A Guide For Attracting More Patients To Your Dental Practice With Instagram Stories

Today’s dental marketing landscape is changing fast. With new channels emerging and old standbys waning in relevance, dental marketers are constantly scrambling to find the best ways to reach their target audiences. This especially holds true for dentists and general practices that have historically relied heavily on print and television advertisements as their primary means of reaching patients. However, with the rise of digital marketing, these methods are no longer as effective as they once were. To leverage this new opportunity, many dental marketers have begun utilizing Instagram as a means of growing their practices. Let’s take a look at some tips to use Instagram Stories to grow your dental practice.

Why is social media important for dental practices?

Instagram is a popular social network that allows users to take photos and short videos and share them with their followers. The app has more than 1 billion active users monthly and is one of the most popular social media networks for businesses. Because of its popularity, Instagram is a great way to promote your dental practice. There are a number of ways to incorporate the platform into your marketing strategy to grow your dental practice, including optimizing your profile, creating engaging content, and using effective hashtags. Instagram is a visual platform, so it’s important to create content that’s highly visual and aesthetic. This can include taking professional-looking photos of your office, staff, and patients, as well as posting relevant, timely articles and polls.

How Instagram stories work

Instagram Stories are a feature that lets users post photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. This feature was introduced in 2016 and was quickly adopted by both brands and individuals. The Stories feature grew to account for about 40% of all Instagram posts, so the platform made it a permanent fixture in August 2017. When someone follows your dental practice’s Instagram account, they will see your most recent posts, including your Instagram Stories. Unlike most posts, where followers must click on the post to see it in full, Instagram Stories posts appear in a carousel format at the top of the screen. This makes them instantly visible to all followers, even if they don’t click through to your account.

Creating great content for your Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories are best used to share behind-the-scenes photos and videos, provide sneak peeks of new content, and host polls or questions for your followers. All of which are great Story ideas for your dental practice. While businesses can post ads on the platform, they are less likely to appear in someone’s feed, which makes them a less intrusive option for advertising. Because Instagram Stories are ephemeral, it’s important to create content that holds viewers’ attention in a short amount of time. Recommended posting times range from 15 seconds to one minute, but many dental practices are finding that 30-second posts are optimal. Given the “snackable” structure of Instagram Stories, it’s important to think about how to best maximize your content. One way to do so is to think about your dental practice’s story. Who are you? What do you do? Why does your practice matter? What’s your mission?

Grow your dental practice with Instagram marketing strategies

Once you have solid content, there are several ways to grow your dental practice using Instagram Stories. When you first start posting, it’s important to stay consistent. To build your following, you’ll need to post daily (though not on the same day and time each day). You can also use a tool like Later to schedule posts in advance to make sure you don’t miss a day. While you should always be posting new content, there are times when you should be more intentional with your Stories. For example, if you’re hosting an event or promoting a new service, it’s a good idea to be more strategic with your posts. You should also pay attention to what’s trending, like sports or current events, and incorporate those into your Stories.

Conclusion

Instagram is now favoring video content over photos. This means the Stories that you post are so important! They have a higher chance of being viewed by your audience, being found by potential patients, and converting messages into action! If you’re ready to take the next steps in understanding everything there is to know about Instagram Stories, then explore Get Social School! In this course, we teach you exactly how to use your Stories every day to attract the patients you want!