Can Dentists Learn Digital Marketing? Yes, But They Don’t Have To

Learning Digital Marketing 

As a dentist and dental practice owner, you may feel like you need to become an expert in multiple things to successfully manage all facets of your business. And if you’re feeling this way, you’re not alone as many small-business owners think along the same lines. But the truth is, trying to be everything for everybody and do all the things it takes to run a successful dental practice as one person is simply impossible.

But what does that mean for digital marketing? Isn’t that something you should master? 

Well, while understanding digital marketing and its potential impact on your business is important, the fact is that you don’t have to learn how to do it yourself. When it comes to advertising and promoting your business, you can enlist the help of experts to handle digital marketing for you and take that completely off your plate.

Even though we highly recommend that digital marketing be something that dentists delegate to the right team members—or better yet to dental marketing consultants who have the skills, training, and experience to help promote your dental business in the digital space—it is something that you can learn.

Digital Marketing Basics To Explore

There are many online resources out there that make learning digital marketing more accessible than ever. You can take advantage of free tutorials, sign up for courses, or even find video series that walk you through each step. Whether you want to dip your toes in or dive right in, there’s something for everyone.

Here are a few of the basics:

• SEO (search engine optimization): This is about making sure your dental practice shows up when people search for services like yours. You can learn how to use keywords, optimize your website, and improve your rankings in search engines.
• Social media marketing: Understanding how to use platforms like Facebook and Instagram to reach potential patients is valuable. To do this well, you’ll also want to research content creation, posting schedules, and audience engagement.
• Google Ads: Knowing how to run targeted ads on Google—or at least understanding the value these ads can bring—can help you attract more patients. Be sure to check out how to set up campaigns, choose the right keywords, and manage your ad spend.
• Content marketing: Creating valuable content, like blogs or videos, that educates your audience and builds trust is a powerful tool. You can learn how to plan, write, and share content that resonates with potential patients.
• Email marketing: Building and maintaining an email list allows you to keep in touch with current and potential patients. You’ll want to create effective email campaigns that drive engagement and appointments.

These basics can give you a good digital marketing foundation. And a general understanding of these areas can also help you work better with marketing professionals, should you choose to go that route, who can take the lead and help your practice thrive.

The Challenges of DIY Digital Marketing for Dentists

You may be thinking that with all the resources out there, there is no reason you shouldn’t be able to manage your practice’s digital marketing on your own. And, in some ways, this is true. But if you do, two things are likely to happen:

• Your work-life balance will suffer as you begin having to dedicate more time to working on digital marketing behind the scenes.
• You won’t see the results you anticipate because you don’t have the long-standing experience in what works and what doesn’t.

Aside from that, there are some big challenges that come with trying to manage this in-house, even if you delegate the tasks to people on your team. 

5 Challenges To Expect When You Tackle Digital Marketing On Your Own

Here are some of the big challenges you might face when trying to manage digital marketing on your own or within your team, especially when they haven’t been specially trained in the marketing space:

• Generalist vs. specialist: Digital marketing is a big field with many different areas, from SEO to social media to email campaigns. It’s difficult to master all of these as a generalist, which can lead to gaps in your strategy. 
• Time involvement: Effective digital marketing requires a significant time investment. From creating content to managing ads and analyzing data, it’s a full-time job in itself. 
• A/B testing and ongoing monitoring: Digital marketing isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it task. To get the best results, you need to continuously test different approaches (e.g., A/B testing), monitor performance, and make adjustments based on what’s working and what’s not. 
• Strategy development: Successful digital marketing isn’t just about short-term wins; it’s about building a sustainable strategy that can scale with your practice. Creating this kind of plan requires not only knowledge but also the ability to foresee trends and adapt to changes in the digital landscape.
• Social media reputation management: Managing your online reputation, especially on social media, requires constant attention. Responding to reviews, engaging with patients, and maintaining a positive image online can be especially time-consuming. 

As you can see, though you are fully capable of learning all the ins and outs of digital marketing yourself, it takes a considerable amount of time to successfully implement and manage every aspect. This is why many dentists opt to hand it off to experts who have the time, tools, and experience necessary so that they can focus primarily on taking care of their patients.

The Advantages of Partnering With Digital Marketing Dental Consultants

So if taking on the responsibility of digital marketing is too much to manage, what are your options? For most dentists, the best course of action is to partner with marketing consultants who are well versed specifically in digital marketing for dentists.

The truth is that marketing in the dental space is pretty involved. You’re selling a service that is related to someone’s health. And when people don’t take care of their oral health, bad things can happen. So the type of messages you send and the way you send them really matter. 

For this reason, here is why you may want to outsource your dental digital marketing to the pros:

• Expertise and experience: Digital marketing consultants who specialize in the dental industry bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. They understand the nuances of dental marketing, from crafting the right messages to targeting the right audience.
• Focus on patient care: By outsourcing your digital marketing, you can dedicate more time and energy to what truly matters—caring for your patients and managing your practice. 
• Cost-effectiveness: While DIY marketing might seem cheaper at first, it often involves costly trial and error. Partnering with consultants will actually save you money in the long run by avoiding these pitfalls and getting your marketing right the first time.
• Short runway: Experienced dental marketing consultants can hit the ground running. They already know which strategies work best in the dental space, which means you’ll see results faster without an extended learning curve.

Ready to see the results that dental digital marketing can bring?

If you are tired of trying to take on too much and want to regain some of that work-life balance, it’s time to hand over the reins of your digital marketing strategy. When you work with Jameson Marketing, you can be as involved or hands-off as you want, all while we steer the ship and help you bring in more of the right patients.

Ready to get started? Contact us today.