Don’t waste your money on these dental marketing pitfalls
Watch out for these “gotchas”….
The increased level of competition in dentistry has resulted in a proliferation of new dental marketing providers; all vying to grab a piece of the action and your budget too. Along with the raft of new providers, the long-established marketing teams have also introduced numerous ways to try to differentiate their services; some of it useful but unfortunately a lot of it just the same old methodology wrapped up in a new guise and often with a hefty price tag to boot.
The rather distasteful side of the new marketing landscape, is that many providers are leveraging on the lack of understanding of their unsuspecting clients, leading to a lot of money being spent on services which are either ineffective, or way over-priced for what they are. So to help you through the minefield, here are several marketing pitfalls to avoid to help you get the results you are looking for without paying dramatically over the odds.
The monthly maintenance contract
This is a standard tool used by many marketing companies and could be classed as “money for old rope” in most cases. This is where your web designer insists that you take out a long-term monthly contract for security updates and maintenance activities on your website. In reality, very little work actually gets done and unless you are updating your website monthly, you are likely wasting a substantial sum of money.
Perhaps worse than this is where the the maintenance contract also claims to perform SEO for your website but actually doesn’t – more on that in our blog here. But unfortunately many dentists and practice managers neither have the time or inclination to understand exactly what they are getting for their cash.
Over-priced SEO for easy search terms
We had an example of this earlier this week where a dentist transferred to us due to large price increases from their existing supplier. Not only was he being charged onerous fees for little-used maintenance contract of the type discussed above, but also upwards of a thousand pounds per month for an SEO campaign which was targeting niche, easy search phrases. He only questioned this after several price hikes and ongoing poor performance in terms of new patient enquiries. Whilst SEO for really competitive terms takes a lot of time (and hence money), charging over-the-odds for a trivial services is really poor form. Please take care.
The cheap WordPress template website
This is another area where designers have found an easy way to make a killing out of unsuspecting dentists who are having a new website built. What happens here is that the web designer purchases a pre-built design or “skin” for a content management system like WordPress. These are very easy to get hold off and cost very little – typically around £50. The designers then makes small modifications to make the design “dental” and sells the template website on for several thousand pounds. Maybe you didn’t get the bespoke website you thought?
Limiting access to your website performance data
Transparency is key for any marketing project and the client needs to understand exactly what is working and what isn’t. Very often we see examples where the marketing team sets up data analytics systems in their own name but does not give the client access to it. Thereafter, select information is sent to the client each month but often with the critical metrics excluded. When the client decides to move on to another supplier, all of their historical data is gone. Make sure your analytics data is set up in your own account and that you have full access.
Failure to transfer ownership of your complete website after you paid the bill
This is where the small print of the web design contract retains ownership of the design and files rather than transferring full ownership to the client after final payment has been made. You may find that a little bit surprising but we’ve seen it happen on several occasions where an unsuspecting dentist has tried to transfer their website to our safe-keeping, only to be faced with demands for more fees for release.
The black-box AdWords campaign
This is where you pay a set monthly fee for AdWords pay-per-click management but you have no transparency on the campaign. So you don’t know how much is being paid to your marketer versus what you are actually paying Google for click costs. You may see the problem here! The marketing agency will always ensure they achieve their margin even if it means reducing the effectiveness of you campaign by reducing your click budget or other parameters in the account. Make sure you have full transparency for all the key metrics.
Registering your domain name as their own
I’ve left one of the favourites until last. Whilst this is a lot less prevalent now, some design companies still try to register your domain in their company name, not yours. This is done so they feel they have ultimate control over your web presence in the case of payment default or something similar. However it’s very bad form and clearly one to watch out for.
Summary
There are lots of other questionable practices when it comes to the sometimes murky world of dental marketing, but the ones noted above are quite common and must be watched out for. Do your research, ask searching questions and seek 3rd party recommendations regarding track-records before you sign up.
If you are seeking out transparent and ethical marketing services for dentists or simply wish to have your current campaign audited, please call the Dental Media team for no-obligation advice on 01332 672548.