The Essentials of Orthodontic Marketing

Last year, 95% of small businesses, including orthodontic practices, planned on increasing their marketing budgets. However, it’s not enough to throw money at your orthodontic marketing plan and hope for the best. Instead, you need to choose the right strategies for the job.

Unsure where to start when marketing for an orthodontist? Here are the nine strategies you need for stunning success.

With these strategies, you can boost your brand, attract new patients, and grow your practice!

Bite down on business success with these nine tips!

1. Update Your Google My Business Listing

In order to grow your orthodontic practice, you first need to make sure patients have every opportunity to find you online. Otherwise, they’ll find (and choose) your competitors instead.

The first step to improving your overall orthodontic marketing strategy is to update your Google My Business (GMB) listing. This listing takes up prominent space in the right-hand corner of a Google search. When people search for your practice online, your listing should pop up.

Have you moved offices recently? Maybe your hours have changed. Either way, you’ll want to make sure all of the information displayed on your Google My Business listing is up-to-date.

That information includes your:

Practice name
Phone number
Address
Website
Hours

You can also post photos and reviews on your Google My Business listing. Add photos will help people learn more about your services or explore your office space.

Make sure your address is accurate! Many people will use your GMB listing for directions to your offices. Giving patients the wrong information could leave them confused or even frustrated.

2. Smile at Your Website

Your website is one of the most important marketing tools you’ll use as an orthodontist. Even when your office is closed, your website will provide potential and current patients with the information they need. However, it’s not enough to have a basic website set up.

Instead, you’ll want to make sure you’re utilizing the latest website design and develop trends. To avoid having a cookie-cutter website, here are a few components to consider:

Your entire website loads quickly
There’s an easy-to-manage blog on your site
You’ve implemented on-page and technical search engine optimization (SEO)
You’ve avoided stock photography in place for photos unique to your practice
Contact information is easy to find
Reviews and testimonials are featured on your site
The navigation is organized and easy to use
All design components are consistent across each page
Your practice’s branding shines through the entire website

A unique website will help your practice stand out from others in the area. Make sure your site looks professional and matches your brand. For example, if you’re a pediatric orthodontist, you might want your website to look colorful and fun.

Website design trends change throughout the year. You might want to revisit your website every so often to make sure it’s up-to-date. Otherwise, patients might think you’re as old and outdated as your website.

3. Boost Your Brand

Your brand helps differentiate your practice from all the rest. It’s important to make sure your brand remains consistent as you use these orthodontic marketing strategies. Otherwise, patients might not connect your website to your social media account or digital ads.

Your brand isn’t solely visual. Instead, you’ll need to consider your:

Vision and mission statement
Logo
Color scheme
Photography
Illustration style
Voice and tone
Personality

Don’t forget to consider your unique value proposition as well. What do you offer that no one else in the area can? Use that value to stand apart from the competition.

4. Add Grin-Worthy Reviews

Reviews can help add social proof to your website. Give your happy patients the chance to tell their story. You can post reviews on your website, social media pages, and your GMB listing.

These reviews will benefit your SEO strategy, too.

Make sure to keep your reviews up-to-date. Otherwise, they’ll fail to represent your current practice.

5. Make Your SEO Strategy Shine

SEO, or search engine optimization, helps your website rank higher on search engines like Google. The higher you rank, the more people will see your practice. In addition to boosting brand awareness and credibility, SEO can also help you boost website traffic and conversions.

First, you’ll need to optimize your website based on the keywords your patients are searching for. As an example, you might want to target the keyword “orthodontic practice near me” as a keyword. Then, you’ll use this keyword in the:

Page title
URL
Body copy
Opening and closing paragraph
Alt text
Header

It’s important not to keyword stuff your content. Otherwise, you could get penalized.

Use Google Keyword Planner and Trends to determine what patients are searching for. Then, create engaging content (like videos and blog posts) using those keywords.

Use your content to provide patients with answers to their questions or helpful information.

6. Take a Bite Out of PPC

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is another great orthodontic marketing strategy for increasing traffic and conversions.

Like SEO, PPC ads appear on search engines like Google. You can also create social media PPC ads for Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

You can have PPC ads display in front of potential patients based on their location, search terms, or other demographics.

7. Stay Local

Searches that included the phrase “near me” grew by 150% in the span of just two years. If you want to reach out to local customers, you’re going to need a local marketing strategy.

First, make sure to create location-based SEO pages. If you have multiple office locations, have an optimized page for each location.

Try connecting with locals, too.

For example, you can sponsor a local charity event. Consider it a great way to improve brand awareness and meet your neighbors!

8. Remain Social

Don’t forget social media. As you start using these orthodontic marketing ideas, share your efforts on Facebook and Instagram. For example, you can post your SEO blog posts on Facebook to attract more site traffic.

Mix up your content, too. Try polls and quizzes to boost engagement.

Don’t forget to respond to the comments patients leave you.

9. Analyze and Adjust

As you start using these orthodontic marketing strategies, don’t forget to review your results. Which strategies are working? If you notice some campaigns aren’t generating results, mix it up.

Reviewing your data will help you optimize your campaigns for more conversions.