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Marketing a new dental clinic in a regional town
This is where Molar & Main began: with a new dental clinic in a small regional town in Australia, starting from zero. A new clinic has no patients, no reviews and no history, so the order in which things are done matters.
Before opening
What to have ready before the doors open.
The website. Live before opening day, with a page for each treatment, the team, fees, location and a way to book or register interest (website design and management).
The Google Business Profile. Created and verified early, because verification can take time and the profile cannot be fully managed until it is done (Google Business Profile).
Tracking. Set up correctly from the first day, so you have a clean record of what brought your first patients (tracking and reporting).
Social pages. Named consistently, with the same details as the website, and a few weeks of content introducing the team and the rooms (social media management).
Ownership. The domain, the hosting and every account in the clinic's name from the start. It is far harder to recover an account later than to set it up properly once.
The first months
What to expect after opening.
A new website takes time to appear in search results, and nobody can say exactly how long. In the first months, Google and Meta ads can bring the clinic in front of local people while the SEO work builds underneath.
Reviews will be few at first. That is normal, and the answer is a fair routine that invites every patient, not a shortcut.
Local connections matter more than any campaign in a small town: the pharmacy, the school newsletter, the community group. We help you make those mentions consistent with what is online.
The rules
Launch offers and opening claims.
Opening offers. A new patient offer must state its terms and conditions in the advertisement (section 133).
Claims about being new. State-of-the-art, the most advanced or the best in the region are comparisons a clinic would have to be able to support. We describe what the clinic has and does.
Reviews. Google's policy does not allow incentives for reviews or asking only selected customers, and Ahpra's rules on testimonials apply from the first review.
Questions
Common questions.
When should a new clinic start its marketing?
Before opening. The website, the Google Business Profile and the tracking all take time to set up and verify, and they should be working on the first day.
How does a brand new clinic get its first reviews?
By inviting every patient in the same way, with no incentive and no suggested wording. Google's policy prohibits incentives and selective asking.
We are buying an existing clinic. Is that different?
Yes. The first job is to secure ownership of the domain, the website and the Google Business Profile, and to keep the history they carry.
- Dental implant marketing
- How a regional dental clinic can market dental implants: clear pages, local search and measured ads, written inside Ahpra advertising rules.
- Clear aligner and orthodontic marketing
- Marketing clear aligners and orthodontic treatment for regional dental clinics, with titles, claims and product names checked against Ahpra and TGA rules.
- Cosmetic dentistry and teeth whitening marketing
- Marketing cosmetic dentistry and teeth whitening for regional clinics: honest pages, careful images and offers that meet Ahpra advertising rules.
- Ahpra advertising rules for dental websites
- A plain-English guide to the Ahpra advertising rules that apply to a dental clinic's website, with each point linked to the official source.
- Google reviews for dentists
- Can a dentist ask for Google reviews, reply to them or share them? A plain-English guide to Ahpra's testimonial rules and Google's review policy.
Next step
Start with a practice check.
Tell us about your clinic and where you think it stands. Your first practice check is free. We reply within one business day, weekends excepted, and we meet every clinic on a video call before any work begins.