Journal
How to Use Facebook to Drive New Patients to Your Dental Clinic
- November 27, 2012
- Posted by: Sharky Liu
- Category: Business Featured Social Media
As a dental professional, you know that one of the best ways to grow your business is through word-of-mouth referrals. People are more likely to trust a friend’s recommendation over an advertisement, which is why it’s important to ensure your current patients are happy with your service and tell their friends and family about you.
But what about people who don’t have a personal recommendation? How can you reach them? Facebook is a great way to connect with potential new patients in your area.
Facebook for your business
Facebook can be an incredibly powerful tool for growing your dental clinic. With over 2 billion active monthly users, Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms in the world. That means that there is a huge potential audience for your dental clinic on Facebook. But how do you actually grow your dental clinic on Facebook? Keep reading to find out.
- Create a Professional Page for Your Dental Clinic
One of the most important things you can do to grow your dental clinic on Facebook is to create a professional page for your business. This page will be separate from your personal Facebook profile and will serve as a hub for all of your clinic’s social media activity. Be sure to include relevant information about your dental clinic on your page, such as your location, hours, and contact information. Creating a professional page for your dental clinic will help you appear more credible and trustworthy to potential patients. - Create a strong profile
When potential patients search for dental clinics in their area on Facebook, your clinic’s profile should pop up near the top of the results. Make sure your profile is up-to-date and includes relevant information such as your hours of operation, address, website, and contact information. You should also include some photos and videos so potential patients can get a sense of what your clinic looks like and what services you offer. - Use Targeted Advertising
Another great way to use Facebook to grow your dental clinic is to take advantage of targeted advertising. Facebook allows businesses to target their ads to incredibly specific audiences. With Facebook ads, you can target individuals based on interests, demographics, and even specific locations. For example, you can target people who live in your city, who are between the ages of 25 and 34, and who have expressed interest in dentistry in the past. Targeting your ads in this way ensures that only people who are likely to be interested in your dental services will see them. As a result, you’ll waste less money on advertising and see better results from your campaigns. You can also use Facebook ads to promote special offers or events at your dental clinic. - Boost Your Posts
Another way to reach more people on Facebook is to boost your posts. When you boost a post, it means that more people will see it in their News Feeds. You can choose how much you want to spend on each boosted post and target your boosted posts by location, demographics, interests, and behaviours. - Post interesting content
Once someone has found your clinic’s profile on Facebook, it’s important to keep them engaged, so they don’t click away. Posting interesting and relevant content is a great way to do this. For example, you could post videos of educational dental hygiene tips, articles about the latest dental technology advancements, or even fun facts about teeth! Whatever you post, ensure it’s engaging and informative, so potential patients will want to learn more about your offer. - Run Contests and Giveaways
A great way to grow your dental clinic’s business on Facebook is to run contests and giveaways. For example, you could give away free teeth cleaning or whitening treatment. To enter the contest, people would need to like and share your post and tag two friends in the comments section. This is a great way to reach more people and get them interested in your clinic. - Use High-Quality visuals
When people scroll through Facebook, they’re quickly scrolling through hundreds of posts. So, it’s important that your clinic’s posts stand out with high-quality visuals. This could be images, videos, infographics, etc.
Most of the time, people won’t be interested to check out a post with a blurry photo or a video with poor graphics. So be sure to partner with awesome graphic designers for your postings. Then, patients perceive your posts as legitimate and trustworthy because it looks professionally done. - Post Relevant and Timely Content
People want to see content that is relevant to their interests and needs. Dental clinics could share articles on oral health, tips for cleaning your teeth, or information on new dental procedures. It’s also important to make sure that your content is timely. This means posting about seasonal topics like summertime oral health tips or back-to-school dental checkups. If you do this, you will easily catch attention because they can relate to it.
The takeaway
Facebook can be an incredibly powerful tool for growing your dental practice—if you know how to use it correctly. Also, these are just a few ideas on how you can use Facebook to grow your dental clinic’s business. By creating a strong profile, posting interesting content, and using Facebook ads wisely, you can drive new business to your clinic and watch it thrive!