Lead generation for dentists: why most leads never become patients
By Alfredo Ferras,
A dental practice does not need more leads. It needs more people in the chair. The gap between the two is where most marketing budgets disappear.
A lead is not a patient
A form filled out at midnight is a person who was curious for thirty seconds. Whether they become a patient depends on what they saw before the form and what happens in the hour after it.
Let video do the qualifying
When the ad is the dentist explaining the treatment, the people who respond already know who they will see and what to expect. They arrive warmer, they ask better questions and they show up more often than people who clicked a discount.
Ask one more question in the form
A form with only a name and a phone number is easy to fill and easy to forget. Asking what treatment they need and when they want to start lowers the number of leads and raises the number of appointments.
Call back within minutes
The practice that calls first usually gets the patient. Decide who at the front desk owns new leads, and give them a short script. A lead that waits until tomorrow has often booked somewhere else.
Measure patients, not leads
Report on booked appointments, patients who showed and treatment accepted. Cost per lead is the easiest number to improve and the least useful one to watch.
Video marketing for dentists who’d rather be doing dentistry