In this episode of the Dental Marketing Mix, DentalScapes co-founders Dan Brian and Brian Craig sit down to tackle a question they hear often: What should a brand-new dental practice actually do first when it comes to marketing? While most of their client work is with established practices, Dan and Brian have a soft spot for startup practice owners who are scrappy, budget-conscious, and just trying to get the ball rolling. This episode is for them.
You Don’t Need a Big Budget — You Need the Right Priorities
Dan opens by framing the conversation around a simple truth: a lot of new practice owners either overspend in the wrong places or freeze up entirely because they think they can’t afford to market yet. Neither is true.
As Dan says, “The reality is there’s a lot that these practices, these startups, can do very affordably, very efficiently to generate some initial momentum and get the ball rolling.”
The key is knowing what to do first — and what to hold off on until the revenue is there to support a larger investment.
Priority #1: Claim and Optimize Your Google Business Profile
Brian’s answer to “where do you start?” is immediate and unequivocal: your Google Business Profile (GBP).
As Brian notes, “That is going to be the core of your online presence, the core of your organic visibility in search. Get that started, get a couple of photos up on it, get everything set right — hey, it’s free.”
Dan reinforces this with a data point from a conversation they had on the podcast several months back: when Whitespark released its Local SEO Ranking Factors report for 2026, the GBP was still ranked number one for influencing local search results. Not your website. Not your backlinks. Your Google Business Profile — which costs nothing to set up.
Dan notes that while many new practice owners instinctively want to build a website first, the GBP really is the cornerstone of local search visibility and should be the very first thing you claim, complete, and start populating with content and photos.
Priority #2: Build a Simple, Affordable Website
A website is non-negotiable, but that doesn’t mean you need to spend $10,000 on one right out of the gate. Dan and Brian both agree that for a startup practice, a template-based site on a platform like Squarespace or Wix is more than enough to get started.
As Brian says, these platforms won’t let you compete head-to-head with a well-established practice that’s investing in a fully custom site — but that’s not the point yet. “They’ll get you from zero to $500K or so in revenue,” Brian explains. “Just do that zero-to-one where you do have the cash flow coming in and the revenue to invest in a more professional presence.”
Dan adds that Squarespace small business plans start around $20 per month — and hosting is included. With a domain registered and a clean template selected, you can have a professional-looking site up without a significant financial commitment.
Priority #3: Get Real Photography (Without Breaking the Bank)
Once the site is live, the single biggest thing you can do to make it look more credible and trustworthy is to replace stock photography with real images of your practice, your team, and your space.
Brian’s advice here is practical: you don’t need to hire a high-end video production agency. Find a local freelance photographer, or if the budget is truly tight, grab a newer iPhone and take some well-lit, well-framed photos of your waiting room, your exterior, and your treatment areas.
As Brian puts it, “What you want to avoid is a bunch of stock photography. You want to avoid looking like everybody else.”
Dan agrees and adds that most practice owners know someone in their network — a friend, a church contact, a neighbor — who does photography or video on the side. Tap those resources. Authenticity goes a long way in building patient trust online, and real photos of a real practice are infinitely more compelling than generic imagery.
Priority #4: Build Your Google Review Velocity Early
Dan calls Google reviews one of the best returns on investment in all of dental marketing — and he says the time to start building them is immediately, from the moment you open your doors.
Five-star Google reviews matter for three distinct reasons:
- They influence patient choice — people read reviews before booking
- They are an increasingly important local SEO ranking factor for Google
- They affect the performance of Local Services Ads down the road when you’re ready to invest in paid advertising
So how do you actually get them? Brian breaks down the two most common mistakes practices make:
Mistake #1: Relying on your front desk to ask manually. It sounds good in theory, but it never happens consistently. Someone on the team second-guesses whether the patient was really happy, or forgets to send the follow-up, or gets slammed at the end of the day. The ask needs to be automated.
Mistake #2: Sending review requests by email. Email open rates in consumer communication are too low. Brian says plainly: “Our world right now does not run on email. It runs on text messages.” Whether you use a simple review platform or a full patient CRM like Weave, make sure your review requests are going out automatically via SMS.
Brian also highlights a tactic he considers underrated: having a physical QR code display at your front desk — a tabletop stand or a postcard — that gives patients a tangible, in-the-moment reminder to leave a review. That physical prompt reinforces the text they’ll receive later and increases follow-through.
Dan adds one more placement strategy that DentalScapes has seen work well with clients: putting review QR code stands in the hygiene operatories. The hygienist is often the team member patients feel the closest connection with, and a warm ask at the end of a successful cleaning converts at a high rate.
The Bonus “Hack”: Incentivize Your Team
Brian closes with what he calls a hack — though he’s quick to note it’s really just human nature at work. People do what they’re incentivized to do.
As Brian says, “I would encourage practice owners to incentivize your team to get reviews. If your front desk person asks for a review and gets it, give them $25 or give them something. I think you would be surprised how fast that review number grows.”
Dan agrees and puts it in perspective: if you’re effectively paying $25 per review through team incentives, that’s one of the best marketing dollars you can spend. Local SEO, he notes, is the best ROI in dental marketing — and reviews are a very close second.
Priority #5: Don’t Neglect Your Front Desk
This one isn’t a marketing tactic in the traditional sense, but Dan argues it belongs in this conversation regardless. Before you invest a single dollar in digital marketing, you need to make sure you have the right person — or people — answering your phones and handling your incoming inquiries.
As Dan notes, conversion rate (the percentage of qualified leads that actually turn into booked appointments) is one of the most impactful metrics in your entire practice. A 10% increase in call conversion can have a massive effect on your annual revenue. The difference between a front desk that converts 50% of new patient calls versus one that converts 60% is significant — and it’s a gap that no amount of ad spend can compensate for.
Watch Out: Cheap SEO Packages Are a Trap
Brian saves one important warning for the end: be very skeptical of low-cost SEO packages targeting new dental practices. He’s seen them priced as low as $399 or $499, and while they may sound like a deal, he’s blunt about the reality.
“Anything under probably $1,500, you’re not getting much for it,” Brian says, “because it’s just such a labor and expertise-intensive business.” His advice: if you’re tempted by a mass-market, low-dollar SEO package, save your money. You’ll move the needle more by doing the basics covered in this episode — GBP, reviews, a clean website — than by writing a check to an agency that’s running fully automated, low-oversight campaigns across hundreds of clients. Dan echoes this, noting that he and Brian have covered this topic more in depth in a previous episode (the one they jokingly called “Hocus Pocus”) and that the dental space in particular is full of volume-based agencies that churn through clients at low price points with little real value delivered.
TL;DR
- Google Business Profile is the single most important first step for a new practice — it’s free and it’s the #1 local SEO ranking factor
- A template-based website (Squarespace, Wix) for ~$20/month is more than enough to get a startup practice from zero to early revenue; save the custom site investment for later
- Real photography beats stock photography every time — hire a local freelancer or use a modern smartphone; authenticity builds trust
- Google reviews are your second-best marketing ROI; start building them immediately through automated SMS requests and physical QR code displays
- Put review QR code stands in hygiene operatories — that’s where patients have their strongest team relationships
- Incentivize your team to ask for reviews; $25 per review is one of the best marketing investments a startup practice can make
- Your front desk conversion rate matters more than almost any marketing tactic — get the right person behind the desk before you spend on ads
- Cheap SEO packages ($399–$499/month) are almost universally a waste of money at this stage; focus on the fundamentals instead
Ready to Talk Through Your Practice’s Marketing Strategy?
Whether you’re just opening your doors or looking to build on an early foundation, DentalScapes is happy to point you in the right direction — no strings attached. Book a free strategy call with DentalScapes at dentalscapes.com/start. We’ll take an honest look at where you are and what actually makes sense for your practice right now.