DentalPlanet

Your Patients’ Online Expectations of Your Practice are Rising

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The web is changing your patients' expectations of you and your practice.

Consumer expectations will drive dentists to change the way they market online.  Patients shopping for a dentist will not only expect you to have a website, they will also want to see what other information is available about you.  In fact they may even want to know what their friends, and the friends of their friends, also think of you.

Consider for a moment how important ratings and details have become in the book and travel markets.  People now not only want to see photos of the hotel they are considering, they may also want to see video, comments from recent travelers and they may search out several other travel sites to compare information.

This high level of research is not only being done by those “seeking out the best deal”, MarketTools recently revealed a study indicating affluent visitors (with annual incomes of more than $75K) are most likely to research products online before buying (43%). While the power of personal testimonials will live on, consumers will want to view as much information as possible before making decisions about buying everything from hotel rooms to healthcare. (more…)

Jumping into Social Media is Like Your First Amalgam Filling

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I think every dentist can tell you a story about their first amalgam.  Mine was in dental school of course.  The whole restoration was probably about 1.5 mm, but it took the whole three hours.  I have heard this story a million times.  In fact it took half the time to put the rubber dam in place, and by the time it was perfect, the fire alarm would go off and we would all have to evacuate.  The fire alarm seems to go off at least once a week at our school.  But that simple filling that took hours at first now only takes a couple of minutes.  Not that I do any occlusal amalgams anymore!  I have learned the processes of placing a restoration, and I have practiced it thousands of times by now, so it is second nature.  Often times we as dentists don’t want to try new things, but we forget that our great successes often come from taking risks.  Sometimes calculated risks like letting a 23-year-old newbie place a restoration. (more…)

Showin’ Some Love with 20% off or FREE IntraOral Camera!

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Our sponsor, BuyDentalEquipment.com, is offering an amazing deal through the month of February!

Marketing has Changed. But Some Things Stay the Same.

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Use Social Media to enhance your Relationship Marketing for your practice.

Traditional marketing is dead.  It died in 2009. Yellow pages were listed in Wired magazine’s article, “100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About”.  Traditional marketing budgets for direct mail, newspapers, magazines, and television are being moved into online interactive segments, such as search, email and social media marketing (source: Forrester, March/April 2009).

While many tactics may never work again, several traditional marketing techniques will continue to live strong—those being word of mouth, relationship, and referral marketing. (more…)

Using Twitter to Obtain Maximum Impact for Your Dental Practice

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In a recent interview with Amit Singhal, Google smarty-pants, the veil over Google’s methods for including Tweets in search results was slightly lifted.  An article by Technology Review nicely reviewed what was said.  Google began to include Twitter “tweets” in real-time search results about a month ago.  Until recently the method in which they filtered these tweets was a mystery.

It is great to find out how these searches are taking place, but it is also a greater validation for the platform.  Social media experts have praised the benefits of Twitter, but much of the lay population fails to recognize the value.  By including Twitter content in search engine results Google helps the visibility of pertinant tweets.  This in turn will help the SEO of the included links, and the SEO of intended targets overall. (more…)