Building your practice is a balance of great marketing and media strategies, but it’s also founded on a sound reputation in your community. Aside from getting a list of dentists from your insurance plan, here are three of the most common ways modern patients look for new dentists.

Crowdsourcing

Use images with a purpose, to illustrate concepts and guide patients to your services.

Referrals are one of the most common ways patients seek out new dentists. You will notice a pattern where a specific dentist is recommended continually through their social channels.

When people make referrals online, there is a good chance your social profile or web site will be linked, so make sure they are user friendly.

Online Reviews

Reviews help new patients decide which dentists to see and why.

Platforms like Yelp and Healthgrades make it easy for prospective patients to check online feedback. Dentists that have high ratings are more likely to connect with new patients than ones that have low or no ratings.

To help build up your ratings, consider offering incentives like monthly drawings for submitting an online review. It is also important to follow up on the bad reviews on these websites. Taking this initiative shows prospective readers you are committed to patient satisfaction.

Virtual Presence

Readability, navigation and load time are important criteria for patient-friendly websites.

The first visit to your website is extremely important. It is often the deciding factor that pushes a potential patient to make their first appointment. 

Here are a few changes you can make right now to instantly convert more of your website visitors to new patients:

1.  Check the mobile version of your web site to make sure everything is working properly. About 50% of traffic to dental websites are on mobile devices.

2. Have a clear phone number or contact option near the top of the page. When this information is hard to find, visitors leave the page.

3. Have reviews and testimonials from patients that are easy to find. New visitors need to know that other happy patients have been to your office.

Join the Ultralight Community to get early access to discount codes, products, blogs and more!