Business coach Chris Barrow takes you through three tips on how to best utilise digital marketing, and looks at how Covid-19 related changes could be here to stay for some practices…
Utilise all social channels
Some of you may well have read my advice in the past about the content rule and what areas you should target with your marketing material. My guidelines are, 50% of your content patient stories, 35% on staff stories, both personally and professionally, and then 15% on oral health education.
When you have that content, you have to be able to get it out there and showcase it, and that is where you need to utilise all the social channels available to you.
They need to be used in the correct way to broadcast and share the content you have, and there are, as we all know, quite a few social channels.
The first one you need to use is Facebook, the second is Instagram and the third is YouTube, and, on that note, do not discount YouTube, because having an active account and channel can be really important.
The fourth channel is LinkedIn, which is used by a lot of professionals and by using that platform you can really target that demographic.
Owner managed digital channels
In addition to social channels, there are also owner managed digital channels that you can utilise, and these can certainly help you push your content out there.
The top ones include producing a regular practice blog, a regular practice video blog or a vlog, a monthly emailed patient newsletter and the other one which is continuing to grow in dentistry, is having your own podcast. This can be a general dentistry one aimed at other fellow dentists, or it can be a less clinical one that can be for patients, their friends and families.
When it comes to what goes into these, I go back to that content rule of having a lot of patient related stories and content, followed by staff stories and useful pieces focusing on oral health education.
Don’t get too worried about repetition. For example, don’t be concerned about explaining various things on a podcast, but then also using the same content to produce a blog, or a vlog.
People will pick and choose how they want to digest the information, so not everyone will watch or view every single piece of content. It is a bit like television; viewers make choices on what to watch, and with your content they will choose different platforms to take in the information.
Make the most of patient recommendations
Patient recommendations really are one of the most effective ways to grow your business, whether they come from Facebook or Google reviews. And those reviews, in the current climate, are still massively important when it comes to attracting new patients.
However, there is still as much benefit in using digital recommendations, such as video testimonials at the end of a course of treatment.
Pre-pandemic you would have invited a patient into the practice and sat them in front of a camera, before asking questions such as ‘How did you hear about us?’, ’What is it you came to us for?’, ‘Can you talk about your customer service experience?’, and ‘What difference has the treatment made for you?’.
Whereas during Covid, staff were able to arrange those online over zoom or on other platforms, and record and edit them remotely, so it cut out the need for the patient to go into the practice. And moving forward you can still do that.
Some practices might want to do it face to face now, as will patients, but there is that option there now, that previously we wouldn’t have used before.
About Chris
Chris has been a has been a trainer, consultant, coach, and mentor to the UK dental profession for 26 years.