Digital signage for the dental industry is a small investment with a truly huge impact potential.
Marketing is divided up into two parts: External Marketing and Internal Marketing. In as much as I believe external marketing (social media and paid advertising, for example) absolutely cannot be ignored – internal marketing for your dental practice is an (oft-overlooked) more effective opportunity. Some advantages to internal marketing:
- Lowest overhead costs
- Easiest to change and customize
- Captive audience: entering the premises, conversing with the front-end staff, sitting in the waiting room are all premium “eyeball time”
Simple setup
Enter digital signage for dental practices. Digital signage is now an easy, value-priced commodity that can often use much of what you already have in your practice. In other words, existing waiting room tv’s, streaming device such as an Amazon Fire TV stick etc. are already there (or easily installed). Digital signage vendors like ScreenCloud and Yodeck have found the balance between ease of use and have office software integration like Google Workspace and entry-level pricing. These tools are meant to scale and provide a mix of software and hardware solutions.
Repurposing that screen that’s (probably) currently off and seldom used in your waiting room can be done at an incredibly low cost.
Content in abundance
Obviously, this is prime marketing opportunity, but also consider it an equally effective way to provide clinic information such as: hours, team member bios and educational moments. Using vdeos with audio or subtitles can illustrate proper dental hygiene, appliance care or highlight procedures that may reduce anxiety for those that need extra reassurance. And finally, listing of services, social media accounts, awards and specializations, donations and sponsorships are all ways you can convey your practice’s value proposition.
All this content can absolutely be created in-house with little upfront costs and some time and there are obvious cost savings advantages here. An additional benefit: it also empowers some of your team with the opportunity to flex some different muscles and get them engaged and working together in different ways.
And, I get it, sometimes the opportunity just isn’t there to create the content in-house. In that case, there are shops like this one that can build, publish and maintain a comprehensive library of content for you.
Magic
Not long ago, technology and all the effort and money that went into it used to feel like “magic”. Now, it’s so easy and economical now to tie together your internal and external marketing messaging, social media and consistent value proposition. There is nothing magical about being able to leave a strong impression on anyone within your brand’s influence – that’s table stakes.
If this is something you’re interested in, I’d be happy to chat about what your options are. Even your local Pho noodle shop has digital signage. Why not start making some of these investments work for you?
Prologue (This is 100% optional reading and pretty much just me nerding out…)
In conclusion, I get super excited about digital signage because it provides a huge opportunity for engagement than printed signage, posters or other static, single-channel communications. Consider the possibilities:
- Up-to-date branding
- Day-parting content (morning, afternoon and evening can all have different content like hours, traffic or bedtime dental hygiene tips)
- Social media content from your feed
- Trackable QR codes to review their most recent experience on Google
- Trackable QR codes to like/follow the office on Facebook and/or Instagram
- Up-to-date hours of operation including upcoming closures for holidays, staff events or renovations
- Add bios on your Team, especially the Dentists and Hygienists
- Notices for cancellation policies, health guidelines
- Promotions and products for sale
- Information on topics like whitening and other differentiating value-add procedures and treatments, technology, etc.
- Freely available video content like Travel Alberta
- The possibilities are limitless!
