by AdminPosted on Posted in Advice

Where to start?

basics for a dental web marketing planWe are currently working with several long-established dental businesses to help them bring their marketing up-to-speed and fit-for-purpose for an increasingly competitive market place. The interesting aspect of all of these cases is that the practices concerned all have large patient lists built over many years of successful trading.

However, the business owners have realised that times have changed and that new patient acquisition is becoming increasingly challenging and not keeping up with “churn” (loss) of existing patients. Rather than watch their businesses stagnate and then contract, the practices sensibly approached us for advice and to assist with establishing marketing systems to drive new patient enquiries. So what are the basic steps required to get moving?

Assessment

It would be easy to jump straight in and set up a suite of typical marketing systems, but this is rather haphazard and potentially counter-productive. For example, dumping an off-the-shelf dental marketing engine on top of a practice which is unable to support it, wouldn’t be a smart move. Indeed I often see this type of “packaged” approach espoused by dental coaches and trainers who are pulled into practices for advice. Feedback from clients who tried this approach historically but ditched it, suggest that they had been overwhelmed and often felt that the advice was formulaic, rather than specifically tailored to their needs.

So before any work commences, a full assessment must be conducted to understand the precise objectives of the practice, the target market, history and more – in fact a thorough discussion about all key elements of the business. There is no such thing as “100% done for you” marketing, so one of the key factors is to understand what resources are available to support the marketing systems and, indeed, the capability of those nominated to assist with the work.

First steps

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Website

Help Google to understand your website and boost your rankings

optimising website designThe architecture of a dental website is particularly important, not just to ensure that your users can easily find the information they need, but also to help Google understand what the site is all about. If you do this well, you will also help your search ranking results. So why is this?

Don’t jumble your information

Imagine the situation where a dentist has a tight budget when having a new dental website designed and in an effort to reduce the scope and cost, tries to incorporate all of their treatment information on just a couple of pages. Whilst this may appear to be a logical step to take, when it comes to how Google interprets the site and decides where to place it in the search results, things start to go wrong very quickly.

Whilst Google is becoming increasingly “intelligent”, it still uses key structural elements on a web page to tell it what the page is all about. Digital marketers use these elements, e.g. the page title, to optimise the page for a specific topic e.g. teeth whitening. Where several topics or treatments are incorporated on a single page, it is very difficult to use the structural elements on a page to tell Google what to prioritise; in effect the on-page search optimisation is diluted. So what is the recommend approach?

Content Siloing and Topic Modelling

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by AdminPosted on Posted in seo

So can I stop my dental website SEO?

rising Google positionsThis is another question we’ve been asked a few times by dentists whose websites we promote in Google. Comprehensive SEO campaigns are not cheap and understandably the costs of running them get reviewed periodically, either by the practice managers or dental principals themselves.

So even where search ranking positions are excellent and the associated influx of new patients is high, it is reasonable to expect questions to see if savings are possible.

However, ramping down a successful SEO campaign is never really a good plan for the following reasons.

Google changes all the time – in its quest to deliver the most appropriate answers to user’s search queries, Google is forever adjusting the way that they determine the order in which websites appear in the search results. The so-called “algorithm” they use to evaluate this is multi-faceted and uses hundreds of different ranking signals. This changes frequently and even well-optimised websites are subject to flux within the Google results. One of our jobs as digital marketers is to try to interpret these changes and adjust our dental client’s websites and SEO accordingly. If there is no SEO programme in place, these dynamic changes cannot be assessed and responded to.

Your competitors are working on their own SEO – even if you have great search positions, you can be sure that some of your immediate competitors have their own SEO teams trying to catch and overtake you. Whilst it can be tricky to overtake a comprehensively optimised website, if the SEO is ceased, then inevitably that will happen. Whilst it might take several months to achieve this, then you’re on the back foot and trailing. So if you are ahead, the sensible play is to continue with your own campaign.

Balancing the cost with the reward

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Website

Do you deploy a single website or one per location – and why?

Google local businessWhere a dentist has several practices in different locations, does it make sense to incorporate all of them on a single website or deploy a unique site for each? This is an interesting question and one which deserves very careful consideration if you are to gain maximum benefit and optimise new patient acquisition from Google.

The key driver for this is down to the way Google has evolved and how it presents search results differently for different users. Much of this relates to something called “localisation” and particularly how Google presents local businesses to local users in the search results. So for example, based here in Derby, if I search “dentist Derby” I see local business presented on page one and particularly in the three local (or map) results near the head of the page. This localisation aspect is incredibly important for SEO these days and drives many of the decisions we as digital marketers make, when developing strategies for our dental client’s websites.

Multiple locations – one website

This can be done and has some benefits from a management and cost perspective. However, there are also significant downsides, not just search optimisation related:

  • Including multiple locations on a single website dilutes the location signals Google uses when building ranking results. Even where you develop several distinct sections on the website to represent each of the different practices, you are still compromised when it comes to optimisation for search ranking
  • The different practices may have different objectives and services and it can be very difficult to differentiate this on a single website
  • Patients are easily confused and whilst you may think it is obvious which section of your website represents which practice, it’s easy for fickle users to get lost in the navigation and frustrated

Sometimes it’s simply not practical to deploy multiple websites and a single “umbrella” site has to be used – however, it is much more difficult to optimise these for Google than where each location has its own dedicated website.

Multiple locations – multiple websites

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Website

Try the 5 second engagement test

confused website userHave you ever wondered just how well your website works when a new visitor lands on your home page? You may be confident all is well, but do you really know?

For example, you may have data from Google Analytics which shows general overall performance, but chances are it doesn’t drill into specific performance at page level?

So is your home page working well, about average or perhaps really quite badly? Frankly, most dental website owners don’t really have much insight at all, so if you don’t really know the answer, you’re not alone. But that’s not good, particularly given how important a high-functioning website is for new patient acquisition.

Perhaps it might surprise you to suggest that for most websites, well over half of the visitors never make it past the first page and simply leave the site immediately, whether through confusion, disinterest or both. What’s more, this figure can be even higher depending on the source of the traffic; for example, web visitors from social media are generally much less interested in your website than those who have searched with specific intent in Google.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. The configuration of your home page, or indeed any landing page to which you are directing traffic, can make a massive difference to how users react when they reach there. Will they be immediately engaged and compelled to look further into your services, or will they be confused and look elsewhere, possibly at your direct competitor’s website?

Let’s get some deeper insights and see how you can make a positive difference, starting out with the ‘5 second test’.

So what is the 5 second test for dental websites? (more…)

by AdminPosted on Posted in Advice

Don’t disregard the review process – it’s a business priority!

Google 5 star reviewYou’ll probably know from your own experience just how powerful reviews are when it comes to selecting new products or services. We all do it – whether it’s a product from Amazon, your local restaurant, car repair or holiday destination, most of us will scour the web to check out what other people have to say before we make a commitment to purchase.

There is plenty of research covering the subject of reviews with the vast majority of people suggesting that they are influenced pretty much in equal part by positive as well as negative feedback. Bad reviews can really have a negative effect on your business and it doesn’t take long for a solid reputation to become trashed. Good reviews act as a “third party”, independent validation of your services and are much more powerful than saying it yourself!

But it’s not just about demonstrating your worth to potential new patients, it’s also about convincing Google to rank you higher in search results. Google also recognises the critical importance of reviews as an overall “quality indicator” and there is a high correlation between the number of good reviews a business has and its positions in the search engines; particularly the local/map results on page one. So it’s a virtuous circle – the more reviews you have, the better your chances of ranking well and the more traffic you can expect to your website. More traffic equals more patient enquiries and more opportunity for reviews!

So with all the evidence abundantly clear, you might imagine that all dentists would be fully bought-in to the process and busy installing procedures and motivating their teams to seek out reviews proactively and consistently? However, you’d be wrong. Unfortunately there are still lots of dental businesses out there that shun the review process, missing the benefits that positive reviews bring whilst being compromised by the poor reviews which appear about them. It’s a conversation I’ve had numerous times and it can be quite frustrating to have the evidence dismissed.

Of course there are also lots of dentists who completely understand the review process and how important it is for their business. This blog will take a quick look at some of the techniques they use to build a steady stream of reviews across the platforms which count.

Ask for a review

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Telephone

Plugging the data ‘black-hole’ when assessing marketing ROI

telephone call analyticsWe all know how useful tools like Google Analytics are when it comes to assessing the performance of your website and evaluating the quality of traffic from various sources, whether organic (free), paid or from social media.

However, whilst we can set up these data collection tools very carefully and diligently analyse the data they report, there is still a large black-hole in our insights and knowledge.

This is because the free analytics tools do not allow us to measure the number of telephone enquiry calls that result from search related activity i.e. when the potential new patient searches on Google, or finds you on social media and calls in, rather than completing the contact form on your website.

This is particularly important because we know that typically around 3 times as many new enquiries to dental practices are made via the ‘phone rather than via website contact forms.

However, there is an option to plug this black-hole in our data and which allows us to provide 360 degree reporting on all new leads generated from websites and other channels. This is the use of telephone analytics to complement the regular systems.

What is “telephone analytics” and how does it work?

Telephone or call analytics is a very clever system which integrates seamlessly with your website and existing ‘phone system to provide comprehensive data on enquires which come in via telephone. The system will also integrate with Google Analytics and tell you what search term patients used to find your business and which page of your website they were on when they made the call. It’s extremely powerful!

The system works by presenting a unique telephone number to each user so you can effectively “tag and trace” their journey through your website. You do not need to change your existing business ‘phone number as the call analytics system simply interfaces with this is the background. Also, you do not have to worry about users being put off by the format of the new number they are presented with on your website – the area code can be made to match the one they would normally expect. Should they call you on your standard number, this will continue to work. The technical jargon for all of this is “dynamic number replacement” and here at Dental Media we can get you set up in no time at all.

What does it cost?

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Website

Why dentists are switching to Dental Media

budget for marketingWith the ever increasing cost of doing business in the dental sector, dentists are examining their budgets more closely than ever before. Whether this is the proportion paid to associates, or the fee for maintaining the air compressors, everything is justifiably coming under scrutiny.

One such area of cost control is website maintenance and the many hundreds if not thousands of pounds that some dentists spend on this every year. The realisation is dawning that, for many dental practices, lots of money is spent every month on website maintenance services even when there is little or no work to show for it. Dentists are lured into these “mandatory” fees by what appears to be a useful range of services on offer, including SEO, security updates and more. However, closer inspection shows that the SEO component of the fee is often negligible or non-existent and that the security updates can be done 3 or 4 times a year very cheaply indeed.

So what the dental web design company is actually doing, is charging you a huge monthly premium for not much at all; a bit like a dental plan where the patient rarely attends. They can get away with this because, understandably, a dentist or practice manager might have heard that SEO is sensible and that website security updates are essential, but beyond that they really don’t know the scope of the activities being offered.

However, what we are seeing now is that web savvy clients with an eye on budget are realising that there is a better alternative for dentists which not only saves hundreds of pounds per year, but also delivers excellent service too.

What your monthly ‘SEO’ maintenance package doesn’t deliver

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Advice

Avoid shouting into the wind!

Facebook logoHere at Dental Media we look after hundreds of dental websites and also the web analytics which accompanies them. This gives us an excellent overview of the data generated when users visit websites and in particular, the route they take to reach you. So for example whether they came via a Google search, clicking on a link on a third-party website, a paid advert or perhaps from social media.

It’s actually quite fascinating to see what works and what doesn’t when it comes to attracting the right sort of traffic to a website. Where we undertake digital marketing for the dentists concerned, this data is essential as it allows us to adjust our approach to make the best use of the marketing budgets available.

Sorting the wheat from the chaff

Whilst for most of our clients we manage all of their digital channels, we do have a few where the social media channels are self-managed, i.e. locally by the dental team, or by another party. Where this happens, it has become quite clear that much of it is not being managed to best effect and that considerable money is being wasted on clicks where the user has minimal interest in using the service on offer. What is happening in most of these cases, is that basic adverts are being pushed out on to Facebook without any real targeting at all. Consequently the traffic that results from them is very poor and leads to minimal “conversions” i.e. very limited new patient enquiries.

The rush to Facebook – why is this happening?

Whilst Facebook clearly has a lot of potential for helping attract new business when used correctly , the “quality” of the traffic coming from the platform can be quite poor when compared to that coming from people specifically searching for services in Google for example. Despite this, there are a few dental business evangelists who continue to push Facebook as the universal panacea for new patient enquiries, and there is clear momentum in the dental community to “get on there”. In this rush, there appear to be quite a few practices who are getting caught up in the fervour but failing to set up correctly – and hence wasting valuable marketing budget.

This is not suggesting that Facebook isn’t useful – it certainly can be as part of a balanced digital strategy with the appropriate support and experience behind it.

The critical role of targeting

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by AdminPosted on Posted in Advice

Navigating the dental marketing minefield.

A number of UK design companies, including those providing specific services to dentists, are re-branding themselves and moving away from just providing web design services. You will see them starting to use over-arching descriptions such as “digital solutions provider, “digital marketer” etc, alongside all of the channel specialisms such as SEO, SEM and PPC.

But what does all of this mean and how does a dentist or practice manager navigate the minefield to determine just what’s right for them?

As a start, today’s blog will try to provide a basic, layperson’s explanation of each of the main marketing terms and acronyms you will stumble across, to give a decent working knowledge of what it’s all about.

explaining digital marketing terminology
Digital Marketing – this is an overall descriptive term which covers all of the activities and techniques which can be used to market a business in the digital sense, so typically involving the web or apps. So for example, your practice website is a main foundation for digital marketing and then search engine optimisation would a technique to help get it found on Google. Many techniques fall into the overall “digital marketing” bucket.

Digital Solutions Provider – this is an even broader term which pretty much encompasses everything digital! So for example a true digital solutions provider would encompass most or all of the digital marketing techniques and also offer design services such as apps and websites, apps, video, photography, SEO and more.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – this is a key activity which uses numerous techniques to move a website forward in the search engines. In the UK this would primarily be Google which accounts for 90% of all search queries. You can read more about the specifics of SEO for dentists elsewhere in this blog and why it’s so important for dentists websites.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Pay-Per-Click – the lines are a little blurred here and these terms tend to refer to very similar things. Essentially these activities relate to how you can use paid advertising to gain traffic from the search engines, typically by launching adverts for which you pay every time they are clicked. A very popular technique for dentists is the use of Google AdWords.

Social Media Marketing (SMM) and Social Media Optimisation (SMO) – these are techniques which use social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to advertise products and services. By gaining “fans”, “followers”, “likes” etc, you can use social media to broadcast the word about your business and encourage people to engage and hopefully buy from you. You can also advertise in various ways on the different social channels to broaden your “reach” and increase the chances of engagement.

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