Published: 01/06/2022

Read time: 6 Minutes

Remember when you used to make fun of people who took selfies? Not any more! Selfies are becoming not only a common household word, but they’re influencing and impacting businesses and professionals across all industries – including dentistry.

 

What is a selfie

It’s hard to imagine anyone now who either has taken their own selfie or who hasn’t witnessed someone, somewhere, taking a selfie – there are even guidance videos on YouTube to teach you how to take the best selfie.

For clarification, a selfie is defined as a photograph that you take of yourself, typically with a smartphone or webcam.

Traditionally, this photograph is shared on social media platforms, but increasingly they’re being used across business profiles, websites, printed materials – and even, being shared with dentists.

 

The ‘Phygital Experience’

Increasingly, the worlds of the digital and the physical experience are merging. It’s been building for a while, but recent events have caused a snowballing effect that’s resulted in a boom of practices using video consultations and online assessments to improve and change the way they interact with leads and patients alike.

And thus, the birth of the concept of ‘Phygital’ marketing. It’s not necessarily everyone’s favourite word, but it’s an apt way of describing the combination of digital and real-life experiences designed to benefit the customer/patient/client and boost their engagement with a business or product.

 

Where does the selfie fit in?

The taking and sharing of selfies are just another way to engage and interact with leads and patients, which can not only generate more trust and confidence but can also help to improve the experience that the lead or patient has with the practice and the level of service and care that you can provide them with.

1. Selfie Forms

Adding a selfie form to your practice website is a great way to get immediate engagement from our leads and patients alike.

You can replace any existing ‘Request a Callback’ or ‘Get in Touch’ form with a ‘Send a Selfie’ form, requesting the same information but enabling leads/patients to send an additional detail – a smiling selfie.

Make sure this is optional, but let them know that in return, you can more effectively give them an idea of their treatment options, costs, and timeframes during that first call or webinar, reducing the element of surprise that often comes with an initial consultation.

Spa Dental Sydney Selfie Webform Example
Spa Dental Sydney has a great customer expectation map for their website selfie form.

2.Before/Afters and Video Testimonials

We all know the power that a good Before/After image or video testimonial can have on influencing other leads/patients to start treatment and in building your brand and clinical confidence. However, we also know that getting hold of these Before/Afters or videos can be difficult to say the least.

Why not take the pressure off yourselves and the patient in the chair by encouraging them or giving them an incentive to do it themselves?

Create a page on your website with simple instructions on how to take a Before/After picture or video testimonial, and make it easy for them to upload the image/video to the site along with their contact details and consent for you to use in marketing.

Elegance Dental Testimonial Video
Elegance Dental has a great Instagram feed of testimonial videos, both in the practice and out.

3. Brand awareness

A selfie doesn’t always have to be clinical or complimentary of the practice itself – it can just be a selfie.

If you’ve got the right patient demographic or even just a couple of leads or patients who participate in social media, why not encourage them to document their treatment experience and tag the practice in their posts – you’re not looking for an influencer as such, just brand exposure and awareness.

Selfies aren’t for everyone and they might not be the thing to float your practice’s marketing boat, but it’s worth exploring and experimenting with different approaches and ideas when it comes to engaging leads and patients and encouraging additional treatment uptake.

Brand awareness selfie for Invisalign
#invisalign is a great way of seeing how the brand builds awareness by having patients tag selfies of their new smile or ongoing treatment experience

How can DenGro help?

DenGro can connect to any online enquiry forms you have running on the practice website, marketing landing pages, and even Facebook/Instagram lead ad forms. Importantly, it can capture attachment uploads through those forms, safely capturing the file and securely passing it in to your DenGro account.

You can view the attachment on the lead’s Profile Page in DenGro, and choose to upload additional files – giving you a consistent history of all the relevant information you need to know about the lead in order to provide the best service possible.

Contact the DenGro Practice Support Team; email support@dengro.com and see how DenGro can help your practice grow.