Market your dental office with patient education

Great patient education can help your patients to accept an upcoming procedure, to understand a procedure or to change their behavior… but can it help your marketing?

Slide from wisdom teeth videos

Absolutely! Patient education is exactly the type of material that good content marketing relies on. Getting your educational materials out to the public is now easier than ever. Here’s how you can use patient education for your practice marketing:

1. Increase engagement and conversion on your website – Most dental websites only offer prospective patients a list of services they provide or a page of text for each service. By creating a unique landing page for each service that includes relevant educational videos you can engage new and current patients. Patients are then more likely to come back to your website for more information or to think of your office when it comes time to book. Plus, having that pre-approved content available on your website will give you confidence knowing that your patients are getting the information they need instead of getting “advice” from non-dentists on ask.com.
2. Expand Social Media – It can be difficult to find something unique to share on your social media sites every week so why not use the patient education materials to encourage good oral hygiene or to show off a neat procedure. Sharing valuable content can trigger your current patients to book their next procedure – without having to remind them! Plus, as you know – your website is the hub of your dental marketing – and you can drive traffic to your website by using social media to share patient education materials. As long as your website is set up in a way that encourages visitors to take the next step to contact you, some may do just that.
3. Improve one-on-one consultations – Dental offices rely heavily on word-of-mouth advertising so that one-on-one consultation is extremely important. Impress your patients by sharing videos, professional slideshows or other patient education and they will tell their friends and family about their fantastic dentist who takes the time to make sure they understand their next procedure.
4. Advertise elective procedures in the waiting room – Marketing doesn’t stop when the patient enters your office. Patients might consider elective treatments like teeth whitening or veneers after being shown patient education in the waiting room. High-quality patient education videos and slideshows are visually interesting and can grab attention when displayed on the waiting room TV. Remember, you’ve got a captive audience, so why not show them something useful?
5. Improve treatment acceptance with email marketing – If a patient is on the fence about a procedure, email marketing could be the way to go. Send your patients links to the resources section of your website where they can find more information. An informed patient is more likely to accept treatment, so make sure you use all the resources you have to help your patients understand their next procedure, even after they’ve left the office.
6. Keep the conversation going between visits – A monthly newsletter is a great opportunity to share information about procedures or hygiene tips. Keep your current patients informed by distributing valuable patient education through the mail or email.

Business owners often think they must develop new content to execute a content marketing strategy, but that’s just not true. Use existing patient education resources to get regular and new patients back in the office. What are you waiting for?