Coffee Talk – What is Local Marketing For Dentists?

I met up for coffee with the lovely Heather to talk about local marketing and directories. We get many clients ask us about the effectiveness of local marketing campaigns and whether directories are still relevant. So we asked the expert to find out. Read our short interview below to have all your local marketing questions answered!

After a little chat about France and San Francisco we got down to business.

Firstly, WHAT is local marketing?

Local marketing is insuring that your business is listed where your target audience is looking, in local directories. This includes not just creating accurate listings in these directories, but interacting on them with potential and existing clients.

So now we know what it is, WHY is it important?

I could give you a lot of technical information on links pointing to your site and boosting its rankings in Google, and social signals increasing the domain authority of your URL, but bottom line is that your competition is all listed on these directories.

“If a potential client searches for your service in your area and they find your competition instead, then you’re not getting that call.”

WHAT information do you need to include in the directories and is it necessary to fill out all categories?

Firstly the information needs to be accurate and complete. That includes:

• Business Name
• Doctors practicing at your business
• Correct address
• Correct phone number
• Services you provide
• Payments you accept
• Hours of operation
• Parking situation
• Year your business opened

While some of this information seems unnecessary, it is important to be able to completely fill out all categories allowed in each directory.

It shows the directory that you really want to provide complete information to your potential clients and it helps your listing rank better in searches.

In your opinion, WHAT are the top three directories for Dental Practices?

If I had to pick just three, I would say Google, Facebook and LinkedIn.

(Of course beyond that are all the smaller directories and then to the large data providers, all of which contribute to your search results and traffic.)

And finally, at Roadside you also deal with custom local marketing campaigns. What are these?

As the name suggests, they are custom, so no two are exactly the same. However, the basis for these local campaigns is taking a service or event your office wants to promote and using all available local marketing tools to promote it.

This can include custom social posts and linking, creating cross-promotion with another company you are partnering with, and using custom blog posts or videos regarding the service or event. It can also include creating graphics for email blasts.

Thank you, Heather, for taking the time to speak with us! If you have any further questions you would like to ask Heather, please leave a comment below.