man-typing

How to Get a Competitive Edge

SHARE
Marcus Biggs

By Marcus Biggs

Published March 25, 2021
Updated February 15, 2024

3 min read

You’ve probably heard the question, “What’s your unique selling proposition?”. In other words, why should a new patient choose you over your competitor?

This is something every dentist should understand before planning their digital marketing strategy. If you don’t know the answer to this question, how is your marketing going to communicate it to prospective patients?

It’s Not Always About Price

To be clear, not all patients are chasing price or the “cheapest dentist” in town. So, this is where your competitive edge comes in – to build value so the price is less important.

“A competitive advantage is what makes you better than the competition in your customers’ minds.” — Kimberly Amadeo, The Balance.

Think about the businesses or providers you’re using at the moment. This could be your supplier or maybe your insurance company. There is a reason you choose to keep going back, whether that competitive edge is something as simple as proximity or pricing, or maybe it’s their value of service that attracts you to use them.

The same goes for finding a dentist. Your dental practice must achieve a similar competitive edge to win more new patients in your jurisdiction.

Work Smarter Not Harder

Here are some strategies you should consider when finding and marketing your competitive edge.

1. Identify what patients you want to see. What sort of patients do you want to see and what does your local demographic look like? Write this down as step 1 when creating your competitive edge.

2. List 3 competitors around you and identify what their brand-vibe is. Who is their target market and what services do they offer? Ask yourself how is this different to yours.

3. Understand your target market. This is so you can speak directly to them.

4. Reflect on your passion for being a dentist. What fulfils you the most about your job and what treatments do you enjoy the most.

5. Niche down. Once you understand your ideal patient, your demographic, your passion and treatment preferences, it’s time to niche down. That doesn’t mean don’t offer any other services besides dental implants on your website, but create an emphasis around your advanced training and experience in providing quality dental implants to patients.

Create a special offer around this service to really hone in on new patient leads looking for an implant dentist. This is how you create your unique selling proposition – you could be the local area’s preferred cosmetic dentist, you’re just not leveraging off this yet!

6. Communicate your practice vision through your website. We really want to communicate to new patient leads WHY they should pick you as their new dentist. Create an emotional connection with the patient, showcasing personalised photography, a professional doctors bio and some compelling content. You do dentistry differently because of X, Y, Z.

Some examples of this could be, you’re a holistic dentist, or you use leading-edge technology to create outstanding results. Maybe you’ve spoken at events or seminars, or trained graduates at dental school.

Whatever it may be, you must market why your practice is different and better than your competitors.

header-mockups

What's Next?

Once you have completed the above steps, it’s time to market your practice by working smarter, not harder. 

It all starts with:

  • A high-converting patient-centric website. 
  • Compelling copy to engage and convert new website users. 
  • Personalised photography to create an emotional connection with patients visiting your website for the first time. 
  • A strong, new patient marketing strategy that ties in all aspects of digital marketing for dentists. 

We can take all the hard work out for you with our 5 Factors of Digital Marketing Success for Dentists. All you need is to want to make this year your best ever in practice

Build The Best Dental Website For Your Practice

Your dental website is your ultimate tool for attracting and retaining patients. Craft a user-friendly, informative, and undeniably unique online presence that perfectly represents your dental practice.

Schedule a no-obligation Discovery Call today and learn how we can make your dental practice shine online.
BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL