The restrictions on movement and businesses caused by the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic are around to stay for the foreseeable future. It is tempting to sit back, wait it out quietly, and hope that our dental practices will survive the downturn.
Now, more than ever is the time to push on with your marketing to keep your business in the minds of your patients and community.
Consider How You Can Help With At-Home Dental Needs
You know better than anyone that daily dental care is the way to a healthy mouth and gums. Adjust your marketing messaging to address the at-home needs of your patients and community. If there is a dental health product that you usually recommend at your clinic, offer it online for local home delivery. This can easily be set up by offering an email order service or with a simple to use commerce platform. Deliveries can be done by your staff or by using a local courier service.
Perhaps offer dental care health boxes for all-round dental health. A hamper of all the dental products you recommend for a family in quarantine available for home delivery.
Use your website and social media channels to promote your new delivery service and to keep your online audience up to date with how deliveries are going behind the scenes. You might be surprised by the power of a photo of a UPS delivery or table full of deliveries being prepared can have for your brand.
This pivot helps you stay in the minds of your client base and get onto the radars of potential clients.
Embrace Virtual Technology
When your patients can’t come to you and you can’t go to them, there is a possible middle ground thanks to technology.
With applications like Zoom, Whatsapp, and Skype, you can set up virtual consultations with clients who are worried about not being able to visit a dentist. This could be suitable for helping patients who are in pain and unsure if they are experiencing an urgent dental emergency. Being stuck at home can create increased anxiety for patients that could be alleviated with a little professional advice form a familiar face.
“The video call applications that are available now are useful for maintaining customer relationships from afar.” Says Rebecca Mitchell a marketer at Case Study Writing and Paper Fellows. “In a crisis situation, our customers want to know that they matter. Even a brief and informal virtual check-in can send client sentiment through the roof”.
Strategize Advice Sessions
Staying in the minds of your client base will help your clinic when it reopens. There will be less of a warm-up period of reminding people about who you are and the importance of taking care of their teeth and gums. Use your digital channels to offer advice sessions to your clients.
You may already have noticed that gyms are offering online training sessions, restaurants are offering cooking lessons, there is nothing to stop you from doing a dental practice version. A digital session like this just once a week can keep your brand alive, drive website traffic, and remind people to book in for when they can leave the house.
Have a creative brainstorm with your team about what the topics could be. Think about how people are eating right now whilst they are stuck at home – can you offer advice on how they can eat for better gum health? Think about the age ranges and what advice you can give to younger and older people. Each idea can be a separate advice session.
With Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, you can now offer a live question and answer sessions. Choose the one that suits your audience best. Audiences can field questions during the session or send them in beforehand. With any of these session types, be strategic in your planning. Email or text your client base in advance to let them know that you will be offering online advice sessions during the quarantine period. “The benefit is two-fold in that it drives people to attend the sessions but also it lets everyone know that though you can not see them in person you are still providing a great customer service experience”, John Sergeant a business writer at Big Assignments and Oxessays.
When the restrictions are lifted, social media and email inboxes will be flooded with marketing posts and emails from businesses that have had to close their doors during the Covid-19 outbreak. It will be harder to cut through the deluge of information online. By using the quarantine period to strategically stay in the minds of your clients, you are putting yourselves ahead of the pack.
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