Customer retention is one of the biggest challenges orthodontists have.

Orthodontist marketing often focuses on getting patients into the chair for the first time. But it also has a big role in making sure they come back again and again. And once their immediate needs are met – no matter if they’re an adult or a kid – marketing can position you as the orthodontist for the whole family.

Dentists and orthodontists alike have a standard marketing toolkit that they draw from. Often, when it’s time to make sure patients are doing their follow-ups, they will send out a mailer. Mailers are also used to attract new business from people moving into the area for the first time.

There’s nothing wrong with mailers. In fact, we argue direct mail is an essential part of marketing.

But marketing for orthodontists needs to make a connection. The way they’re traditionally done, mailers often only serve one function: Reminding people that you exist. That kind of basic brand awareness work doesn’t cut through the clutter when what you really want is brand loyalty.

For customer retention, orthodontist marketing needs to go deeper.

Your Orthodontist Marketing Can Serve Your Customers and Meet Your Goals

You don’t want your marketing to be “just a reminder.”

For real customer retention, you want to strengthen relationships between visits.

Digital marketing gives you the assets you need to do exactly that. It extends your brand marketing in all new ways, equipping you to add value for your customers and their family members even if months pass between visits. This ensures you are the orthodontist they think of whenever they have a need.

Today’s most effective orthodontist marketing is truly informational and brand-driven. It helps potential and current customers in ways that matter to them. Often, that means zeroing in on their concerns and pressing questions. These vary depending on whether they’re in treatment or considering it.

As an orthodontist, you know well all the treatment complications that can arise when someone switches from one orthodontist to another in the middle of braces or other long-term care. But your current patients don’t. In fact, their decision-making process is often guided by price and insurance.

With content, you have the opportunity to break out of the cycle and demonstrate unique value. You’re no longer a commodity competing on price, but a trusted expert and advisor. Digital marketing gets you there, with content marketing – including blog writing, video storytelling, and more – in the lead.

This gives your customers an ongoing connection to your practice. That connection is renewed every time they get helpful, informative content that meets their needs. The implied “reminder” that you’re out there no longer needs to be stated. You become a part of their trusted care team.

Content Marketing Turns Customer Transactions into Lifetime Relationships

It’s said over and over again in every industry:

It’s easier to sell to an existing customer than to find a new one.

In orthodontist marketing, this truism is turned on its head. After all, your existing patients eventually have all of their orthodontic needs met. Between now and then, your goal is to make such a strong impression that the whole family will want to work with you for years to come.

What’s more, the reviews and testimonials you win from your most satisfied customers create a domino effect that helps you attract more first-time visitors. Those reviews are far more likely to materialize as a patient grows to know and trust you, which often takes several visits.

With all that in mind, orthodontist marketing needs to keep the conversation going.

You do that through content marketing.

Content marketing consists of everything your brand publishes that’s intended to be useful to your target audience. It shines the spotlight on questions they have, but aren’t willing to call your office about. It also helps them demystify the biggest questions and worries that keep them up at night.

From orthodontists to dentists and everyone in between, the most successful brands of today have a clear, consistent content marketing strategy. That can take many different forms, from a series of doctor-focused video storytelling pieces to professional blog writing from a marketing agency.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the individual tactics that make up a content marketing strategy:

1. Blog Writing

Blog writing is the most important piece in any content marketing strategy, bar none.

Every time you publish a blog that aligns with your audience’s needs, you’re creating opportunities to be featured more prominently in online searches related to your business. That taps into a flow of targeted traffic from people who are already interested in what you have to say.

2. Social Media

Content is powerful, but it goes to a whole new level when you have an effective way of promoting it. Depending on what social media platform your customers are active on, you can build your own social community or develop methods to hook new would-be patients with your valuable insights.

3. Graphic Design

Graphic design is like the scaffolding that holds your efforts together. Nothing is truly branded unless it communicates who you are at a glance. Even small orthodontic practices benefit from defining a set of memorable visual conventions: A sharp logo, color scheme, and typography.

4. Email Marketing

Email marketing has the potential to be the most cost-effective piece of the digital marketing puzzle. If done right, it can yield more than $30 in ROI for every dollar spent. Email is more intimate than social media, winning you a greater response rate. You can share useful content and spotlight special offers.

5. Video Storytelling

Orthodontist marketing needs to speak with authority, and there’s no better way to do that than for a message to come directly from the doctor’s mouth. Time after time, studies show that video content gets more “likes,” shares, and comments than text alone, and is also easier to remember and act on.

Even if you’ve never been on camera before, the right marketing agency can provide you with all the training you need – while handling the technical aspects for you. Adding even just an intro video makes a human connection. Doing video regularly is like supercharging your content marketing.

Raise Your Customer Retention with Orthodontist Marketing that Makes an Impact

Your customers are constantly bombarded with marketing and advertising messages. Making a real connection means showing that you understand their needs and care about their success. That’s what content marketing is all about, and it can transform your customer retention.

Over time, content marketing also guides more would-be customers to your digital properties, especially your website. With a steady flow of visitors learning what you have to offer, you’ll spend more time with a full schedule and less time chasing after business – whether new or existing.

An experienced marketing agency makes it easy.

Contact us at New York Ave to get started with content marketing for orthodontists.