There are a number of reasons patients will start a search for a new dentist. They might have taken a new job and moved to a new city, or retired and moved away from their old dentist. Or maybe they are not just no longer happy with their current dentist.

In this day of technology-driven work, we oftentimes as owners of our brand forget that it is actually the more personal aspects of how we deliver our services that make or break the experiences from our client or patient experience. Back to basics is sometimes the most powerful shift we can have within our brand, our practices. We work with specialty dental and medical practices every day to help them craft an unforgettable experience for their patients.

Marketing for dentistry can be overwhelming, especially when it comes to digital marketing. Social media platforms have many benefits, and offer a free tool for businesses, like dental practices, to engage with current and potential patients in a casual, patient-convenient setting. 

Towards the end of 2018, Facebook reported that there were 2.27 billion active Facebook users on the platform, and that number grows everyday. Your patients are on Facebook, and you should be too.

As digital marketing becomes "marketing", it is replacing many traditional forms of advertising that dentists have relied upon. (We're looking at you yellow pages). The move to digital has become increasingly competitive for dental marketers. More than 1/3rd of providers say patient acquisition is very important. In todays digital world, prospective patients have become partners in their medical journeys. Here's a look at some digital marketing stats that every dentist should know about.

Every new year seems to bring with it changes in dental website design. If your practice website is over three years old, chances are it's ready for an update. Patients are now primarily using mobile devices for search and every website should be built for mobile first. If you're planning to create a custom dental website use this blog as a checklist of must-haves for the project.

Your patients are now spending a majority of their time online, which means your marketing efforts should be online too. In previous decades, online marketing was optional for dentists. Radio, television, and newspaper ads combined with word-of-mouth referrals kept new patients streaming into dental practices. Fast forward to today, and online marketing for dentists is no longer optional; it is a necessity for dental practices both big and small.

Inbound marketing is nothing new. It's officially been around since 2006 which is an eternity in internet time. You might not be familiar with the term inbound marketing and we get it. Inbound marketing is a way to "attract" patients to your practice. The opposite of inbound is traditional advertising in which advertisers try and "pull" a patient into the practice. Think of inbound like honey (flies are attracted to it) and traditional advertising as interrupting (like when they play ads every 7 minutes during your favorite show).

The internet has caused a huge shift in expectations as far as customer service is concerned. Users want information instantaneously, and live chat is one way to appeal to this growing want. Industries like dentistry are leading the way for live chat, making patient experience easier than ever. Whether it's an appointment request or a question for a dentist, live chat puts convenience in the hands of the user.

More Americans than ever rely on Google and other search engines to find new dentists. A study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that looking for health or medical information is one of the most popular online activities for consumers. Over 81% of internet users have researched their health online, and 21% search for a doctor or medical facility using the internet. These figures are projected to only increase in the future.