Growing a dental practice can be SUPER challenging with the continuous changes in the healthcare and insurance industries. You often struggle to break even financially even if you own your practice. You want to get a steady flow of leads coming in the office.
The fact that you are reading this post means you are already ahead of the curve and realize something that many dental practices do not (more than you can imagine); you should be advertising your practice online using Facebook ads.
If on the off chance that you have not started using Facebook ads to grow your practice because you are either not confident that you can actually generate leads or you are afraid that it will break you financially, then you have also come to the right place!
The number one struggle that every dentist faces is getting CONSISTENT lead flow. The number one tool successful dentists use to keep a steady stream of leads coming in, is Facebook ads!
WHY FACEBOOK ADS?
To put it bluntly, you should be using Facebook ads because that is where your clients are spending the majority of their spare time. A successful business is one that is able to solve a problem for a specific group of people, and to do that you have to know where to find them.
I know it seems like Facebook ads are really expensive, and many people are hesitant to use them as a primary lead generation source. The reality is that if you are using Facebook ads correctly and targeting appropriately, then your ROI is HUGE when you consider the lifetime value of a customer.
The secret to instantly generating consistent dental leads with Facebook ads is as simple as putting a great offer in front of an effective funnel, using four unique targeting options. So let’s walk through what you need to get started.
A GREAT OFFER FOR DENTAL LEAD GENERATION
The very first thing that will catch a prospective customer’s attention is a great offer and to develop a great offer you have to decide WHO the offer is meant for. Now, as a dentist you probably see all sorts of people with diverse demographics and that’s perfectly fine.
However, to start getting consistent leads you need to focus on targeting one specific segment of your potential audience at a time, and build an offer that is attractive to them.
The most effective (and sustainable) service you can offer to generate dental leads is a free teeth whitening session for new patients. You can then upsell them into a paid service such as a deep cleaning or cavity repair.
By first allowing them to develop trust in you with that free whitening session, you double the odds of retaining them as a loyal return customer.
The easiest segment of your audience to present this offer to is women who are 18 years old and up. Women who are brides-to-be, getting ready for homecoming or prom or have an anniversary coming up are often looking to get their teeth cleaned and whitened!
The great thing about advertising on Facebook is that you can target your ads based on these types of life events. Of course this offer will appeal to people you DON’T target, such as men or individuals who aren’t in the groups mentioned above as well.
Remember the idea is to focus on ONE audience segment (that has the ability for consistent lead flow) at a time. There are an infinite number of women who will be getting married or going to formal events making this a reliable targeting method for dental ads.
THE FUNNEL
To get those leads in your office you need to set up a funnel. It doesn’t have to be complicated or fancy to generate qualified leads. An effective funnel basically has four elements:
- A well targeted Facebook ad
- A landing page / optin page
- A thank you page
- A follow-up (email and phone call)
Each step of the funnel needs to flow seamlessly into the next and needs to be as easy as possible to navigate. Let’s walk through each step of an effective dental funnel, one at a time.
THE FACEBOOK AD
The ad is one of the most important elements of your funnel. It must clearly catch the attention of the people you are targeting as well as entice them to click the ad with a great offer.
The most effective ad type to use for setting up a lead generation funnel for your practice is a “Consideration” ad that will “Send people to a destination on or off Facebook”.
Once you have chosen your ad objective, then you need to select the targeting. This is where the segment of your audience you decided to target comes into play. Facebook will let you target based on several life events, behaviors and interests.
To attract local leads with the teeth whitening offer you will want to use the following four targeting options:
- Your City +25 miles
- Women 18-45
- Newly engaged (1 year)
- Anniversary in 31-60 Days
There are obviously lots of other ways to target potential customers which you can test on later ads, after you get a steady stream of leads coming in. These four targeting options are the strongest jumping off point.
Once you have chosen your ad objective and established the targeting, then you need to set up your ad to attract the women that you targeted above who see it.
Keep in mind you are not trying to sell something to your audience in the ad. The objective is to get them to click your offer so that you can get them to sign up for your offer and be placed on your email list. Then, You can follow up with them to book appointments and offer other services.
There are a few elements in the ad example above that you can replicate to create an effective ad for generating leads.
- The Main Ad Copy – is very clear about who this ad is aimed. It states the offer clearly as well as a few reasons that they can use the offer to their advantage.
- The Ad Image – is an attractive, smiling young woman who the audience can make a connection with. (The eyes in the picture are key for this. I recommend stock.adobe.com for great royalty free images.)
- The Ad Headline – clearly highlights the offer.
- The Ad Description – states terms and lets them know they need to sign up to claim the offer, matching the call-to-action button that says Sign Up.
- The URL – is easy to read, so the audience can find you online.
- The Call-to-Action Button – by choosing Sign Up, you are preparing the audience to enter more information once they click through.
Once the audience clicks through the ad, they need to land on a page where they can opt-in to your offer. This is how you will collect their email for your list.
THE LANDING PAGE (OPT-IN)
Now, even if you currently have a website for your practice, I do not recommend sending your leads there to collect their information. I recommend using ClickFunnels to build a simple funnel. It’s user friendly, has great customer service and has fantastic templates in place to set your pages up quickly.
Above is an example of a simple landing page that will effectively collect leads. There are two reasons why this setup is successful:
- The image and page text are consistent with the ad that lead them here. This is VERY important. When they land here it is imperative that it be exactly what they are expecting.
- The second reason this is effective is because we are asking for a minimal amount of information. You do know want the process to take more than a few minutes or feel like a prescreening process. A fast and painless experience is a great tone to set for a dental practice!
THE THANK YOU PAGE
After the patient enters their information on the landing page and clicks the “YES” button, they are added to your email list and redirected to a Thank You page. There are a few elements on this page that make it successful.
- The thank you page is a great place to create scarcity or a sense of urgency that the patient should quickly contact you to claim their offer instead of waiting to be contacted.
- This page should also have a call tracking phone number on it. At Twilio.com, you can set up a unique phone number that forward calls to your business to track the effectiveness of your ad campaign. You can also set it up to get text notifications on leads as they come in. This way you know exactly which leads are coming from Facebook!
- The thank you page also gives leads a chance to connect with you on social media. This is huge because “word-of-mouth” referrals are another strong source for leads.
By setting up your ad, landing page and thank you page by using the examples above, you position yourself to get immediate leads. However, the most important part of this process is following up with the leads and closing the deal.
THE FOLLOW-UP
The degree of which you follow up with your leads can make or break this entire funnel. As a health professional, it is crucial that you make the new patient feel like they are more than just a number to you. You have to reach them on a personal level.
The first thing you need to do to effectively follow up with your leads, is set up an email in your autoresponder to go out immediately after they click the button on your landing page. This email should again thank them for signing up for your offer as well as repeat the tracking phone number from the thank you page.
I highly recommend using ActiveCampaign as your autoresponder because it is inexpensive, very easy to setup automations and integrates with most payment processors and websites.
The second step in following up with your leads is to make contact. You need to establish a routine for this. Dedicate time every day to call these potential new patients. It may take calling a few different times to actually get ahold of someone, but keep this in mind: If they took the time to fill out the form, they want to be contacted!
THE TAKEAWAY
No matter what stage your dental practice is in, it is easy to set yourself up to bring in consistent leads. A simple four-part funnel with the unique four point targeting will have them pouring in week after week.
Don’t be obnoxious in your follow-up efforts, but do be thorough and professional. Once they opt-in you are relationship building. You have peaked their interest and earned their trust enough to get them to book their FREE session. It is then up to your dazzling dental skills to keep them coming back!