15 Orthodontic Marketing Strategies You Need to Use Right Now

1. Target Customer Pain Points

The first step is to identify your target audience and to market based on their pain points. What frustrates your demographic the most about seeking out orthodontic services?
Some of the pain points your demographic could have include:

• Fear of visiting an orthodontist
• Concerns over affordability
• A lack of an online booking system

The easiest way to find out what your customers really think is to ask them. Talk to your existing patients and get their honest feedback.

Pain points are the anchors for your entire marketing strategy.

2. Create a Unique Brand

Branding is everything from your name to your logo. It encompasses your brand’s story and allows you to stand out amidst a sea of other orthodontists.

Your brand will evolve. What’s important is that your brand is front and center. Keep it consistent across all your communication channels and ensure your values are represented within every interaction with the general public.

3. Modernize Your Website

A simple orthodontics marketing option is to modernize your website. This is one piece of online real estate that’s truly your own. Modern patients want a great online experience.

Here are some of the things to think about:

• The mobile experience
• Modern aesthetics
• High-quality photos
• Simple user interface
• Copy that sells

You can also use modern-day cloud computing solutions to analyze consumer behavior. See what people are doing when they visit your website and get the vital stats to see whether they’re staying or clicking away.

5. Show Off Your Team

One of the best orthodontic marketing ideas is to show off who you are. Don’t be another faceless orthodontist.

Instead, introduce your prospective patients to your team. Give them names, faces, and stories they can connect to within your marketing

Every minute of the day presents an opportunity. From videos taken on a team-building day to lunchtime fun at work, let your patients get to know your staff on a personal level.

6. Make Orthodontic Treatment Fun

New patients are often nervous about starting orthodontic treatment. This anxiousness is often associated with the treatments themselves and implementing changes to their diets.

Make orthodontic treatment engaging with promotions like goodie bags (featuring toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, etc.), or even a gift certificate. Not only are orthodontic promotions great for individual patients, but they’re also another source of marketing content.

7. Host an Online Giveaway

Another way to create engagement is to host an online giveaway. Everyone loves the chance to win something free, and it can gain your practice lots of exposure.

For example, why not offer a small prize to people who commit to a 30-day flossing pledge and post a photo online of their daily regimen?

Little orthodontic promotions like this are easy and cost-effective to implement yet create a huge amount of engagement.

8. Highlight Safety Procedures

COVID-19 is here to stay, and close-contact patient services are a potential worry for many patients. Even if most of your patients have started to move on, there will be a considerable number who remain concerned about the spread of the virus for years to come.

Take the time to highlight what you’re doing to halt the spread of COVID-19. It shows that you’re serious about the safety and well-being of your patients.

10. Highlight Important Events in the Lives of Your Staff/Patients

Strong relationships lie at the heart of the doctor-patient relationship. Effective orthodontic marketing puts these relationships as the foundation of any campaign.

Some orthodontic marketing tips for building these connections include:

• Celebrating patients who got their braces removed
• A staff member’s birthday
• New members of the team
• Patient of the Day promotions

11. Include Transparent Pricing

Historically, healthcare providers have always avoided listing their prices. The logic behind this was to encourage patients to contact them directly and to stop their competitors from undercutting them.

This trend is steadily shifting as patients consider pricing important, and they want to know about it immediately.

Something as simple as transparent pricing is a marketing point. Many patients won’t even consider an orthodontist without publicly listed prices.

12. Add a Live Chat Option to Your Website

Customer service is a battleground for orthodontists. Patients want immediate information, and they don’t want to wait for you to call them back.

A live chat option linked to your reception desk during office hours is one of the best marketing ideas for orthodontic offices at your disposal.

13. Focus on Gathering Patient Reviews

The importance of reviews cannot be understated. A positive word from a fellow patient outweighs anything you can say about yourself.

Focus your marketing campaign on gathering as many genuine patient reviews as you possibly can. Ask your patients to leave a review. Explain to them why it helps your business and how much it means to them.

Simply hoping a patient will leave a review is not enough. You need to actively solicit reviews on a regular basis in order to elevate yourself above the competition.

15. Invest in Local SEO

Google actively prioritizes local businesses within its search rankings. If you have the budget, start investing in local SEO.

Make sure you have an active Google My Business profile. Create great content aimed at your local community, and optimize it with the right keywords.

It’s a big project, but investing in local SEO can pay dividends. After all, the chances are your ortho marketing campaign is aimed at your city or county, rather than the entire world.

To further enhance your reach, you may even want to experiment with paid advertising on Google and social media.