What is a marketing funnel?
Marketing funnels map the route that prospective patients take until they are converted into a current patient. Analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of your funnel can help you turn more leads into appointments.
Visualizing your funnel
A marketing funnel works similarly to a real funnel. A large number of leads enter into the wide end at the top, and then a percentage of them come out the narrow bottom end as patients. To raise the percentage of conversions, you need to look at each stage of the patient journey and make adjustments.
The three major stages of any marketing funnel
Marketing funnels involve these three main components:
- Awareness: The initial stage is when potential patients first learn about your practice. At this point, they likely don’t know much about you and what makes you different from other dentists in your area.
- Consideration: After a prospective patient becomes more familiar with your practice, they begin to ask questions about your services. This is where they engage with your branding and marketing materials and use problem-solving to determine whether you’re a good fit for their needs.
- Conversion: If a lead reaches the final stage, they become a paying customer by scheduling an appointment.
Maximizing impact at Awareness
To encourage prospective patients to consider your practice further your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) needs to be clear and concise, and available on all your marketing materials. Your USP is a summary of what your practice provides that your competition doesn’t, and it’s the key to helping patients learn something of value at their initial point of contact with you.
Get them to consider your practice
Your website is one of the most valuable assets for your practice during the consideration stage. Along with showcasing your services, be sure to highlight how you’re a trustworthy authority on dentistry and a good cultural fit for the target market you serve. Imagine you’re trying to build a relationship with prospects but you only have one-way communication to do it with. Gear your messaging towards building loyalty and answering all the questions a patient would be likely to ask in such a way that vital information is easy to find.
In dentistry, ease is everything for conversions
If you make it really easy for someone to schedule an appointment at your practice, more people will do it. Online booking. Appointments via text. Email. Over the phone. More options equal more conversions.
