Social Media

Some of our best social media tips for dentists by a dentist!

How to Attract Millennials to Your Dental Practice!

by Kari Perlewitz | Jan 14, 2019 | How To's, Social Media

Every day, it seems like there’s some news story about Millennials “killing” another industry or brand. It might be easy to say this generation is hard to please or ruthless, but we know there is FAR more to the story than that. Understanding the full story (and knowing how to attract Millennials rather than repel them) is vital if you own or run any kind of business… dental practices included.

Millennials are the people who were born between 1982 and 2000, and as of today, there are about 80 million in the United States. That’s a lot of buying power! If your dental practice is still struggling to attract younger adults, it’s time to reflect on your marketing strategy. After all, Millennials often have young children, so if you also offer pediatric dentistry, you could be looking at A LOT of potential new patients.

What Millennials Want

Recently, an article came out in Dental Economics that claimed Millennials are shying away from private practice dentistry. There’s a few reasons the author of this article believes this is happening. Surprisingly, very few of his reasons have anything to do with actual dentistry. Instead, it’s more about the experience and how easy it is for them to interact with your practice when they need to.

The truth is, Millennials need things to be EASY! They’re working more hours than any other generation, they have less “downtime” and a lot of them are parents. They simply don’t have time to call and make an appointment. They want to be able to do it online, from their smartphone, on the go. In fact, according to the article and a Lincoln Financial Group Dental study, “40% of millennials cite a dentist’s website as “very important” as opposed to 14% of baby boomers.”

Do you have a website that works well on mobile? Do you allow patients to book their appointments online? Making it easy is the name of the game if you want to win over this huge chunk of the population!

It’s Time to Get Social

For a dental practice to attract Millennial patients, you have to show up where they hang out. In this day and age, that means online! Your website must look good and be discoverable through search engines, which means spending a little time and energy on SEO (consistent blogging, keyword research, and website optimization).

In addition to a great website, you need to be active on social media. Just posting once in awhile isn’t enough. Daily conversations with your followers is mandatory, and making your content fun, engaging, and informative is key. It should not be about YOU and how great YOU are. It should be about your followers. Solve their problems, give them helpful tips, and get to know them though actual conversations online. This is how you win over the younger crowd.

Some Key Takeaways

At the end of the day, your goal should be to create content that shows exactly why your practice is the best one for your potential and current patients. Showcase your personality, your skills, your equipment, and your services. Use attention-catching imagery and short videos to really “wow” your followers. Be consistent on social media and have a great website. It can seem like a lot, but if you take it one step at a time and outsource when you can, we guarantee you can grow your audience, not only with Millennials, but across the board.

Do you need help with social media management, content strategy, or do you need to schedule a photoshoot so you have tons of on-brand imagery and video to share online? We are here for you! Feel free to contact us anytime.

Five Ways to Use Instagram Live to Promote Your Dental Practice

by Dr. Jessica Emery | Jan 7, 2019 | instagram, Social Media, Technology

Lights, camera, action! Are you ready to go live on Instagram? Or does the thought of hitting that “live” button give you heart palpitations? We’ve seen great success with our clients who regularly use Instagram Live, and we know that it will be an effective way to promote your dental practice, too!

However, there’s a little more to it than just working up the nerve to hit the button! You have to have something interesting to talk about. Otherwise, why would anyone tune in or stick around to watch your entire stream?

In this blog post, we’re going to give you five fun Instagram Live content ideas you can use to promote your dental practice!

Introduce a new product

There are new dental products hitting the market all the time and your patients and followers want to know how YOU feel about them. After all, you’re the expert. Take one of the new products and do a live video where you outline the claims of the item and then provide your expert insight as to whether those claims are valid and whether you think it’s worth your follower’s time and/or money.

Talk about an industry statistic

As dentists, we know there are shocking stats out there that people just aren’t aware of. Knowling the sometimes scary information about dental care can help people stick to their goals, and getting expert advice from someone who really knows what they’re talking about (that’s you!) can be invaluable. Hook your followers in with a great teaser for your live video, then give them all the info they need to stay healthy when you go live!

Give a behind the scenes tour

People love getting a look behind the scenes! Do an office tour for new patients who haven’t been to your practice before. Go into the breakroom and show people what you’ve stocked the fridge with. Trust me, they love to see things like this! Show them how a piece of equipment works to dispel some of the mystery around a procedure. Pull back the curtain a little bit and let them see the inner workings of your practice and give them a chance to ask questions as you go!

Introduce a new team member

Did you just hire a new team member? Sit down with them for a live video where you introduce them and let them talk a little bit about their life and passions outside of work! It’s a great way to get current patients comfortable with the new employee, and it’s also a fantastic opportunity to reach potential new patients with a more laid-back live video to show off your team’s personality!

Do a Q&A session

If there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that people have lots of questions about what we do. Answer their questions in a live Q&A session on Instagram Live! You can allow your followers to leave their questions in the comments of a post beforehand, or you can let them drop questions right in the chat during your live stream. If you choose to do the latter, it’s always a good idea to have a few questions prepared in advance that you can answer as you’re waiting for people to participate!

With all of these ideas, don’t forget to build up some anticipation first. Create a few social media posts to promote upcoming video and post them throughout the week leading up to your live stream. It’s a much more effective strategy than just going live and hoping people will show up!

If you feel like you need a little more instruction before jumping in, we have a great mini-course on Instagram Live over on The Soiree Suite. It will teach you everything you need to know to use this tool to promote your dental practice, plus we share our favorite insider tips for rocking your videos and your marketing!

Three Dental Marketing Trends to Watch in 2019

by Dr. Jessica Emery | Dec 31, 2018 | Social Media, Technology

Can you believe 2019 is already here? It seems like the years go faster and faster and things change at the speed of light… especially online marketing. It can be so difficult to know where to spend your time and money, especially if marketing is not your primary area of expertise!

We want to share three of the dental marketing trends we’re watching for in 2019. We think focusing on these three areas will get you the most “bang for your buck” when it comes to your dental practice marketing!

Email Marketing

You might think we’re crazy to start with email marketing. After all, isn’t email the oldest digital marketing channel there is? Yeah, maybe, but it’s also one of the most effective. As we rely more and more on social media, it can be easy to forget that those followers are simply “borrowed” contacts. They belong to the platform, and if the platform goes (or changes their algorithm again) you might not be able to reach them. With email, your contacts are always your contacts, and when you send something, they get it. Simple as that.

In 2019, we’ll be focusing more on email marketing, and we think you should, too! It doesn’t take a lot of time to create a great email template that you can use over and over again (and tweak if you need to) and you can always test new subject lines and strategies. Don’t be afraid to send more email in 2019!

Videos on Instagram Stories

One thing that we fully expect to be even more popular in 2019 is Instagram Stories! It’s such an easy way to connect with your followers, and they love the chance to get to know the “real” you through these short, easy-to-digest videos. Photos are also popular in Stories, but we have a feeling videos will rise to the top and you’ll see even more of them over the next year!

If you’ve been hesitant to share videos (especially of yourself) on Instagram Stories, make this the year you overcome your fear or reluctance and just hit that video button! Your followers will love the chance to see the more human side of your practice.

Chatbots

Lastly, we’re keeping an eye on chatbots. These started to get popular in 2018, but we think in 2019, even the smallest small businesses (and practices) will start to use them as well. Chatbots are sometimes programmed onto a business’ website and now they’re even being used on social media platforms like inside Facebook’s messenger feature.

Chatbots can help you get your website or social media visitors the information they’re looking for 24/7 so they don’t give up and possibly head over to a competitor. You don’t have to be an expert to create this either. There are lots of easy-to-use programs online!

What do you think will be the biggest dental marketing trend of 2019? Do you think it will be one of the three we listed above… or something totally different? Head on over to our Instagram page and let us know what you think!

Choosing the Perfect Image for a Facebook Ad

by Dr. Jessica Emery | Dec 17, 2018 | Branding, Social Media, Technology

Online marketing is constantly evolving, and something that worked perfectly last year might not work for you this year. It can be so frustrating, but it’s part of the job and reading up on the latest news and advice is key! When it comes to choosing an image for a Facebook ad, this is especially important, because the rules seem to change even faster!

Did you know the image is actually the most important part of your Facebook ad? Images are responsible for 75%-90% of your ad’s performance, according to Consumer Acquisition. Don’t let that overwhelm you, though. A few basic “best practices” can have you feeling confident instead of paralyzed the next time you advertise on Facebook.

Image Size

Facebook recommends that your image be at least 1200 pixels wide but no smaller than 600. Going any smaller than this will result in a pixelated or grainy image which does not reflect well on your brand. They prefer landscape rather than portrait when it comes to orientation.

Color, Color, Color

You’re spending money on your ad, so you want to make sure people actually notice it, right? Choosing the perfect image for a Facebook ad means considering the environment it’s going to live in. If you choose an image that is too similar to Facebook’s colors (mostly white with some blue), it could get totally lost. Consider using images that have bright colors that compliment your brand– think bright pink, orange, red, or turquoise.

Adding Text

While Facebook doesn’t allow ads with a lot of text on the image, you can add a few key words to help entice your audience. When planning your ad design, make sure there’s a logical place to add text that isn’t going to cover up a vital part of your image, then use Facebook’s Text Overlay Tool to make sure you don’t have too much text on your image.

Consider Carousel Ads

When you set up your Facebook Ad, you’ll get to choose from a number of different ad options. Consider going with a carousel ad (the kind with multiple images that is displayed like a slideshow). According to some experts, these ads perform better, and they also give you a chance to feature multiple images. Choose contrasting colors, or play with the sequence element of the ad to get people to stop and take notice!

If you need stylish images for your Facebook ads, we’ve can help! Our sister site, Soiree Stock, offers some very affordable membership options that include unlimited downloads from multiple photo libraries! We even have photos that are specifically geared toward dental professionals! You’ll find exactly what you need, and you won’t have to rely on those boring, cheesy stock photos that are out there… you know the ones we mean!

5 Questions for Your Year-End Marketing Audit

by Dr. Jessica Emery | Dec 10, 2018 | Branding, How To's, Social Media

Here we are, at the end of another year. Did you reach your goals this year for your dental practice? I sure hope you did, but if you fell short, don’t despair. There is still lots of good information and productive takeaways you can learn from failing. It’s probably the reason C.S. Lewis famously said, “failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.”

In this blog post, we want to go over five questions you should ask yourself as you do your year-end marketing audit:

What was your biggest success?

Why not start with the good stuff! What do you think was your biggest success when it came to marketing your business? Can you tie that success to any one decision you made about your marketing strategy? Examining what worked (and why) is a very important step to making sure you can replicate it moving forward!

Has your target market changed?

A year is a long time, and in that time, many changes can happen. Your business or your community may have shifted in such a way that the target market you started the year with is not the same target market you have today. It’s important to know who you are trying to reach with your marketing so you can tailor your strategy to reach the right people. Otherwise, you’re just shouting into the void and hoping that someone will hear you!

Who was your biggest competitor?

Sometimes we get so busy we are just focused on keeping our heads down and doing our best work. Nothing wrong with that! However, the end of the year is a great time to finally come up for air and assess what’s been going on in the industry. Who do you consider your biggest competitor? Knowing this will help you as you think of creative ways to differentiate yourself in the new year.

What was your most popular service?

Did any one service rise to the top this year? If so, you might want to consider putting a little more advertising dollars into promoting it over the next year. Your customers are showing you that what you are offering is something they need and want — which is VERY valuable information that you’re getting absolutely free! During your year-end marketing audit, make sure to consider your most popular service and assess how (and how often) you posted about it on social media.

Which social media post performed the best on each platform?

Every year, it’s important to sit down and spend some time auditing your social media profiles. Make sure everything is up-to-date and accurate, but also pull up those analytics! See which posts performed the best on each platform and see if you can identify a common theme. This will help you clearly see which content your followers want to see more of so you can start the new year off on the right foot.

If you decide to outsource your dental marketing in the new year, we would love to help! Dental Soiree specializes in creating engaging social content for dental practices with the specific goal of helping them grow and become more profitable. Learn about our packages or get in touch with us to discuss your needs by filling out our contact form. It’s time to kiss traditional marketing (and the non-stop hustle) goodbye!

Four Instagram Hacks to Rock Your Dental Marketing

by Dr. Jessica Emery | Nov 26, 2018 | How To's, instagram, Social Media

Instagram is an absolutely AMAZING resource that can transform the way your dental practice shows up online and reaches new potential patients. This photo sharing social media platform allows practices (and all businesses and brands) to reach new audiences and spread the word about their services. Here are four Instagram hacks you can use to really rock your dental marketing strategy!

Post Consistently

The first Instagram hack we want to share is not really a hack at all. It’s just a reminder to be consistent with your posting schedule. Consistency is key on Instagram. In order to be seen by your followers, you should aim to share content every day if possible. The regularity of the content will help your audience grow at a steady pace and keep you one step ahead of the algorithms.

It’s also important to stay consistent with the type of content you’re sharing. As a dental practice, sharing a picture of your family pet may not make the most sense. Keep your content “on brand” by consistently using the same editing styles. Try using the same filter on all your photos. They’ll look more cohesive and when people see them, they’ll know they came from you.

Hashtag Properly

Hashtags are a free tool that you can — and should — use to help spread the word about your practice. They’re like tiny little Instagram hacks that can connect your photo to a network of similar content on the platform.

Let’s say you’re looking for photos pertaining to veneers. You can log onto Instagram, search #veneers and instantly see all the photos that have been shared. More importantly, your potential patients can do this, too.

Hashtags are helpful for people who want to look for content about a specific product or service. If a user is trying to find a dentist in Chicago, they can search #chicagodentist or #chicagodentaloffice to see the practices in the area. Don’t forget to make your posts searchable using relevant hashtags!

Interact Within Your Community

Interacting with your followers on Instagram is important, especially as a dentist. Your Instagram feed can act as a new form of communication between you and your patients. By creating a positive relationship with patients online, they’ll form a sense of loyalty to your practice. The more positive the experience, the more likely they’ll be to continue visiting your practice.

Don’t stop there, though. Interact with other members of your community, like neighboring businesses. People in your geographic area will see this and click through to your page to learn more about this fun dental practice that’s going out of their way to be kind on Instagram!