Dentists or practice managers often ask “why do I need to do that” when we are discussing various digital marketing techniques for bringing new enquiries to the practice. So for example they may have heard about how links back to the website from elsewhere can boost search rankings, but may not have heard about the benefits of dental blogging or indeed where social media fits into the mix.<\/p>\n
There is also the risk that key elements get dismissed because the practice owner has a personal dislike of it or has perhaps heard horror stories about adverse effect on businesses – social media is a classic example of this and many dentists still shy away for one reason or another. The downside of “cherry picking” only certain elements or channels from the basket of digital tools is that synergies get missed and the overall positive effect is diluted. Given this, I thought it would be useful to recap on the main elements of a digital marketing strategy<\/a> that all businesses, not just dentists, should be using and how and why they work.<\/p>\n This is pretty obvious and one element that progressive practices now realise must be up-to-scratch. However, there are still a surprising number of dentists who persists with antiquated versions or haven’t yet upgraded to mobile friendly frameworks. Being blunt, this is rather naive, particularly when you consider that, after word-of-mouth, websites generate the second highest level of new patient enquiries. Your website is your 24\/7\/365 shop window and if it’s poor, chances are your potential new patients will look elsewhere.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We’ve covered this previously but it’s always worth re-iterating that a good website which does not have a good search engine position will be pretty pointless. People simply won’t find you. There is a general misconception that simply having a good website will ensure a good Google position but frankly it won’t. Whilst a professionally built website with good “on-page” optimisation will give you a great start, more often than not, you will need ongoing SEO to help move the site progressively upwards in the search results. This is particularly so now that more and more practices have realised the benefit of being prominent on page one of Google. So when scoping out your new website, please also check the budget required to promote it to ensure that it does actually realise its full potential.<\/p>\n SEO is actually an “umbrella” term for a range of techniques used together to help build the overall prominence\/visibility of a website. Blogging, use of social media, link-building etc all fits within the SEO umbrella.<\/p>\n As mentioned above, blogging works hand-in-hand with others aspects of SEO to help improve the visibility of a website. It also acts as a tool to bring fresh and interesting content to users. Many, including myself, firmly believe that an active blog is a main cornerstone for the overall digital marketing effort as it influences a number of factors. Google (as well as users) loves fresh content and a blog also provides a way to target specific keywords as well as building the overall footprint of the website. If a digital marketer suggests a search marketing campaign<\/a> without the need for a blog, you should be wary.<\/p>\n This is the hardest “sell” when it comes to illustrating the benefits and contribution to an overall digital marketing project and perhaps understandably so. Showing the return on investment from active “social” is not as simple as with some of the other marketing channels. However, it really does have an important place for several reasons:<\/p>\n PPC works hand-in-hand with SEO in that it is another way to help gain traffic from search engines. A well-structured campaign can bring additional, targeted traffic to the dental website to complement that coming from the organic (free) positions. It is especially useful for new businesses who need time to establish traditional ranking results or those in very competitive areas where older businesses are entrenched at the top of Google. PPC is quite a sophisticated topic and you should seek professional help to implement a campaign or risk losing lots of money on worthless clicks.<\/p>\n Email is an excellent way to stay in touch with existing patients and also to help attract new ones. A carefully crafted update one every six weeks or so is sufficient to keep your business “top of mind” if your patients are considering new treatments. Don’t be fooled into thinking that they won’t shop around when it comes to more expensive treatments such as implants and orthodontics.\u00a0 It is also possible to implement very sophisticated CRM systems which can be used to send a string of targeted emails to selected groups based on their enquiry and profile. These more complex systems are not cheap to run and need to be evaluated very carefully before jumping in. For most practices, a simple system such as MailChimp, is perfectly adequate to get you moving.<\/p>\n The elements above represent the main methods a dental practice can employ within their digital marketing strategy. In most cases it’s not simply pick-and-mix in terms of what you fancy having a go at. Most of these tools are complementary to each other and dropping one or more of them will dilute the overall effect. Whilst it may look daunting and expensive, a well considered campaign can be structured a lot more cost-effectively than you might imagine and the payback potential is huge.<\/p>\n Next time we will look at how some dental marketing companies describe their monthly website maintenance service as “SEO” packages and discover why the level of SEO you actually receive is is negligible and doesn’t include essential elements such as blogging and social media management. We’ll investigate why these watered down services typically fail and hence why you need to understand what you are signing up for.<\/p>\n If you’d like to discuss any of the elements in more detail and how they can be brought to bear to help you improve patient numbers, please talk to the Dental Media team on 01332 672548<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Why the multi-channel approach works best for dental practice marketing. Dentists or practice managers often ask “why do I need to do that” when we are discussing various digital marketing techniques for bringing new enquiries to the practice. So for …<\/p>\nThe practice website<\/h3>\n
Search engine optimisation – SEO<\/h3>\n
Blogging<\/h3>\n
Social Media<\/h3>\n
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Pay-per-click advertising (AdWords)<\/h3>\n
E-newsletters<\/h3>\n
Summary<\/h3>\n