The Practicon Viewpoint by Ann Page Griffin

PATIENT ENGAGEMENT

AN ONLINE KEY TO PRACTICE VISIBILITY

In our tech-savvy culture, marketing activities for your dental practice must focus heavily online, and include a myriad of activities across various channels. Effective online marketing can begin with website design and optimization in order to differentiate your practice from others. Your site should be out-of-the-ordinary, attractive, interactive, available on mobile devices, and able to reach out and grab new patients while appealing to current ones.

Patient Engagement is the name of the game.

This concept is encapsulated in the sentiment some dental teams now express: "We want our patients to find their dental home in our office." No longer is it sufficient to "hope" new patients find your office through an occasional print ad, or a local newspaper article, or by word of mouth, or by noticing your office sign as they're driving by.

Targeted email campaigns, informative blogs posted regularly, updates about new services and technologies presented on various social media channels, and search engine optimization (SEO) are all vitally important to attracting new patients and retaining current ones.

Patients must be engaged, feel comfortable and at home while in the office, and carry that feeling and sense of loyalty when they are elsewhere. Online activities can close the gap so that, while your patients are out of the office, they are still very much aware of their dental home.

The list of online marketing opportunities is limited only by time, imagination, and expertise:

• Emailing or texting appointment confirmations
• Contacting inactive patients
• Strengthening your recare system
• Informing patients of new or enhanced services
• Birthday greetings
• Patient surveys
• Thank-you notes for referrals
• And on and on

There are two solutions for time and expertise problems:

• Outsource the work of website design and hosting services to a reputable company.
• Investigate some of the newer software that includes integrated e-services and web-based apps. With these engines, everything from first contact to scheduling facilitation to billing services to email campaigns can be entered once with automatic follow-up contacts over the course of a year.

Patient engagement and patients' sense of a dental home are synergistic concepts to facilitate meeting your practice growth and financial goals. Think of your patients as the third link in the chain of success. Engage them, online and in person, and watch your practice thrive.

Be sure to check out our Free Resources for Your Practice for additional insights, information, and practice management tips.