Marketing a New Dental Practice: Your First 90 Days

Opening a practice is a strange kind of pressure. The fit out is done, the equipment is paid for, the staff are on the payroll, and the schedule has gaps in it that cost you money every single day. Marketing for new dental practices is not really about clever campaigns at this stage. It is about becoming visible, credible and easy to book with, faster than the practices who have been in your town for twenty years.

The good news is that a new practice can compete surprisingly quickly, because most of what decides local visibility is within your control and does not depend on how long you have been open. Here is a realistic order to do it in, split across your first three months.

Before you open the doors

The single most valuable thing you can do before opening is claim and build your Google Business Profile, the free listing that puts you on the map when someone searches nearby. It takes time to verify and time to gain trust, so starting it weeks ahead of opening is worth more than almost anything else you could be doing.

Alongside it, get a simple website live even if it is only a few pages. A holding page with your address, opening date, phone number and a way to register interest will start collecting patients before you have treated anyone. It also gives your listing somewhere legitimate to point.

• Claim and verify your Google Business Profile early
• Get a basic site live with address, hours and phone number
• Set up a phone number that someone actually answers
• Take real photographs of the practice as soon as it is finished
• Make sure your name and address match everywhere they appear

Days 1 to 30: be findable and reachable

In the first month your only real goals are visibility and response. Every inquiry matters far more than it will in a year, because each one is also a future review, a future referral and a family rather than a single patient.

That means the phone gets answered, every missed call gets returned the same day, and online inquiries get a human reply within the hour during opening times. Most new practices we look at spend on advertising before fixing this, which is like filling a bath with the plug out. Get the basics tight first, then turn the tap on.

It also helps to decide who answers the phone, and when, before the first busy week arrives. A new practice often has one person covering reception, sterilisation and stock at the same time. Agreeing that calls come first, and having a friendly message plus a same day call back promise for the moments when nobody can pick up, protects the patients you have already worked hard to attract.

Days 1 to 30: make your website answer the obvious questions

New patients choosing a brand new practice have a short list of practical questions, and if your site does not answer them they will simply pick somewhere established. Are you taking new patients? Which plans or insurance do you accept? What does a first appointment cost? Where do I park?

None of that requires a big build. A clear homepage, a new patient page, a fees page and a contact page will out perform a beautiful site that hides the essentials. Make the phone number tappable on mobile, because that is where most of your first patients will find you.

• A plain statement that you are accepting new patients
• Fees for a check up and a hygiene visit
• Which insurance or payment plans you take
• Parking, access and how to find you
• Opening hours, including any evenings or weekends

Days 31 to 60: turn your first patients into proof

A new practice with no reviews looks risky, however good the dentistry is. The fastest fix is a simple routine: after every visit that goes well, someone asks for a review and hands over a card with a link or a QR code. Done consistently, this turns a handful of early patients into the credibility that persuades the next hundred.

Aim for steady rather than sudden. A rush of twenty reviews in one week looks odd to patients and to Google alike. Two or three a week, mentioning real experiences in real words, will build a listing that quietly outranks practices who have been coasting on an old reputation.

Days 31 to 60: get known locally, not just online

Marketing for new dental practices works best when the online and offline sides point at each other. Introduce yourself to the businesses around you, sponsor something small and genuinely local, and let nearby employers know you are open and taking patients. These conversations cost nothing but time and they produce the kind of word of mouth that advertising cannot buy.

Ask any professional contacts, such as local doctors or physiotherapists, whether they are happy to have your details to hand. Referrals between local practices are quietly one of the steadiest sources of new patients in the first year.

Days 61 to 90: use paid ads to fill the gaps

By now you know which sessions are empty. This is the point where advertising earns its keep, because you can aim it at a specific gap rather than at general awareness. Target the searches that mean someone is ready to book, such as an emergency dentist search or a new patient search with your town in it.

Keep the budget modest and the tracking honest. What matters is not clicks or impressions, it is how many new patients booked and what they were worth. If you cannot connect a call to an advert, you are guessing, and guessing gets expensive quickly.

Keep an eye on what the inquiries are actually for, as well. Early on, a run of emergency patients can feel like success while your routine check up sessions stay empty. Adjust what you advertise to fill the gaps you really have, rather than the gaps you expected to have.

What not to spend money on in your first year

New practices are a magnet for people selling things, and a lot of what gets pitched as marketing for new dental practices is simply expensive noise. Some of it is useful and much of it is not, particularly when your schedule is still filling and your budget is tight.

Be skeptical of anything that promises rankings by a fixed date, anything that locks you into a long contract before you have seen results, and anything that produces reports full of numbers with no link to booked patients. Spend the money instead on being easy to find, easy to reach and worth reviewing.

• Guaranteed first place rankings, which nobody can promise
• Long contracts signed before you have seen any results
• Expensive brochures and print runs that never get measured
• A large redesign before your basic pages have proved themselves
• Bought reviews or followers, which cost far more than they return

Frequently asked

This guide is also written for Chicago practices and New York practices.