Social media’s influence has become an undeniable and indispensable tool for businesses across industries and particularly, in health and dentistry.
Over billions users are active on well known platforms like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, giving business the potential to showcase their expertise.
For dentists leveraging social media can be an absolute game changer, to share valuable resources about your services that engage with patients in a personal and direct manner.
Let’s unpack how you can utilise dental social media to benefit your dental clinic, drive more patients to your business and showcase what you do best.
What are the Benefits of Dental Social Media Marketing?
Building authority/increasing credibility
There’s nothing better than gaining a great recommendation from other people. Users on Google often rely on a review based system to find out more about how great your services are, from there a chain reaction happens.
Where your patients will naturally search on your social media for how active you are, along with the types of content you produce. This helps your audience feel connected to what you offer and build up trust over time.
Being seen and increasing your visibility
Having a social presence isn’t just about posting on social media. It’s about creating a full customer journey that allows your clients to find you. Having an established and updated website that is easy to use and user friendly is needed.
Setting yourself up from the get go is a must, this means when you post on social media more traffic can be sent to your website, such as setting up your location. By setting this up on your socials and website your patients can easily find you to book their next appointment.
Gathering referrals/uplifting your patient relationship
Providing value to your customers is most important when establishing an ongoing patient relationship. Such as what is currently going on in your dental practice, from offers you might have, to any upgraded facilities and even dental tips.
Giving valuable information and engaging with your patients online by responding effectively is needed, you can alter this over time depending on how your audience connects to your content. By really paying attention to what your audience wants is key to cementing and gathering customers that will come back again and again.
Increased brand awareness
By creating thoughtful content and regularly posting on social media as well as updating your website, means your audience keeps your dental practice at top of mind.
Some patients or potential patients might ask questions or give feedback through your social platforms, if they are easily able to respond to your content this will increase your brand loyalty and create a sense of trust with your audience.
Understanding your audience
Setting up business social media pages can give you greater networking and customer opportunities. On average about 80% of people in Australia use social media platforms.
This opens up more possibilities and allows you to craft content to be tailored to your audience. For instance if your dental practice specialises in implant surgery, you’d want to connect to the right audience and understand what makes your patients fully engage with what you offer.
How to Use Social Media Marketing for Dental Practice Growth
To grow your dental practice through social media, requires a fusion of specifically targeted patients in your local area, as well as keeping in mind what type of patients will engage with your services.
This means looking at the demographic and selecting a particular platform you know your customers will respond to.
It comes down to two types of content, paid and organic and the balance between them for creating dental social media posts.
Paid ads:
This allows dentists to target specifics based on age, interest and location. These more precisely styled marketing efforts will allow you to reach those who are most likely to engage with your dental services.
With paid advertising you are more in control of who sees your content and it is more targeted. This creates instant and rapid results, but also requires some experimentation, based on how your audience responds to your ad.
For instance, if you created an ad for braces in your local area, however all your prospective patients are seeing the ad who aren’t local to you. You’d ultimately want to remove an ad like that especially so your budget isn’t wasted and you can retarget your ad, so your money is well spent.
Organic content:
Organic social media maintains your presence online, but it doesn’t necessarily bring you new patients. However, It is still necessary to fully engage your growing audience and build community trust.
To see results, it takes some effort with regular posting online, so you can build trust with a new audience. Along with a combination of paid marketing, as some platforms like Facebook will limit how your audience sees your posts, unless supplemented along with some paid ad spend, so your posts are seen.
Finding Your Perfect Audience for Social Media
Many business utilise social media platforms but the market is often bombarded by saturated content. Standing out requires some strategic planning so you can target the right people at the right time.
A/B testing: You can experiment with different types of content, for example what sort of content are your patients most likely to click on and what resonates the best with your audience. For instance, this could be service information or tips on dentistry in a video reel.
Using paid ads: By cutting through the noise, you can reach specific groups that are more likely to engage with your ads. For example, customers who are looking for teeth whitening services for the summer season are more likely to engage with services as they are actively searching during this period of the year.
Facebook For Dental Practises and How You Should Use it
Think of your Facebook business page as an extension of your website. Your customers who search for your page will need to be able to easily find when your business is open, have information about your dental clinic, and have the option to leave a review.
There are a few ways to get your audience interested,
Firstly, paid ads! Your Facebook page is the spot where you can offer your clients Facebook only deals, which can help uplift your business and get clients to book your services. This can raise your profile and make you seen by more potential customers.
Secondly, organic engagement. You can create content around your daily activities to build connections with people who see it. You can also create unique content like a promotional giveaway, which should keep your clients eyeballs on your page and help them to interact with your content.
Building Your Instagram for your Dental Practice
Similar to the rules of Facebook, although Instagram’s platform is much more visual. This is your change to show off what you do best.
Visual content: Like before and after photo treatments, (with your patient’s consent) Is a great way to show behind the scene glimpses and show your potential patients how you achieve the final result, glimpses of your practice and short educational videos work really well.
Paid ads on Instagram: Images will appear of the image feed itself, so it’s always best to show clear and quality visuals for this type of ad.
This is also a great way to engage with customers who come across your ad as a new business, and to be noticed with a simple call to action which can lead people straight to your dental services, with a simple tap!
What Social Media Platform is Best for My Dental Practice?
Choosing the right platform depends on your audience type. Each platform is designed to connect with your patients and potential clients in a variety of formats.
| Platform | Best For |
|---|---|
| Older demographics; detailed educational posts | |
| Younger audiences; visual storytelling | |
| Real-time updates; quick interactions | |
| TikTok | Creative short-form videos; younger audiences |
Strategies & Marketing Campaigns Tips
Videos: (link to a video insert one we can use from our dental clients)
Each different social media platform will work differently, but each will have similarities you can utilise. Here are some great tips to get you started with social media dental content
Tip 1.Creating eye catching visuals and videos of your dental practice:
Social media titles and videos:
Use high quality images and videos to showcase what you do best.
Videos of your dental practice: We’ve noticed the types of social media posts which resonate the most with patients are walk-through videos of your practice. Where you’d go through your treatment rooms to show your facilities, the treatments you do so patience feel comfortable with coming into the practice and they get to see it before they come to you.
Teeth Cleaning & X Rays: Other types of content which work well are patient offers for example teeth cleaning and x-rays.
Before & Afters: If you get any cosmetic treatments from your clients, before and after imagery is very effective. Just make sure to be careful with the AHPRA advertising guidelines to make sure they are used correctly.
Teeth Whitening: It’s good to show videos of your clients going in the chair, showing the teeth whitening process so your patients get excited about the process and about the outcome.
Read more about AHPRA’s Healthcare Advertising Guidelines at our blog.
Tip 2.Be Consistent with Regular Posting
Consistency is key and showcases that you’re actively engaged and committed to your followers, it keeps your dental practice fresh and always top- of -mind.
A healthy balance of organic and paid marketing efforts can really help with audience retention, and establishes your dental professionalism and services.
Tip 3.Highlight your Customer Reviews
Our client Fox Orthodontics
Share good experiences from your patients, sharing these positive reviews shows off real experiences from real people and helps you gain trust with new people.
Tip 4.Create Valuable Content
Crafting highly valuable content can help gain your audience’s attention, this will set you apart from everyone else and help you gain authority.
Creating a variety of content whether it’s videos, social tiles or important educational content, with your own style and narrative driven work keep your audience fully engaged in your business.
Partner with Us at AEK Media for Dental Social Media Marketing
For dentists who are looking to expand their reach and strengthen patient relationships, implementing specific marketing efforts tailored to your specific audience can be a game changer when it comes to social media for your dentistry.
At AEK Media we understand the nuances of the patient’s customary journey, and can help you take your dental social media marketing and online presence to the next stage.
As a leading dental marketing agency in Australia, we have helped many dentists to increase monthly leads.
Get in contact with our team for a free discovery call today.
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