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5 New Year’s Resolutions You Should Make to Grow Your Practice

Every year, around this time, people think about their New Year’s Resolutions. Then they wonder how long they can keep them. According to Statistic Brain, around 45% of Americans make resolutions. Only about 8% successfully achieve them (statistic brain). This year we’ve got five resolutions we think you’ll want to make and keep.

1. I will grow my presence on social media and stay engaged with my followers.

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are all about connecting with your community. Sometimes you will be connecting with people who are already your patients, and other times it’ll be potential new patients. What matters is that you represent your dental practice in a professional, approachable, and friendly manner.

Social media is also one of the key ways that you can gain more referrals now. Facebook is commonly used for status’s requesting recommendations on service providers from friends. If your practice is on social media, someone can reply by “tagging” your practice, making it super easy for people to instantly visit your social media page to learn more about your practice.

Begin the New Year by reviewing what your practice has been doing on Facebook and other social media channels. See what has been working and what has not by revising analytics data available to you. Set goals as to what you would like to accomplish with your social media pages and use your analytics data to support those goals. Eliminate whatever doesn’t represent your practice the way it should by defining what “working” means to your practice. Perhaps you had more engagement on Instagram over Twitter and determined that next year your practice should prioritize your time on Instagram. Then think about ways to engage your community better. One way to do this is by asking more questions and consider the answers.

Post content that is likely to engage your audience such as images, memes (if appropriate) and articles that can be easily shared with others. If you have a good photo, ask your community to supply captions and monitor the engagements well.

Want more ideas on social media marketing for your dental practice? Read this whitepaper.

2. I will increase positive reviews online.

According to a recent study, over 67% of consumers are influenced by online reviews.1Therefore, it’s more important than ever that your practice has as many reviews as possible!

Start by asking your patients during their appointment to leave a review on your website, Google My Business, Facebook, and Yelp pages. It also helps to have a sign in your office that points patients to the direct link where they can leave a review. Remember, the easier it is for patients to leave you a review, the more likely that it’ll happen.

You can also write follow-up emails to patients that request them to leave a review on your website and/or other third party sites. With ProSites, your website also includes a Reputation Marketing feature, which makes it simple for patients to leave a review right on your website and then share it on other sites. Plus, you have full control over which reviews are showcased on your actual website.

Make sure to respond to any and all reviews, too! If it’s a positive review, thank them for their time and let them know how happy you are to hear about their good experience. If it is a not-so-great review, make sure to thank them for expressing their concerns, apologize if necessary, and work toward a resolution while taking it offline as quickly as possible.

3. I will have a mobile-friendly website.

As of 2014, more than 50% of online searches occur on a mobile device. In addition to providing a better experience for visitors, mobile-friendly websites are also now favorably ranked by Google, when a user searches from their smartphone.

Make sure your website loads quickly on smartphones, avoids the need to zoom in or out on text, and has thumb-friendly buttons with navigation that makes it easy to find the information someone would be looking for.

4. I will start blogging.

Blogging provides tremendous benefits for your practice. First, it’s a great way to educate current and prospective patients on the various services that you offer. It also gives you an opportunity to convey your expertise in dentistry. Whether you’re writing an article on the newest equipment that your office just got, or expressing your thoughts on a new method of dentistry, by creating a blog with meaningful, relevant, and educational content – you’re building trust among current and prospective patients.

Blogging is also one of the best things that can help your website’s search rankings. Search engines like Google love to see new content on websites. Therefore, by consistently posting new content on your blog on topics related to dentistry, it’ll help your website have more fresh content that includes key terms and phrases that will help your rankings.

5. I will experiment with search marketing techniques.

Whether your practice prefers to start with a solidified search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to help your organic rankings or wants to experiment with pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, testing is key to finding out which marketing methods work best for your practice.

While there are many differences between SEO and PPC, you will never know what works best for your practice until you try. Make it a goal to test at least one of these search marketing techniques for at least 6 months to see which one provides the greatest return for your practice.

While each one of these resolutions can help you build a healthy growing dental practice, they each take a good amount of time and effort. As a successful dentist who needs to remain focused on patients, don’t be afraid to hire a trusted marketing provider to take care of your online marketing needs. A quality internet marketing firm can tailor a marketing strategy to your dental practice’s expectations.

To learn more about marketing your practice online, call ProSites at (888) 932-3644. You may also be interested in this whitepaper which takes you through the best practices and key items to consider for each main pillar of marketing your dental practice online.

Sources:

  1. Moz: New Study: Data Reveals 67% of Consumers are Influenced by Online Reviews