Decoding the Private Dentistry Sector: Market Research Insights

Dental marketing is the strategy by which dental clinics use to attract and retain new patients as well as increase awareness of their brand and the particular services that they offer. If you want your dental practice to thrive in an already competitive market, in addition to providing superb dental care, you need to get the word out there for your clinic. Without effective marketing and advertising you could be missing out on a large chunk of the potential patient pool.

Using Dental Market Research Agencies

Hiring a digital agency to help with your dental practice’s market research brings many advantages such as bringing expertise and industry know-how to the table. These agencies can also:
● analyse what current marketing you have already done and if it’s been successful.
● learn about other dentists in your local area to determine and differentiate your clinic from the competition.
● identify and understand your target market in greater detail.
● determine how much new business your dental practice can handle.
● identify, evaluate and explain why private dentistry treatment still beats more affordable options from the NHS.
● help design and set up your clinic’s website.
● set up ads on Google, Facebook and Instagram, or even your own dedicated Facebook page.

Advertising Campaigns

With market research in hand, you can now begin to start on new advertising campaigns primarily aimed at your local area or specific treatments. This involves setting up a chic and sophisticated looking dental clinic website. When patients search for their local dentist, your practice wants to appear high on the search page, and definitely on the first page as studies have shown that 75% of Google searchers do not look past the first page of search results. Also remember that letters and flyers in your local area offering discounts on dental treatments are an excellent method of increasing the size of your clientele.

Another important aspect of your advertising should feature patient reviews as it has been shown that 93% of online testimonials and reviews impact customers’ decision to choose a company or buy a product. Your dental practice should provide reviews, in order of importance, under Google, Facebook, Yelp and other online directories.

Facebook is an extremely beneficial tool to have in your arsenal, as you can use it to share photos and videos of before and after for patients who have undergone significant treatment such as the addition of veneers, Invisalign, or teeth whitening.

Educational Videos and Blogs

Did you know the average internet user spends 88% more time on a webpage with video than one with words only? So, why not use a video blog? Educational videos either on your website itself or on Facebook will definitely set you apart from the competition. Another humanising method to establish confidence in patients is to create a few physician introduction videos that puts a face to a name.

Ideas for educational videos or blog topics include:

● How can I prevent cavities?
● Is charcoal bad for my teeth?
● How often do I actually need to floss?
● Does my toothpaste need to include fluoride?
● How much does a dental cleaning cost?
● How much does a tooth extraction cost?
● Are electronic toothbrushes really better than manual ones?

Market Size

Total expenditure on dental treatments has been estimated at £7.02bn in 2020, down 31% from £10.05bn in 2019, primarily due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2018 the private sector total spending stood at £6.2bn compared to the NHS which was £3.9bn. As already mentioned, the reason for continuous higher spending in private dentistry should be underlined in any marketing campaign as the public sector and NHS still remains a formidable contender.

All in all, we can see that conducting dental market research, undertaking advertising and additional primary research in the form of surveys and focus groups creates a kind of cyclical process whereby practices can fine-tune qualities and prices of their clinic in order to improve customer experience or further increase revenue from high end treatments.