How to Reengage Existing Dental Patients
In dental marketing, there’s a lot of focus on acquiring new patients — and rightly so. But the strength of any dental practice rests in large part on its existing patients, and it’s critical that dentists and practice administrators keep them engaged. In this blog post, we’ll detail three proven ways that dental practices can reengage existing patients:
Email Marketing
Contrary to seemingly neverending predictions, email is not dead. In fact, a targeted email campaign is one of the most effective ways for dental practices to reengage patients. By combining educational content with direct calls-to-action and, in some cases, special offers, dentists can ensure they stay top-of-mind.
At DentalScapes, we routinely work with dental practices to generate targeted lists of patients who have not had a recent appointment or missed a routine cleaning. We then develop a customized email for this audience, educating them about the importance of regular oral health care and highlighting preventive and cosmetic services like exams, cleanings, and whitening. For practices offering orthodontic services like Invisalign, these reengagement emails are an excellent opportunity to highlight those, as well.
Beyond “one-off,” standalone dentist email campaigns, dental practices can also develop automated email sequences to reengage existing patients on an ongoing basis. Sometimes called “drip” campaigns, these automated emails ensure multiple touchpoints throughout the year and help drive additional appointments.
Retargeting Ads
With email retargeting ads, dental practices can upload an email list of current patients to Google, Facebook, or another online advertising platform and serve targeted ads specifically to those patients. These retargeting ads are an excellent opportunity to reengage patients who may not have been in the clinic for an extended period.
As with other online advertising for dentists, effective retargeting ads require clear, attention-grabbing copy and creative. Depending on the ad platform, email retargeting campaigns can incorporate static images, animated graphics, or videos. At DentalScapes, we typically recommend that dental practices create a special offer to entice patients to reengage and make an appointment.
Social Media
With organic (non-paid) posts, “boosted” posts, and paid advertising campaigns, social media is a great way to reengage current patients and get them back to the dental office. Keep in mind that social media for dental practices shouldn’t be too self-promotional—entertaining and educational content is typically best for catching patients’ attention and re-engaging them with your clinic. At DentalScapes, we develop social media content for dental practices that answers common questions and highlights the unique personality of the practice above all else.
Because patients’ social media feeds are infinitely updating and attention spans are limited (to say the least), we recommend that dental practices post as often as possible in order to maximize reach and stay top-of-mind among current patients.
Beyond simply posting to your practice’s social media profiles, you can also leverage social retargeting ads (see above) to put your content in front of your specific patients, not just your page followers.
Ready to Reengage Your Patients?
At DentalScapes we help dental practices grow with both new patient acquisition and re-engagement campaigns designed to get current patients back in the chair. Book a free strategy call today and let’s talk!