Social Media Marketing for Dentists

When it comes to social media for dental practices, specificity matters! Any social media marketing you do needs to be carefully matched to the needs of your patients ( both potential and existing), the dental industry, and your specific practice.

Social media is one of the most effective forms of marketing for those working in the field of dentistry. Keep reading to discover why, and how to approach your social media marketing strategy as a dental professional.

What are the benefits of social media marketing for dentists? 

1. Boost Your SEO

There are many crucial benefits to be gained by using social media marketing for dentists. One the most impactful is the positive effect it can have on your business’s SEO. Social media can help you achieve this because the more mentions and shares you have, the more visible you will be to the search engines, and the higher they will rank you.

​2. Interact With Patients 

To be successful as a dental practice you will want to both reach out to new patients, and connect with the ones you already have. Social media is an ideal platform to do both!

Being accessible on social media allows existing patients to ask questions, and also see the range of services you offer, especially if other clients are sharing pictures of the results of their treatment.

Your social media pages are also great ways to introduce yourself and interact with new clients. In particular, using the paid features of social media to specifically target your demographic means you can get your marketing content in front of the people that are interested in your services.

3. Humanize Your Brand

Never underestimate the power of humanizing your dental practice or your team! After all, dental anxiety is common, so patients will be looking for a dentist that they can trust. Social media can provide ample opportunity to enhance this. 

The simple act of adding smiling photos of your team online may make it easier for a nervous patient to reach out and contact you. By sharing content centered around your areas of expertise on social media, you will demonstrate to both current and potential patients that you are a provider that knows their stuff and can be trusted with their care. 

Put a crown on your digital marketing with RSM

What does successful social media marketing for dentists look like? 

There are many tactics you can use for success in dental social media marketing. The first and most important aspect is to pick the correct social media platforms. This is because different demographics will use particular platforms more than others, so you increase your chances of reaching potential patients by choosing the right ones. 

Choosing the Right Platforms 

In particular, Facebook and Instagram stand out here. Indeed, setting up a Facebook page for your dental practice is a no-brainer. This is because the demographic there tends towards female, adult users, often the very people that are tasked with finding dental care for their families. It’s also possible to set up your dedicated Facebook business page to link out to your dental website, something that makes it a great way of getting leads. 

Instagram does not link out to external content. However, it is still useful for dentists because it is an image-based platform, which is ideal for before and after comparisons of cosmetic and repair work. You can also use both Instagram and Facebook for video content, something that will be discussed in more detail in the content section. 

Put a crown on your digital marketing with RSM

Review Sites 

Before we move on to discussing content, it’s worth mentioning the value that claiming your listings on review sites can add to your practice’s social media strategy. There is a big crossover between social media sites and review sites, as in some cases patients can leave reviews for your business on both. 

Reviews offer reassurance to any potential patients in the midst of deciding which practice to use, and the good news is the reviews don’t always have to be shining to do this either. This is because even a poor review on social media or a dedicated review site like Dentistry.com can be turned around if responded to correctly. This means answering maturely, thanking your client for their feedback, and addressing any problems they encountered. By doing this, the odd less than five-star review should work in your favor rather than against you. 

Paid Advertising 

While most social media marketing is free to post, there is always the option of using paid advertising on platforms like Facebook. The benefits of using paid Facebook ads to market your dental practice include that they can produce results very quickly, they are low-cost compared to other forms of advertising, and they can be targeted to a very specific audience. Paid advertising can act as a helpful enhancement to your other social media efforts, with dental practices often seeing the best results when they combine both paid and non-paid options. 

Analytics 

Another vital aspect of social media marketing for dentists is to make use of the analytics that platforms like Facebook and Instagram provide. Analytics is data that shows you just how effective your marketing strategies are, and they are particularly useful because they can help you to tweak your efforts to get the maximum impact on both current and future campaigns.

Put a crown on your digital marketing with RSM

How to create social media content for dentists that actually works.

Content is a marketing tool that is essential for success in dentistry-focused social media. Great content is what will get people to visit and follow your social media accounts, and share your business with other people. 

However, before you start churning out videos, blog posts, and comparison images it pays to carefully consider who you are creating your content for. This process is known as defining your ideal customer persona and it will help you keep your efforts and budget focused on the social media marketing actions that will have the biggest impact on your practice. It will even help you decide which social media platform is the right one to use, as well as the right type of content you will produce. 

You must take a measured approach when you post promotional marketing materials on your dental practices’ social media channels. This is because too much promotion can quickly put potential patients off. Instead, the majority of your content should aim to build trust with potential clients, even before they have seen you in person. 

The way to do this is by providing them with content they value. That is why it’s so important to know who you are creating your content for. Valued content may include all sorts of formats from live video sessions on teeth cleaning and answering patient questions, to Instagram posts showing pictures of common oral health problems and providing advice on how to deal with them. 

Put a crown on your digital marketing with RSM

Need help with social media management for dentists?

To be successful on social media your dental practice will need a cohesive and effective marketing strategy. Of course, devising and acting consistently on such a strategy can be complicated and time-consuming. After all, marketing is a specialty in itself, and the trends within it change constantly. 

The good news is that by working with a dental marketing specialist you can make sure the right people know all about your business, without putting additional strain on your admin and support teams. 

Choosing to work with dental marketing experts also affords you the benefit of their extensive knowledge and expertise both with marketing, and their in-depth understanding of how the dental industry works. When it comes to choosing a marketing specialist to work with, picking one that has deep insight into your industry will make the entire process more effective and easier for everyone involved.