Whilst starting your dental marketing campaign, you may come across an array of options for marketing platforms.
Everything from social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook to paid ads on Google can be effective at bringing in more patients to your practice. However, running a dental practice is extremely competitive and doing the bare minimum for marketing will not get you the results you desire.
If you wish to take your practice to new heights, the Google ecosystem has several marketing platforms to help you out. One such platform is Google My Business, and it offers one of the most direct routes to being listed at the top of the Google Results Page. This would be game changing for any business since 87.7% of UK internet users use Google for all their searches.
What is Google My Business?
Google My Business is an all-in-one tool to help businesses create an online presence to reach more customers and increase profits from the Google ecosystem. It creates your business profile linked with Google Maps and allows users to post reviews on your profile.
It stores your business listing on Google’s backend servers. In addition, it includes coordinated data that Google has about your dental practice from other Google platforms such as AdWords, Google Cloud, Google Maps, Google Search, etc. It uses this to craft your business profile and recommends your practise to potential patients.
How to Setup Your Google My Business Account?
Setting up your Google My Business Profile is easy and requires a few steps.
1. Login to Your Google Account
2. Create a Business Profile on Google Maps
- Visit google.com/maps
- Search for your practice with your entire address
- If your practice shows up, you already have a profile for it, and you need to click on the “claim it” button.
- If your practice does not show up, you would need to add it by clicking “Add a Missing Place”. Then, the following page should open.
- Enter accurate details about your practice on this page and click submit.
3. Login to Your Google My Business Account
- Visit the Google My Business Login Page.
- Click Manage Now
- Fill the following information in the form that opens:
- Practice Name
- Address
- Website URL
- Phone Number
- Category
- After your account has been created, you will be directed to a dashboard with all your dental practice’s information. You can customize this page as much as you desire.
What Are Google Posts?
Google Posts platform that comes with the Google My Business Platform. This platform allows easy sharing of content from your practice to your Business Profile. Earlier, Google Posts were only available to specific sectors, and dental practices were not included, however with a recent update, they have been included for all users. With Google Posts, you can share the content of several formats, including images, text, links, and videos.
How to Setup Google Posts?
Setting up your Google My Business Account for Google Posts is simple and would take only a few minutes to complete.
- Login to Your Google My Business Account
- Click on Manage Business and Open Your Dental Practice’s Dashboard
- Click on Posts from the menu on the left
- Choose your Post type from the given four options
- Fill out all the information in the form, including Title, Details, and Call-to-Action
- Once you’re satisfied with the post, click post, and it will be posted to your profile.
What are the Benefits of Google Posts?
Google Posts can have several benefits for your dental marketing campaign. Similar to social media posts, they let you update your patients about any events, offers, or upgrades in your treatments, tools, or your dental clinic. The advantage here is that the posts are visible to all your potential patients with just a quick google search. There are several specific benefits to using Google Posts for your Dental Practice.
1. Cost-Effective
Using Google Posts is one of the most cost-effective methods of providing targeted marketing updates to your potential patients.
2. Increased Traffic and Calls
All our clients who use our Google Posts marketing strategy see a massive boost in the calls and traffic on their dental website in just five months. Dental clinics have also gone from getting only 15 calls a month to getting over 45 calls.
3. Enhanced Insights and Reports
The Google ecosystem has enhanced insights to tell you about the performance of your Google Posts. These insights allow you to measure the performance of your posts and adjust your future posts for better effect.
4. Boosted Patient Visits
Google Posts are directly linked to all your call-to-actions since they are on your Google My Business profile. This would give potential patients one-click routes towards calling your practice, visiting it, or visiting your website.
Tips for Crafting Excellent Google Posts
Simply posting average Google Posts won’t bring you the potential success which is available. It would be best if you spent time carefully planning and crafting each Google Post before posting it. While several factors can make your Google Posts better than their current state, the following should suffice.
5. Keep Them Concise
All Google Posts have a character limit of 1500, and your first seven words will show up on your post’s card, with patients having to click to read more. Keeping your Google Posts concise and clear will make an excellent first impression.
6. Use SEO
Following SEO practices in your Google Posts by including keywords has been shown to boost visibility on Google.
7. Follow Image Rules
Google Posts allows only specific image sizes, with the best being 750 x 750. You should also ensure that the image is centred, shot by a professional, and showing the best angles of your clinic.
8. Add a Call-to-Action
Several CTA buttons can be placed on your Google Post, with the most common ones for dental practices being Call Now, Learn More, and Get Directions. These will instantly prompt potential patients to perform the mentioned action and likely boost your patient numbers.
How Can You Track Engagement?
Google My Business Insights suffices for most tracking requirements when it comes to your Google Posts. This tool will show you real-time information about your post views and CTA engagement numbers. It also provides several viewing options, including viewing statistics for all posts from:
- Last week
- Last Month
- Or a specific post.
If your CTA is linked to your website and you use Google Analytics, you can use that to get an even more profound measure of your Google Post performance.
Make the Most Out of Your Google My Business Account
Using your Google My Business Account, you can get higher patient numbers and attract new patients with a few keyboard presses. While it is an effective tool for assisting practices, writing Google Posts can get hectic for anyone who isn’t a dental marketing expert.
If you are looking for assistance in using your Google My Business account, we are here to answer your call. Head45Dental is a digital marketing company specializing in helping dental practices reach their goals. We provide SEO, dental website design, PPC ads, and other marketing services for dentists and orthodontists.