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Blog By:
Nick Fotache
Nick Fotache

The best free dental marketing strategies, according to real dentists

7/29/2026 9:08:00 AM   |   Comments: 0   |   Views: 35
If you're a dentist who put money into creating an office that feels welcoming and modern, and you've hired a great team, but you're still not seeing the number of patients you feel like you should be seeing, you're probably going to look into how you can promote your dental clinic. 

You go online and start researching marketing companies, trying to figure out where to even begin. Maybe you look into SEO, maybe you consider running some Google ads, maybe you start thinking your website could use a redesign. 

So you end up talking to a handful of different companies to get their take on what your practice needs. But every single one of them tells you that what they sell happens to be exactly what's missing from your practice, and exactly what's been holding you back. 

The SEO company tells you SEO is the way to go. The Google Ads specialist tells you paid traffic is the fastest path to new patients. The web design agency tells you your website is outdated and that's what's holding you back. 

The problem is that none of them are telling you what actually works. They're telling you what they want you to buy. 

So wouldn't it be great if, instead of listening to another sales pitch, you could just hear from other dentists? A dentist who runs a practice similar to yours, maybe a similar size, a similar budget, dealing with the same kind of competition, possibly on the other side of the country. Someone who's already tried the SEO, already ran the Google ads, already tested a handful of other things, and can just tell you straight up what actually worked and what was a waste of money. 

That's exactly why we decided to ask dentists across the country what strategies they'd tried over the past ten years, how much they spent, how long they stuck with each one, what platforms or tools they used, and most importantly, how many new patients each strategy actually brought in.

The Best Free Marketing Strategies According to Dentists

1. Google Reviews

This was the first thing we asked about, and it topped the list. 89% of the dentists we asked said they've made a real effort to get more Google reviews, and that makes sense. Think about how most patients find a dentist today, they search "dentist near me," then scroll through the results, comparing ratings and reviews before they even look at a website. 

If the practice down the street has 500 reviews and a 4.9 rating, and yours has 50 with a lower score, it's easy to see who they'll call first.

As a dentist, you don't just want more patients, you want high-quality patients, consistently. That's why we asked dentists to rate the quality of patients who came in through reviews and half of them gave it a full 5 out of 5. 

Our next question was: “okay, but how are you actually collecting these reviews?” Some dentists told us they use automated tools like Weave, BirdEye, or Trustpilot to send a follow-up message after each appointment. Others said they simply ask patients directly at checkout. 

Turns out, based on what dentists told us, using automation tools isn't a magic bullet solution to get more Google reviews rather being consistent about asking patients is the number one factor. 

One dentist said: getting reviews really comes down to the front desk. If the team isn't asking, it isn't happening. Most dentists spend their day in the operatory and can't always see whether their staff is actually asking patients for reviews.

2. Referrals

When we asked about referrals, 77% of dentists said they actively work to generate more of them, which isn't surprising once you look at the results. Across every strategy in our survey, referrals brought in the highest-quality patients. When we asked dentists to rate referral patients, 59% gave them a 5 out of 5, the best score of any channel we asked about.

A patient who comes to you through a referral was recommended by someone they already trust, a friend, family member, or coworker who had a good experience in your practice. They're not comparing you to competitors. They already trust you before they walk through the door.

We asked dentists what kind of referral programs or incentives they used to generate these results, and most said they didn't need anything formal. It happened naturally, simply because patients left the practice satisfied.

The limitation with referrals, is that they're difficult to scale. Unlike paid advertising, you can't simply spend more to generate more. You can offer incentives, but those only work if the patient experience is already strong. Ultimately, referrals come down to how patients feel after they leave your practice.

We also asked how consistent referrals were month to month, and the answer was, understandably, not very. Referrals can ebb and flow, and there's only so much you can do to influence that directly. But when they come in, dentists agreed they tend to be some of the best patients a practice can get.

3. Recall Campaigns

Every practice has patients like this: people who came in once, had a good experience, and never returned. So we asked dentists directly, what are you doing about the patients who already know you but haven't come back?

About 20% said they run recall campaigns to bring these patients back. When we asked what that actually looked like, the ones who saw the best results told us they used a combination of channels, texts, emails, and phone calls, rather than relying on just one.

We also asked whether they handled this in-house or brought in outside help. In most cases, it didn't require either. 86% of dentists said their front desk team managed the entire recall process using their existing software. The remaining 14% told us they used tools like Weave, Solutionreach, NexHealth, or Dental Intelligence to automate it.

One question we asked was how long they kept these campaigns running, and the answer mattered a lot. Dentists who saw the strongest results ran recall campaigns for more than a year, rather than treating it as a short-term push. That tracks, since patients naturally become inactive over time, so this works best as an ongoing effort rather than a one-time campaign.

When we asked dentists to rate the quality of patients who returned through recall campaigns, most gave them a 4 or 5 out of 5. That makes sense, since these are patients who already know the practice, already had a positive experience, and are already comfortable with the team. There's no need to convince them to choose you. You're simply reminding them it's time to come back.

Get the Full Marketing Report

If you want to stop wasting money on marketing that isn't bringing in patients, find out which paid strategies are actually working right now, and how you can start booking more patients without the guesswork, download the free report on what dentists say works in dental marketing in 2026.
Category: Marketing
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