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by Great Dental Websites on Jan 25, 2022 10:00:00 PM
Let’s discuss how to use digital marketing to get more patients into your dental practice.
Using the Internet to market your dental practice is a smart move. Now that we're firmly in the second decade of the 21st century, it's time to take your dental marketing online. Here's why:
Digital marketing is affordable. It's much cheaper than traditional forms of marketing. And you'll get a lot of bang for your buck. Dollar for dollar, your return on investment is huge.
Digital marketing is measurable. Instead of relying on flyers or billboards, you can analyze exactly how well your marketing is doing online.
Digital marketing can be personalized. You'll have more luck reaching out to your audience if you personalize your approach to their individual needs. Through the magic of Facebook-knowing-more-than-we-thought, we can then reach out to audiences on social media in ways that we never could before. For example, you can use social media to target events, like a recent engagement and then market your teeth whitening service to brides and grooms to be.
Digital marketing has great reach. Almost everyone is online these days, including social media. Go where your target audience is hanging out.
In this post, we’ll take a look at the most important digital marketing statistics for dental practices. You can use this research to create a digital marketing strategy and generate more revenue for your practice.
Must-Know Marketing Statistics for Dental Practices
Here’s a snapshot of the most important marketing statistics for dental practices, broken down into 6 sections: Email, Social Media, PPC, SMS, Content Marketing, and SEO.
The average return on investment for email marketing is an astounding 4400%.
Source: OptinMonster
Email marketing is an affordable marketing solution for dental practices. You’ll increase your revenue exponentially by investing in an email marketing platform and emailing on a regular basis, such as once a month. Emailing regularly allows you to stay at the top of your patients’ minds so that they remember you when it’s time to seek out dental care.
For every dollar you spend on producing and sending emails, you will receive, on average, $38 back.
Source: Campaign Monitor
To stretch your marketing dollar even further, use an affordable and user-friendly email marketing service like MailChimp or ConvertKit.
Welcome emails have the highest open rates of all emails—82%.
Source: GetResponse
The most important email to send is a “Welcome” email, which is typically sent after a visitor subscribes to your email newsletter. In this email, introduce your practice and set expectations for what you’ll send in the future and how often you’ll communicate via email.
Almost half of all emails are opened on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets.
Source: IBM
It’s crucial that your emails look good on smaller screens, without forcing readers to pinch the text on the screen or slide horizontally.
Approximately 20% of business-related emails aren't mobile-friendly.
Source: HubSpot
When encountering a poorly formatted email on their smartphone, readers won’t keep reading. It’s up to you to create an enjoyable reading experience on mobile devices.
For the Baby Boomer generation, email is the preferred method of communication with businesses.
Source: HubSpot
Older patients will appreciate receiving email communications from you.
Over 50% of people check email before doing any other tasks online.
Source: OptinMonster
The majority of people check emails first thing in the morning, which makes this a great time to send your emails.
Over 20% of emails are opened within the first hour of being sent.
Source: GetResponse
This is another reason to send out in the morning. Your email will be opened right away. However, sending later in the day or evening will likely reduce your email open rate.
Emails sent on weekends have the worst open and click-through rates.
Source: OptinMonster
While you should experiment with when to send out emails, consider that emails get the lowest open rates on weekends, when people are more likely to be away from their desktops.
The best performing emails are sent from an individual and not a business.
Source: Databox
When sending out emails from your dental practice, send from an actual person, such as “Sally at Henderson Dental.” This is friendlier than “Henderson Dental.”
What’s next?
Social Media
The majority of consumers research a product, service, or business on social media.
Source: IBM
Being on social media is a good idea for every dental practice. Even if you don’t update frequently, having a full representation on Facebook can improve your visibility with potential patients.
The most popular social media platforms are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Source: HubSpot
Facebook is tops, but if you have the option to maintain more than one platform, consider using Instagram, YouTube, and even TikTok (we’ll explain why below).
Seven out of 10 Americans use Facebook. The majority of Facebook users are active and check the platform every single day.
Source: Pew Research Center
This is why Facebook is a must for every dental practice. It’s practically guaranteed that the majority of your patients will be on Facebook.
YouTube isn't just a social media platform, it's also a search engine. It's actually the second most popular search engine globally.
Source: HubSpot
People use YouTube to search for local businesses, like dental practices, too. Create YouTube videos, such as commercials, before and afters, and testimonials, to increase exposure for your dental practice. Videos enjoy a long shelf life on YouTube.
TikTok is one of the fastest growing social media apps in history, and has over a billion users worldwide (since September 2021).
Sources: AdAge and Upfluence
TikTok isn’t just for dancing. It also enjoys the highest user engagement of any social media platform, including Instagram and YouTube. Plus, TikTok is insanely popular among Millennials and below. You can use this platform to generate new leads with younger patients.
Consumers are up to 70% more likely to complete a purchase when they're retargeted.
Source: WebFX
Retargeting is when you show ads to people who’ve visited your website before. Because this group is already familiar with you, your follow up ad makes a bigger impact on them. They’re more likely to book an appointment with you from a follow up ad because they trust you more now.
Facebook ads have the highest conversion rate.
Source: SERP Watch
Over 9% of Facebook ads result in sales.
What’s next?
PPC
Pay per click (PPC) ads generate twice as many visitors as search engine optimization (SEO).
Source: Quicksprout
PPC ads are affordable, too. You choose how much you feel comfortable spending each day on your ad campaign.
For every $1 that a business spends on Google Ads, they stand to earn a return of $2.
Source: Google
You get in what you put in and more. So, as you see more positive results from Google Ads, continue increasing your budget.
Approximately 80% of companies that do PPC marketing use Google AdWords.
Source: WebFX
And, according to eMarketer, Facebook PPC is the second most popular PPC platform for businesses.
PPC visitors are 50% more likely to complete a desired action, such as call, book, or purchase, compared to organic visitors.
Source: Unbounce
Three out of four people believe that paid ads help them find what they're looking for.
PPC ads can get you to the first page of a search within one day of creating your ad campaign.
Source: New Media Campaigns
But keep in mind that PPC is most effective when used with SEO.
Over 65% of people trust Google ads compared to ads on Facebook or TikTok.
Source: seoClarity
Google ads are more trustworthy, which separates this platform from other options
One out of every 4 Internet users use an ad blocking tool.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Your PPC ads on Google may not reach as many potential patients because a sizable percentage of people use ad blocking technology. On Facebook, there’s no way to block ads.
What’s next?
SMS
On average, consumers spend four hours each day on their phone.
Source: G2
Research shows that people wake up with their phones, go to sleep with their phones, and even go to the bathroom with their phones. It’s safe to say that most American consumers are addicted to their phones.
Approximately 83% of Millennials open text messages within the first 90 seconds of receipt.
Source: Mobile Monkey
Younger people (40 and below) are more likely to open text messages right away.
Over 80% of consumers have received marketing SMS messages from a business.
Source: G2
And consumers enjoy getting these text messages. Over 75% of consumers have a positive perception of companies that offer SMS communication.
In 2020, SMS text sign ups grew by 53%.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Offer your patients the option to sign up for your text community.
Coupons sent via text have 10 times higher redemption rates than printed coupons.
Source: Mobile Monkey
A great way to increase text subscriptions is by offering a freebie, such as a coupon. And, when sending coupons over text, they’re more likely to get redeemed.
Eight out of 10 consumers prefer to receive a text message over a voice call or email.
Source: G2
Not only that, but also 60% of consumers believe businesses should contact them more through text messages. And consumers are over four times more likely to respond to an SMS text message than a marketing email.
What’s next?
Content Marketing
Per lead, inbound marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing tactics, such as PPC ads.
Source: HubSpot
Content marketing includes all forms of digital marketing, such as blog posts, videos, podcasts, social media posts, and email marketing. In general, creating content is cheaper than paying for ads.
The most effective content marketing types for businesses include customer testimonials and case studies.
Source: B2B Content Marketing Trends Report
Approximately 70% of consumers read reviews before deciding on a product/ business.
Search is the top driver of traffic which makes SEO important to your success.
Source: SEMrush
Also note that more than half of all Internet traffic comes from mobile devices, specifically smartphones. This means that your content should look good on smaller screens. Social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube are mobile-friendly automatically, but you’ll need to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly, too.
If your website was made through Great Dental Websites, rest assured that your website is mobile-friendly. All of our customizable websites are automatically configured to fit smaller screens.
Half of consumers use Google to discover and research products and services.
Source: Think with Google
A whopping 95% of search engine users never go beyond page one of the search results.
The most sharable form of content is video. People are twice as likely to share video over other forms of content, including social media posts, blog posts, and web product/ service pages.
Source: State of Video Marketing 2021 by Wyzowl
The most popular distribution channels for video content include social media, email, and blog.
What’s next?
SEO
SEO is a bigger traffic driver than social media.
Source: BrightEdge
You get over 1000% more traffic by optimizing your website for search engines than focusing on organic social media.
Over 90% of search queries are in the form of long tail keywords.
Source: Backlinko
Long tail keywords are search phrases that are made up of three to five words and are more specific. It’s the difference between “dentist” (short tail) and “pediatric dentist that accepts medicaid” (long tail).
SEO will never stop bringing in traffic.
Source: Quicksprout
On the other hand, when you stop a PPC campaign, your traffic from PPC ads will immediately stop.
Almost 50% of Google searches are for local businesses.
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Businesses that show up in the local snack pack receive five times as many views than other businesses.
Yelp is an ever-present result in local searches.
Source: Fresh Chalk
In 92% of the searches that contain a city and a business category, Yelp makes it into the top five results.
The top five organic results receive 67% of all clicks.
Source: Zero Limit Web
The majority of search engine users don't scroll beyond page one.
What’s next?
Final Thoughts
The above statistics show how you can use digital marketing to increase revenue for your dental practice. Incorporate the above takeaways so that your practice can benefit from digital marketing.