The kind of patients you want to target will define what kind of dental clinic you can be. You cannot have a well-defined dental marketing strategy without first identifying the people who you want to be your patients. A dental clinic is akin to a retail business. You need to know what your audience wants, as well as how you can cater to these wants.
Discount Dental Office
Do you plan to be a dental office that offers discounts and promotions? Are you centered around regular dental services such as teeth whitening, dentures, and oral prophylaxis? These are common dental services; the same ones that can be found in every dental clinic in the area. If so, you should be targeting lower-income families and senior citizens living on a fixed income.
Cosmetic Surgery
Do you want to be known for reconstructive dental surgery? Are you planning to focus more on cosmetic surgery? If that’s the case, you will be targeting upper-middle-class families. Some of your patients will be professionals such as lawyers, doctors, and executives. You may even cater to models, celebrities, and social media influencers.
Pediatric Dentist
How about the kids? Do you want to cater to the kids? Do you think you can handle being a dentist to kids? You do know how they feel about dentists, right? They’re going to be scared of you. Do you think you can sate their worries and fears? This is a special branch of dentistry. If you have that special skill to connect with kids, you might be perfect for the job.
Profiling Your Patients
Once you know who your target market is, you can begin exploring dental marketing campaigns that can attract them. Create a survey for your market to answer. You can begin gathering the information you need by asking people to answer your surveys—whether through email or snail mail. Hopefully, you get enough responses to enable you to measure what you need to know about your audience.
After profiling your target market, it’s time to categorize them into groups. You need to segregate them according to their answers. After this, you can create well-targeted campaigns in response to what they expect from your dental clinic. The design of your business and the way you market will also be affected by what you learned from your target audience.
When determining who your audience is, don’t forget about the important components of your business, too. For example, if your dental clinic is located in a business area, you can’t target lower-income families and senior citizens because they are most likely not living near your clinic.