How to Attract Quality Dental Patients Using Google Maps Marketing

Introduction

In the competitive world of dental practices, attracting the right kind of patients is crucial for success. While traditional advertising methods still have their place, the modern digital landscape offers powerful tools that can help practices stand out. One of the most effective of these tools is Google Maps marketing, also known as Google Business Places. This article explores how dental practices can leverage Google Maps to attract quality patients, improve their visibility, and ultimately grow their business.

Understanding the Importance of Targeting Quality Patients

Before diving into the specifics of Google Maps marketing, it’s essential to understand why targeting quality patients matters. Not all patients are created equal, and different practices may have varying preferences. For example, some practices may prefer patients with Medicaid or Medicare, while others might focus on those who can pay out-of-pocket or have specific dental needs. Defining the ideal patient profile is the first step toward creating a successful marketing strategy.

What is Google Maps Marketing?

Google Maps marketing involves optimizing your dental practice’s presence on Google Maps to improve visibility and attract new patients. When potential patients search for dental services in your area, Google Maps displays a list of local practices, often with a map and contact information. Ranking highly in these local search results is crucial, as it can lead to increased website traffic, phone calls, and ultimately, more patients.

Optimizing Your Google Business Profile

To make the most of Google Maps marketing, your practice needs a well-optimized Google Business profile. Here are key elements to focus on:

Accurate Information: Ensure that all the information on your Google Business profile is accurate and up-to-date, including your address, phone number, and hours of operation.
High-Quality Images: Upload high-quality photos of your practice, both interior and exterior, to give potential patients a sense of what to expect.
Consistent Reviews: Regularly encourage satisfied patients to leave reviews. Google’s algorithm favors profiles with consistent, positive reviews, which can significantly impact your ranking.
Business Description: Write a compelling business description that highlights what sets your practice apart from others. This is your chance to make a strong first impression.

The Role of Reviews in Google Maps Marketing

Reviews play a critical role in your Google Maps ranking. Google prefers profiles that show regular activity, particularly new reviews. This signals to Google that your practice is active and engaged with its patients. Furthermore, responding to every review, whether positive or negative, shows that you care about patient feedback and are willing to address concerns.

It’s not just about the number of reviews, but also the frequency and recency. A practice with 100 reviews from several years ago will not perform as well as one with fewer but more recent reviews. Therefore, make it a point to continuously collect and respond to reviews as part of your overall marketing strategy.

Cost-Effectiveness of Google Maps Marketing

One of the significant advantages of Google Maps marketing is its cost-effectiveness. While paid advertising on platforms like Google Ads can be expensive, especially in competitive markets, ranking organically on Google Maps can save your practice thousands of dollars in marketing costs. Over time, a well-optimized Google Business profile can lead to a steady stream of new patients without the need for a large advertising budget.

For example, in a competitive market like San Diego, a dental practice might spend between $2,000 to $4,000 per month on Google ads. By ranking organically in Google Maps, these costs can be significantly reduced, leading to substantial savings over the years.

Strategies for Ranking Higher on Google Maps

Achieving a high ranking on Google Maps doesn’t happen overnight. It requires consistent effort and a well-thought-out strategy. Here are some tips to help your practice rank higher:

SEO Optimization: Ensure that your website is optimized for search engines, focusing on local keywords that potential patients might use.
Backlinking: Build backlinks from reputable websites to your practice’s website. This helps establish authority and trust with Google.
Content Creation: Regularly publish high-quality content that addresses the needs and concerns of your ideal patients. This could include blog posts, videos, and infographics.
Engage with the Community: Participate in local events and online forums to build a strong local presence. The more your practice is mentioned online, the better it will rank.

Conclusion

Google Maps marketing is a powerful tool that can help dental practices attract quality patients and grow their business. By optimizing your Google Business profile, focusing on consistent reviews, and employing effective SEO strategies, your practice can achieve higher rankings, save on advertising costs, and enjoy a steady stream of new patients. The investment in time and effort will pay off in the long run, positioning your practice as a leader in your local market.

If you need help optimizing your Google Business profile or developing a comprehensive marketing strategy, consider scheduling a free strategy session with Kickstart Dental Marketing. With over 15 years of experience, we can provide the insights and support you need to take your practice to the next level.

Transcript

00:00:00 – “We get a lot of clients that come into us and say, ‘Hey, I want more new patients, but I want this particular type of patients.’ What we’ve found is it doesn’t really matter if the reviews are good or bad as long as you have them. You’ve got to have new reviews coming in almost on a daily or weekly basis. Google likes to see more people investing their time talking about your practice. It’s so well optimized for your phone; I mean, you can just tap and call them immediately, you can tap and message them, um, it’s just really built for it.”

00:00:30 – “Welcome to the Dental Marketing Podcast, a podcast that helps dentists win in the online world of modern-day marketing. Each week, we cover the most cutting-edge marketing tactics and strategies that are working right now across our client base to drive leads, phone calls, and more new patients for dentists. Now, here’s your host and founder of Kickstart Dental Marketing, Chris Pistorius.”

00:01:02 – “Hey everyone, welcome to the No BS Dental Marketing Podcast. I’m your host, Chris Pistorius, and on this show, we talk about straight to the point, no BS tactics, tricks, and strategies to help you grow your dental practice. Now, there’s no fluff here, it’s just great information that you can start using immediately, as in like today, to help increase your bottom line.”

00:01:33 – “Today, I’m going to talk about something very important that every dental practice should really think about, at least when they’re going to market their dental practice or they’re looking to bring in more new patients, and especially those patients that are what we would consider quality patients.”

00:02:04 – “We get a lot of clients that come into us and say, ‘Hey, I want more new patients, but I want this particular type of patient.’ And so that’s where we try to really differ ourselves from the competition. Since we’re a boutique agency, we only take on a certain number of new clients every year, and we only work with one client in every market, so we’re able to take our time and make sure we get just the right type of patients that our clients want.”

00:02:35 – “But you’ve got to make sure that you know what kind of patients you want first of all, right? Do you want Medicaid, do you want Medicare, do you want a fee-for-service, do you want somebody that’s got a lot of cash, do you want somebody that’s got a lot of issues, do you want more of the general cases? So you just got to really know and understand what it is that you want.”

00:03:06 – “But there is one place that I always talk about and I always recommend to people about how to get these quality patients with a little bit of work. You don’t even have to spend money to do this as long as you have the time and you’re willing to learn how to do it. And what I’m talking about is Google Maps marketing.”

00:03:37 – “This has taken a few different names over the years. It’s called Google Maps by some, Google My Business, the most recent and official name for it is called Google Business Places. And I’ll show you an example of this in a second, but it’s essentially a local area on the Google search engine results page.”

00:04:08 – “This is an important place to be found very high up because it’s like, I’m going to date myself here a little bit, it’s like the new Yellow Pages. I just did a podcast on some kind of the old school of Yellow Pages and direct mail and stuff like that, but what I’m talking about today is the new Yellow Pages.”

00:04:39 – “And there’s a reason for that. I want to show you exactly what I’m talking about just really quickly. I’m sure everybody’s seen it; once they see it, they’ll be like, ‘Oh yeah,’ because you’ve looked for a plumber or an HVAC guy or somebody like that. So let me show you what I’m talking about here.”

00:05:10 – “Are you looking to grow your practice but are a little unclear on what the best way is? Let us help you out. We have over 13 years of experience in helping practices just like yours increase new patient growth. Just go to KickstartDental.com and sign up for a free strategy session where we will give you some great insights on how to take your practice to the next level.”

00:05:41 – “So this is it. So this is like if you did a search for ‘Dentist San Diego.’ So the way this Maps section works, and this is what I’m talking about right here, you’ve got the map next to it, you’ve got three local listings right here.”

00:06:12 – “The only way that this pops up when you do a search is if you add a geo-modifier. That’s like if you put a city, a state, a zip code, you know, whatever it may be, that will trigger this Google Business Places section to pop up on Google by using a geo-modifier.”

00:06:43 – “So this is what I call really the money box for dentists because this is where an overwhelming number of our clients’ new patient leads come from. This is the new Yellow Pages.”

00:07:14 – “And why it’s the new Yellow Pages is because you get more information here. I mean, a lot of people will skip the paid ads. This is a local service ad because it’s a license verified by Google—that’s a whole another episode that I’ve done that you can take a look at. And then these are regular Google ads that everybody’s probably heard of.”

00:07:45 – “These are ads, and basically you pay every time somebody clicks for these, and you pay for every time you get a lead with Google local service ads. Nothing wrong with these, but they will never perform as well as good organic placement here in Google Places.”

00:08:16 – “Sometimes you’ll even see an ad pop up here, and that’s part of the Google Ads program. So if you do a Google Ads program and you let them know that you’re a local dental practice or orthodontist, whatever it may be, your ad will sometimes show up based on the keyword in this places section as well.”

00:08:47 – “But the organic section where it doesn’t say ‘This is an ad’ or ‘Sponsored’ or anything—this performs extremely well. Now, we found that obviously the higher up on the list you can get, the better. Like Mesa Dental, right? Because it’s like with the old Yellow Pages, there was like ‘AAA Plumbing,’ and the reason they did three A’s is because they would show up first according to the alphabet.”

00:09:18 – “That’s nowhere near how Google Business works here, or Google Maps or Google Places, or whatever you want to call it. It’s pretty complex. It has to do with SEO and how you rank there, and there’s over a hundred different ranking factors that we use to get our clients to show up here.”

00:09:49 – “But the reason why it’s like the Yellow Pages is because you can get all kinds of information here. You know, I can see a picture of their practice, I can see how many reviews they have, I can see their address, I can see where they’re located on a map over here.”

00:10:20 – “I can see even their latest review that came in from somebody, and if I click on it, it opens up what’s called a knowledge panel, and it shows me even more about it because I can see more pictures on the practice—is this a safe, clean place to go, right?”

00:10:51 – “I can get directions, I can save it, I can call them right here from my computer if I was set up to be able to do that. Again, the address, their hours of operation, we can go to their website from there, we can read all their reviews, any Q&A.”

00:11:22 – “So anyway, there’s tons of information you can get here that you, quite frankly, can’t get anywhere else on a Google page. And that’s why it’s more like the Yellow Pages—you just get more information from it, more people trust it, and more people use it. That’s the big thing here.”

00:11:53 – “So going back, this is the money box. If you can rank highly here, you’ll do very well. This keyword is ‘Dentist San Diego.’ Now, you may not want to show up if I put in ‘Affordable Dentist San Diego,’ right? Depending on what kind of practice you are. If you’re high-end and you do implants and you make a ton of money, that’s awesome, but you definitely don’t really want to show up when people type in ‘Affordable’ because you’re going to get a lot of those bad leads, right, that I was talking about.”

00:12:24 – “So this is a great way to get quality leads because you can run your campaigns on this with SEO based off specific keywords for your ideal patient, so it works really well.”

00:12:55 – “Now, I want to give you some proof on what I mean by this gets the best results for us. This is our internal call tracking system, okay, that we use here at Kickstart, and I’ve got it set to show me all phone calls that