ULTRADENT CUTS THROUGH THE "WHITE NOISE" OF WHITENING ADVERTISMENT
If you’ve experienced difficulty selling whitening procedures in your dental practice in recent years, you’re not alone. The American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry’s bi-annual State of the Cosmetic Dentistry provides data on the problem.
A vast majority of dental practice, 89%, offer whitening procedures, according to the latest available data from 2017.
However, the average number of procedures performed by each practice is down about 15% for most types of procedures compared to 2015, with the number of bleaching or whitening procedures performed down by over 40%. It’s probably not surprising that the precipitous fall may indicate a change in popularity of these procedures or a shift to home solutions.
Consumers, including your patients, have long been inundated with traditional advertising about whitening. There’s usually no story in these ads—only a visual of an attractive person with a bright smile and the hook line to buy the product. This format is all too familiar for consumers, which is why it’s also forgettable.
In a recent article, Ultradent, the company behind Opalescence Go whitening products, takes on this issue. To find out why content about teeth whitening might feel like “white noise,” the company reached out to social media marketing strategist Blake Hadley, whose agency My Social Practice specializes in content geared toward dental offices. According to Hadley, a creative social media strategy could be key to improving your whitening business.
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“Dentistry is really about relationships,” said Hadley. “That’s what social media is about too— relationships—and for dentists, it’s about using social media to show the culture and how they treat patients, but also to stay in touch with patients between those every-6-month visits to strengthen those relationships.”
For instance, rather than just running an ad about whitening, why not show the experience of a patient coming to your office to get his or her teeth whitened? By showing the process and the products you use, you’re also showing the quality of care your office provides, instead of just “before-and-after” photos.
The universal appeal of tooth whitening is an opportunity to broaden your audience.
As a recent example of strategy, My Social Practice recently implemented social media influencers to help with Smiles for Life, an annual campaign in which hundreds of dental practices throughout the U.S. and Canada professionally whiten teeth to raise money for children’s charities. Ultradent donates all of the teeth whitening supplies for this campaign and participating dentists donate all of their time to whiten teeth, with all proceeds benefiting the foundation.
To get the word out about this charitable cause, My Social Practice worked with social media influencers who do exactly as their name describes—influence an audience. Over a fourth-month period, 90 influencers generated 3,700 website clicks, 86,000 social engagements and 2.1 million impressions.
A similar strategy can be implemented to draw teeth-whitening patients to your practice.
For example, an influencer might post an Instagram story using Ultradent’s Opalescence Go whitening and point viewers to your office as a place where they can purchase the product. This can tie into a promotional opportunity to follow your practice’s page and comment on the post to receive a free sample of Opalescence Whitening Toothpaste.
Of course, influencer marketing may cost money upfront and may only be reserved for special campaigns. Ordinarily, your practice may be posting on social media on a daily basis to engage with current “fans” or patients. A successful social media strategy involves both entertainment and education or “edutainment.” The staff member who posts on social media should remember to be sincere and candid, and talk to the audience as a person, not as a business.
Also, understanding the analytics of your audience is important for publishing successful content.
Be mindful about creating content around holidays and special occasions, and pay attention to the time of day you post relative to engagement.
To read more about specific social media platforms and strategies and the importance of social media scheduling, read Ultradent’s full blog post.
Pressed for Time?
As a practitioner of its own social media strategy, Ultradent knows that scheduling and consistency can be challenging. That’s why they created an online resource of free marketing materials for whitening, including everything from social shareables and waiting room videos to flyers and educational resources.
Visit www.ultradent.com/opalescence to learn more.
Don't Forget to Download the FREE marketing materials Here!
