Starting your own dental practice means a lot more than just being a dentist. You probably find yourself acting as an HR manager, a lawyer, an accountant, and a marketer. Knowing where to start can be difficult, even for experienced marketers with big budgets. If you have a limited budget for your dental marketing, these methods will get your practice’s name out there without blowing your budget.
How to Get the Best ROI on a Tight Budget
When it comes to getting the best value for money in marketing, digital marketing is the place to start. Not only does it provide great return on investment (ROI), but it’s also easy to understand. If this is your first time creating a marketing plan, digital should be your first step.
One of the reasons digital marketing is so effective and budget-friendly is because most mediums allow you to pick your own budget. If you only have $100 to spend on a certain campaign, $100 is what you’ll spend.
More traditional marketing techniques like billboards, TV, or radio don’t allow you to fine-tune your budget and don’t allow you to measure your ROI as accurately. Through digital marketing you can tell exactly how many people viewed and responded to your ad, meaning you can adjust your strategy based on what your patients respond to.
Digital marketing makes the most sense if you’re looking for something that’s low cost but still effective. And with the clear metrics you get from every ad, you’ll know how impactful every ad is.
Email Marketing
If you’re not already collecting your patient’s email with their contact information, here’s your wakeup call. Having your patient’s email and using it effectively not only benefits you, but it benefits your patients as well.
72% of people preferred to be contacted by email when it comes to business communications. You can use this to your advantage for all types of marketing initiatives, from check-up reminders to new service offerings.
Email marketing can be done well for very little. You can write and send an email for free or very low cost if you choose to use an email marketing software. Whatever you spend, email is worth the investment, with an average return of $38 for every $1 spent.
Pay Per Click Advertising
Pay per click advertising is another great option for dental marketing. Like the name implies, you only pay for every click your ad gets, meaning you don’t risk paying for an ad no one will see. You also can also customize your ad budget, making it a great choice if you don’t have a huge marketing budget.
Search network ads, banner ads, and skyscraper ads are all examples of pay per click ads you’ve probably seen before. The links that appear at the top of search results on Google search network ads, indicated by the word “Ad” beside them.
As far as ad placement goes, the search results page of Google is one of the best places you can be. Depending on the search keyword, users are ready to make a purchase decision, but 90% of searchers haven’t decided on a brand yet. That’s where your ad comes in, ready to entice a new patient for $2.32 on average.
Blog Content
In addition to pay per click ads, one of the best ways to show up in search results is to write blogs. Assuming your blog is answering a question your patients are searching for, then your blog has a good chance of showing up in organic search results (which are search results that aren’t paid for). In fact, 1 in 10 blogs is compounding, meaning traffic comes to your site after the blog post shows up in search results.
As someone who sees dental patients every day, you probably have a pretty good understanding of the dental questions people want answered. And as a dentist, you are one of the most qualified people to answer that question. If you’re comfortable writing, blog content can be produced for the cost of your time. At the end of the day, it’s well worth your time as 81% of internet users use blog content as a trusted information source.
Social Media Marketing
Almost half of the world’s population is using some form of social media, and social networks are showing no signs of slowing down. Given how many people are using social media, chances are your patients are using it. If you want to reach those patients, you need to be there too.
It’s not just younger potential patients that can be reached on social media, either. Branded content on social media is twice as likely to interest people between the ages of 55 and 64 than those who are 28 and younger. No matter how old your patients are, investing in social media makes sense.
97% of marketers are using social media to reach their customers and so should you. It’s free to make an account on the 3 major social media platforms of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. After making your account, you can upload content for free or create ads for a relatively low cost.
YouTube Advertising
While TV viewership is declining, users on platforms like YouTube are rising. There are 30 million active daily users on YouTube and combined they watch about 5 billion videos. That’s a lot of potential viewers without the need to invest a lot.
Similar to other social media platforms, it’s free to create a YouTube account and start uploading content. Purchasing ads on YouTube can be done for a low cost with the same flexibility as other digital marketing methods. If you’ve decided to pursue pay per click ads through Google, YouTube ads can be created through the same platform, with the same detailed tracking metrics.
If you’re still unsure of how to best spend your marketing budget, we’re here to help. We specialize in digital marketing for dental professionals. Get in touch with us for a demo and a full marketing analysis so you can get the best results, even on a limited budget.
