How to Create Your 2021 Marketing Plan in this Crazy World
Creating a marketing plan for next year sounds ridiculous. After all, we created all sorts of plans...
2020 has been a year of extreme changes in the way we live, communicate, and interact, and marketing your dental practice has been through its fair share of changes as well. For starters, your business’ online presence is more important now than ever.
In-person communications came to a halt, which shifted many of us to a digital space, and many businesses were forced to close their doors temporarily. Now that we’re all trying our best to keep going, patients are regularly visiting the dentist as they had pre-pandemic.
But with this digital shift, how can you be sure you are implementing the correct marketing tools to increase your dental office’s success? Marketing changes every day, and dental marketing has seen massive changes this year. Let’s go over a few of the ways it has changed and some trends to make a note of as we move into 2021.
Social Media
As we know, face-to-face contact slowed down tremendously this year, and positive interaction with patients is crucial for several reasons. Dentists get up close and personal with their patients, so being able to converse and have a positive relationship is vital. However, with the current state of the world, that interaction has become a bit more complicated.
A fundamental way to combat this issue is social media. Having a strong social media presence with multiple postings a week is essential, but interacting with your followers takes it a step further. Don’t stop at posting. Be sure to like your followers’ posts, interact with comments, respond to messages, and reshare relevant posts. Your social media presence sends a wonderful message to your followers and patients about you and your practice.
Video
We discussed that a robust online presence is essential to your marketing plan, and there are ways to outdo your competitors. Our highest recommendation is adding videos to your website and social media pages and using them for advertisements. Did you know that users are 27.4 times more likely to click through online video ads than still posts? Videos help patients and potential new clients observe your personalities and the general climate of the practice. Video can also offer useful information. Need help with videos? Contact the DofM team.
Infection Control Messaging
Many people stayed away from dental offices at the beginning of the pandemic back in March. Fearful of being infected, many chose to miss their bi-annual checkup. As people have become more comfortable and aware of the precautions we take and how/why they work, such as masks, patient visits have returned to a somewhat typical level for most of our clients. But there is still a portion of people who are not comfortable visiting any medical office.
An effective way to defeat this problem is to make people aware of infection control practices within the office. Signage, social media posts, and notes on your website are great places to start. Make sure your clients are aware of your disinfecting, social distancing, and COVID-19 related policies so that they feel safe and comfortable in your office.
2020 has been filled with change. However, the importance of online presence isn’t going anywhere. Dentists, if you need help with your online marketing strategy and want to see your business grow in 2021, contact us by visiting our website.