Marketing During a Pandemic: What You Need To Know

Since early 2020 when COVID-19 hit, most of our worlds have been flipped upside down. The economical repercussions have been quite ambiguous with all of the chaos. This has caused many businesses to panic and re-evaluate their operations as well as their finances. When it comes to marketing during a pandemic, to keep your dental practice alive, there are several things that you need to know.

Should I Continue My Marketing During a Pandemic?

The simple answer is, yes, you need to continue your marketing. In fact, this is probably one of the most important times to keep up your marketing. In the beginning, many businesses panicked and looked for ways to cut costs. While this is expected and understandable, marketing shouldn’t be where you pull back, at least not entirely. Instead of cutting your marketing, you should simply be adjusting it.

Reasons You SHOULD Keep Your Marketing During a Pandemic

Let’s start off by going over some of the reasons you should continue your marketing efforts.

1. More people are spending time online
2. Your competitors may have decided to cut back, giving you the advancement
3. People still need to go to the dentist
4. Now that businesses are opening again, people need to visit the dentist more than ever
5. Consumers appreciate brands that make it a priority to keep their audience updated in a timely and relevant manner (Utilize all your social platforms, your website, email, text, ads, etc.)
6. Search engine ads are estimated to grow this year (Not sure about PPC advertising? We can also help with that, check out our blog post on it here.)
7. Consumers are more active digitally than ever before

Do’s & Don’ts

Since we have established why you should keep marketing in the budget, let’s talk about the do’s and don’ts of your marketing efforts.

DO: Use this time to reposition your marketing to the type of messaging that people are looking for, aka, safety

DON’T: try and be funny in your marketing (…yet). Right now, humor isn’t the way to go

DO: Adapt and reposition your marketing efforts continuously and regularly as things change

DO: Adjust your business to adapt to new and changing times (Sanitizing procedures, virtual appointments, etc.)

DON’T: forget to communicate regularly with your current patients (via email, text, social media, your website, etc.)

DO: Keep up advertising efforts for brand recognition

DO: Post organic content to your social platforms to help potential patients get to know you (photos of you, your team, and patients at the office – keep these light-hearted & fun)

DON’T: Post photos/videos of graphic procedures – consumers didn’t like this in your marketing before the pandemic and they don’t like it in your marketing during a pandemic. And they won’t like it after a pandemic either. Just don’t do it.

DON’T: Cut your ad spend off

DO: Adjust your ad spend

If you want more insight on dental marketing during a pandemic, we’ve got just the solution. Check out our latest product, The Marketing Box. It’s all of the strategy and tactics of a dental marketing agency without all the costs.