How to Promote Your Elective Procedures to Drive More Production

Maintaining a full schedule to reach your production goals is one of the many responsibilities your team has looming over your heads. To meet those productions goals, there’s one thing not all practices consider – it’s the appointment types on their schedule. Ideally, your schedule should contain a mix of common, more popular procedures and elective procedures to help bring in more revenue.

Here are four questions to ask yourself:

• What are your production goals?
• What are your most profitable elective procedures?
• Are your patients aware of the elective services you have?
• How are you currently promoting them?

To get more elective services on your schedule, you need to actively promote them – both online and in person. In this post, you’ll learn 7 proven digital marketing and in-person methods to fill your schedule with more high-value appointments to meet your production goals.

1. Use your website to book more elective procedures.

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Your website is the most effective tool to bring more patients to your practice. Unlike other tools and communication channels, you own your website, so you control what you put on it and how you portray your practice. Use it to your advantage!

If your elective procedures are buried in your website pages, then patients may not realize you offer them. They should be placed in strategic spots where patients would think to look and in the navigation bar under a category that relates to them.

Here are a few ideas on how to spotlight your procedures.

• Create rotating banners on your homepage.
• Use pop-up ads on certain pages like high-traffic ones or where your services are.
• Run discounts in conjunction with special events or ‘dental holidays’ like National Teeth Whitening Day or TMJ Awareness month.
• Pair services that go together and offer a bundling discount.

‍What to measure: Some conversions to measure include appointment requests for those elective procedures, direct calls, emails, and contact us form submissions. This can help inform you on what procedures patients are most interested in.

Avoid this pitfall: Make sure your website is built to convert. When patients visit your site, it should be easy for them to find what they’re looking for, book an appointment, and contact your practice. If you can’t remember the last time you updated your site, then do an audit to ensure your site is working the way it should be.
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2. Stay consistent with SEO efforts.

SEO is still a large contributor to website traffic and getting your practice found by your ‘ideal patients.’ 93% of all online experiences start with search engines. Knowing that, your website content should be relevant to your ‘ideal patients’ so they end up choosing your practice. Your content has to address what your patients are searching for and what their intent is. To get more of the ‘right’ website traffic to your site, your practice needs to implement on-page and off-page SEO.

Some on-page SEO tactics include:

• Mobile responsiveness
• Keywords your patients would type into search engines like dental implants in Chicago
• Fast load times
• Easy and intuitive navigation bar
• Create content that is relevant to your ‘ideal patients'

Some off-page SEO tactics include:

• An active Google My Business profile
• Appearing on local citation pages
• Being on online directories
• Collecting patient reviews regularly

When you do both, you’re increasing your online exposure and bringing those patients to your website. In turn, they’ll find the procedures and treatments they’re most interested in.

What to measure: There are many metrics you can track including organic traffic to your site, top keywords ranked, page speed, domain authority, and more. If you outsource your SEO services, you can work with your SEO partner to determine what metrics matter most to you.

Avoid this pitfall: Don’t lose hope if you don’t see immediate results. SEO is a long game, and you’ll see big results if you’re consistent with it. Plus, you’ll better position yourself as a trusted healthcare provider in your community.

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3. Use paid search for more immediate results.

If you’re looking for faster results, then paid search can get you there. If you choose to go this route, it helps to do some homework beforehand. This includes knowing what you’re willing to spend and what keywords you want to bid on. Having a plan and goals increases your chances of attracting patients who have an active interest in your elective services.  

Here are some tactics to follow when launching your paid search campaigns.

• Know what keywords you’re going to bid on. Examples include teeth whitening near me or dental crowns near me. Another strategy is doing procedures-based targeting vs location-based targeting.
• Have strong ad copy. Your ads need to be engaging and relevant to your patients who are searching for elective services. Include discounts or special offers to get their attention.
• Have a landing page built to convert. Your landing page needs to have a clean and visually appealing design. The landing page copy needs to be consistent with your ad copy so patients understand where they're going and will be motivated to book an appointment or contact your practice. Clearly display the form and contact info, preferably in multiple places on your landing page.

What to measure: Look at keyword performance, ad spend, and, most importantly, landing page conversions.

Avoid this pitfall: Don’t get into a bidding war because it will drain your budget fast. Monitor your spending and ad performance so you can adjust them or pause them. It’s not worth competing over keywords when it can cost you money.
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4. Use paid social to meet patients where they're scrolling.

Paid social is a more cost-effective method compared to paid search. The key to having successful paid social ads is to aim for authenticity and convey emotion so it causes patients to stop scrolling. It should feel as organic as a post you see on your feed. The main drawback of paid social is that any incoming leads could potentially be ‘colder’ because they aren’t searching for these ads like they are with PPC. Keep it in mind if you decide to try this channel and notice your leads are less qualified.

Here are some tips if you decide to experiment with this channel.  

• Get clear on your ad goals. For example, are you simply driving awareness of your elective services or are you wanting to get people to book appointments?
• Know who you are targeting and tap into their interests. Paid social uses a combination of location and interest-based targeting. Examples include targeting people who are interested in skincare like Botox in Chicago or people who care about oral hygiene in Atlanta.
• Include staff photos and testimonials to build a connection and credibility.
• Avoid stock photos. Use real ones of your practice instead.
• Use videos to capture attention like ‘get to know the doctor or practice team’ or ‘tips on how to get whiter teeth.’
• Cast a wide net to increase your exposure. Don’t limit yourself to one or two services. Work off different categories and test out your content. ‍‍

‍What to measure: This could include click-through-rates, cost-per-view, cost-per-click, and conversions like submitting a form or calling your practice.

Avoid this pitfall: Don’t be afraid to showcase your practice on social media. Paid search is the best channel to show off your practice personality and experiment with different content types and formats. People on social crave authenticity from brands and businesses, and yes, even their dentists.

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5. Don't forget to promote your services in office.

Promoting your elective services should continue even in the dental office. Now you might be thinking it can start to feel salesy if you’re talking about your pricier services, but it shouldn’t if you do it in a creative and organic way. Treat your in-office campaigns like experiences. They should get your patients’ attention and spark a conversation where you can bring up what you’re doing and what the service is.

Take this example. Your practice can take one of the unofficial dental holidays like National Teeth Whitening Day on June 17^thand turn it into an in-person campaign. You can decorate your office, set up a table in the waiting room with collateral and teeth whitening products. Additionally, you can even run ads and educational videos on your waiting room TV, so it feels more cohesive.

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6. Talk with patients about elective services on your phone.

Phone conversations are an underrated way to discuss your elective services with patients, but it has the potential to result in more bookings. According to a study performed by Invoca, 41% of patients call healthcare providers to collect more information about the services they offer. To prepare your team for these potential conversations, create phone scripts for them to reference when they’re on the phone. If a patient sees an ad on their social media feed or comes across it on your website, you can be ready to answer their questions in a confident way.

Additionally, your phone system should make it easier to have these conversations. Some phone systems have features like ScreenPop and Call Analytics to help you personalize these interactions and better understand your call performance.

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7. Use your intake forms to drive interest in elective services.

Your digital forms are another way to generate interest and facilitate conversations around elective services. This is also a more useful way to understand your patient’s dental health goals and what they value. You can customize your forms to include fields that help you build more comprehensive patient profiles.

Here are some form ideas to consider:

• Incorporate a checkbox where they can select elective procedures they may be interested in learning more about.
• Include a questionnaire to ask them about their oral hygiene goals. You can leave this open-ended and give them some options to choose from.
• Ask if they’d like to receive promotional offers.  

The more information you can gather about a patient, the better off you’ll be in understanding what they care about. You can use this information to send targeted messages and promotions about elective services that they indicated an interest in.

Promoting your high value elective services both online and in person will help generate more interest and meet your production goals if you invest in these channels and tools and are consistent with your efforts. Keep in mind that you’re not only promoting the service itself. You should communicate the experience and what they’ll feel after the treatment. Weaving the outcomes into your promotions and conversations will resonate with your patients because it will incite an emotion which motivates them to act.

The right agency partner can work with you to manage your digital marketing activities so you can get more patients through the door and increase retention.
RevenueWell’s digital marketing team has over 20 years of proven experience in the dental space so we understand the unique challenges practices face when marketing their practice and services. We offer a wide range of services including website services, SEO, paid advertising, and more to help drive awareness and bookings. Schedule a consultation today.