Don’t take your patients for granted. Isn’t that the number one rule in dental patient marketing? Don’t think for a moment that a patient who was impressed with your service will come back to your clinic in a month or two. You never know what happens after the patients get out of your office. They may have to transfer cities. They may get a promotion and get better health insurance. They may be offered something better by another dentist.
Don’t let this happen. This is plain and simple incompetence and overconfidence. These things are never good for a dental clinic or any business and profession for that matter. If you want to have a chance of getting through your market, your brand needs to be visible at all times. You don’t stop marketing to your patients. In fact, you should use remarketing strategies to help them remember that, “Hey, I like that dentist and I should go for another appointment.”
Everything’s digital today, which means that your patients—past or present—are on the internet and social media. They’re browsing websites and stalking their old flames. They are talking with their friends, asking for recommendations for a dentist near them. They have totally forgotten that they liked your service or maybe it’s because it takes too long to book an appointment with you. Whatever the reason is, it’s worth looking around at what kind of dental patient marketing you are employing.
How do you remarket to your patients?
First, see to it that all the appointments on your calendar have been met. Take note of canceled and missed appointments. These are the people you should get in touch with. Make sure you have their contact information. You can begin contacting them once you’re sure they haven’t rescheduled their appointments. Give them a call or a text asking them if they want to reschedule their appointments. Give priority to those who want to reschedule. As for those who did not reply, find another way to reach out to them. Perhaps, a discount coupon is needed?
Second, find out which of your dental patient marketing strategies in the past have been ultra-successful. Maybe you can redesign these strategies and find new markets. While your target market may be different from way before when you were just starting, this does not mean that their preferences have changed. Try to reach out to a new market using some old strategies. You’ll be surprised how successful this technique can be.