INDEX OF WEBLETTERS
Four Ways to Improve Your Web Presence, by Jacqueline Verweij
What Makes Your Practice Special? by Jacqueline Verweij
Groupon – Friend or Foe? by Jacqueline Verweij
How to Avoid Dental Marketing Scams by Jacqueline Verweij
MGE’s weekly webletter, Issue 15.
Here is the next edition of MGE’s weekly webletter. The purpose of this webletter is to provide ideas, tips and suggestions to make your practice more successful.
Feel free to send us your comments and suggestions, or requests for future webletter topics you would like to see covered.
Four Ways to Improve Your Web Presence
Are Your Getting Your Money’s Worth with Your Website?
By Jacqueline Verweij
Marketing Director, MGE
From time to time newer clients will ask me to look at their website to find out why it’s not “working” (i.e., driving many new patients into their practice). While the reasons behind this problem may vary (i.e., little to no traffic or plenty of traffic but very few new patients), there is a common denominator: these doctors have paid good money for their internet marketing for little to no return.
For the most part, each one of these sites have had the basic criteria that make them visible to search engines (i.e., Google, Yahoo, etc.), but they are lacking in actual marketing – and no amount of fancy banners and Google ads are going to replace this.
Addressing this, their websites do start generating new patients. And let me make something clear – the whole subject of internet marketing (or marketing for that matter) can, at first glance, appear very confusing. It’s not. You don’t have to know everything about marketing to have an effective website – you would still hire various companies to create and maintain your site. There are, however, a few things that you must know to ensure that it comes off the way you want it. Let’s start with some basics:
1. Unique Websites Versus Template Websites
Many marketing companies deal in “template” websites. Especially when they service only one type of public or profession – for example, a web developer who only works with dentists. They usually have about 20 or so website templates from which you can choose the one you like best. After you have selected a template, the company will adjust it to your practice or business, i.e., your address, the specific services you deliver, your bio and team, and possibly pictures of your office and a map.
You might think, “Nothing much wrong with that.” And to a degree you would be right. But, realize this: That same template is also used by other dentists because that’s the choice you (and other dental practices) have been given. So, apart from perhaps the colors and some of the text, your site will look virtually identical to other dental sites. Too many times I’ve seen the same websites for two (or more) different dental practices – down to the typestyle. You really had to look closely to determine that they weren’t the same office! This situation can create two fundamental problems:
a. A “generic” website is most likely not going to draw the numbers of new patients you want. Especially if there’s nothing to differentiate your office from a number of others. Why should anyone come to you instead of the other practice? Being generic doesn’t give a prospective patient a reason to select your office over others – other than how far away your office is from their place of business or home.
b. While no one outside of Google knows the exact way they construct search criteria, I can tell you this: Template sites that are constructed exactly the same as others (with only minor changes like some text, images and colors) don’t show up as well. Why? Because Google and the other search engines are looking for unique content, which means that the content of your website should be especially written for your practice and not be the same as many other dental websites. When the content of your site is a copy of many other sites, Google will put you at the bottom of the ranking process and you won’t show up in searches.
Your online marketing becomes exponentially more effective when your website is different from the rest and unique in some way. For example, what makes your practice special? How do you stand out?
You can say: “We care,” or “We are professional and competent.” Fine, but if that’s what is making your practice special, you’ve got to show it! In other words, show yourself as a caring dentist with a patient, show the caring community involvement or charity activities of your practice, show your practice as professional and state-of-the-art. If you’re going to use testimonials or before and after pictures, pick ones that say this about your practice, etc. Now you are stepping outside the box and showing that you are different. This is called “positioning,” i.e., giving yourself a position that’s higher or better than the competition – a marketing technique that is very effective.
There are many other ways in which your website can be unique and different from the rest – way too many to list here. But once you’ve got the idea, I am sure you can find how you can be unique and show it!
My advice: Don’t go for a generic website. Get something put together by your web-developer that typifies your practice and your services, and shows you’re different. You will find that this works a lot better!
2. Target Marketing
There are literally hundreds of millions of websites on the internet and there’s hardly a household in the United States that doesn’t somehow have access to the internet. So you are potentially reaching millions of people. This may look great (and is, for companies like Coca-Cola or Toyota), but for your practice it’s more a curse than a blessing. Why? Because you don’t sell your products to millions—you are trying to get business from your community within probably a 10-20 mile radius.
So how do you get these people, especially the ones you want to come to your practice, to click on your site or to respond to your promotional material? The answer is simple: Surveys!
You can select some part of the community and ask the people that live there what they consider the most important criteria by which they choose a dentist. The answers will vary: Some just want good care, others want the latest equipment and again others are looking for certain types of treatments. If you take the most common answer and start using that answer on your website, you will attract those people you surveyed to your practice. They want the latest equipment? Well, tell them you’ve got it (if you do) and show it on your site!
Most dental websites try to throw in every single treatment they deliver and boy, that usually ends up being very confusing for the potential patient. If 80% of your target market wants only a few specific services, you’d better highlight these on your home page. Then you’ll be targeting that market and you’ll get them to come in.
Here’s another real big advantage of targeting your market: Last year Google changed its search algorithms (the formula they use to search for websites) from wide searches to very local searches. Have you ever noticed that when your laptop is at home, you get all the local ads and search results from your neighborhood or city on your screen? But when you move to another city, suddenly the ads and search results from that city will appear on your screen. In other words, Google is already set up to find and advertise to the local community you’re in.
Now, survey your local target market and use the results on your site or in your promotion and you’ll have a winner! Veneers and laser teeth whitening might be a hot item to advertise in Orange County but maybe not if you live in North Dakota.
3. Domain names
Your domain name (i.e., thenameofyourwebsite.com) is very important because this is what Google and the other search engines look for at first instance. If I live in Tujunga, California and I need a dentist, it is very likely that I will search for “dentist in Tujunga.” If you happen to practice in this city and your domain is tujungadentist.com, it’s very likely that you will show up in the top listings. If your domain is johndoedds.com, it’s not so likely you will show up. So having your city or community in your domain name is good internet practice.
But what if you don’t? Well, there is a solution for this. You can purchase domains for about $10 at companies like godaddy.com. If the domain you want is already taken, just type variations of that domain such as “mytujungadentist.com” or (if you dare) “besttujungadentist.com.” You can also capitalize the different words such as “MyTujungaDentist.com” which may be easier to read.
The same solution works for searches that include the type of dentistry people might be looking for, such as “Children’s dentist,” “Cosmetic dentist,” etc. I know one pediatric dentist who had “pediatricdentistry” in his domain name (along with the city name). That’s better than nothing but to drive more business to his site, he added the domain “bestchildrensdentist.com” which is easier to understand as not everybody knows what “pediatric” means.
The good thing is that you don’t even need an entire website for your additional domain. You only need one web page that acknowledges the person for “landing” on your page (called a “landing page”), and directs them to your web site. You can even have your internet hosting company (the company that actually has your website stored on its servers), add this domain and landing page to your account and set it up so that any traffic to this domain gets automatically forwarded to your website domain. In other words, someone looks for a good pediatric dentist, types “children’s dentist” and gets “bestchildrensdentist.com” as a result. When they click on this, the pediatricdentistry.com website shows up. You can have as many domains and landing pages as you like.
Now this is simple and extremely effective marketing!
4. Directories
Another change Google has initiated in its search results is the addition of paid advertising as the first entries in Google’s search results. In other words, when you search for “teeth whitening” the first thing you will see on Google are the paid ads. So becoming “the first on Google” is no longer possible. Depending on the amount of paid ads on the first page, you may come in last on that page. I am always warning for promises from web marketers “to have you show up first on Google.” Unless you have paid advertising on Google yourself, “first on Google” is simply not going to occur.
You’re likely not going to be “second” either. Because usually, right under the paid ads, you will find a map of the area with local business results or, in our case, dental practices in the local community. So you want to make sure your practice is listed on Google Maps with a picture of your practice and a sentence or two on what makes your services special. All you need is a Google account. This is free and a great way to direct new patients to your practice.
“Well,” you may ask, “What about being third on Google?” Mmmm, not yet, because right under the map, there are usually directory sites, i.e., websites that list the businesses (or dental practices) the internet user is searching for. These directory sites score high because they generate a lot of traffic from people searching for this, that or the other. For example, yelp.com, yellowbot.com, superpages.com are all directory sites that show listings of businesses matching your search.
It would therefore be a smart thing to get your practice listed in as many directories as possible, so no matter where you are on any search engine, your practice and website will show up in those directories on the first page.
Some of these directories are free but most of them charge money or some sort of membership. Usually it’s cheap and definitely worth the investment. I always recommend doing it, because the more ways to attract business, the better it will be for you.
Another directory you will want to get into is on your city’s website. People tend to check the city web sites for hotels, taxis, shops, tourist attractions, etc., and when your practice is in there (for example, in case of emergencies) you will attract more new patients to your practice. Getting your practice listed on a city website, especially if it’s under the emergency listings (if you wish), is usually free.
Marketing means getting your wares onto the “market” and selling them in high quantities for a good return. Key in this process is to market on as many channels as possible. Getting into many directories, on Google Maps, on your city’s website and on social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, are all means to drive business into your practice. And the best part of it is that it will cost you very little!
If you would like to know more about this subject, as the Marketing Director MGE, I will be delivering atwo-day seminar on internet marketing for dental practices on October 15-16, 2010 at MGE’s Training Center in Pinellas Park, FL. We will be going in depth on much of what I covered above as well as covering many other aspects of internet marketing. I have a lot of tips and tricks in store that can dramatically increase your web presence and give you more return and new patients from your internet investments.
If you’re unhappy with your internet marketing return or would like to improve it in any way, this seminar is for you!
Good luck!
PLEASE NOTE: This article provided by MGE: Management Experts, Inc. consists of suggestions and ideas that could be used to help improve the solvency and viability of a dental practice. There is no guarantee that the information provided is appropriate to your practice. Each practice, their owners, officers and staff are individually responsible for ensuring that any system implemented in the practice complies with the applicable federal, state and local accounting, tax and employment laws, rules and regulations governing the place in which your practice is located. These suggestions do NOT constitute legal or accounting advice. You should seek advice from your own accounting and legal advisors as to what is appropriate to implement in your practice, prior to implementation. MGE: Management Experts, Inc., its officers, directors, shareholders, employees, agents and the writer of this article, are not responsible for any claims, real or otherwise, associated with this material and information or any part thereof.
MGE’s weekly webletter, Issue 19.
Here is the next edition of MGE’s weekly webletter. The purpose of this webletter is to provide ideas, tips and suggestions to make your practice more successful.
Feel free to send us your comments and suggestions, or requests for future webletter topics you would like to see covered.
What Makes Your Practice Special?
By Jacqueline Verweij
Marketing Director, MGE
Ever heard the song, “You’re Nobody Until Somebody Loves You”? Well, in the exceedingly competitive dental market, you’re nobody until somebody recognizes you. With more than 160,000 dentists in the U.S., even smaller communities have plenty of dentists and I bet there’s one right across the road from you, or even in the same building you’re in.
With similar clinical skills and procedures, most dentists and dental offices are, in the public mind, “all the same.” There’s really nothing more “generic” than a dentist or a doctor!
Yet you see some practices getting tons of business and some that get little to none, even though many of these offices are delivering similar services. So obviously the doctor that gets more business is doing something extra that makes him stand out in the public’s view.
Now, sometimes it’s the “specials” or “offers” that attract new patients. By survey, more than 50% of all internet users searching for a dentist look first for “deals,” so having an attractive initial new patient offer might not hurt. But that’s not what would make you different.
What makes you different in the public’s mind is your personality, the friendliness of your practice, how comfortable the patient feels in your office (and when receiving treatment), caring staff, etc. — all matters that have little to do with your clinical skills or “specials.”
But, you may ask, who will know this difference? The answer: Mainly the patients who know you and who are already coming to you for treatment. So what about the new ones?
Let me help you there with the following steps:
A. First off, do a little survey and ask your existing patients the following questions:
1. What was the main thing that made you decide to choose us for your dental care?
2. Now that you are a patient here, what do you like the most about our practice?
3. Would you refer our practice to your family and friends? If yes, what would you say?
A survey such as this one is extremely helpful and can be done while your patients are waiting for their treatment. A simple sheet of paper with these questions will be sufficient.
B. From these surveys, take the highest scoring answers (for example, 20 out of 30 patients state that the doctor actually listens to them). The highest scoring answer is the most common agreement your patients have in regards to your practice or treatment. This is how they view you and what makes you special in their minds.
C. Next, ask yourself and your staff what makes your office special and how you stand out from other practices (for example, you go the extra mile to make your patients comfortable). Quite often you will see that the answers from you and your staff align with what your patients are saying about your practice.
D. Now, let’s tie these highest scoring answers together and work out how you can SHOW them to your prospective new patients. Just “saying it” will not be enough. For example, if the highest scoring answers were “comfortable, friendly care” you need to find a way to show this in your promotion, your website and your advertisements. Your marketing message and any visuals (colors, pictures, and design) need to show that you provide “comfortable, friendly care.” This is probably the trickiest part of this little exercise, but just let your imagination flow on this.
I know one dentist whose practice was located in a smallish, non-descript building in front of a large strip mall. Apart from a small sign in front of the door and some clutter in the windows, nothing indicated that there was a dental practice in that little building. After doing the above exercise with this dentist, they found the one thing that made them special as a practice: They were a great, fun-loving team! To show this to their prospective new patients, they mounted a 12 foot, bright red toothbrush on the roof of their building. Brilliant! This didn’t only tell the entire town that there was a dentist there, it showed that this team was definitely fun-loving! Local newspapers and TV came out to cover the giant toothbrush and new patients flooded in. So you have to be a bit creative on this but I am sure you’ll manage that.
Don’t be a “generic” dentist or doctor. Use your survey results and show that you are different, and new patients will come in!
PLEASE NOTE: This article provided by MGE: Management Experts, Inc. consists of suggestions and ideas that could be used to help improve the solvency and viability of a dental practice. There is no guarantee that the information provided is appropriate to your practice. Each practice, their owners, officers and staff are individually responsible for ensuring that any system implemented in the practice complies with the applicable federal, state and local accounting, tax and employment laws, rules and regulations governing the place in which your practice is located. These suggestions do NOT constitute legal or accounting advice. You should seek advice from your own accounting and legal advisors as to what is appropriate to implement in your practice, prior to implementation. MGE: Management Experts, Inc., its officers, directors, shareholders, employees, agents and the writer of this article, are not responsible for any claims, real or otherwise, associated with this material and information or any part thereof.
MGE’s weekly webletter, Issue 31.
Here is the next edition of MGE’s weekly webletter. The purpose of this webletter is to provide ideas, tips and suggestions to make your practice more successful.
Feel free to send us your comments and suggestions, or requests for future webletter topics you would like to see covered.
Groupon – Friend or Foe?
By Jacqueline Verweij
Marketing Director, MGE
The world of marketing is anything but boring and there’s always someone out there who thinks up new ideas to get people to buy products. Take Groupon, a deal-of-the-day website that started out in Chicago just several years ago and has exploded into an international $1.3 billion operation.
What’s Groupon? Well, take the old coupons in newspapers and magazines, multiply those with thousands of the same kind offering often outrageously cheap deals and, once a certain number of people agree to buy into those deals, get those coupons cashed in. Groupons are “group coupons” which can be validated when a predetermined number of people sign up for the offer. If that number is not met, the deal is off, so nobody loses any money. Groupon gets paid for every validated coupon – sweet deal. With Groupon promotion on Facebook and Twitter and special Groupon apps for Andoid, iPhone and Blackberry, it can’t go wrong – or so it seems.
But, as with all sweet deals, there are snakes roaming in the grass. Groupon only works if the company that offers the deal is set up to actually deliver it. You see, Groupon did not put specific caps on the number of people who can respond to a deal, although they are handling this now. This means that there is a minimum required amount for the deal to go through, but there is no maximum. So you get the (actual) example of a coffee shop which was stampeded by over 1000 customers on the first day of their coffee deal. They couldn’t deal with that amount of business and after long waiting times, hundreds of customers left, disgruntled.
I know of at least two dentists who put a new patient cleaning, x-ray and exam offer with Groupon. One of those dentists had more than 900 responses and had no way of handling that amount of new patients with their existing staff without having them wait for months. The other dentist had less response – still well over 100 – but literally all of them already had a dentist and just came in for the free cleaning and exam. None of them wanted further treatment.
Groupon bases its philosophy on the fact that if you flood a company with new customers, some of them will stay, and it’s up to the company itself to make this happen. In many cases it does – certainly when the new customers are happy with the service or product. But in the case of the two dentists I know, this didn’t happen and for the most part the Groupon deal meant a lot of extra work with very little revenue.
Yet, there are ways Groupon can work for dental practices.
First off, I would make very sure, before entering a Groupon offer, that there is a cap on the amount of people who can respond, and that the practice is set up to deliver to those people.
Next, Groupon only has two offers for dental practices: Cleaning and Whitening. Both cleaning and whitening can’t be done on those with periodontal problems (which is likely the case with most of them). In such a case, the doctor or hygienist will have to explain why perio treatment will have to be done first and that can result in upsets, since it was part of the offer. So I would keep this in mind and work out something that can be delivered and will truly help the new patient.
Lastly, and most importantly, I would work out beforehand what to do with the “shoppers” that only come for the offer and already have a dentist, or are not interested in further treatment. This is a matter of good salesmanship and real care to get this person to want the treatment he or she needs. The consults, exams and x-rays may reveal dental situations that need to be addressed, no matter if the person is interested or not, or whether he or she already has a dentist.
At the MGE Communication & Sales Seminar, dentists and their staff learn to deal with patient objections and fears, so they want the treatment they need. Having learned and practiced these techniques, those dentists can comfortably get new patients to come back and receive their full treatment plan.
So, with any marketing campaigns and endeavors, no matter how brilliant they are, it really comes down to the company or practice to turn responses from those campaigns into real conversions – i.e., buying customers. It’s part of the marketing process to figure those things out before launching into a campaign. And that’s how you can make things like Groupon work for you.
At the MGE Advanced Marketing Seminar on June 23-25, 2011, I will cover marketing ideas such as Groupon in more detail, as well as other new and major trends in dental marketing. For more information or to register, call us at (727) 530-4277 and learn how to turn your hard-won marketing dollars into profitable returns!
PLEASE NOTE: This article provided by MGE: Management Experts, Inc. consists of suggestions and ideas that could be used to help improve the solvency and viability of a dental practice. There is no guarantee that the information provided is appropriate to your practice. Each practice, their owners, officers and staff are individually responsible for ensuring that any system implemented in the practice complies with the applicable federal, state and local accounting, tax and employment laws, rules and regulations governing the place in which your practice is located. These suggestions do NOT constitute legal or accounting advice. You should seek advice from your own accounting and legal advisors as to what is appropriate to implement in your practice, prior to implementation. MGE: Management Experts, Inc., its officers, directors, shareholders, employees, agents and the writer of this article, are not responsible for any claims, real or otherwise, associated with this material and information or any part thereof.
MGE’s weekly webletter, Issue 32.
Here is the next edition of MGE’s weekly webletter. The purpose of this webletter is to provide ideas, tips and suggestions to make your practice more successful.
Feel free to send us your comments and suggestions, or requests for future webletter topics you would like to see covered.
How to Avoid Dental Marketing Scams
By Jacqueline Verweij
Marketing Director, MGE
We can all agree that having a website for your dental practice is very important, but what many dentists don’t realize is that the design and content on that site is as important as having an online presence. Unfortunately, many dental websites out there are entirely too similar, blending into the background . . . both for patients and the search engines.
How “Custom” Is Your Site?
Website templates help to speed up the design and content process of a site and are easy to use. You can usually buy website templates online for a decent price because they’re already “pre-made” and don’t require a lot of technical coding stuff to make. WordPress and Joomla even give them out for free if you sign up to use their (free) services. These templates are great for blogs (which is what they were made for in the first place), because blogs don’t require custom made content and deep optimization to attract business to your practice.
Yet I see that quite a number of web marketing companies offer custom websites for dental practices but actually use templates to produce your “custom” site. You can choose from a range of about 20-30 templates which may look different but if you really check them out, they are actually based on maybe 4 or 5 basic designs with only some color or format changes.
But say you order a particular template you like and ask the web marketing company to produce your site based on that template. I found that in many cases, they don’t even change the colors or design and the content is all copy and paste. They can do this because dental practices tend to be similar and the same copy works for most practices… they think. Not true, and you should not accept this.
When you pay thousands of dollars for a website, it should be truly customized, including unique design elements that will set your site apart from the others out there. After all, you want to be remembered by the potential clients who come across your site and the way to do that is through a unique look and content.
I was recently asked to analyze the websites of a successful dentist with practices in four different locations. Each location had its own site, but the company that produced these sites copied the content from site to site. Only the first site had unique content, and that was the only site that had some ranking. The remaining sites were invisible and, needless to say, these practices did not get any business from their websites. Yet, the web marketing company charged thousands for these sites!
Duplicate Content: Why You Need to Avoid It
The biggest problem facing dental sites made from templates is the fact that they use the same content. This causes two issues. First, search engines like Google tend to penalize websites that publish the same content as another site, so it will hurt your ranking. You want to be in the first few results when someone types in your area plus “dentist” and that’s not going to happen if fifty other dentists have the exact same website. Chances are, your site isn’t the first, which means you’ll end up being relegated to a dusty corner of Google, where no one can find you.
The second issue is that anyone looking at two or three pages from different dental practices will instantly see that the content is identical. Chances are high they won’t choose you either.
What can you do about all this?
1. Don’t fall for the dental web marketing scam! Choose a web design company that offers truly unique website design. They should give a special feel to your website, something that represents you and your practice. The text should be unique to your practice and interesting to read. If a web design company doesn’t have a writer, hire a web design company that includes unique copy in the price tag.
2. Ensure that your site is easy to find by making sure it’s optimized for your keywords and key phrases. When the copy is custom written for you and contains keywords in strategic places, the search engines will rank you higher in the search results which means more traffic from people who are looking for a dental practice.
So take a look at your current website and check some other dental sites in your area. Compare them and find out how customized your site is. Does it have text specifically written for your practice? Is the content unique? Or do you see the same smiling ladies on many other sites? If so, you’ve fallen for the “template” website and it’s time to get your site truly customized.
At MGE Management Experts, Inc., doctors and their staff get trained on marketing their practice and learn the basics of successful promotion and marketing techniques that will help them get more new patients. With such training, you can easily see whether your website is a real marketing product or a dud, which will save you headaches and thousands of wasted dollars in the future! So I can strongly recommend you give us a call at (727) 530-4427 or visit www.mgeonline.com.
At the MGE Advanced Marketing Seminar on June 23-25, 2011, I will cover internet marketing (including all about your website and how to make social networking profitable) in more detail, as well as other new and major trends in dental marketing. For more information or to register, call Dennis at (727) 530-4277 and learn how to turn your hard-won marketing dollars into profitable returns!
PLEASE NOTE: This article provided by MGE: Management Experts, Inc. consists of suggestions and ideas that could be used to help improve the solvency and viability of a dental practice. There is no guarantee that the information provided is appropriate to your practice. Each practice, their owners, officers and staff are individually responsible for ensuring that any system implemented in the practice complies with the applicable federal, state and local accounting, tax and employment laws, rules and regulations governing the place in which your practice is located. These suggestions do NOT constitute legal or accounting advice. You should seek advice from your own accounting and legal advisors as to what is appropriate to implement in your practice, prior to implementation. MGE: Management Experts, Inc., its officers, directors, shareholders, employees, agents and the writer of this article, are not responsible for any claims, real or otherwise, associated with this material and information or any part thereof.
