If you haven’t introduced your practice to the world of digital and social media marketing, then, you are definitely not living in 2020. In social media, the first name that comes to mind is Facebook. But did you know that Instagram is fast turning into the real king – giving your practice access to a broad range of potential patients unavailable elsewhere? According to stats, Instagram is one of the fastest growing social media platforms. In Australia alone, there are around 9.5 million users. That’s about 40% of the local population! There are amazing features and applications on Instagram that allow for businesses to achieve massive follower growth, very quickly. Hence, if your dentistry services haven’t been featured on Instagram, you are missing out on the opportunity to connect with a huge chunk of potential patients. Here are 7 Instagram Hacks that will make your business generate more leads than ever before.
Hack 1: Expressive and Searchable Username
Did you know that other than the Hashtags, the only other way someone can search you on Insta is through username? This means that you can use this to your advantage by coming up with a username that is not your business name, but a keyword that people may use to search businesses like yours. For example, if you have a dental service by the name of Happy Dentist, don’t just name your username that, also add the location, like Happy Dentist Canberra. What you can also do is use an emoji in between the name of the service and its location. These emoji also add relevance and interest in your username and people are more likely to find them through the search bar of Instagram. 
Hack 2: Gaining Attention with Bio Section
You might have noticed how boring and bland the bio section that is used by most people and particularly businesses. This is the reason that nobody reads it with interest and most definitely never remembers it. You go grab attention by creating a bio section that is in bullets that are designed to highlight key features and services of your practice. Make sure you write relevant info which makes clear direct points. Then put in a link to your dental practice site.
Hack 3: Linking Intelligently with Linking Tree
Instead of using the app link tree, ask your website designer to create the same idea of link tree on your website, so that when people click on your website link, they are shown a box that is a kind of call to action, guiding them to all the places you need them to check out. They can visit your blog, gallery, price list, services and whatever other information you think is necessary for your patients to see. You can even add a video on the landing page, in which you welcome them, thank them and guide them on what they can do to find out more about you.
Hack 4: Personalise your Brand and Content
It is important you don’t weaken the identification of your practice or brand by not remaining consistent. This does not refer to not posting regularly, but simply that you remain true to your brand. It includes the use of the same fonts, colours, pictures, styles and more. You have to ensure that everything is coordinated and related to each other every time you create a new post. This way, people will be able to recognise your posts and know who it is they are looking at and how to find you from the crowd.
Hack 5: Creating Intentional and Brand Integrated Posts
It is important that all your posts, images, messages and stories be related to each other to make a consolidated whole. This is the brand image that you are trying to create for your audience. Only this is what will help them remember your product or services and want to come to you for their dental needs. Don’t post individually, but create a kind of pattern in all your posts that show the true picture of your brand. Try using Skid Social for your planning needs.
Hack 6: Socialising on Social Media
It may seem that you as a business do not need to make friends, but you do. The more you interact with the right crowd, the more you will be remembered and people will come to you, and refer you to others. Comment and interact with other businesses and they will most definitely send clients your way.
Hack 7: Custom Audience in Instagram Advertising
This is a feature that is available on both Facebook and Instagram, creating custom audience with ads. You can increase the potential of your business and outreach by opting for ads that will target the audience that have already visited your business page. This way they will see you more often in their Instafeed and are bound to think of your business when they have need of such services or products. These 7 hacks are bound to improve your business venture through use of Instagram.
Here are the Bonus Hacks I promised you!
Want some more ways to get ahead of other dental practices on Instagram? Here are some bonus hacks for you.
- Telling a Tale through Instagram Story: There is simply nothing more hot selling, than the story section of Instagram. People absolutely love scrolling through their feed, and finding out what is happening where. Stories allow them to quickly find out what’s important, without having to read an entire post that may or may not be of relevance to them. Businesses can garner interest by elements of surprise woven in their stories.
- Slider stickers help in increasing retention of target audience. You can use any from the six available to generate interest and make the audience come back for more. You can even create contests to make sure the customers are hooked.
- In the stories you can’t directly add the link to your business website unless you have more than 10,000 followers. What you can do though is, add your username, and also add a click here sticker on the username. This way people will be led to your bio page and from there can access the website!
Just remember, the key to successful patient growth from Instagram is consistency. Unless you post relevant content consistently, you won’t be able to engage with potential patients, who can very well turn into loyal customers. P.S. Whenever you’re ready …. here are 4 ways I can help you grow your dental practice:
- Grab a free chapter from my book “Retention – How to Plug the #1 Profit Leak in Your Dental Practice”
The book is the definitive guide to patient retention and how to use internal marketing to grow your practice – Click Here
2. Join the Savvy Dentist community and connect with dentists who are scaling their practice too
It’s our Facebook group where clever dentists learn to become commercially smart so that they have more patients, more profit and less stress. – Click Here
3. Attend a Practice Max Intensive live event
Our 2 day immersive events provide access to the latest entrepreneurial thinking and actionable strategies to drive your practice forward. You’ll leave with a game plan to take your results to the next level. If you’d like to join us, just send me a message with the word “Event and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here
4. Work with me and my team privately
If you’d like to work directly with me and my team to take your profit from 6 figures to 7 figures …. just send me a message with the word “Private”… tell me a little about your practice and what you would like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here