they link up with the speaking style that many people have. So, in 2023, we predict that becoming even more relaxed with writing styles will be more important.

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Posted in Dental Marketing

How your current dental SEO plan may be letting you down

Friday 20th January 2023

When it comes to designing a dental surgery website that is going to also work as a marketing tool, there is a lot that needs to be considered.

And if you find that your dental surgery webpage isn’t pulling in the numbers that you hoped for, then there may be an overall issue with the marketing plan and the SEO, which will need to be looked at. However, there are few people who run a dental surgery and have this expertise, so you should seek the guidance of a professional marketing team.

At Dental Focus Marketing, we know the significance of having a dental SEO plan that not only works but also attracts the patients you want for your surgery. We will tailor any marketing plan to the needs of your dental surgery and work with you to ensure that your website is as you want it to be. Our plans are flexible to budget and requirements, so call us today!

How exactly are your current dental SEO plan and website design potentially losing dental patients?

The website is slow

Most people have been on web pages that have been slow to load, and research into this area has shown that as many as 90% of people who click on a slow-loading page will click off and search elsewhere.

So, for your dental SEO plan to work as desired, you will need to have a webpage that is fast to load. And there are many things that our marketing team can do to speed up your webpage, thus helping with its optimisation.

The blogs aren’t unique

A dental website needs to be as unique as possible, so it is important to have blog pages and landing pages that are unique.

Our writing team at Dental Focus Marketing can see help with this and will also sprinkle the appropriate keywords throughout each article to help attract those all-important Google bots. Remember, content that isn’t unique does not rank highly on Google and will cause your website to drop in the rankings.

The site is not mobile-accessible

You are likely reading this article on either a smartphone or another mobile device like a tablet. So, for your SEO plan to be up to speed and competitive, you need to have a mobile-accessible website. As you have guessed, a site that is not mobile-accessible is not going to be favoured by the Google bots and will once again drop in the rankings.

It isn’t designed for voice searches

Voice searches are becoming more popular, with the likes of Alexa and Siri allowing people to do these searches when out and about or at home. So, your website and SEO have to be targeted towards attracting voice searches to your home page. And once again, our team can help with this, so you can corner that area of the online market.

The tone isn’t friendly

Alongside voice searches, the tone of your website content needs to be chatty and friendly to go along with how people ask questions verbally. So, rather than having articles that are phrased with jargon, it is best to have down-to-earth language that is engaging.

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Posted in Dental SEO

The importance of the patient experience in dental marketing

Wednesday 18th January 2023

Most people who have worked in retail have dealt with a customer who was, shall we say, less than happy with their experience and then stated that they will never shop at the shop that they are in again.

This is not only confined to the physical marketplace, but oddly, it can and does occur online too. Not in as many words, but customers who log on to a website and receive a bad experience are less likely to shop on that website again. And when you are trying to attract patients to your dental surgery, you will want to start a good patient experience the moment that they click on your website.

At Dental Focus Marketing, we know the importance of the patient experience when it comes to successful dental marketing, and we know how those first few seconds on your dental surgery page can make all the difference. Therefore, we will target your website to be as welcoming as possible and enhance your patients’ experience before they set foot into your dental surgery.

So, how exactly do we do this with our dental marketing strategy? Read on to find out.

Friendly tone

Your dental surgery is a business. And as such, when you initially set up your website and contacted our team about dental marketing, the aim was to make more profit and expand the practice.

But, shockingly, this doesn’t go down so well when it is as blatant as that when talking to patients! So, all of your surgery articles, landing pages and informational pieces need to be written in a friendly and approachable tone. Our marketing writers can oversee that, but when it comes to videos or vlogs, you will need to also use a friendly tone, whether you are talking about root canals or dental implants.

Chatbot

Most dental surgery pages have a chatbot in the corner, and if your website doesn’t have one, you may be missing out.

Chatbots are ideal for patients who want specific information about their dental surgery and perhaps don’t have the time to scroll through the page. Or, if you have patients who cannot find certain information about your surgery, they are more likely to stay on the page if there is an interactive chatbot. These are easy to set up, and we can oversee their maintenance too.

Social media monitoring

You will also need a social media page where patients can reach you easily. And much like the chatbots, people are more likely to stay engaged with your dental surgery page if the social media account is informative and friendly and posts relevant content.

This is, in itself, a full-time job but don’t worry! Our team at Dental Focus Marketing can oversee this aspect of the marketing so you can focus on the front-line work of dental surgery.

Fast responding

People become annoyed if their answers and queries are not responded to quickly, either via email, social media or chatbot. So, our team will ensure that whichever platform you choose to engage with patients from will be responded to quickly and monitored for a higher level of customer care.

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Posted in Dental Marketing

Where to start with your dental SEO plan for the new year

Monday 16th January 2023

When you run a dental surgery, you would want to make sure that it continues to expand.

And if you already have a marketing plan in place, you will likely be aware of how quickly the Google algorithm and other aspects of marketing can change; this can make it tough to stay current with your marketing strategy.

Of course, there are many benefits to hiring a marketing team to oversee this area for you, as they will be more experienced in this field and help your dental surgery attract the patients that you really want.

When you contact our team at Dental Focus Marketing, we will be able to assess your current marketing strategy and upgrade it for the current and future trends in dental SEO. We pride ourselves on our transparency with dental teams, and we will work with you to help your surgery reach its goals to continue growing and getting more patients.

So, what are some of the tips that we usually suggest as part of a dental SEO makeover, and which ones will be the most relevant in the new year?

More videos and vlogs

Most of the content watched online is videos and vlogs. So, if your dental surgery page currently doesn’t have either, we will recommend this as part of your dental SEO and marketing plan.

Videos are great to post on social media, too and can go a long way to allowing potential dental patients to get familiar with your team and learn quickly about what it is that your team can offer.

If you aren’t sure where to start with this, call our team, and we will be more than happy to advise you.

Get your business listing

Having an updated Google business listing is essential for SEO in 2023, particularly relating to voice searches.

Indeed, more people than ever are using their AI assistants to search online for services. So, to ensure that they get accurate information about your dental surgery when doing so, it is best to have an up-to-date Google listing.

Build your social media presence

Social media is not going away any time soon as part of an SEO strategy, so we will always aim to make your dental surgery’s social media page a great calling card online.

It must be updated daily, have videos and vlogs, have links to your dental surgery page and, of course, respond quickly to comments posted by visitors. We can oversee all of this, so call us!

Voice searches

As mentioned earlier, voice searches are becoming more popular. So, the content on

your website not only needs to be based on common questions that people ask

when searching with an AI, but the content also needs to be more formal and

chattier.

Contact our team!

Our team at Dental Focus Marketing will aim to provide your dental surgery with a more customised approach to marketing in 2023, and some of our strategies may not be listed here. So, call us today for your personalised SEO and marketing guide!

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Posted in Dental SEO

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