By: Codrin Arsene
Marketing has changed a lot in recent years. Gone are the days when businesses handed out flyers to people on the streets. Radio and TV advertisements are also no longer enough.
Now, the street is the internet. Most businesses have gone online to promote themselves. They create websites and social media accounts for their target audiences to see them right away. Among these businesses are dental clinics.
Dental clinics may not seem the type of business that will embrace this type of advancement. However, your competitors will get ahead of you if you do not have well-established online presence.
Digital marketing can be complicated and intimidating. It has technical aspects that may not be easy to understand. Unfortunately, with the number of websites and social media accounts on the internet, it is hard for people to see you.
To achieve the right amount of visibility online, you need to place your website on top of the search engine results pages (SERPs). You can do this by using some digital marketing strategies.
These strategies are search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Both can increase brand awareness, generate leads, and convert them to patients. Still, they have differences in terms of execution and benefits.
Even though social media marketing is popular, organic search is still the best source of website traffic. Unfortunately, internet users focus only on the results on the first page.
There are only ten listings on one SERP, so not all websites can get their desired visitors. Without visitors, your business misses potential revenue. After all, there is always a significant chance of people calling you after finding your website, primarily through mobile search.
SEO is a strategy that aims to make brands visible online through organic traffic. It uses keywords, coding, tags, backlinks, and mobile optimization to increase your ranking on SERPs organically, which increases your visibility at the same time.
Here are the advantages of using SEO to promote your dental practice:
SEO improves your overall brand awareness.
SEO gives you long-term results.
SEO increases visibility using localized parameters.
SEO allows you total control over how you want to appear online.
Meanwhile, here are the disadvantages of using SEO:
SEO takes a long time to work.
SEO needs to be updated regularly due to the constant changes in search engine algorithms.
SEO cannot promise you that it can generate your desired results.
Not all dental practices have time to build up their SEO, especially dentists entering the market. New players do not have to wait for their websites to rank organically to start getting patients. They have the option to level up with their competitors right off the bat.
PPC is a digital advertising method that allows you to put your name on top of SERPs for a price. However, you do not have to pay search engines to display your ads. You pay only when people click on them.
Search engines show them to people when they type keywords that correspond to your ad. These ads lead to landing pages created for specific purposes. They can introduce your practice, generate leads, or promote special offers.
Like SEO, PPC has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Here are some benefits of PPC:
PPC ads increase your visibility in an instant.
PPC ads allow you to use your budget the way you want to.
PPC ads can target the people you want to be your patients.
PPC ads are easy to monitor and adjust to meet your goals.
As for the downside of dental PPC:
PPC ads involve bidding for keywords that you might not win all the time.
PPC ads need you to work on them constantly, or they will stop.
PPC ads might not get people’s attention because many prefer organic results.
Digital marketing strategies have different processes, but they all have the same purpose. They help dental practices and other businesses to achieve their goals.
One strategy requires more work than the other. But it does not mean that it is the better choice. All these strategies can work together so that you can get better results.
According to Digital Authority Partners, SEO and PPC can complement each other. SEO has gaps that PPC can fill. In addition, SEO marketing helps PPC campaigns perform better.
As SEO takes a while to work, PPC ads can get you on top of SERPs instantly, as long as you put them together properly. Eventually, your SEO efforts will pay off and help you maintain your ranking.
SEO and PPC generate separate sets of data. You have to monitor both to see which aspects of your marketing efforts stay practical and those that are not. By analyzing their performance, you will be able to make the necessary adjustments.
Both strategies involve the use of keywords. Because PPC can generate faster results, you will be able to see the keywords that perform well. Then, you can use these for your website content.
As a dental clinic, you offer a wide range of services on your website. Promoting them all at the same time can be challenging. But PPC allows you to pick one of them to either introduce it to your target market or offer it at a discounted rate for a limited period.
A dental clinic needs new patients every month. Well-executed SEO or PPC campaigns can help you with this. Using them can guarantee you more conversions, which will benefit your practice.
Promoting and growing your dental practice in this digital age are an uphill climb. You are no longer competing against other clinics on the other side of your street. Instead, you are up against all the dentists in your city.
You will need all the help you can get. It includes combining two digital marketing strategies for your short-term and long-term business goals.
It can be overwhelming, especially if you think that you have to learn about SEO and PPC marketing on your own to use them. Fortunately, you do not have to do everything by yourself.
There are a lot of professional marketing agencies that can provide you with their expertise. When you decide to partner with one, it can work on both your SEO and PPC campaigns simultaneously.
Having one team handle them allows you to have a consistent marketing plan. Your SEO and PPC must know what each other is doing to put you on top of SERPs successfully.
Disclaimer: (This article is sponsored and includes some commercial links)