Dental Marketing on Social Media: Our Founder Jordan Agolli's Interview with NexHealth

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• Why Should Your Dental Practice be on Social Media?
• Which Social Media Platforms Are Best for Dental Marketing?
• How Do You Get the Most out of Social Media?
• How to Improve Your Dental Clinic Marketing
• Conclusion

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Introduction

Force Media’s founder, Jordan Agolli, had the recent pleasure of appearing on the “How I Grew My Practice” podcast for an interview. Sponsored by NexHealth, this 15-minute podcast show features behind-the-scenes stories about how thriving healthcare professionals built their practices. As founder of a professional media marketing agency with many healthcare clients, Jordan was invited to share his insight on social media as a marketing tool for dental practices.

For the full recording and transcript, click here.

Don't have the time to watch the whole thing? Don't worry; I'm here to summarize the key points of this interview for you today.

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Why Should Your Dental Practice be on Social Media?

Social media is a great and cheap dental marketing tool that makes new patients aware of your practice and what it is like to visit. Jordan notes that what sets social media apart from advertising options like billboards and television ads is the fact that you can easily track the data of who is interacting and what they are specifically interacting with.

Jordan notes that many business owners of all disciplines stay off of social media because they find it complicated or challenging, but he claims that is precisely what a business leader must embrace to find success. He encourages every practice to at least try social media before discounting it. It may be just what they are missing!

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Which Social Media Platforms Are Best for Dental Marketing?

Jordan cites a few social media platforms for dental practices to establish a firm presence on:

1. Google My Business
2. Google Ads
3. Traditional Social Media Platforms

1. Google My Business

When most people think of social media, they think of platforms like Twitter, Facebook, or TikTok. However, Jordan states that many business owners forget that Google is a social media platform itself, and an absolutely essential one for dental practices. 

Google my Business is usually the first piece of information about any business, including dental practices, that appears on a Google search. It features reviews and essential information like business hours, phone numbers, and addresses. 

As the first impression for most prospective patients, the information on Google My Business should be up-to-date and positive. Jordan stresses that a 5-star review is essential to standing out from the competition, so encourage satisfied patients to leave reviews!

2. Google Ads

Google Ads are any advertisements you may encounter while using Google or any non-search engine websites powered by Google. 

Given how many people an advertisement can encounter through this service, Google Ads can be competitive and expensive to use. However, Jordan states that it could be a worthy investment for dental marketing with the right strategy as these leads tend to be of higher quality.

3.Traditional Social Media Platforms

Jordan then recommends an established dental marketing presence on more traditional social media platforms in this order:

1. Facebook
2. Instagram
3. TikTok

While Instagram and TikTok could be very powerful platforms, Jordan urges dental practices to remember who will be the ones spending money. The audience on Instagram and TikTok tends to be younger compared to that on Facebook, and, therefore, Facebook matches the desired audience better. Facebook even has an ad service for business owners that targets your specific demographic, so it is a great platform to use. 

For more information on the audiences drawn to each social media platform, check out our blog post “Which Social Media Platforms Should Your Business Be On?”

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How Do You Get the Most out of Social Media?

Marketing is never one size fits all, so there is never a guarantee that one strategy will work over another for your practice. However, Jordan cites one notable strategy that he has found to be helpful for his own business and for his dental practice clients: front-end and back-end marketing.

• Front-end marketing: the pictures, videos, and reels you see when you land on someone’s profile. This information is available to the whole world, regardless of if they are in your target demographic or not.

• Back-end marketing: posts delivered specifically to those within your target demographic, even those who do not follow your account. These posts appear in feeds under the word “Sponsored.”

While it may be tempting to dedicate all of your energy to one of these strategies, Jordan stresses the importance of maintaining both: 

“The front end is important. It shows your followers that you're still active and it shows anybody that goes to your page that they're active. Whereas the back end is you're going after a cold audience of people to make your brand aware of them. You can't get more customers if new people are not aware of you, right?”

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Therefore, Jordan recommends dedicating 20% of your time online to front-end marketing. Specifically, posting once or twice a week. For the remaining 80%, he recommends focusing on back-end marketing and running ads for the practice on that platform. That way, your practice is catering to both new and returning patients online.

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How to Improve Your Dental Clinic Marketing

As someone with anxiety about visiting the dentist, Jordan stresses throughout the interview that patients “don't really care how you're going to do their filling. They want to know how you're going to treat them while they get that filling.” 

For this reason, it is important to present your practice, your team, and yourself as authentic as possible so patients feel more comfortable visiting.

“[Patients] don't really care how you're going to do their filling. They want to know how you're going to treat them while they get that filling.”

That said, always seek opportunities to express the personality and humanity of the practice or the lead doctor. That may mean…

1. Posting a Brand Video that Interviews Staff, Doctors, and Patients.

In the interview, Jordan recalls the great success one of his dental practice clients had with their personalized brand video. From just a three-and-a-half-minute-long video, commenters sang that they felt as though they were in the office and they knew the staff personally. This is a great dental marketing video to have across social media platforms to introduce your practice.

2. Creating Humble and Human Titles for Videos and Ads. 

Jordan tested several different ad titles for a dental practice client and found that one, in particular, outperformed the others every time. Not “#1 dental practice,” or “Click here for free consultation,” but “I want to be your dentist.” This title was the most personable, as it acknowledges both the humanity of the viewers and the doctor him/herself.

3. Writing Ad Copy that Sounds as though the Doctor Him/Herself Wrote It.

This is a great strategy for personalizing the doctor so long as you do not make assumptions about the viewer’s physical appearance, such as suggesting they need to fix their smile. Jordan has learned through many frustrating disapproved ads that Facebook Ads does not allow that!

4. Don’t Use Stock Videos/Pictures! 

They are a good start, but stock videos and pictures are impersonal. Make your posts about your practice. What can patients expect? What makes your practice different from the fifty others that come up on Google My Business? It’s all about the team!

Conclusion

Key takeaways:

• Social media may be intimidating, but it is a cheap and easy way to reach out to customers and analyze what strategies are working.
• Dental marketing excels on Google my Business, Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
• Typically, dental practices find success on social media when prioritizing back-end marketing, or marketing targeted toward new patients.
• Be authentic and human in your posts so that patients feel comfortable coming to your dental practice.

Social media may seem as scary as a trip to the dentist, but Jordan reassures listeners that a personable and updated presence on Google My Business, Google Ads, and other social media platforms could be the perfect way to let your practice stand out. 

But this, of course, is easier said than done. Social media requires a lot of attention, patience, and time to get the results you want. That is why Jordan recommends seeking professional marketing help to reach your goals online:

• "I don't want anyone to break the bank or to go in debt, but, man, nine out of ten people, I think, need to hire a consultant, an agency, or a part time person that they can train because I don't actually think that's the dentist's best use of time... otherwise you're going to become a Facebook ads person, a Google Ads person, and you're going to lose focus on what's actually bringing you in the revenue, which is servicing your patients."

Curious if Force Media is the best marketing assistant for your practice? Click here to request a quote! As a marketing agency cross-trained in media production, Jordan and his team have tons of professional experience that can help you reach your online goals.

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There you have it! Now you know the highlights of Jordan's interview and how to apply it to your practice's needs. On behalf of Jordan and the rest of the Force Media team, I would like to thank you all for reading and wish you good luck on your social media journey!