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As businesses and individuals brave through the threats posed by the COVID-19 virus, we come together as a community in this time to share what we know and help keep each other afloat as the storm passes.
As dental practitioners experience inevitable complications from social distancing and quarantine measures due to the COVID-19, our team has prepared a list of what is available in terms of market behavior and measures to your digital marketing efforts.
New Market Behavior Arrives with COVID-19
According to a recent post by iCrossing’s VP of Programmatic, Amanda Betsold stated that media consumption is up as people spend more time at home. Her blog, published on March 27th reviewed the following points:
- 46% of consumers are using social media more vs. a week ago
- Visits to news sites are up by 33% as people look for information related to COVID-19
- Visits to eCommerce sites like Amazon, Walmart, and Target are up by 3.8% and continuing to trend upward
- Visits to travel sites increased by 9.5% as people cancel upcoming travel plans
- 40% of consumers are using their desktop or laptop more vs. a week ago
- Out of Home advertising has decreased by 47% vs. a week ago
Observations on the Dental Industry
According to the latest Microsoft Advertising updates on US consumer behavior, there has been a significant spike in telemedicine, telehealth, and digital health-related searches. Between February 16th and March 16th, each one increased by 690%, 528%, and 242%, respectively. Adjusting to the current condition will allow you to stay connected with your customers as they switch to dentists who offer mobile & portable services.
That said, we have started to see:
- An increase in traffic of:
- Dental emergency services
- Online & dental consultations
- Mobile & portable dental services
- Wasted or vulnerable ad spend due to COVID-19 terms on the rise
- Exit rates on pages with no live support or no interactive components
- Clickbait news and articles on search results
- Shifts in:
- Online traffic with a jump in news reports, policies, and guidelines related to the COVID-19 virus
- All non-elective services by dental practices
Responding to the Current Market:
Before you approach your audience, define how you will support them during the coronavirus crisis.
- Concentrate on emergency dental care, such as knocked-out or loose tooth after an injury, a cracked or broken tooth that causes pain, tooth infection, or unbearable toothache.
- Concentrate on virtual & online consultations. Make sure to adjust your website for patients to be able to fill in form submissions
Use PBHS Secure Video service to improve your practice’s web presence.This teledentistry solution provides unlimited encrypted, HIPAA-compliant teledentistry consultations right through your desktop, iOS and android devices. It also includes secure two-way clinical chat, screen sharing and file transfers.
- Create informative written or video for your patients to share on your blog, Google My Business, and via email remarketing. For example, you can address some FAQs:
- What to expect from an online consultation?
- What are dental problems that require immediate attention?
- How can I reschedule my appointment?
- Tips for dental hygiene to help combat the virus.
- What precautions are you taking as a dental practice?
- How to prepare for a dental emergency?
- Inform patients on opening hours, changes in service, or home visits. Update your website and your Google My Business / Bing Places with these specifics.
- Reroute office calls to mobile phones.
- Add a chatbot to your website for easy interaction. For more on how to use chatbot technology in the healthcare industry click here.
- Communicate with your existing patient base through email remarketing. You could offer discounted packages & services for aesthetic services that can be redeemed within the next six months.
- Given the estimated shift in time spent online, reallocate your traditional marketing budget to online marketing.
- Set up video consultations to follow up with patients post-procedure.
Revising Your PPC Strategy:
- Prioritize emergency dental care (by creating search and call-only campaigns & allocating budgets accordingly.
- Increase your ad extensions to increase/gain direct engagement. Prioritize call extensions, lead forms extensions, sitelink extensions, and click to call extensions.
- Establish yourself as a trusted healthcare provider via ads on the search results page through Google My Business.
- Monitor developing events and modify your budget through budget management.
- Update your negative keyword lists at both account and campaign level using trending search queries.
Solutions For Your Business
- Google My Business: This free and easy-to-use tool helps businesses and organizations manage their online presence across the Google platform, including Search and Maps. Update your business information to help patients find your business and share your story with them.
- SEO: Organic traffic is rising fast. Make your content relevant with trending keywords to appear on the top of the SERPs
- Bing Places: This free tool enables local business owners to add their listing to Bing Maps. Being featured on Bing Maps ensures visibility and it displays content that is useful in real-time.
- Yext: The Yext Search Experience Cloud allows businesses to control facts available online wherever patients are searching for them–across search engines, maps, apps, voice assistants, and chatbots.
- Call-Only Campaigns: Call-only campaigns encourage patients to contact you by simply clicking or tapping your ad. With call-only campaigns, your bid prioritizes calls to your business over clicks to your website.
- Audience Targeting: This feature helps you narrow down probable methods to reach your target audience. As your consumers engage online, connect with them by narrowing down interests, behaviors, demographics, and locations through your ads campaigns.
- YouTube Campaigns: As consumers engage on YouTube, video marketing can help you create brand awareness, prompt consideration of your services, and drive traffic to your website.
- Microsoft Advertising: Showcase your business to exclusive audiences and expand your brand with Microsoft Advertising. We are offering a $250 coupon for new accounts who add Microsoft to their marketing mix.
Conclusion:
Once again, as we all struggle to navigate these unprecedented waters, our team is committed to working ‘round the clock to share the insights and facts that can help you and your business. Stay safe, practice social distancing, and stay up to date through our blog as we will be sharing our experiences, insights, and strategies to help you keep your Paid Advertising healthy.
