Dental marketing that starts with what a patient is worth.
One new patient who stays is worth more than most practices spend on marketing in a year, and once that number is written down half the arguments about budget answer themselves. Dental marketing, for us, starts with that number: the listing, the site, dental SEO and the reviews, run for practices across northern Illinois.
Ask us where to start Get a free SEO auditProof, from the search box.
What people in Rockford typed into Google each month for the last year, from Google's own numbers. The dentist search does not have a season; it is the same seven hundred people every month, and each of them picks from the map. Pick either one up.
Your numbers, your arithmetic
One patient who stays is worth …. Not a visit.
Move the three sliders to your practice and the number above is yours. Nothing here is our estimate; it is your visit value, your visits a year, and how long a patient stays, multiplied.
- A patient, over the years they stay
- …
- One new patient a week, in a year
- …fifty-two of them, over the years they stay
- Where the conversation starts
- What a new patient is worth is the number every marketing decision gets measured against. We write it down first, with you, and then we talk about what it makes sense to spend to win one. Start there
Which one of these is you?
Six lines we hear from practice owners on first calls, and one of them is usually yours. Pick it and we will tell you what is actually going on underneath.
The hour the desk is at lunch is one of the busiest hours for people ringing a dentist. A call that goes to voicemail rings the next practice about eight seconds later, and no amount of marketing gets that patient back.
Start with a planImplants, clear aligners and cosmetic work are separate searches from a cleaning, made by people at a completely different point in their decision. A practice whose only page says family dentistry will keep being found for family dentistry.
The pages that do the rankingWhat moves the map is a steady arrival of reviews with replies underneath them, not a number that stopped growing four years ago. We build the asking into the end of the appointment so it happens without the desk having to remember.
How reviews move the mapCheap dentist near me and a free consultation offer will both fill a schedule with people who do not come back. Narrowing what the ads answer to, and being straight on the page about what the practice is, filters most of it out before it becomes a call.
How we run the adsA DSO can outspend you and usually does. What it rarely has is a named dentist people can look up, reviews that mention that dentist by name, and a listing that reads like a place rather than a brand. That gap is where an independent practice still wins.
How we run the listingA good proportion of people looking for a dentist at ten at night will not ring a stranger in the morning. Being able to ask for a time then and there, on a phone, is the difference between a patient and somebody who meant to.
How we build sitesAll of it, for a dental practice.
Dental SEO and the listing are where most practices start with us, and search is one of six things we run. Here is the whole shop, in your situation.
The first ninety days, for a dental practice.
In the order a new patient feels it. The listing and the reviews first, because that is where they pick.
Categories and services, hours right, accepting new patients said out loud, the plans listed, booking from the listing, and every review answered in the practice's voice. Call tracking on from day one.
How we run the listingFast on a phone, a page for every service in the words patients type, the plans on the first screen, and booking that does not need a call. If the site is sound we fix it; if it is not, we say so.
What we buildA review ask built into checkout, ads on the services with room in the chair, and the first monthly report: new patients, and where each one came from, against the number we wrote down first.
Reviews, answered in your voiceTell us where the practice is.
Three lines and we come back to you, usually within a working day, with what we would look at first. No pitch deck, no quote until there is a plan.
Or the free look first: a free SEO audit of your site and your listing, sent over with nothing to sit through. Or call (815) 880-8676.
Questions practice owners ask before they call us.
The ones that come up on nearly every first call, answered here so you do not have to spend a call getting to them.
It follows from what a new patient is worth to you over the time they stay, which for most general practices is a large number and for an implant case is a much larger one. On a first call we work that out with you, and the budget comes out of it rather than off a price list.
Cleanup on the Google Business Profile can move the map inside a few weeks. Ranking for terms like dental implants in a given town takes a few months to move and then keeps building. If you need chairs filled next month, that is paid, and we will say so.
By being findable for those searches specifically, which almost always means pages that do not exist yet. It also means photographs of your own work rather than stock, because a patient choosing an implant is buying evidence, and reviews that mention the procedure by name.
Yes, and the constraint is what goes in them: no clinical detail, nothing that identifies anybody, and replies that thank people without confirming they are patients. We write the asking and the replies to that standard, and anything you are unsure about goes past you first.
Not for search or ads. Two practices chasing the same rankings in the same town would be paying us to compete with each other. One dental practice per service area for that work, and if we are already doing it for somebody where you are we will tell you on the first call.
For a practice trying to grow, usually yes. A meaningful share of people searching for a dentist late at night will not ring a stranger the next morning. Being able to ask for a time then and there is often the single biggest change to the number of new patients.
What we won't promise you.
Dental attracts a lot of marketing that is sold on volume rather than on whether the patients stay. Here is the honest version.
It is easy to fill a schedule with people chasing a discount who never come back. What is worth paying for is patients who stay, and that is a slower number to move and a better one to be measured on.
We can make the phone ring. We cannot answer it, book the appointment or ring somebody back who said they would think about it. In this business that is where most of the money leaks, and it is inside your building rather than ours.
No before-and-after that is not yours, no language that promises a clinical result, nothing about a patient that identifies them. That is a rule about your license rather than our taste.
Nobody buys a plan they haven't seen.
The free audit is a look at what you already have and what it is costing you, sent over with nothing to sit through. The plan is a conversation about where the business is and where you want it to get to, and it ends with a path written down rather than a quote. Or you call, and somebody who works on accounts picks up.