6 Reasons Why Your Dental Practice Needs a Website | Attract New Patients and Grow Your Practice

Every business, ranging from a mammoth enterprise to a smaller establishment and anything else in between, requires a website to attain and maintain its success. Your company's online presence begins with its website, a tool that you should harness to promote your business and collect new customers. A company that purely views itself as an offline entity, refusing to conjure up any semblance of a digital presence, will be playing a risky game. Those businesses that do create an online platform are likely to reap the rewards of the worldwide web. Our team at Dr. Marketing has explained why dental practices are no exception to the rule and demonstrated how they can profit from providing a website to their patients. 

What is a website? 

A website is a series of web pages, also known as online pages, that you can access through the internet and web service on a computer, tablet, or smartphone. When you break it down, it refers to a site on the web that allows you to input information regarding yourself, your company, or any other relevant topic that users can browse by using the internet. The web address assigned to your website is what users will type into the address bar of their browser, leading them directly to your front or home page. Your home page will essentially serve as their directions from that point onward, guiding them to the information that they are searching for. Each website is designed with a specific goal in mind. 

Does every dental practice need a website? 



Every dental practice should be operating with its unique website, regardless if they intend to use it for marketing or not. Many dental practices may already have an abundance of patients and believe that their work, in that respect, is done; however, a website can function as a landing page that allows patients access to relevant forms, your company's contact information (address, email address, phone number, fax number, etc.), useful resources, and an online appointment scheduling tool. With the right information and set-up, your website can almost become another member of the staff personnel, working diligently for you. 

Why does my dental practice require a website? 



Instant credibility

Consumers, some of them anyway, are online 24/7 and without a website, many people will immediately question the legitimacy of your dental practice. Running a website, increase the credibility of your establishment straightaway. You can be the stand-out clinic from the group when you offer a website that is visually stimulating and efficiently communicates quality information to your patients. Look at your website as that first impression that you want to convey when consumers are surfing the web. 

Brand recognition

Your website will showcase your brand to prospective patients, informing them of who you are, what values you represent, and what you are about, all of which will increase the likelihood of them being sold. 

Leads

As people discover your dental practice online, they become potential leads. All you have to do is get them interested in a product or service and provide them with the online means to contact you for additional information. Then, seize the opportunity to increase your sales and ROI. 

Organic traffic

After you are officially online and have an SEO-optimized website, you might appear in Google's search results. If that is indeed the case, patients who are searching for a particular product or service may cross digital paths with your website, opening up an opportunity for your dental practice to increase its patient base. 

Customer service time-saver

On any given day, dental clinics will receive calls from prospective or existing patients that require confirmation about simple information, such as your office location or hours of operation. A missed call equals an unsatisfied customer, but a website can reduce the rate of these calls, helping patients find useful information more quickly and easily. It will also increase your staff's productivity because they have fewer calls to distract them from more imperative parts of the dental practice. 

Digital marketing

Planning on utilizing digital marketing to add to your leads and grow the practice? Driving traffic to a website or landing page can certainly get you there. An effective approach to achieving this is through the monitoring of historic traffic that has been heading to your website, as you can then target the most qualified consumers and get a great ROI on your ad spend. First, get your website up and running, because this isn't a marketing tool that can be implemented from day one. 

What should be on my dental clinic's website? 

Right now you might be asking what sort of information and links should be available on your dental practice's website. Here are a few must-have pages that need to be found by patients.

About the dentist & team

This will introduce your dental practice to the public, making them aware of your background and those of your fellow staff members. Used correctly, these brief write-ups will help you develop relationships and personal connections with your patients. 

Contact information

As patients navigate through various pages on your website, the one common denominator should be your basic contact information at the header and footer. A thorough contact page should include your hours of operation, links to all of your social media channels, your phone number, your full address, and a map that details directions to your dental clinic. For those who have a practice with several locations, you have to provide a separate page for each office, including the entire address, phone number, email address, fax number, and a map with directions. 

Treatments & procedures offered

List the specific treatments and procedures that your dental clinic offers, with a link guiding your patients to each service. On these pages, you can provide pictures or a video that helps to summarize the procedure, especially if your dental practice has innovative treatment methods that might be new to patients. Answer any questions that patients might ask about your establishment and its services because it will aid them in their decision-making. 

Contact form

To streamline the process of attracting new patients, keep a contact form on your website, as it will invite patients to conveniently complete their paperwork online before they arrive at your office. A plug-in is simple to incorporate and it will process these forms. 

Insurance information

Similarly, you can collect insurance information from new patients ahead of their consultation, using an online form. Transparency is vital, so be upfront about what insurance your practice accepts, and be sure to include details about payment plans and solutions available to patients who do not have dental insurance. 

Can I design my website? 

Yes, in short, you can try your hand at designing a website, though it would be best to entrust this responsibility to a marketing agency if your dental clinic is intent on running campaigns. Having the analytics at its disposal, an agency can adjust its strategy accordingly, producing a successful campaign that will ensure your return on investment (ROI) remains immense. 

Dental practices of all shapes and sizes need to appreciate the importance of having a website as the nucleus of their online presence. Even if you are currently getting your head around the basics of online content, feeling as though you are perhaps not tech-savvy enough or can't manage a website, you must enter the mix at some juncture. Contact our Certified Marketing Experts at Dr. Marketing and get the assistance that will help launch or modify your website.