Dentist office in Vancouver & Toronto achieve 310% increase in new patient leads
Discover how a Dentist off located in Vancouver and Toronto leveraged the Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP) to partner with a CDAP Advisor to achieve transformative results through enabling the right digital marketing capabilities (MarTech) to execute a localized digital marketing strategy.
CDAP Success Story
Dentist offices enables modern marketing capabilities to skyrocket new patient growth
A dentist office with locations in downtown Vancouver and Toronto was eager to enhance its local digital presence online (ex. website, Google, Social media) and boost its patient growth through the Canada Digital Adoption Program. In the highly competitive field of dental services, the challenge was to leverage the CDAP and a CDAP Digital Advisor to develop a holistic digital marketing strategy and the appropriate modern marketing technology capabilities to stand out and attract more local patients to both dentist office locations.
The Problem
A dental office in Toronto and Vancouver used the Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP) grant to enhance their digital marketing and local online presence. Lacking a structured patient acquisition plan, they previously relied on adhoc social media promotions and infrequent website blog posts, yielding unmeasurable results.
In response to increased local competition, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the dental office engaged with CDAP to develop a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.
After learning of the CDAP grant from BDC, the dental office applied for the $15,000 CDAP grant and approved within two days. Shortly after, they partnered with an accredited CDAP Advisor in Vancouver to create a custom digital adoption plan and blueprint tailored to the dental office goals and challenges.
The custom Digital Adoption Plan (DAP) addressed the following challenges:
- Lack of patient acquisition plan: Digital marketing to-date was adhoc, immature
and no insight on what works, and doesn’t work. - Equip the team with essential Marketing tools: The team’s absence of marketing technology and capabilities hindered the dental practices competitiveness and uncohesive management resulting in a disjointed marketing and increased operational costs
- Online Visibility: Local presence online was a challenge, especially in an era where potential patients rely on Google, and social media to find dental services.
Competition: The dentist office faced growing competition in their local cities, making it challenging to attract, win and retain patients.
Patient Trust: The dental office lacked a means to manage existing patient relationships beyond their 6-month appointment, resulting in difficulties to maintain trust and loyalty. Additionally, the office lacked a proactive way to manage their online reputation where word-of-mouth and online reviews significantly impact the success of the business.
Low visibility in local markets.
The dental practice struggled to appear in local Google search results, where new competitors were constantly emerging. Consequently, they were missed out on connecting with potential patients who were actively seeking a nearby dental office.
Local competition winning in the local market
The Digital Adoption Plan showcased which local dentist offices or competitors were successfully attracting customers, what was working for them (and not), and showcasing the opportunity cost the practice was losing out on.
Poor reviews leading to low patient trust and credibility
Poor online reviews by patients damaged trust and credibility, negatively impacting the dental office's local reputation and deterring future patients from seeking their services.
Outdated manual processes leading to wasted time and dollars
Manual processes that could be automated or digitalized led to wasted resources, time and money creating inefficiencies and higher operating costs.
The Opportunity
The Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP) presented a unique opportunity for the dentist office to overcome the challenges they faced, and help accomplish the goals they sought to grow the business to multiple locations across Vancouver’s lower mainland and Toronto GTA. The opportunities included:
- Digital Marketing: Develop a tailored digital marketing adoption strategy and roadmap that aligns with patient acquisition goals, maximizes results and a KPI framework to measure the ROI of all marketing dollars invested .
- Capabilities and Tools: Assess the “business fit” of modern marketing tools and capabilities to enable in-house management and to scale with the business growth.
- Digital Expertise: Harness deep expertise of a Digital Advisor with a proven track record and extensive experience in driving business results; revenue growth, reducing operational costs, and improving customer relationships through digital strategies.
- Government Grant: The CDAP Stream 2 grant, “Boost Your Business Technology,” offered significant financial support of a $15,000 grant, and access to an optional BDC $100,000 interest-free loan and a $7,300 student/graduate subsidy.
CDAP $15,000 Grant
Utilized the CDAP $15,000 grant to tap into the knowledge of CDAP Digital Advisors, creating a multi-year roadmap for adopting digital strategy including capabilities and technology / tools tailored to their business needs.
Optional benefits the dental office could utilize are the a BDC (Business Development Canada) $100,000 (up to) interest-free loan and $7,300 student subsidy to support the digital adoption plan execution.
Access Digital Expertise
The CDAP grant utilized the consultancy services of a CDAP digital advisor with extensive expertise and experience to develop the dental practices digital adoption plan and support to navigate the digital landscape and CDAP process. Together, they crafted a custom digital strategy and plan that perfectly aligned with the dental practice's unique business objectives and challenges.
Close the Knowledge Gap
CDAP served as a vital link in bridging the knowledge gap between dental office staff, its processes, technology and tools, and the office operations.
The knowledge-transfer realized from the CDAP engagement between the dental office staff and Digital consultant / advisor built the staffs confidence and empowerment to harness new areas of digital and technology effectively.
Technology 'Business Fit'
Navigating technology can be complex, and salespeople may promise quick fixes.
The CDAP grant provided the dental office with the opportunity to partner with the expertise (CDAP advisor) to assess and identify the right technology solutions and capabilities that are a 'fit for business' to align with the dental offices goals, needs and closes the gap in areas that were lacking or deficient.
Resource Cost Subsidy
To ensure the smooth execution of the CDAP digital adoption plan, the dental office could utilize a $7,300 subsidy.
This subsidy enables them to hire a skilled student or graduate who will play a pivotal role in effectively implementing the CDAP digital adoption plan if they did not implement the strategy themselves or with the support of the CDAP Advisor. This added support significantly enhances the plan's chances of success.
BDC interest-free capital
Thanks to the CDAP program, the dental office has the opportunity to access an interest-free business loan through Business Development Canada (BDC), with a substantial limit of up to $100,000.
This financial boost can be a key factor in helping the dental office implement their digital strategy, capabilities and make significant progress in their business operations
The opportunity to embrace ISED’s Canada Digital Adoption Program would enable the dental office to revolutionize its digital marketing and office operations by implementing a ‘fit for business’ digital marketing technology solutions.. It would also provide the expertise and support needed to navigate the digital landscape, establish a strong online presence, mitigate the future unforeseen economic impact on patient services and revenue, lower operational costs, and position itself for sustainable growth in an increasingly local digital landscape.
The Solution
The digital adoption plan’s initial approach was geared towards targeting high-intent audiences who were in-market searching for a local dental office or dental office near their home. This focussed on on driving efficient patient acquisitions and increased consideration of the dental office amongst the vast local competition. This was further supported with social proof tactics to demonstrate a strong local reputation from patients, or digital word-of-mouth, to reinforce real patient experiences of the dental office services that aligned to the dental offices value proposition.
Recognizing the need for both short-term and long-term wins of the situation, the CDAP Advisor crafted a digital adoption plan that utilized a mix of SEO, local Search, PPC, Paid Social (Meta), Display and CRO to create a holistic digital channel strategy that worked together. The digital channel strategy was combined with demonstrating the right fit of marketing technologies or tools, and data-driven KPI’s to enable and measure strategy. This provide the dental office staff the capabilities to manage and sustain the strategy, while demonstrating ROI over time.
The CDAP grant allowed the CDAP advisor to develop a digital adoption plan that aligned the dental practices business goals with the strategy objectives and key activities to enable the plan.
The strategy allowed the dental practices to maintain a consistent go-to-market approach to stay top-of-mind with the prospective patient in their online research for a dentist nearby; from initial contact to conversion, and align audience targeting across organic and paid channels. The Advisor also established a comprehensive measurement framework for each channel to contribute to our objectives.
The CDAP advisors collaboration with the dental practice recognized the importance of integrating the strategy as an extension of their internal team, especially given the staff spent most their time managing the bookings and relationships of exiting patients.
To ensure seamless collaboration, the Advisor provided SOP’s (standard operating procedures), glossary, 1:1 coaching and collaboration, and open communication. The Canada Digital Adoption Advisor even proposed an simple RACI matrix to ensure the right office staff and stakeholders understood their roles and responsibilities, and enabled quicker decision-making and action. Additionally, the cdap advisor conducted a weekly one-on-one meetings to separate regular activities from strategic discussions, maximizing the value of the CDAP project interactions.
With financial support from CDAP and expert guidance from CDAP advisors, the Toronto and Vancouver dentist achieved:
- Digital marketing strategy that works; SEO, website, Paid Search (PPC), Social media, and more.
- Strategic roadmap or blueprint to follow
- Marketing tools and capabilities to enable team staff
- How to build team buy-in and technology adoption
- How to enable new marketing campaigns
- How to measure marketing efforts to results
- KPI measurement framework
- New-found digital saviness and knowledge transfer.
The Results
Thanks to the CDAP program, the dental office collaborated with a CDAP Advisor to craft a customized digital adoption plan aligned with their strategic objectives, addressing specific needs and challenges. After executing the plan, the results have been consistently positive. In their first month, local Google visibility skyrocketed by 600%, and new patient leads saw a remarkable 310% boost compared to their prior marketing efforts, resulting in a substantial 60% increase in new patient bookings. The CDAP advisor’s ongoing support for their office staff has enabled the dental office to consistently achieve their goals, showcasing the enduring effectiveness of the strategy. This success has also provided the compass to follow for expanding their practice to new locations across Vancouvers Lower Mainland, and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
Local market awareness +600%
By focusing on enhancing local visibility in Google through local Search and SEO strategies, the dental office managed to increase local market awareness by a staggering 600% amongst its competition. This substantial growth allowed them to effectively tap into the local demand of consumers actively searching for dental services near their home, significantly expanding their local market awareness and inbound leads.
310% growth in patient lead generation
Increasing patient lead generation (ex. inbound calls and online appointments) is a crucial aspect of dental practice growth. By addressing a Google SEO plan, PPC and paid Social advertising and optimizing the dental practices website to capture more inquiries, the dental office achieved remarkable results, experiencing a substantial 310% increase in the volume of patient leads within the initial 3 months of implementing the CDAP digital adoption plan.
Office staff enablement
Identifying and enabling the dental office staff with the appropriate marketing technology tools and capabilities allowed the practice to bring its digital marketing efforts in-house. This empowerment led to new capabilities to manage their marketing plan, and led to substantial cost savings, as they could efficiently manage SEO, social media, and even digital advertising campaigns when needed, significantly enhancing their staff's skill set and reducing operational expenses.
Our staff is now highly confident to acquire new patients and help grow our practice in the digital era!
“CDAP has been instrumental in outlining a clear path for our dental practice and team to follow. Our staff is ecstatic to have the know-how and tools to succeed. Without the CDAP grant, I’m unsure if we’d ever have gotten here or realized the value from the expert guidance to gain a competitive edge. The collaboration with our CDAP advisor has been truly transformative. Thank you!” – Dr.Leanne Saffari
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