We Explore a Case Study in How To Market Braces and Clear Aligners
Here’s a quick summary of our experience to-date with the challenge of how to market braces and clear aligners like Invisalign. Growing an orthodontics practice, oral surgery clinic, or cosmetic dentistry business by offering clear aligners can be very attractive on paper because the margins are still very strong and demand is high, especially since there is not only the traditional braces market out there but an entire adult population that will choose clear aligners over visible braces.
We’re sharing some of our best ideas for marketing braces and clear aligners like Invisalign. If you’d like to schedule time with our experts to discuss your own situation, make a free, no-obligation appointment now.
Know Your Market & Goals
Braces and clear aligners tend to be fairly straightforward for calculating both revenue and profit, so this product lends itself well to ROI modeling. Know what you want do and don’t want to do, and set goals.
For most clients, we begin by developing a matrix so we understand the mix of services (upper, lower, both), average value, and anticipated margin. It often looks like this example:
By estimating the items highlighted in yellow, including the mix of product types (partial aligners, full aligners, full braces), closing rates, pricing, and margins — you can easily calculate your anticipated marketing ROI based on your monthly investment and the number of actionable leads you anticipate generating.
We’ll discuss our best braces and clear aligners advertising ideas for most of our dental professionals here.
Understand Your Economics
Depending on the mix of product types you sell and how you approach this service, you’ll be generating revenue per patient (RPP) between $1,500 and $6,000. And our experience is that gross margins tend to run between 50-65%.
Knowing the economics of your specific practice allows you to build an ROI model to evaluate your marketing efforts. The best braces and clear aligners marketing ideas focus on creating actionable leads you can track and know with certainty whether or not you’re making a fair return on investment.
The great news when you think about how to market braces and clear aligners is that with margins so high the risk is relatively low.
Test Plausible Ideas to See What Works Best in Your Market
Our approach to marketing anything, braces and clear aligners included, is to begin with our basic marketing formula:
TARGETING + MESSAGING + REACH = RESULTS
We develop the most plausible strategies for how to advertise wisdom teeth surgery by considering who we will talk to (TARGETING), what we will say to engage and motivate those people (MESSAGING), and where and when is the best time and place to talk to them so that they can absorb the message and respond (REACH) to become actionable leads (RESULTS).
Over the past decade, we’ve developed our Bullseye Marketing Method that provides a structured way to test each plausible idea. Over a 2-4 month period, we hone in on which ideas generate the most actionable leads and ROI. Then you’ve got a marketing strategy you can scale until you either max out the capacity of your practice or find the point of diminishing return (exhaust potential leads).
Our Best Braces and Clear Aligners Advertising Ideas
Every practice is different, so we don’t recommend any one-size-fits-all marketing strategy. And our clients tend to have very different marketing budgets.
However, here is a short list of our 5 most successful strategies for how to market braces and clear aligners:
Search Engine Marketing. Potential customers for braces and clear aligners tends to be young people, but moms make all the decisions. And since clear aligners appeal to a wider range of customers, including adults, both Moms and other adults often enter the most active phase of the buying cycle with a search.
Search Re-Targeting Ads. Once people make that initial search, there is a finite window during which they’ll make a final decision about an orthodontist. Continuing to advertise to them for the next 30-60 days has yielded the best outcomes.
Google Performance Max Campaigns. Similarly, Google has recently introduced a new type of advertising campaign that extends well beyond search ads to talk to potential customers who have demonstrated the intent to purchase braces and clear aligners across the entire Google platform (including YouTube). We have found Performance Max can provide a competitive advantage, especially in situations where you’ve got lots of competitors bidding against you in search advertising; that’s very common with braces and clear aligners (because it’s so profitable).
Website Re-Marketing Ads. When a prospective customer visits your website, but doesn’t “convert” — meaning become an actionable lead by calling, filling out a form, or booking a consultation, etc. — continuing to advertise to that patient for the next 30-60 days can often yield great benefits. It’s not uncommon for patients to convert on their 2nd or 3rd visit to your website (far more than just that 1st visit).
Look-A-Like Audiences. One of the most tried and true theories in marketing is that birds of a feather flock together. That means people who are a lot like your past customers demographically, psychographically (lifestyle), and geographically will tend to be your most likely customers in the future. We use your existing patient data to build a “universe” of most likely future patients, and then target advertising to those consumers.
Again, these are not universally successful strategies. Every market is different, and you may find that there are tactics your competitors aren’t using that offer your best opportunity for success. For example, it is very common to see heavy competition in search advertising for braces and clear aligners. If you zig while everyone else is zagging, you can grab your unfair share of the market more affordably.
We’re Here to Help
Need help with how to market braces and clear aligners?
Yes. The marketing function has become more complex. Growing a practice with braces and clear aligners can be extremely profitable with the right mix of time, money, and expertise.
Clients appreciate that we focus entirely on marketing and lead generation so they can focus on delivering the best outcomes for patients. And since everything we do tracks ROI, you never have to guess if it’s working or not.
We’ll invest in you long before you invest in us. Schedule an initial consultation today. We’ll learn about your practice and your growth goals. Then we’ll organize the best braces and clear aligners marketing ideas for your specific practice and show you a plan, all free to you with no further obligation.
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