Orthodontic Marketing Through Social Networking
Social networking is one of the most critical elements of marketing your orthodontic office. It provides an active, always changing, and effective way of letting people know about your services. In fact, social networking is one of the most important ways of long-term branding and building relationships available online.
Just think about these statistics for a few seconds to get an idea of its importance. Over a billion people are currently on Facebook and Instagram and over half of Americans over the age of 12 are now on social media sites. More specifically, about 70 percent of orthodontist patients have social media profiles. Therefore, you can’t ignore this beneficial way of boosting your orthodontic marketing brand.
Facebook is Particularly Important for Orthodontic Marketing
If you don’t have a Facebook business page for your orthodontic practice, you are doing yourself a grave disservice. That’s because these business pages are likely to be the most searched for and active sites of all the social networks. (Instagram is catching up fast!). Here, you can post stories indicating your various deals, attract potential patients to your site, and showcase city pages that are essential for your success and will help grow any orthodontic practice.
And while you may have heard that Facebook is poor for converting patients, which it is in our experience, it’s still has its place for promoting your business. Facebook is a great long-term branding exercise for your company, and it can also serve as a one-stop shop for patients looking for information about your company. For example, you can integrate:
- Contact information
- Before and after photos
- Address information
- Hours of business
- Directions to your office from central locations
- Links to high-quality videos and blogs
- Interact directly with potential patients
- Messenger Bots
- Book appointments directly
This last point is what makes social media marketing such a powerful way of building relationships with new patients. For example, if a patient posts a question about scheduling an appointment, you can respond to them directly or have a new chat bot to do it for you or somebody in your office. Facebook business pages also have “Page Insights” that are important to analyse in more depth here.
Ways to Promote Your Page on Social Media
Once you have set up your social media pages, you need to promote your page in a variety of ways. There are three major methods that you can use to reach this goal as an orthodontist. They focus on using content to create a major fan base and then reaching out to those fans using money-saving promotions and deals to keep them loyal to your service.
Creating Content
When creating high-quality social media content, you need to ask yourself some questions. First of all, you need to understand the content purpose. It shouldn’t exist simply to advertise your company. Instead, it should provide real benefits for your readers and add value. For example, it can give them a deeper understanding of Invisalign and how that process benefits their teeth.
You can also create a step-by-step guide of taking care of some elements of their orthodontic health. For example, you can show them how to floss around metal braces, ways to clean their Invisalign braces, and when it might be time to upgrade their care items. Good content should also include quality images and videos that add more value to the topic of the article.
Getting Fans to Your Site
Search through your database and start inviting patients and friends to be fans of your page. This is a wise step to take because you may have ex-patients who will be willing to leave reviews on your page if you ask. After you have started inviting all your friends, you can reach out to people who are talking about orthodontics or simply those who live near your office through targeted ads..
Try to avoid flooding people’s inboxes with too many invitations. If a person turns down your invitation once, another message is likely only to annoy them. A denied request doesn’t mean that they aren’t interested in your services. It just might mean that they don’t want a lot of information clogging up their social media feed at this time.
Don’t Forget Fun Promotions
As an orthodontist, you need to integrate promotions on your social media sites that will attract more potential patients. These promotions can vary depending on the types of services you offer. For example, you can give your patients a 30 percent deal on their first visit or a $500 deal on Invisalign that will attract them to your office.
These promotions should be designed to get people to come to your site and set up an appointment. While some of these deals may cost you a little money when they are used, they may attract a person to attend your service for the rest of their life. In this way, you can create a broader patient base and larger ROI.
Branding Your Business Pages
One of the most important elements of increasing your potential customer base is branding your page. This step is important because of the rapidly advancing age of the average Facebook users. Contrary to popular beliefs, Facebook is not just for kids anymore. In fact, many older adults are starting to use the site the way that younger ones did in the past.
In fact, many people on social media platforms are likely to be parents looking for high-quality orthodontic care for their children and social networking themselves. In other words, they are the perfect audience for orthodontists like you. These individuals are more likely to turn to you if they find your page is professional and well branded. Here are a few simply steps you can take to make your page look professional:
- Integrating your company logos throughout
- Adding photos of yourself and your employees
- Using well-written content to promote your business
- Highlighting elements beyond your business, such as news for the area
- Adjusting the colors of the page to match your website
- Regularly updating your site to keep it active and to send out many updates to fans
- Posting about personal information, such as birthdays for your employees
- Integrating contact information in a simple area that your patients can easily access
- Creating fun contests and giveaways to make your site more fun and engaging
- Add an office video to the top of your page to replace the cover art
By keeping your business page updated and well branded, you’ll make it stand out among your competitors. Just as importantly, you are more likely to attract patients who are going to check out your site and investigate your services. An active and fun social media site is one that makes your business seem respectable and engaging.
Just as importantly, it can create a feeling of real social interaction that goes beyond marketing and advertising. Your potential patients are not fools and understand that your site is primarily for promotion. However, if you can create positive social interaction, you can make your site feel more natural and enjoyable, increasing your patients’ trust.
Final Thoughts on Social Networking
As you can see, marketing your orthodontist practice can be a beneficial and simple way of making your company stand out from others around you. Don’t hesitate to reach out to a professional to get help integrating these marketing concepts into your orthodontic website. Doing so will increase your chances of running a successful business, increase cash flow while also achieving a higher ROI. Contact us to get a complimentary marketing consultation for your company.
Orthodontic Marketing Through Social Networking
Perry Stevens is the founder and CEO of Blend Local Search Marketing Ltd. He’s a tea drinker, cocoa grower and a frequent traveller.
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