Proven Methods to

Growing Your Dental

Practice Patient List

COURTESY
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 C H A P T ER 1

Who is
Your Target
Audience?

If you’re using a scattered, shotgun type of

approach to marketing, you might see some
growth, but it’s unlikely that you’re achieving the
level of growth you would get if you were marketing
to a target audience.

Honing in on your target audience by creating buyer personas will help

you develop a truly successful marketing strategy that will attract long-
term patients.

Develop Your Buyer Personas

According to HubSpot,

“A buyer persona is a semi-fictional

representation of your ideal customer
based on market research and real data
about your existing customers.”

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 Creating a buyer persona for your dental practice is simple. It starts
with a simple exercise: take stock of the patients you’re currently
treating. Examine their demographic information, their habits, their
career, and any other information that defines them. Compile all that
information, as well as any preferential characteristics that your current
patients might not possess, into a fictionalized character. This is your
ideal patient.

You can then utilize this data to create a streamlined structure on

which you can base your marketing strategy. You will be able to focus
your marketing efforts on the people who are not only most likely to
become future patients, but who you want to become patients.

A dental practice should develop a buyer persona to attract the

prospective patients with the greatest potential in their area. Ask
these questions of your current (and idealized) patients:

◆◆ What is their career? ◆◆ What fictional character do they

◆◆ What is their education level?
◆◆ What is their marital status?
◆◆ How old are they?
◆◆ What is their income level?
◆◆ What is their zip code?
◆◆ What are their hobbies?
most resemble?
◆◆ What kind of books/television/
movies do they enjoy?
◆◆ Are the active in their community?
◆◆ Are they political?
◆◆ What kind of clothes do they wear?
◆◆ What kind of car do they drive?

Since you’re probably planning to attract multiple types of people to

become patients at your dental practice, you should develop a few
different buyer personas.

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 For example, you may be trying to target a woman who is a wife and
a mother. She may also bring in her husband and children. It’s unlikely
that the husband and wife will fall under the same buyer persona.
They have different needs and different pain points, so you’ll need to
utilize different approaches for each of them.

Breathe Life Into Your Persona

When you’ve accumulated the different personality traits and pain
points of your ideal patients, it’s time to bring them to life. First, give
the persona a name. It might be something like Mother Molly or
Corporate Chris. The names add another aspect to the very detailed
description of your ideal patients and they will ensure that you stay
organized as you move on to the next part of growing your patient list
for your dental practice.

A target audience provides direction and

insight for your marketing.

Your goal should be attracting the exact right kind of patient who will
then also recommend your dental practice to others like themselves. In
other words, value quality over quantity.

This information will help you focus all aspects of your marketing
strategy—your website, social media platforms, patient referral
programs, community outreach, and advertising— toward your target
audience.

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 C H A P T ER 2

Build
Your Web
Presence

Once you have developed your target audience,

you can build your website and your overall web
presence to suit your buyer personas. The following
are methods to maximize your web presence to
better grow your patient list in your dental practice.

Website
Your website is often the first interaction a new patient has with your
business. Not only do you need to be up front about the services
available to them, but you need to clearly designate the portals
patients, both current and prospective, can use to accomplish tasks
on your website.

Offer a new patient portal that allows them to make their first
appointments online or request a phone call or email for more
information about your dental practice

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 Set up an “about” section to personalize your practice for your dental
patients. Each dentist, dental hygienist, and office worker could have
a short “getting to know you” section with professional photographs.
New patients like to see the people with whom they will be interacting.

Make a space for patients to write a review

of their experience at your dental office.

Once you have created a website that will appeal to your target
audience, you can concentrate on your search engine optimization
(SEO).

SEO helps boosts your website in the search engine page rankings
(SERPs) by meeting the requirements of the search engine’s algorithm
and providing value content that helps solve a problem for your target
personas.

Blog
One of the fastest ways to generate organic traffic to your website is to
create a blog. Inbound marketing attracts patients through relevant
and helpful content. Blogs primarily function as educational tools for
your patients.

For example, you (or your content team) may write a blog on tooth
decay and ways to prevent it. The focus keyword would be “tooth
decay prevention.” When that term is searched on a search engine,
your blog has the opportunity to appear in the search results. Once
someone clicks on it to read your helpful content, the content will lead
them to a call to action directing them on their next course of action—
in this case, you would direct them to call your practice to schedule an
appointment.

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 Social Media
Social Media is a great way to reach and engage with your patients
and potential patients. Think of social media as spokes on a wheel and
your website as the hub. You’ll want to engage and inform your social
following with helpful information from your blog.

There are hundreds of social platforms on the web, it’s important

to determine which platforms would be most popular among your
current and prospective patients. (Your buyer personas will help you
make this determination.)

Typically the big 5 are a good place to start: Facebook, Twitter,

Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. With user numbers in the billions, it’s
a good chance your target patient is using one of these platforms.

As soon as you’re up and running, you can request that your patients
follow you on your chosen social media platform. Another way to grow
your followers with the right people is by social advertising. Facebook
in particular has powerful targeting tools that help put your posts in
front of the right people whether they follow you yet or not.

Besides posting blog article links it’s important to build a relationship

with your current and prospective patients. Think about posting
pictures of events occurring at your dental practice, or exciting
renovations. You could share daily or weekly dental hygiene tips, and
alert patients to upcoming promotions.

There is almost no limit to the amount of

content you could post that would help
your practice grow and engage with the
right people.

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 C H A P T ER 3

Patient
Review

Patient reviews are an important tool in marketing

based on the theory of social proof. Essentially, this
theory states that people will change their behavior
based on other people’s actions, experiences, or
thoughts about a service or product.

Per this theory, the more positive patient reviews you generate and
share with your target audience, the more likely that you’ll see growth
in your patient list.

How to Generate Patient Reviews

First, you must decide where your patients will review your dental
practice.

◆◆ Do you want them to submit reviews on your website?

◆◆ Should they do a Google (or other search engine) review?

◆◆ Would you like them to review your business via Facebook?

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 Wherever your dental patients review your practice, you can share
these reviews on your social media accounts, include them on your
website, or include them in monthly newsletters you send out to
patients or potential patients.

When patients are checking in or checking out, it’s a good time to

remind them to review your dental practice.

The best way to make sure you get a review

is to earn the review. Always give excellent
service and aim to exceed expectation.

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 C H A P T ER 4

Patient
Referral
System

Patient reviews are based on the theory of social

proof, and a patient referral system follows the
same line of thought. People are far more likely to
visit your dental practice if they are recommended
to you by a current patient.

Since patient referrals are a highly important tool, you should have a
system in place to encourage patients to give referrals. However, you
should be aware of possible legal limitations, which vary from state to
state, on giving incentives for referrals.

Goals
Once the referral program is in place, make sure your staff is fully
briefed on what it is, how it operates, what their role is, and what the
goals are for how many referrals are made. Incentives to entice staff
to participate fully could include something as simple as ordering in a
special breakfast or setting aside a half day for a fun outing when the
referral goal is reached.

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 Patient Participation
To determine the success of your referral program, you must ensure
that each new patient has multiple opportunities to tell you who
referred them to your practice. For instance, your website’s contact
form should have a spot asking who referred the new patient to your
dental practice. When a new patient comes in, the front desk staff
should ask them who they can thank for recommending the practice.
Don’t miss a chance to reward a patient when a referral is made to your
dental practice.

Advertise
Your dental office staff is participating in the referral program and you
have placed referral cards in the bag of dental supplies each patient
receives that outlines the program—this is a great start. You should
also consider making signs to prominently display in your waiting
area to ensure patients see the opportunity to refer a friend or family
member at different points of their office visit.

Don’t forget about your website. A well-placed banner on your

website that takes people to a landing page that explains the
referral program benefits is a great way to increase your patient
list. Your blog can be pressed into service as well; a post explaining
how the referral program works can be a good way to get the message
out to your subscribers. Promote the blog on social media to further
extend the post’s reach.

Once you have created a patient referral system, you will still need to
advertise it for the program to work to its fullest potential.

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 Give Thanks
While saying, “Thank You” is a great way to show appreciation instantly
for a referral, writing a thank you note is a personal touch that goes
above and beyond.

A gesture like this gives you and your

staff an added sense of community and
appreciation with your patients.

Additionally, when a patient makes a referral, make a note in that

patient’s file and thank them in person for their referral on their next
visit. People are motivated by discounts and free services, but they are
also motivated by appreciation. When thanking or rewarding someone
for a referral, you should consider any possible limitations due to
patient confidentiality.

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 C H A P T ER 5

Community
Outreach

Community outreach is an effective method of

growing your patient list. This is a broad term that
can take many forms. Consider the following ways
you can participate in community outreach and
determine which strategy could be most effective
for your dental practice.

Free Exams
For practices located in an underserved area, there are different ways
you can reach out to the community and donate dental exams. Going
to local homeless shelters and nursing homes to offer free dental
screenings is a great way to make a difference in your community.

After assisting people within your community, be sure to compose a

blog post about the experience. Interview your staff to get their point
of view about the day’s events to get a different perspective and share
quotes on social media.

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 Anyone who scrolls through Facebook or Instagram will see
immediately that your practice is contributing to the well-being of your
community.

Community Clean-up
If your community is organizing a clean-up project for public parks,
roads, or any other public place, you send members of your team out
to take part in the event. Often, these events are covered by the local
news; if your team is wearing shirts with your dental practice’s logo, it
would be an excellent source of free advertising for your practice.

As a bonus, this experience could be a team-building exercise for

your staff as well. Your team will feel good about doing good for the
community, strengthening your office culture.

Partner with other Businesses

Collaborate with another business that may be unrelated to your
dental practice but can be mutually beneficial in some capacity. You
can team up with a medical practice and visit local schools to discuss
the importance of annual dental screenings and wellness checks at a
parent night.

Ask a local gym or a wellness store if you can leave advertisements at

their front desk and allow them to leave materials at yours. In addition
to finding patients through other business’ clientele, you might find
them among their staff.

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 Booths at Community Events
Participation at community events can be beneficial to building your
dental practice patient list. Set up a booth with free giveaways; it
doesn’t have to be anything elaborate.

Something as simple as pens, stress

balls or frisbees with your logo on it are
sufficient to get attention.

Cap off the event by holding a raffle for a bigger giveaway at the end of
the day. To enter the raffle, contestants will need to give you their name
and email address; this information can be used to build an email
newsletter list.

Set up a booth at events such as:

◆◆ Fourth of July celebration ◆◆ Summer concert series

◆◆ Monthly Farmer’s market ◆◆ Local business fair

◆◆ Christmas in July ◆◆ Fall/spring festivals

No matter what community outreach strategy you want to focus on,

make it easy for people to recognize your brand and easy to sign up
to an email list. That gives you the power to reach out to these new
potential patients, giving them valuable information about their dental
health and nurturing them into becoming a new patient.

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 C H A P T ER 6

Marketing,
Promotion &
Advertising

Marketing doesn’t have to be overwhelming, nor

does it have to be time-consuming and costly.
Traditional direct mail campaigns coupled with
newer advertising strategies like Facebook and
Google ads are all easy ways to build your client list
quickly and efficiently.

Direct Mail Campaigns

Direct mail still works and is a great way to bring in new patients. It
can be expensive though, so it’s important to track the ROI of your
marketing dollars. The key to a successful direct mail campaign is
ensuring that there is a way to keep track of the results. Attaching a
coupon to the postcard that must be mentioned at the time of the first
appointment is a great way to keep track of how many new patients
this direct mail campaign brings in.

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 Cardigent is a great website to design and order your direct mail
postcards, and you can use different services to buy your address list.
Your target audience or buyer persona data will be useful here as well;
for example, if you are hoping to reach prospective patients in certain
neighborhoods, you can ensure that you send cards exclusively to
them.

Facebook Advertising
You are already using social media to engage with your followers and
alert them that a new blog has been posted. Now it’s time to expand
upon that. Advertising on social media allows you to reach prospective
patients beyond the followers of your page. Your posts will pop up on
the newsfeed of those people in your target audience.

Facebook’s advertising tools allows you to target people by location,

age, gender, job title, home value, income level, types of interests,
kids or no kids, place of employment and dozens of other ways. It is
incredibly powerful and is definitely something to look into if you
are looking to grow your patient list.

You can set a certain budget and Facebook will give you an
estimation of how many people will be reached each day with that
dollar amount. There is also in-depth tracking data that will help you
analyze the effectiveness of your campaign and where you can make
improvements.

Social media has moved beyond a method of communication with

your current patients. Now, it’s a great advertising tool that can help
you increase the return on your advertising investment.

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 Google Pay Per Click
Google is the most popular search engine that most everyone is
familiar with. Google has added on a variety of services useful to
businesses, but few are as successful as Google Adwords. This
advertising tool allows you to pay for top billing on search results
when certain keywords are searched pertaining to your dental
practice.

In other words, when prospective patients are searching for services

that match what your dental practice offers, your website can appear
at top of the page. It’s completely free to sign up for Google Adwords,
but it is a Pay Per Click pricing model. This makes it extremely
important you have your ads and keywords setup properly. If you don’t,
it’s very easy to burn through money with no results.

It’s easy to track how many clicks and calls your get from the Google
Adwords campaigns, so you can adjust your advertising campaign as
necessary.

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 Conclusion
Whether you are starting your own practice from the ground up,
recently bought an existing practice, or have been in business awhile
and are hoping to boost your patient list, these marketing and
advertising strategies are a great place to start.

As your patient list grows and your practice expands, it’s important to
consider expanding your disability income insurance as well. At Treloar
and Heisel, our insurance agents have years of experience working
with dentists from the time they graduate from dental school to well-
established practices to embarking upon retirement.

Call us for a complimentary consultation

about disability income insurance.

800.345.6040

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 treloaronline.com
800.345.6040

Treloar & Heisel Wealth Management and Treloar & Heisel Risk Management are divisions of
Treloar & Heisel, Inc. Insurance products offered through Treloar & Heisel and Treloar & Heisel Risk
Management.

Treloar & Heisel, Inc. and its divisions do not offer tax or legal advice. For legal questions and advice
related to the specifics of the above strategies, you should consult a licensed attorney in your
state.

Treloar & Heisel, Inc. and its divisions do not offer marketing advice. The information provided in
this material is for informational purposes only. This material is general in nature and not offered as
advice on a particular matter and should not be relied on as marketing advice.