New dental practices face unique marketing challenges.
Financially, due to construction costs, buying equipment and supplies, covering operating expenses, and making payments on their student loans, dentists opening new practices can’t afford to wait very long for patients to come in the door.
On top of that, starting a practice from scratch means starting your marketing from scratch with no existing marketing in place at all.
As scary as it may sound to some people to have high expenses and no patients, starting a new practice presents great opportunities over the long term.
For example, starting a new practice allows you to build your office and culture to match your vision for your practice and then match it with marketing that’s targeted to attract ideal patients who can become raving fans and refer family and friends.
With high expenses and no patients, it’s extremely important for new practices have efficient and effective marketing from the start.
Getting these two things in place and working together from the start can mean the difference between the success and failure of your practice. In fact, they helped Dr. Ashley Joves to generate over 1,100 Facebook fans, grow an email waiting list of almost 300 patient leads, and have 50 people schedule appointments before she even opened the doors!
Start a Facebook Page and Email List for Your New Dental Practice
It might seem counterintuitive to start a Facebook page for a practice that doesn’t exist, but it will be your home base for marketing activities in the future, helping you fill last-minute cancellations, promote high-end procedures, and more. The same goes with building an email list.
These will be two of the best tools for marketing your practice when you open the doors, and getting started early is key. Facebook is the most powerful and affordable advertising platform available. Building an email list helps you nurture relationships with patient prospects and build a list for future Facebook ad targeting and funnel marketing efforts.
When you don’t have appointments to fill or procedures to perform, it’s easy to let building a Facebook page for your practice or starting an email list fall behind, but they are key to a successful practice launch, especially when combined with the second dental marketing strategy.
Share Your Vision on Social Media and Invite People to Follow Along
When you first commit to starting a new practice, you have no idea when you’ll be ready for the doors to open, but that doesn’t mean you have nothing to market.
In fact, not having appointments to fill is a good thing. This way, you can build relationships with people and not have anything to sell other than your dream.
As soon as you’re committed to opening your practice, start promoting why you’re starting your practice, what you’re building, and why your practice will be different than others on social media.
Start with a Facebook Live video, and let your family and friends know you’re starting a new practice.
Tell them why you’re starting your practice.
Share your vision.
Tell them about the culture you’re building, what will be unique about your practice, and how excited you are to share your practice journey with them.
At the end of the video, let them know you will be sharing more videos as you build out your practice, put the link to your new Facebook page in the comments of the video, and invite them to like your page.
Invite them to join your email list to be notified about new Facebook Live videos and practice updates.
Then continue to share Facebook Live videos as you sign leases, design the layout, start construction, order equipment, choose furnishings, and more.
When you’re ready to open the doors, you’ll have Facebook fans, email subscribers, family, friends, and community members excited about and invested in the success of your practice!
Have marketing challenges kept you from your dream to launch a new practice?
Although starting a new practice presents many challenges, marketing your practice no longer needs to be one of them thanks to Facebook and email lists. Together, they can help you can get started building an excited, loyal list of patient prospects ready to make appointments as soon as you open the doors.
After your launch, your Facebook page and email contact list will continue to be key marketing assets, allowing you to deliver highly targeted promotions through Facebook ads, email marketing campaigns, and funnel marketing efforts!
To learn more about this and other dental marketing strategies, sign up for your 14-day trial to Delivering Wow U. You can also join my free Dental Marketing and Profits Facebook group where thousands of dentists and I help each other build better practices. Finally, for more free info on using Facebook for dentists, check out my free guide: Facebook for Dentists: The Definitive Guide to Regularly Attracting New Patients to Your Dental Practice right here.
This article originally appeared on DeliveringWow.com