The orthodontic industry is one-of-a-kind. Marketing to a potential patient is much different from marketing to a customer who’s looking to make a quick online purchase.

With orthodontic marketing, building trust in your brand and ensuring top-notch website visibility are crucial.

It’s undeniable that your practice needs a modern website in today’s digital world — but which specific features are key to bringing your website up to speed and ensuring that you don’t miss out on new patients?

Let’s dive into the most effective orthodontic marketing ideas and the top 5 features that are essential for your orthodontic website:

 1. Search engine optimization

First and foremost, if you want new patients to find your website, your website must be optimized properly for search engines. You could have the coolest website in town, but if it isn’t popping up when new patients search for an “orthodontist near me”, then what good is it?

Utilizing strong SEO techniques throughout the structure and contents of your website (known as on-page SEO) ensures that Google puts your site into prospective patients’ hands when they search for your services. Covering your SEO bases is how you increase your website visibility, attract more traffic to your website, and ultimately, secure new patients.

Local SEO
Local SEO plays an invaluable role in a successful orthodontic marketing strategy. Your patients likely live in your local area; most families don’t travel across the country to visit their orthodontist. Your orthodontic website should feature local keywords, like “orthodontist in [city]”, “Invisalign® in [city].”

Keywords that focus on the services you offer and the locations of your orthodontist offices indicate to Google that your website is relevant to a user’s search query. These keywords are basic factors that determine whether your website is seen as a match for potential patients’ searches.

Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO includes your citations (websites and listings – like Google My Business and Yelp – where your business information is listed) as well as link building, content marketing, social media marketing, patient reviews, and other marketing pieces that don’t live on your site but draw users to your site.

While off-page SEO isn’t technically a part of your website, it’s an essential part of marketing your practice and should be prioritized alongside local SEO/on-page SEO.

2. Prioritize convenient scheduling on mobile devices.

Nowadays, the mobile-friendliness of your website can be the make or break reason behind you attracting new patients, and missing out on new patients. Today’s consumers require a convenient, user-friendly website experience that doesn’t make them jump through hoops to contact you or schedule a consultation with you.

A website that isn’t optimized for mobile search and mobile navigation will not perform as well as a website that is user-friendly on both desktop and mobile. And that isn’t just your prospective patients’ preference, but also Google’s preference. Search engines assess the user friendliness and responsiveness of your site to determine whether your website deserves to show up as #1.

Take a look at SEMRUSH data showing the difference in desktop vs. mobile use over the past few years:

Mobile devices are accounting for 30,000,000,000 more visits than desktops today. Safe to say, most of your potential patients are searching for you on their phones, tablets or laptops.

If your website doesn’t provide an easy mobile experience that quickly responds to the user’s specific device, those users are going right to your competitors’ sites instead. Your orthodontic website should provide a clear path for users to schedule their consultation or give you a call at every point in their buying journey.

How do you do that? Include links and buttons to book their consult almost immediately on the home page, service pages, ‘about our practice’ pages, blog pages, contact pages and location pages. While some users may want to call your practice to schedule an appointment, many are looking to quickly book their appointment online.

Some users will want to schedule their consultation as soon as they land on your home page, while others may browse through your services or practice pages before taking action. Creating a clear, intuitive path for potential patients to take the desired action at any moment on your orthodontic website, on any page and any device, is key.

3. Show evidence.

Your orthodontic website provides a pivotal opportunity for you to give potential patients a taste of your quality of care. Ideally, your website accurately reflects your awesome in-office experience. We consider your website to be your virtual waiting room.

Are your patients going to be welcomed into your office with a personal ‘hello’? Or are your team members going to avoid eye contact with patients while pointing to the waiting room? Hopefully not the latter! Your website is a chance to show your patients how they’ll be treated and what type of results they can expect – before they step foot into your office.

How do you do that? A few factors contribute to providing evidence and conveying personalized care through your site:

• Display before-and-after photos that show what’s possible
• Highlight patient testimonials right on your homepage
• Create personalized content that speaks to your specific audience
• Optimize your messaging to communicate your brand and the warmth of your in-office experience

Before-and-after Photos
Including a before-and-after photo gallery of your patients’ cases allows you to show a variety of different case complexities and gives potential patients the visual evidence they need to trust your technique.

This page should live in the navigation of your website to be easily found by potential patients, and the photos should be high-quality, high-resolution, and load quickly on mobile devices.

Patient Testimonials
Similarly, testimonials and reviews are valuable pieces of written evidence that enable potential patients to hear from your happy patients and see first-hand proof that your treatment experience is up to standard.

According to a recent study by PowerReviews:

• More than 99.9% of consumers read reviews when shopping online
• 98% of consumers feel that reviews are an essential resource when making purchase decisions
• 93% of consumers will go to a business’s website to search for reviews

Patient reviews are just as valuable as recommendations from a friend or loved one. Providing compelling patient reviews that highlight the benefits of choosing your team is one of the most powerful and cost-effective ways to market your practice.

4. Create conversion-focused content.

While your SEO tactics drive potential patients to your website, and your orthodontic website design will draw users in and make an immediate impression on them, your website content helps guide and convince potential patients to ‘convert’ to the desired action (scheduling a consultation with your practice.)

Orthodontic websites should include clear and concise information about your practice, where you’re located, what services you offer, your orthodontists’ qualifications, and what sets you apart from other practices.

Your content should intentionally funnel potential patients to take the action you desire. That’s why it’s important to understand the customer journey. Knowing where the user is at in their journey — whether it’s the initial awareness stage when they’re becoming aware that they need an orthodontist, the consideration stage when they’re researching and comparing nearby orthodontists, or the intent stage when they’re ready to book an appointment — content needs to naturally guide users toward the information they need in order to make a decision.

5. Use real photos.

The best orthodontic websites are the ones that accurately and positively showcase the practice, team members and patients. Ideally, your orthodontic website feels personal, relatable, and welcoming to your virtual visitors.

Creating that sense of personability through visual aspects, like your orthodontic website design, colors, photos and imagery, helps potential patients to connect with your team and experience your practice on a personal/intimate level.

At eNox Media, we always advise our clients to opt for real photos of their offices, doctors, team members and patients to enable potential patients to attach faces to the practice. Try keeping stock photos to a minimum, or avoid using them altogether if possible.

Minimize stock photography
While stock photos can be helpful for showcasing certain aspects of your practice, such as your orthodontic technologies, it can be off-putting when using stock photography to showcase patients and team members.

Parents seeking an orthodontist for their child often want to familiarize themselves with your team ahead of time so they know what to expect and can trust that your practice provides the quality of care that they require for their child.

Stock photography can depict a sense of detachment and gives a more ‘corporate’, ‘assembly line’ feel that may not be desirable for families.

Let’s make it happen.

You don’t have to do any of it alone! You have a lot on your plate, and you’re probably not interested in building your own website, creating all of your own content, and making sure all of your citations are up to speed.

That’s what we’re here for! At eNox Media, orthodontic marketing is what we’ve been doing successfully for 20+ years. Take a look at our portfolio of website designs, learn about our growth strategies, and reach out today to start seeing a return on your digital marketing investment.

You’re not a sale to us; you’re a partnership.