How to do Free Dental Marketing?

Is it really possible to do effective free dental marketing? In a way, yes, but within the limitations of any free tool we find on the market. But it is possible to achieve good results yes!

With the increasingly saturated and aggressive dental market, dentists find it difficult to get patients, so they have little resources to invest in a patient capture system for their dental office. Faced with this, many dentists look for alternatives to be able to spread their office effectively, but with little or no expense. After all, it takes money to generate more money in the short term, at least in most cases.

Dental marketing comes with this goal. Through it, it is possible to strengthen the dental office and, consequently, be able to capture the desired patients to the office, which would generate profits for the dentist. Free dental marketing is relatively easy, but with results that aren't always immediate. Free dental marketing can be done both offline and online.

Theoretically, the dentist who owns an office (own or rented) and has few patients has a longer amount of time. I remember that at the beginning of my private practice life, I invested a lot in my site, which was abandoned shortly thereafter (MY mistake). We will discuss this below. To make it more didactic, I will separate free dental marketing into offline and online environments. So, come on?

FREE ODONTOLOGICAL MARKETING ACTIONS IN THE OFFLINE ENVIRONMENT

At first, the dentist wonders: how to do free dental marketing in the offline environment without spending? This is because the dentist relates the offline environment to the offline advertising media, as we can see below:
- Flyers;
- Outdoors;
- Outbus;
- Direct mail;
- Banners.

In fact, any of these offline media above has an investment ranging from small to high. On this assumption, it is impossible to do free dental marketing with the above options; However, here I refer to dental marketing strategies that really will cost zero and that the dentist who has a little more time can start today. Let's get to know some of them:

- Partner with dental offices that do not compete:

In fact, upon graduation, the dentist takes classes in virtually all dental specialties, which makes the dentist “fit” to practice any specialty in the office. But we know that in practice it is just the opposite. Today we hardly find those dentists who do a little of everything, that is, the good general dentist. We are in the age when dentists are increasingly segmenting their field. Given this, it is necessary that dentists make partnerships with each other, either by referral or by outsourcing services.

I don't do endodontics myself in my office. So, I refer you to a trusted partner dentist. And he does the same to me, except in the part and orthodontics, so these partnerships between dentists present a free and mutual help, since there is only one referral and counter referral of patients between offices. On the other hand, if the partnership doesn't work, don't think twice about ending it.

- Partner between related establishments and your dental office:

Partnering with related establishments can be a great strategy for free dental marketing. Stop and think: A referral from a professional or business is far more powerful than any dental marketing action. Just having a pamphlet or business card at the front desk is already an indication that the place is indicating another you theoretically trust. Now this free dental marketing strategy would be more effective among businesses and health and beauty establishments, as I show in the examples below:
- Gyms;
- Offices in other areas (doctors, physiotherapists, speech therapists, etc.);
- Beauticians;
- Beauty salons;
- Body aesthetic offices.

In most cases, people looking for the above establishments are interested in health and beauty. Therefore, the disclosure of a dental office fits very well there. However, don't go too thirsty for the pot. You might look for a big, famous gym, for example, but the chance of getting it is slim, because it's going to be a relationship where one partner is very strong and the other is still crawling. But still, it's still worth a try.

Also, do not give space to multiple partners. For example, imagine that you will exchange advertising space with a local doctor. Then he will put your business cards at his desk and you will do the same thing. But then, out of nowhere, the doctor puts another dentist on his disclosure. Isn't it boring? Much! So give in to exclusivity and ask for the same thing from the other party. For example, partner only with a gym, beauty salon, nutritionist, etc.

Another important point is to always ask patients for feedback from the indicated facility, for example if the service provided was good. This is important for maintaining partnerships. If there is a partner who does not have a good acceptance by the referred patients, talk to him about it. If there is no change, cancel the partnership. Remember that your name will be at stake.

- Offer excellent care to the dental office patient:

Another excellent free dental marketing strategy is to offer qualified patient care, especially if you have few patients. Despite being a medium and long term strategy, word of mouth is a powerful free dental marketing weapon. After all, how much will you have for it? The patient enjoyed your care and will indicate spontaneously. But for this to happen, it is not enough to have only exceptional dental treatment (the clinical part). The dentist has to remember that it deals with humans. And we Brazilians are VERY needy of a good service that reminds us not only how to indicate. And once again, the care offered by the dentist and his secretary is also a great free dental marketing strategy, as it literally requires no cost. Just a few behavior changes.

Here are some tips for impacting your patient on care:
- ALWAYS greet your patient (good morning, good afternoon, good night, etc.);
- Call the patient by NAME;
- Ask the reason for the consultation and let him talk freely. Remember that dental office is an environment that brings tension to patients;
- Avoid talking about bad things. This the patient already hears a lot;
- Capture patient contacts for a post consultation relationship (routine appointment scheduling; birthday messages, festive seasons, office news, etc.);
- For more complex procedures, such as oral surgery, follow up to find out how the postoperative is, for example.

Note that all the above actions are part of free dental marketing and have a high impact on the patient. Also, rare are the dental offices that do these above dental marketing actions. That is, whoever does it will come out ahead of the others in this regard.

FREE ODONTOLOGICAL MARKETING ACTIONS IN THE ONLINE ENVIRONMENT

When we think about the online environment, the possibility of doing free dental marketing increases a lot, even more when compared to the offline environment. There are several ways to do free internet dental marketing that can generate even immediate results. Let's check it out!

Building a website is a great way to do free dental marketing

As I said at the beginning of this article, in 2010, when I set up my dental office, I had a lot of time available. Soon, I started investing in a website at the time. It was quite modest because we didn't have as many free and cheap options as we have today (2020).

I started to make several articles (without any strategy as I do today) and yet, I had results. I got appointments from patients who found me through my office site, but, as I mentioned, I made a big mistake (which was perhaps one of the biggest in my professional life): I stopped posting on my site and didn't even renew the domain (wilsoncorrhea.com.br). Soon, I lost my good positions on google and, by table, my site went downhill.

So, the advice here is: Build your site and invest in it to reap the rewards in the future. I returned to invest in my office site a little over a year ago and already have nearly 40,000 visits per month. And I say it is still too little. My goal is to be able to place, by the end of the year, 200,000 monthly visits. And I remember my investment here is time.

On the other hand, this does not happen overnight. It is a job that is not easy, especially when I compete with large sites and a very small audience (300,000 dentists). But when you think about the patient audience, it's absurdly bigger. I don't know if you know, but when you search for a term on google it will give preference to companies in that region. If you have none, something that is VERY common, it will search the country, so it is worth investing in a website. There are several EASY platforms on which you can build a website for FREE quickly, such as WIX, for example.

- Register your dental office on search engines and websites that register establishments

On the internet, there are several websites that serve as business directories, that is, it is possible to register companies at no cost, being excellent for doing a free dental marketing. The job that the dentist will have is just to register his office on search sites and sites that register companies. Even by registering your dental office on google, it will be possible to be found by patients through mobile phones. Also, if you have a website, you can register it on these websites’ directories. And that's good because it will generate a backlink, which is nothing more than one site referencing another. These business registration sites have a very high authority, they will be excellent for your site, which will get backlinks from sites that are already referral to google. Not to mention that when a patient goes to his dental office, he will find several occurrences on google. This gives a very good image to the patient.

- Nowadays, the dentist must be present in social networks

Social networks are increasingly present in our lives, both personal and professional. To give you an idea, over 100 million Brazilians are connected to Facebook. And that includes the patients in your dental office.

Registration on social networks is free and it is possible to capture patients through free dental marketing on social networks, in particular Facebook and Instagram. After making the registration, it will be possible for the dentist to do dental marketing with frequent posts with interesting subjects and, preferably, well sought by patients.

The dentist has to remember that people are increasingly connected to social networks, but for fun and not to buy a product or service. For example, the topic of dental caries is very popular on google, so it has a larger audience that is interested in the subject. Therefore, your post should follow the type below:

Realize that it was an informative post, that is, was intended to pass information about the contagion of dental caries. The more such posts are made, the more likely people are to look for information about dental appointments with the dentist.

Conclusions:

We saw in this article that it is perfectly possible to perform free dental marketing effectively. However, it is important to know that there are limitations of this type of dental marketing. For example, the use of free dental marketing on social networks in general, while far less labor intensive than posting an article on the site, has a very small scope. Let's say that if you have 1000 followers, 3% to 5% received your posts, as the financial proposition of social networks is for the dentist to pay for their posts to reach a much larger and more SPECIFIC audience.

On the other hand, investing in free dental marketing on google can be quite promising, but in the medium to long term. For the free time dentist, it is well worth investing in free dental marketing on both social networks and google. If there is capital to invest in paid dental marketing, it is important not to neglect free dental marketing. And if you start investing in the site, don't be foolish to set it aside. He will be your golden egg hen! Even if you, over time, start to get many patients, but without time, take at least 2 hours a week to invest in the site or hire someone to do it for you!

Source: Empreenda Dentista. Available at: https://empreendadentista.com.br/2018/04/01/marketing-odontologico-gratuito-como-fazer/. Access on: 11/07/2019.
Image: Depositphotos