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Dental Marketing Contract Check List

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Some basic questions to ask your web marketing partner

As you may expect, the world of web design and web marketing is a crowded space. There is a huge variation in the quality of services on offer and it’s a potential minefield for those who are not web “savvy”. This is equally true in the dental marketing niche where mediocre offerings are consistently pushed out “production-line style” for over-inflated fees.

With the economic climate still tight and looking to stay that way for a fair while to come, its now more important than ever to find a dental marketing partner who offers high quality services at sensible prices in an open and transparent way.

So I thought it would be helpful to provide a list of “must ask” questions for anyone who is thinking of embarking on a new website marketing project. If your potential provider can provide clear answers to the following, then put them on your short-list:

  • can you evidence a clear understanding of the dental marketing niche and provide examples of where you have developed and built dental brands on-line?
  • are you abreast of the latest trends in the dental world and able to use this to the advantage of your client? For example, what are the latest treatments, demographics, search trends etc.
  • are your websites built to the latest web standards? Show me how they validate when check against the latest web authoring standards.
  • do you understand the importance of “mobile” and can you implement the latest “responsive” designs for desk-top, tablet and mobile?
  • will my website design be bespoke or do you use templates?
  • how well do you understand search engine optimisation (SEO) and the latest strategies needed to rank well in Google.
  • do you perform a full competitor, keyword and traffic analysis before the website is built and then use this to perform full on-site SEO during the project development. This should not come as an extra cost.
  • do you understand and provide the complementary tools that are needed to do well in Google, particularly in competitive environments e.g. blogging and the use of social media. Can you assist me with these processes?
  • do I own all of the website content and structure when the project is complete? This includes animations, graphics, html files etc.
  • do I have access to all of my SEO reporting in real-time i.e. access to Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools etc.
  • do you provide a comprehensive monthly SEO report including keyword movements and comment on future strategy. Make sure that this isn’t just a simple report that can be compiled and emailed to you automatically with no effort on the marketers part.
  • am I free to move to a different provider at any time? Beware contractual tie-ins
  • can I get a “pay-as-you-go” maintenance service for my website? This is important – several dental design companies hard-sell expensive monthly maintenance plans to ensure that they get a guaranteed monthly income. However, the value offered by such plans is usually extremely poor – please ask us if you’d like to see some examples.
  • what does your annual website hosting and email service cost? This is another area where huge mark-up is made at the expense of the client. Professional hosting is very affordable, particularly when purchased in bulk and does not justify annual fees of hundreds of pounds.
  • what do you offer that differentiates your clients from their competitors? Where are you innovating and staying ahead?

So quite a long list but very well worth reading through and understanding. If you need any help with what it means, please let us know and one of the Dental Media team will be pleased to assist – just call us on 01332 672548.

To summarise….

The world of web marketing, including the dental niche is multi-faceted and can be quite difficult for the lay person to understand. Several companies use this to their advantage to up-sell unnecessary services or charge large fees for services that are cheap and easy to supply. Just a few examples are over-inflated web hosting fees, monthly maintenance contracts and expensive web design packages that claim to differentiate your services but in reality, add little.

It’s worth taking time to understand exactly what you are purchasing, including the initial and ongoing costs. Exceptional dental websites and marketing services are available at sensible prices so it makes sense to look around and ask the right questions before you commit.

Please call our team on 01332 672548 and we’ll be pleased to offer free guidance.