Building Your Patient Base to Sell Your Dental Practice In Winston Salem
Whether you are planning to sell your dental practice in Winston Salem in the near future or just transitioned into a new practice in elsewhere in North Carolina, you need to build your patient base. After all, competition is growing in the North Carolina dental industry. Patients go to the dentist less often than ever before, too. So to keep your patient roster and appointment books from looking sparse, you must consider how to build business. In return, your growing practice looks more appealing to anyone interested in buying.
Build an Attractive and Informative Website
A website that looks attractive, provides patient educational information and encourages engagement helps you bring in new patients. If your site looks outdated or stagnant, you can expect to reduce interest. Ensure your website spotlights the services you offer in Winston-Salem and positions your office as friendly and professional.
For your website design, you need a professional team with full understanding of SEO and design aesthetics. The site must be mobile friendly, easily navigated, informative and good looking. You need a blog with regularly posted SEO-rich content, too.
Use What Makes Your Dental Practice In Winston Salem Unique
Patients have many options for their dental care in Winston-Salem, NC. So why should they come to your office? Consider what makes you different in your market and use that as your marketing platform. For example, do you provide family dentistry or luxury cosmetic dental services? Whatever your specialization, use it to make a statement and create an image in all of your marketing materials.
Sponsor Local Events
The art of traditional marketing is often lost in the digital world, as dentists throw all of their marketing eggs into the website and social media baskets. But online is not enough, as people want a dentist who cares about their community. Sponsor local events to reach your specific market.
As examples, a family dentist can sponsor pediatric health-related 5k races or school events. Or a cosmetic dentist can create a “Makeover Your Smile” event for potential patients to learn more about cosmetic dentistry methods. When you decide to sell your dental practice in Winston Salem, having strong community ties like these look great to a buyer. Use press releases and coordinated social media activity to communicate your events to local media, too.
Ask Satisfied Patients for Good Reviews
Taking care of your patients well makes them want to support your business, too. At the same time, you will bring in fewer new patients if you do not have good online reviews. Ask your patients for positive reviews at the end of their visit. Then, several days after their appointment, email a follow-up request for a Google or Yelp review.
If anyone leaves a negative review, follow up promptly. Designate someone on your office staff as responsible for monitoring these sites. They must maintain an unemotional and kind approach to resolving problems publicly. When your staff responds quickly and shows they want to improve the patient’s experience, the public looks past a less than ideal review. Left unresolved, negative reviews work against you.
Ensure You List Your Practice in Directories
Online searches for a local dentist in Winston-Salem usually take prospective patients to a long list of directory sites. Invest some of your online marketing dollars in these directories, to maintain a listing.
Besides a multitude of general dental directories, consider listings on Yelp, the BBB, HealthGrades, Angie’s List, Vitals and other sites. Google monitors these sites, too. So ensure your listings use the same business name and contact details across the board. Any differences lead to lower search results, as Google bots consider some of the information about you possibly outdated.
Work with Local Media
Work with local media to gain ongoing exposure for your practice. Consider purchasing local television, online, print and radio ads, to keep your practice top of mind. At the same time, use your media contacts to gain publication of practice press releases. Leverage the press to become a local expert and drive patients into your door. This looks very attractive to a buyer when you seek to sell your dental practice in Winston Salem, too.
Ask for Patient and Healthcare Provider Referrals
Today, dentists must still exert energy for patient and healthcare provider referral networks. Do not rely exclusively on ads, news stories, blogs and social media to draw traffic in your door. Talk to doctors in fields that relate to yours and establish a two-way patient referral network. At the same time, ask your satisfied patients to refer people they know into your practice, too.
PPC and Ad Retargeting
Online ads are not a place to throw money to see what sticks. That quickly grows expensive. But you can leverage pay-per-click ads and ad retargeting online through professionals with experience in these methods. Set a monthly budget for online ads and talk to some experts. Although one click can range in cost from $2 to $12, these can work for attracting new patients, much like billboards have worked for other types of businesses in the past.
Get Expert Help for Building and Selling Your Dental Practice In Winston Salem & Beyond Across the United States
Never presume you can cover all of these marketing bases on your own. You need a team of experts. These experts make your life easier and help win the hearts and minds of potential patients, to draw them into your practice.
At the same time, when positioning your business for sale, you need experts who know best how to sell your dental practice in Winston Salem or elsewhere in the U.S. Call Encompass IHC today at 919-395-0444 for a free consultation.
