Standing out in the right way

There are many ways that a dental practice can stand out from others and consistently attract new patients. For those looking to build on their dental implantology services, there are copious opportunities to develop a unique brand identity and watch your business thrive. Success relies on various key factors, including an understanding of the local market, marketing, facilities and professional skill.

It starts with a little research

If you are offering dental implants, you will already be aware of a demand for the treatment modality among patients in your local area. However, this is not the only area of research integral to predictable and sustainable growth. You will also need a comprehensive understanding of the competition.

A competitive analysis provides a crucial starting point, allowing you to identify what other practices are offering, how they might affect your business, and what their strengths and weaknesses may be. The process can be as simple or complex as you wish to make it, but it should consist of the following key areas of research:

Competitor overview – identify 5-10 practices that represent the main competition for your implant services.
Get to know each one – look at their patient reviews and overall ratings, the range of treatments they offer, the ease of their website, the popularity of their social media, the technologies they utilise… anything that makes them what they are.
Benchmark your practice against them – this involves comparing their USPs with yours to see how your business stands up to their services. This will include comparison of business size and resources, staff experience, existing professional referral networks and more.
Implement a SWOT analysis to determine their potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and then see how these compare to the same for your own practice.
Find your place in the market – consider what you offer that others don’t and know where your practice sits in the wider market. This will help you to refine your business objectives and tailor you’re marketing to increase success.

What you say, how you say it and when

At this point, it is important to create a fairly detailed marketing strategy. This should be centred around your company mission and values, highlighting your unique selling points (USPs) in an effective way.

It’s important to begin by setting specific marketing objectives that align with your overall business goals. For example, if you want to increase your practice profitability by 10% in six months, the marketing goal might be to secure an additional 5 implant patients per month for the next six months. You may also want to conduct further research to better understand your current situation – tools such as social listening can help to assess how patients or local people perceive your business, and knowing how your website traffic compares to a competitor’s might offer insights too. In addition, it is essential to know which channels your typical patient demographic can be reached on – this will likely depend on their average age, affluence, and clinical needs, among other factors.

This, combined with the research performed at the earlier stage of the process, should inform your practice positioning and therefore your marketing messages. These should be kept consistent across all platforms from the website to your socials, in-practice promotions and even how the team interacts with patients. This should be optimised to get the right messages in front of the right people at the right time, allowing you to target your marketing for increased reach and conversion rates.

Clinical excellence

A significant part of any long-term marketing strategy should be to collect patient testimonials and positive online reviews. Word-of-mouth promotion provides a powerful tool for continued practice growth – but patient satisfaction must be ensured for this to be successful.

The quality of implant dentistry provided must meet the highest standards in order to deliver exceptional outcomes and elevate the patient journey. This necessitates the constant development of clinical skill among the team, with ongoing training and education as the cornerstone of excellence.

As practitioners are developing their capabilities and confidence, it is crucial to have access to a team that can deliver advanced surgical treatments to your patients in a safe and effective way. Finding a referral practice you can trust to work with you as you grow will be key. The Centre for Oral, Maxillofacial & Dental Implant Reconstructive Surgery is the UK’s leading ZAGA Centre and offers a comprehensive range of complex clinical procedures that deliver implant excellence for all your patients. With state-of-the-art facilities and digital technologies, and a team of some of the most experienced oral surgeons in Europe, the Centre is the ideal partner for any practice dedicated to giving their patients the very best.

Don’t be afraid to be different

In today’s competitive dental market, it is important to be different and to stand out from the crowd for all the right reasons. Achieving this requires hard work, research and a cohesive approach to business development.