Don’t let marketing frustrations get you down! Every business is ripe for successful promotion

There are certain big-name players in the web marketing world, but this month, we saw an appearance from someone that we never expected to turn to for marketing inspiration. As a partially government-funded entity and the unpopular alternative to airplane travel, Amtrak has never been the most glamorous institution on the block. They decided to combat this by focusing on what is appealing about their services: the long-held romantic tradition of train travel.

Amtrak found its opportunity to strike by paying close attention to social media. When writer Alexander Chee mentioned in an interview that there should be an Amtrak residency for writers, fellow writer Jessica Gross tweeted at Amtrak, asking them to make it a reality. Amtrak responded in the affirmative, sending Gross on the maiden residency. Their writer’s residency program is now underway, and this wallflower company has a young, creative, tastemaking audience listening, creating, and buzzing.

The Marketability of Your Dental Practice

There’s a lesson to be learned here. No matter how uncool a business may seem, it can always find an angle. Amtrak showed off its connections with its users, jumping on a tweet to create a new kind of camaraderie with train travelers and writers alike. Draw inspiration from this to do the same with your dental practice. While dental offices may not seem like the most exciting places, you can find a way to connect with patients and show them that your practice values them.

Making Marketing Fun – For Both Practice and Patient

Another great aspect of Amtrak’s interactions is the way the institution made their marketing entertaining – and even fun. Those behind the creation of the residency and those reaping its rewards enjoy the process. Your marketing doesn’t have to be all humdrum. Find and seize opportunities to make it more lively, and your current and prospective patients will appreciate your efforts. The simplest, most effective way to do so is to follow Amtrak’s example, and embrace social media.

Social Media Marketing for Dentists

Social media isn’t just the life of the party – is IS the party. It’s where everyone is hanging out online. If you want to break into a new group of patients, or build connections among existing ones, social media is the right route. Sharing content on social media is simple – it doesn’t even have to be something you created yourself. Posting a fun fact, dental graphic, blog post, cartoon, or educational tidbit will give your patients a moment of humor or reflection. They’ll appreciate that you put that content in their paths, and they will remember you for your online presence. Better yet, they could share that content with others.

Getting Patients Involved in Practice Promotion

You’ve provided superb dentistry – your patients will be happy to return the favor. Not by doing dental work (could get a bit messy), but by giving back to your practice. This is as simple as clicking “Share” on one of your Facebook posts, or pinning one of your photos on Pinterest. When your patients respect you and appreciate what you’ve done for them, they’re likely to blatantly and inadvertently help improve your web presence. Tapping into patients’ social groups offers you an entirely new group of prospective patients, and helps your practice continue to grow.

Whether you’re marketing long-distance train travel or dental crowns and root canals, the basic principles are the same. Find a way to connect with your audience, and you could be next month’s Amtrak.

Web design is the darling of the Internet. No matter how great a site’s content is (whether it’s text, photographs, or videos), the site’s design facilitates and effects viewing. Unless they’re already invested in what that specific site has to offer, many first-time visitors will navigate away if they don’t gel with the site’s design. Design dictates a website’s appeal. Is yours convincing new patients to follow through and make a call? It may be time for an update.

Time for a Website Redesign?

Refreshing your website’s design is simple and a wise investment. With the constantly evolving face of the Internet, regular updates are necessary to stay in touch with what looks current. Redesigns also help you stay abreast of Google updates and keep your site search engine-friendly. If you struggle to look objectively at your website and decide what it needs, our team can help. It’s always tough to mentally separate from something you’ve spent time building. We can offer that outsider’s perspective, aided by design expertise.

Why Your Website’s Design Should Be A Priority

Make your website a place patients want to spend their time

A website’s design speaks to visitors the moment they land on the page. This is more than can be said for the site’s content – depending on its format and on-page location, most visitors will never see its majority. Design stands out instantly, and determines the way patients view your entire site. Is the layout user-friendly? Is it clean and appealing? Is it action-oriented, providing patients with a clear route to contacting the practice? Your design should accomplish all these tasks, and more.

Is Your Current Website Design Working?

Unsure whether your website is in need of some work? Consider a few of the following criteria to decide whether it’s time for an upgrade.

• Is your website yielding new patients? This question is both straightforward and complex. How do you determine whether your dental practice’s website is doing its job? The proper solution lies in tackling some contact data. Consider how many appointment requests have come in via your web site, and which services those patients were seeking (were they preventive, cosmetic, restorative, etc). Use web analytics to determine the bounce rate of your home page. You’ll be able to decide whether people are interacting with your site in a way that is rewarding to both them and your practice.
• Do you like your website? You’re the most important benchmark of your website’s design success. If you just settled for a design and it’s not exactly what you’d like, chances are that design doesn’t really fit with your mission statement or your practice.
• Is your design consistent with your practice’s image? This applies to both visual branding and the site’s content. Does the appearance and layout of your website match paper promotional materials, the practice’s logo, and other representations of your office? It’s key that you establish a consistent brand, and your site design is a great place to start. Nearly everyone who searches for a new dentist online will pass through your site before making a call, and they’ll be evaluating the practice along the way. Make sure those patients draw conclusions that reflect the reality of your practice.

Submit your website for a free design and SEO evaluation to get an idea of where you’re at. We’ll comment on what should be working well, potential changes you could make, and what the redesign process would entail. There’s no obligation involved, simply some professional advice. If you’re unsure about your design or your on-site SEO, we’d love to take a look.

Dental Website Design | Dental Web Design | Web Design for Dentists

As a medical professional, marketing just isn’t within your purview. And it shouldn’t be! You have other things to focus on. Your patients’ well-being is your natural top priority.

The catch-22 is that without practice marketing, you won’t have patients to treat. For this reason, many dentists and doctors choose to hire outside forces to take care of their marketing. Even if you have hired a marketing firm, it’s important that you be a part of the process. No one can ever hope to understand your practice the way you and your office manager do, or decide how your practice should be presented to the world. So how do you place a few toes in the web marketing waters?

Easy Comprehension of Dental Marketing Basics

This blog post acts as a promotion primer to help you consider the basic factors of dental marketing as they apply to your office. Consider the factors detailed below to get a better idea of how to proceed, and what to emphasize in your marketing efforts. If you have any questions, our team can offer some pointers. Just get in touch.

Taking Your First Dental Marketing Steps

• Determine what should be promoted – This is based on a number of factors. Spend some time with your office’s invoices to get a better idea of your top earners (within your services). Which ones typically aren’t covered by insurance? Which are more popular? Which treatments yield the highest net income? You’ll also need to consider the treatments that will appeal most to your patients. Your marketing needs to be a balance of what you want to promote and what patients are trying to find in order to be successful. If your entire website talks about root canals, but fails to mention cosmetic services, it’s not going to bring in new patients (endodontic therapy isn’t the most inviting treatment).
• Establish your target demographics – Your target demographics are determined by patients’ traits and their locations. You’ll want to appeal to different patients for different services, and tweak your marketing to correspond with whomever is likely to find that service appealing. You’ll also want to choose which neighboring cities, suburbs, or counties you’re interested in using as patient sources. These decisions will inform the Google pay per click and Facebook ad campaigns that your marketers implement.
• Decide on your web presence – This is a HUGE decision. Your “web presence” encompasses so much – the design of your website; your social media personalities; your ad campaigns; your practice’s branding and logo. You’ll want to work with a professional web designer to make sure that your choices are incorporated in an attractive, functional, and SEO-friendly manner.
• Build points of connection – These points of connection deepen relationships with existing patients, and bring in new patients in the process. Your web connections will be formed on social media, on your website, and through email. You’ll need to move your existing patient relationships to the web by encouraging individuals to connect with the practice. From those initial connections, new ones will grow, and your practice will flourish.
• Continue to develop your online presence – Your web marketing needs to evolve and endure to stay relevant. While your SEO consultant will take care of the necessary search engine-related changes, you will need to provide fresh content and office news yourself. Prospective patients are turned off when they see that your blog hasn’t been updated in 6 months, or that your Facebook page hasn’t seen activity in weeks. The web presence you build will require ongoing additions – it’s never “all set,” or ready to be left alone. Remain important to patients by remaining active.

These tips scratch the surface of your introduction to web marketing. Interested in learning more? Get in touch with Boxtop Marketing for dental marketing expertise.