Marketing

Three Fun Dental Marketing Strategies to Try!

by Dr. Jessica Emery | Nov 14, 2019 | Marketing, Podcasts, Social Media, Technology

The year is coming to an end more quickly than I think any of us can wrap our minds around! The life of a dentist is busy, busy, busy which means time just flies. Did you accomplish everything you wanted to accomplish in terms of marketing your practice this year?

If not, I want to share some fun dental marketing strategies you might not have tried yet. You still have time to give these fun ideas a try in 2019. You never know, it might give you that boost you need to head into 2020 feeling on top of your game.

Here are three fun dental marketing strategies you can implement today to market your practice online:

Influencer Marketing

This is something we have been really testing the waters on a lot lately, especially with White Haute Teeth Whitening Bar. The idea of hiring an influencer might seem a little bit intimidating, but it’s pretty simple.

There are people in your community with popular social media channels that align with your ideal patient. Look for those people! Sometimes, they’re a mommy blogger or a YouTuber with a decent following. Ask your younger team members… there’s a good chance they know who’s worth following.

Once you find someone, simply reach out to them! Find out what it takes to get them to visit your practice, receive a service (like teeth whitening) and post about it online! Influencer marketing is only going to get more popular in 2020 (mark my words) so get out in front of the trend and try it out now!

Podcast Interviews

Being interviewed on a podcast is a really great way to reach new people. Your local community might have some podcasts. Try checking with your chamber of commerce, then pitch yourself to the podcast hosts and let them know what topics you’d like to discuss that would be interesting to their listeners.

If you can’t find anything locally that would make sense, reach out to other dental influencers and see if you can talk about your practice with them. It might not reach people in your area, but you can post a link to your interview (or better yet, audio snippets of your interview) online to further establish your authority.

This works really great if you have a specialized area of expertise that you want to underscore with your patients and potential future patients.

Get Ready for Voice Search Technology

Now that almost everyone has at least one smart device in their home, marketers in the know are starting to think about how to be ahead of the game when it comes to voice searching. 50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020, according to comScore.

So how do you prepare for this new trend? Of course, big money brands like Nestlé and Tide are making entire sections of their website that you can interact with using your voice. The rest of us can still get ahead of the curve by writing website content (including blog posts) in a more conversational tone, since these are the words people are going to “search” using their voice.

Think about the words you would use to search for your services, then make sure those words and phrases show up in your content. Just remember not to go overboard. It’s still super important that your words sound natural.

Do you have questions about these (or any other) dental marketing strategies?

The soiree squad is here to help! You can reach out to us on Instagram or contact us directly with your questions anytime!

Instagram is Removing the Public “Like” Option

by Dr. Jessica Emery | Nov 9, 2019 | instagram, Marketing, Social Media

Recently, our much beloved app, Instagram, tested something crazy in several major countries like Canada, Japan and Brazil. They took away the public “like” option. Well, they took away the ability for users to see how many likes a post has, we should say. Now, it looks like this change is going to spread to a portion of the app’s users in the United States this week, and this has some marketing gurus freaking out a little.

If there’s no public “like” option for people to engage with, how will anyone know that you’re worth listening to? Those hearts are like currency! Of course, you’ll know how many people engaged with your photo using the “like” button but no one else will know. How will this impact your dental marketing strategy? Let’s dig into it a little bit…

The Reason for the Change

Facebook (the company who owns Instagram) stated that the reason for the change was to remove pressure and social competition. Many of the app’s users are younger individuals. In fact, the average user age is currently 25-34 years old as of August 2019 (in the United States, this age group makes up 36.1 percent of the app’s users).

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri announced the change on his twitter feed. When Bloomberg News asked for the reason behind the change, he said, “The idea is to try and reduce anxiety and social comparisons, specifically with an eye towards young people.”

This social comparison has created a real issue among users, especially younger users of the app. Mental health issues are probably the most serious side effect, but it has also caused many users to buy fake likes or followers to try to boost their metrics unnaturally. This is not just a bad social media practice, it can also be bad for business.

How Could This Impact Dental Marketing?

As you know, we’ve done a few courses on Instagram, and we’ve always discussed engagement… specifically, authentic engagement. We never advocate buying results in the form of likes, comments, or followers. While you will still be able to see how many “likes” your content got, no one else will be able to see the metrics.

The reason we spend so much time talking about social media marketing is because we know how important it is for your patients and potential future patients to see your content, to have a space online where they can easily interact with you, and to keep you front of mind as an expert in their local community. This change doesn’t impact any of this, and it shouldn’t change your dental marketing strategy whatsoever.

Your focus, as always, should be on posting content that’s visually appealing and creating engaging captions that highlight your expertise and your fun personality. You should be including 15-30 targeted hashtags on each post, and switching them up to make sure they relate to the photo and the content. If you do these things regularly (ideally at least three times a week) and post on your Instagram Stories daily… you’ll be good to go! You won’t even miss that public “like” option after a few weeks!

Stay in Your Lane

One thing we’ve noticed over the years is that anytime there’s a change in how social media platforms operate — for instance when there’s a redesign or algorithm change — people tend to freak out a little bit. It’s important to research the changes by reading articles written by trustworthy sources, and then continue to stay in your lane. Most of the time, whatever change is being made is going to have very little effect once the initial panic wears off.

You already know what to do and how to talk to your dream patients. Keep showing up, keep engaging, and keep putting great content out into the world. If you do this, you’re going to be just fine!

If you have questions about Instagram, social media marketing, or dental marketing strategies in general, please reach out. The soiree squad is always happy to help!

Three Books for Dentists for National Book Month

by Dr. Jessica Emery | Oct 3, 2019 | Branding, Marketing

Did you know October is National Book Month? Even though dental soiree is a digital dental marketing agency, there’s still something about a physical book… especially non-fiction. There aren’t a ton of books for dentists, but I will often scoop up a marketing or general business book, and I always learn so much!

In this post, I want to share three books that you can pick up this month if you want to get inspired and learn new techniques to market your dental practice! These books aren’t specific to dentists, but I guarantee they’ll spark some amazing ideas that you can apply nonetheless!

Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World by Gary Vaynerchuk

It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of Gary Vaynerchuk, or Gary Vee as he goes by more commonly. We all are! He just knows how to deliver information in an inspiring and motivating way. He’s another no-BS marketing guru who is ALL about serving the hell out of your followers. That’s what this book is all about. He believes that you have to give three times as much as you ask from your followers online!

We shouldn’t just be focused on selling our services, we should be listening to our patients and potential future patients, figuring out what they want, and creating a great experience for them online and in real life! It’s a simple concept, but so many business owners get it wrong. As dentists, we’re a little more tuned in to our people, but this is still such a wake up call of a book. I just love it.

Find the book on Amazon here.

Be More Pirate: Or How to Take on the World and Win by Sam Conniff Allende

This one is a little silly, but I did love it. It’s a great beach read! I feel like whenever we’re learning something new like marketing or business management, our first instinct is to learn all the rules and then follow them faithfully. This is a great book for dentists, because it challenges you a little bit by asking how you might be able to rebel and break the rules a little to forge your own path… kind of like a pirate would do!

If you’re working on team-building, this might be a good one to have the team read (if they’re not offended by a little bit of adult language, of course). I think it would spark some interesting conversations about which rules can be broken or re-written to create a better patient experience or to run a more efficient office. I loved this one, and it was a good exercise for my brain!

Find the book on Amazon here.

The Little Red Book Of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer

You’re busy, I’m busy, we’re all busy. This book is perfect for busy dentists like us. It’s an old standby of mine because it’s short and direct, and it delivers 12 (and a half) expert-level selling tips that aim to demystify the process and make it super easy to close the deal… and it has totally worked for me!

We sometimes forget that even though we’re dentists, we do have to sell ourselves and our services. There is A LOT of competition in this industry, so you have to handle objections like a sales pro in order to convince people to come to your practice and not the one across the street. Books like this one by Gitomer are priceless because they give you the ability to see things from another perspective (specifically, your potential client’s) so you can serve them the way they want to be served. It’s genius.

Find the book on Amazon here.

Do you have any favorite books that have helped you grow your dental practice? I’d love to hear about them! I am always looking for new books to read and fall in love with!

Get Patients to Follow You on Instagram!

by Dr. Jessica Emery | Sep 19, 2019 | instagram, Marketing

We recently got a question from one of our Dental Soiree clients, and we thought it was a really good question. In fact, it’s a perfect question to answer here on our blog! How do you get your patients to follow you on Instagram?

It’s a common problem, because it seems like once a patient walks out your door, they forget all about you until it’s time for their next appointment. Even then, sometimes it takes some serious prodding to get them to come in and see you. Getting them to follow you on social media seems a little out of the question, but trust me, it’s not.

Let’s go over three easy ways to motivate your patients to not just follow you, but also help spread the word about your practice on their own social media pages!

Tip #1 – Hold a Contest

This is always a surefire way to get people to follow you on Instagram or any of your other social media pages. Hold a contest! Give away a SoniCare or a goodie bag filled with trendy and fun dental products (for example, Hello Toothpaste, CocoFloss, and cute bamboo toothbrushes).

Make sure the contest is long enough so you can tell plenty of patients about it. Maybe announce it on the first of the month, and tell your patients about it all month. Make cute posts on Instagram showing the prize and tell people in your caption to tag a friend who makes them smile, or something fun and cute like that.

At the end of the month, you’ll pick a winner. There are plenty of free programs online to help you randomly pick a winner. All in all, it’s pretty easy, and it’s a great way to grow your following quickly not just with your patients, but with other potential future patients who are local to you!

Tip #2 – Put Your Handle Everywhere

In this day and age, things have to be easy or we’re not going to do them. You need to plaster your Instagram handle everywhere so people see it. Put it on your business cards, put a vinyl on your door or window, put it on your ads, your Facebook cover photo, put a link in the footer of your emails.

Trust me, it’s not enough to put it in one place or expect your patients to seek you out. You have to make it as easy as possible for them!

Tip #3 – Make a Chatbook for Your Waiting Room

Show people what they’re missing on your Instagram by putting your favorite posts of the year into a cute Chatbook. At both Dental Soiree and Sugar Fix, we LOVE making Chatbooks because it helps us document what our team did that year, and they look so polished and professional. We even give them as gifts to our team during the holidays!

Basically, all you have to do is go on their website, connect your Instagram feed, and they do all the work for you. Just select which photos you want, then choose your preferred book style. Once you receive your book, set it on your nicest coffee table where everyone can see it. Your patients will see all the cool things you’re doing on Instagram and they won’t be able to hit the “follow” button fast enough.

Converting patients to followers is just as important as converting followers to patients. You want your happiest people to be out there, sharing their experience publicly, and working as brand ambassadors for your practice! There really is nothing as powerful as social proof, so having people who already love you on your Instagram page, commenting on your posts, is huge!

We hope this blog post helped give you some ideas for growing your social following! If you have any questions for the Dental Soiree team, please feel free to send us a message! We also offer free phone consultations if you have specific marketing roadblocks you want to discuss.

You Will “Fall” for Our Stock Photo Bundles

by Dr. Jessica Emery | Sep 9, 2019 | Branding, Marketing, Social Media

You Will “Fall” for Our Stock Photo Bundles

We are so excited that our September stock photo bundle is out in the world. It is full of beautiful fall images, fun photos for Halloween, and all kinds of dental-themed photographs that are perfect to post on social media.

In case you’re not familiar with our stock photo bundles over at Soiree Stock, we wanted to take a few minutes to explain what they are, why they’re so wonderful, and how they can help busy dentists!

Monthly Stock Photo Bundles from Soiree Stock

In case you’re not familiar with Soiree Stock, it’s our sister site where we create dozens of new styled stock images each month for dentists and other dental professionals. Most people who sign up for Soiree Stock sign up for the bundles. They make social media marketing as easy as copy, paste, and post!

How Does the Monthly Photo Bundle Work?

Our monthly photo bundles include everything you need to post on social media each day. You’ll get 30 professionally shot and edited photos that are specifically designed to work with the holidays and overall vibe of the upcoming month. You’ll also get 30 caption templates that you can fill in (Mad Libs style) and 30 targeted hashtag sets that are designed to get your post seen by all the right people.

Full Access + Extras

Whether you decide to stick with just the monthly bundle or upgrade your membership to our Full Access option, you’ll get tons of helpful extras and goodies. Both options include helpful tutorials and training videos so you can edit your photos like a pro.

Our Full Access option allows you to access everything for just a small up-charge each month. In addition to the monthly bundle, you’ll get unlimited photo downloads from our 15+ libraries of content. Each month, we add over 80 new images that are all professionally shot and edited in our creative studio. This is perfect for dentists who want more images for their blog, a website re-brand, or other marketing projects!

In addition, you’ll get access to all of our past bundles so you can go back and use captions and hashtags from previous months if you wish. In your member dashboard, you’ll also get tons of freebies and resources, like instructional videos, downloadable content, and helpful tutorials.

How Monthly Bundles Help Busy Dentists

The truth is, we know how busy #dentistlife can get. We’re owned and operated by a dentist, remember? Dr. Emery is SO passionate about giving dentists easy access to everything they need to market their practice and reach their dream patients. She believes in the power of social media, but she also knows how little time is left at the end of the day.

The monthly bundles from Soiree Stock make it super easy. You can either download everything at once and post from your phone when you have a few extra seconds, or you can plug everything into a free social media scheduling tool (we like Planoly or Sprout Social). You can get everything set up for the entire month in under an hour and then just have your team respond to any comments or messages that come in. Super easy, and you’re staying front of mind all month long without having to log in every day!

Ready for Your Easy Button?

Running a practice is hard work, but cutting corners with your online marketing is not the way to go. It’s one of the main ways you can find new patients, and it doesn’t cost you anything to show up and promote your business! The future is headed this way, so you might as well get on board now. We make it super easy for you to do that and your feed will look SO much better than any of the other practices in your community.

At Dental Soiree, we specialize in show-stopping content that disrupts the norm on social media. Would you rather be “just another dental practice” or would you rather be the practice that gets people EXCITED about dental care? We can help with our online courses, styled stock photography, and our upcoming Get Social Workshop! Feel free to contact us for more details on these or any of our other services!

How to Write Emails to Your Patients That Get Results!

by Dr. Jessica Emery | Aug 14, 2019 | How To's, Marketing

Are you sending emails to your patients as part of your dental marketing strategy? If not, it should be! Social media is great, but there are algorithms that prevent people from seeing your content. Not to mention, there’s so much NOISE online. Your posts are competing with posts from Hollywood celebrities and your follower’s best friends.

Your emails, on the other hand, will be delivered directly to the people you want to see it. As long as people have given you their email address and consented to receive messages from you, you’re good to go!

However, it takes a little bit of thought and effort to create emails that actually get the results you want. Anyone can send an email, but to send an email that makes you money and fills your appointment book, you need a few pointers. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!

First, You Need a Catchy Subject Line!

The number one way you’re going to get people to open your emails is a great subject line. I’m sure you’ve opened emails before based entirely on that little snippet of copy. If it’s enticing, funny, appealing, or unexpected, your email will stand out and get opened. Easier said than done, though, right?

Not really. It might take a little bit of time to brainstorm a winning subject line, but here are a few tips that will make it easier for you:

Use words like “Free” or “Urgent” to entice people to open right away.
Pique their curiosity with subject lines like “You really want to open this email.”
Keep it under 50 characters so it doesn’t get cut off on mobile devices.
Personalize the subject line with the recipient’s name. Many email marketing programs make this SUPER easy.
Don’t use clickbait. Be honest about what’s inside the email.
Add an emoji once in a while so your email stands out in their inbox.

Spending a little extra time on the subject line is never a bad idea. Come up with a few options you like, then ask a team member to help you narrow it down!

Now, Make it Look Good

Now that you’ve enticed people to open your email, you need it to look good! Sure, you could just sent a text-based email, but you really want to “wow” people, don’t you?

It’s super easy to create a branded email header in Canva using some beautiful styled stock photography. We have tons and tons of dental-themed images over at Soiree Stock, and you can find some awesome seasonal options in your brand colors. They’re perfect for emails!

At the bottom of the email, include a headshot of you or a team photo to really connect with people! Use your preferred font and brand colors throughout the email. Make it fun to look at and fun to read, and people will be so much more eager to open your emails in the future.

Growing Your List

Of course, you can send emails to your patients (as long as they say it’s okay) but you want to work to add non-patients to your list as well. But how do you do that?

First, you need to give people something VALUABLE in exchange for their email list. Maybe you want to create a checklist or eBook or discount in exchange for people’s email address. Add an opt-in form to your website and Facebook page. Doing this isn’t too difficult, but if you’re not tech savvy, ask your website designer for help.

Don’t forget about in-person events! The next time you attend a Chamber of Commerce event or fundraiser, put out a clipboard and collect email addresses! Make sure you entice people with a giveaway or coupon.

There’s lots of ways to get new email subscribers, and if you send those people GREAT emails, there’s a good chance you can turn them into patients. You got this!

Want to get some email templates that you can customize and use for your own practice? Check out our “Three of the Most Useful Email Templates for Dentists” blog post. In just an hour or so, you can have three effective messages to send to your patients. Just make sure they’ve consented to receive emails from you and you’re good to go!