How to Use Google and Dental Implant Funnels To Get Higher-Quality Leads

One of the problems that cosmetic dentists have in their marketing, is not understanding how to get higher quality leads to move forward to pay and take treatment from them. 

It seems to be a constant battle with their marketing that’s preventing them from attracting high-value patient enquiries who are not only ready for treatment but are ready to actually pay for the treatment. 

A typical scenario that a dentist will have, is that they launch a Facebook or Google ad campaign, drive traffic to a landing page and wait for the leads to submit their information. 

Then when they get on the phone to discuss the treatment, they find that most are just enquiring about the price and need to “think about it” or are not ready. 

When you have leads who are in the “thinking about it” phase, these are leads that you probably need to nurture over time, but what’s of a priority to dentists, is finding those patient prospects who are ready to move ahead with treatment. 

As a cosmetic dentist you certainly do not want to fill your calendar with “price shoppers”. It would be a much better use of your time, if you are able to speak to a core group of people who have made the decision to have dental implants and are ready to invest. 

So how can you do that effectively and without wasting your time chasing low-quality prospects?

In this case study, I want to examine a dental implant funnel that a San Diego cosmetic implant dentist used to generate over $142,000 within 6 weeks and break down for you what you can do in your dental marketing to get the same results. 

I have not identified who the dentist is but have provided to you, images of his funnel so you can see the strategy that he has used to achieve his result.

Here’s what you will learn:

• What is an Implant Funnel?
• The anatomy of an Implant Funnel
• Why your marketing isn’t getting you results
• What to do next?

What is An Implant Funnel?

Let’s talk about what a funnel is first. In a previous blog post, I wrote about sales funnels and how businesses were using it to identify, secure and qualify their leads.

A sales funnel is the process that you take a prospect through, to raise awareness of your brand, educate or nurture them on your services, answer any objections they may have and convert them into a sale. 

Every dental practice will have a sales funnel. If you look at the process that you use to identify in the market who is the best candidate for your treatment services and what you do next to educate and convince that candidate about your services and why you are the best choice to offer that treatment, you have just implemented a sales funnel.

Therefore an implant funnel serves a similar purpose. You can use an implant funnel as a lead generation system, to identify, secure and qualify your leads so when you’re ready to get on the phone with the prospect, you’re only speaking to the right people who have a higher likelihood of becoming an implant patient.

The Anatomy of An Implant Funnel

So let’s look at how one dentist was able to use an implant funnel to identify, secure and qualify higher-quality leads.

This dentist is based in San Diego and grew his practice by only offering implant treatment. The problem that he had was that he was often chasing low quality leads through sub-standard marketing that were never going to get treatment from him in any event. 

The Ad

When I look at the type of marketing that cosmetic dentists are using to attract leads to their business, you can understand why there is such a problem.

The problem is that the type of marketing you’re using is attracting prospects whose benchmark is based on price. 

So if you make price the hallmark of your ads, then you’ll only ever attract that prospect who is looking for the cheapest deal.

When it comes down to marketing, I have learnt that price should never be the basis of a sales discussion. 

Rather you should focus on the outcome and paint the picture of what the transformation looks like for the patient prospect.

So the first part that the San Diego dentist had to get right was how to attract leads who were not looking for a “deal”. He did this by differentiating his marketing from other cosmetic dentists by seeking to educate the lead first and foremost. 

Here is an example of the ad that he used

You can see how this is different from other cosmetic dental implant ads. When I did a search of Google to see what type of ads there were this is what I came up with:

As you can see, most if not all cosmetic dentists were sharing “their best price”, which if you understand sales and closing high-ticket offers (offers that are expensive), then leading with price will almost certainly attract the “price shopper” who is looking for the cheapest deal. 

The San Diego dentist decided to take a different approach and that was to lead with education, to educate the prospect patient on three things:

• How much do implants cost?
• What are the best options for implants?
• How to choose a cosmetic implant dentist?

Because there are so many other cosmetic implant dentists offering the same type of treatment, how can you stand out and really differentiate yourself?

What I have found in today’s marketplace is that the person who leads with value, rather than trying to win the sale, is the one who will have a better outcome. 

Leading with value helps you to build trust, by providing answers to your patient prospects and helping them make the right decision for them. 

The Landing Page

When the prospect patient searches the internet for answers to their biggest concerns and they see your ad and click on it, you now want to start building that relationship with the prospect. 

The aim at this point is not to send the prospect to your website, but rather a dedicated landing page that is specific to the treatment that you are offering. 

Therefore if your goal is to get implant patients, then your landing page should only speak about implant patients and nothing else. 

Here is a snapshot of the San Diego dentist’s landing page. 

As you can see, the landing page immediately offers to educate the prospect about dental implants and is consistent with the text used in the ad.

As we go further down the landing page it speaks about the benefits of dental implants and also gives a bit of information about the dental practice and the specialist.

In my experience, landing pages typically convert better when they are short and straight to the point. 

The San Diego dentist’s landing page was quite long with a lot of text. I am not sure by what percentage it converted but if you do decide to use a similar landing page, I would recommend that you do a split test – test a shorter version against a longer version.

The Thank You Page 

Let’s now talk about the thank you page. What exactly should you add to your thank you page when you want to generate higher-quality leads. 

The thank you page, is the second page that the lead is taken to immediately upon submitting their details and you can add anything additional on this page to speak to the lead and convert them into a better-quality prospect.

One thing you need to understand when it comes to securing higher-quality leads is the more information they provide to you during the enquiry stage, the more likely are they to be of a higher-quality. 

The concept is this, if someone spends 5-10 minutes out of their day completing a form and providing personal information, then you can assume that they know what they want and are certain that they want a solution.

I actually learnt this strategy a long time ago, when a marketer I followed was able to use a Fitness Client Funnel to book and close 42 high-ticket ($3000+) coaching programs.

So I am not surprised to see that this is the strategy that is being used in this case. When the patient prospect opted to get the dental implant guide, here is what the thank you page looked like.

Pay attention to the offer and most importantly to the fact that the dentist has asked the lead to complete an application to have treatment.

The Application

Here’s what now happens when you add this step to your implant funnel.

You start eliminating people who are not ready and only focusing on those who are ready to move forward with treatment. 

Here’s what the San Diego dentist noticed and said

“[We] immediately noticed that the number of patients was not the goal of the Implant Funnel. Instead, the likelihood that those patients would close became the priority, so his practice would not have to chase down leads that were not profitable. He has expressed that the greatest value of the Implant Funnel is how it qualifies patients:

“We love abundance, but we also like to know that we are moving forward, and narrowing down higher-quality patients every time.” 

Here is what your marketing strategy should NOT do. 

It should not send you a large number of leads that are likely to become nothing but only waste your time in free consultations. Rather the more narrow your lead generation can be, where you are identifying those who are more profitable, the better ROI you are likely to have. 

And of course by introducing this step, the number of leads you have secured will be lower, but you now have a targeted group of people who have a higher chance at committing to an implant procedure, because they have qualified themselves for you before they even speak with you.

The Follow Up

What happens to those leads who do not complete the application form, you might be asking? 

Well in order to make your marketing work for you, you must have a system in place to help move the lead from being undecided to absolutely certain. 

The San Diego dentist did this with weeks’ worth of email messages to not be pushy about booking a consultation, but rather to provide ongoing education. 

This education can be in the form of patient testimonials, patient case studies, your practice’s story, who the dentist is and what makes them the best choice. 

Prospects will need more time to decide on investing in a high-value cosmetic procedure and as a marketer we acknowledge this fact. 

That’s why there are tools available to help you automate the follow up process, to always be top of mind, so when the patient is ready, they know who to reach out to.

Here’s what the San Diego dentist’s follow up email looked like:

 

Why Your Marketing Isn’t Getting You Results

If you are using special offers, discounts or free consultations to book implant patients, then be prepared to see an avalanche of price shoppers who are curious about your prices. 

As you have seen from above, this is what every implant dentist is doing in their marketing. They advertise offers that are only attracting people who are looking for the best price and who do not have the mindset that implants are an investment that can deliver a tremendous outcome. 

Therefore, before you put a strategy together, ask yourself, what problem does my target patient have? What questions are they asking? How can I help them answer those questions before I even ask for money?

You stand out from your competitors when you lead with value rather than being the next dentist who just wants the sale. 

Patients have many options these days. How can you be seen as the go-to cosmetic dentist?

Patients want to be served by a dentist that they can trust and who understands their needs. Your marketing should therefore cater to these patients by establishing trust upfront, rather than being pushy. 

The Implant Funnel helps you to achieve this since it captures the patient prospect’s information, follows up with them automatically without being pushy and qualifies them for you so you’re only speaking to the right people who are more likely to be ready for treatment.

What To Do Next?

From the San Diego dentist’s results using an implant funnel to attract, secure and qualify leads is a smarter marketing strategy that you should be using, instead of relying on sub-standard marketing that will only send you unqualified prospect patients, also known as “price shoppers”.

If you want to see an increase in more high-quality leads you can learn more about Implant Funnels by watching my short presentation to learn how How Cosmetic Dental Practices Can Stop Seeing Low-Quality Leads (“Price Shoppers”) And Get High-Quality New Patients To Accept Dental Treatment or book a call with me and I will share with you how an implant funnel can help you leverage your time so you are only speaking to high-ticket cases that are worth your time, qualify new patients BEFORE you meet on the consultation and automate your marketing so you are spending more time delivering the care that your patients need.

Click here to book your free Patient Attraction Strategy Call.