Among the many questions we are being asked from our dentists, the most common one is, “What can I be doing now?” In some cases, dentists think they should just pare back or stop marketing; stop posting on Facebook, pause emails, stop their Google and Facebook ads and discontinue adding content to their website. We suggest the opposite. Now is the time to be reaching out to your patients and prospective patients as they are looking to their medical providers for advice and guidance. Not to mention, everyone is online now more than ever. This means that the information you are sharing should be valuable, authentic and educational. I know we’ve talked a lot about some of these options but in case you missed it, here are a couple ways you can stay in front of prospective and current patients:
Virtual Consults
Offering free virtual consults during this time gives you the ability to continue attracting new patients to build trust & rapport with them. You can also promote this to your existing patients. Add the virtual consultation feature to your website, send an email and post to Facebook to try and get in touch with patients who have been considering treatment but are still on the fence. This will ensure you’re doing everything you can to make the most of your downtime. The goal is to have a pool of new patients to schedule into the practice for in-office appointments once normal operation resumes instead of there being a lull in new patient flow.
Video
Video is more important than ever during this time when we are asked to stay away from public places, and even limit the time we spend outdoors. Being able to get information from a trusted medical professional is vital to your current patients as well as new patients. So much misinformation is being passed around that you can help clear up.
By staying visible now you have the opportunity to get in front of new eyes. The video can be casual and shouldn’t require much preparation. Remember to keep it steady by propping up your phone in front of you, but do make sure you have good lighting. The video doesn’t have to be too long either, just enough to give practical and helpful advice.
Based on the message in the video, you can take the information and repurpose it for a blog post, share it on social media, email to your existing patients and even a Google My Business post.
These are some of the video topics that our dentists are producing that are getting great results:
- Ways to keep busy
- Looking for the silver lining
- What does flattening the curve mean
- How to stay mentally and physically healthy
- Keep up with your routine
This time will pass and by keeping up with producing content now and offering virtual consults, you won’t be playing catch up with your marketing when you are able to start seeing patients again.
