Dental Marketing | Minoa Marketing

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Online Patient Reviews: Quality and Consistency Matter!

by Naomi Cooper March 20, 2013

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you are then well aware of the importance for dentists to establish and maintain an active online presence. More people than ever are turning to the Internet when researching health care options. And in today’s tech-savvy world, patients conduct their research online before they ever call your practice to make their first appointment.

Control the information potential patients find online, and increase the likelihood of them taking the next step in calling you by asking your satisfied patients to post online reviews.

Before the Internet, patients would simply ask a friend for a referral and then call to make an appointment. Today, patients may still ask a friend, but they will also go online to research you before they ever make the call to schedule an appointment.
Encourage your satisfied customers to write a review on these sites to increase the amount and quality of the positive reviews. The more positive reviews you have, the better your practice will appear to potential patients.
While it is important to generate positive reviews online, it absolutely must be done in an authentic manner. Consistently adding 1-3 new reviews each month for 6 months will appear most trustworthy to Internet users and your potential patients. For more information on the level of trust of online reviews among today’s Internet users, check out this EMarketer article.

There is no higher stamp of approval of your practice than the referral of a happy patient. Make the most of their positive experience and politely ask them to share their experience online. Consistently asking patients to post a positive review increases the opportunity to reach prospective patients within your community, and helps you to build an authentic online presence for your dental practice.

How does your team actively ask patients to post online reviews? Are new patients asked upfront how they heard about your practice?

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Social Media 101: Reaching Your Dental Patients via Pinterest

by Naomi Cooper February 26, 2013

Not only did Pinterest grow to 18.7 million users in March 2012 from its launch in March 2010, but it’s also a known hub for the dental practice’s ultimate target demographic: Moms. Moms love “pinning” stories, photos and articles to their Pinterest boards. For dentists who have a true general or family practice, and especially for pediatric dentists and orthodontists, Pinterest is the latest addition to the practice’s social media arsenal.

Think of Pinterest as an online pinboard or vision board. Users pin images to their own boards, and these boards are visible not only to the followers of the user, but also to the public so that other Pinterest users can also see the pins.

According to the Huffington Post, 80% of the pins on Pinterest are “repins”. When users repin images from one of your boards, it increases the opportunity to gain new followers, and, it creates a link back to your website, helping to improve your website’s SEO. The higher your website ranks in search results, the greater the chances of reaching new patients when they are searching online for a dentist.

Last November, Pinterest added business pages, enabling businesses to more easily connect with users. If you are interested in using Pinterest for your dental practice, but not sure what pictures or content to include, here are a few ideas to help you get started:

Pictures of the dentist(s), staff members and office photos
Celebrity Smiles
Before and After pictures of your satisfied patients
Personal interests – do you like to cook? Include images of your favorite dishes. Like to travel? Pin photos of your favorite destinations.
New equipment or technology in the practice

The best aspect of Pinterest is the freedom of creativity. In this social media site, you can truly customize your profile to reflect your personality as both a dentist, and an individual. And pinning material that you think is of interest to your patients is another way to grow your Pinterest following.

Pinterest can be addicting and fun to use, and when implemented in a strategic way, it can help foster connections between your dental practice and both active and new patients.

Have you considered using Pinterest on a professional level? Do you think it would help you reach your target patients? Why or why not?

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Is Phone Book Advertising Still Relevant for Dentists?

by Naomi Cooper November 19, 2012

Determining whether advertising in the phone book is a smart way to reach new patients is not as simple as yes or no. Several factors should go into whether or not you continue to advertise. Here are 4 important ideas to consider:

Consumers are becoming increasingly reliant on search engines (i.e., Google) and online review sites (i.e., Yelp) when looking for information about healthcare providers. Younger patients (those in their 20s, 30, and 40s) are more likely to find a dentist online. Senior citizens, on the other hand, may still prefer to use the phone book.
Generally speaking, residents in more urban areas are younger, more technologically savvy and are less likely to have a word of mouth referral to rely on, making them more likely to search for a dentist online. Those in more rural locations are more likely to turn word of mouth or to the yellow pages. However, in today’s world, regardless of where you live, the internet has absolutely become a ubiquitous resource for search and research.
If your target customers are young families, the dollars allocated to yellow pages advertising should not exceed 15% of your marketing budget. If your practice focuses more on senior citizens, it might still be appropriate to spend 25% or more of your total marketing budget on yellow pages. But don’t forget that Baby Boomers are spending an increasing amount of time online, and that women over the age of 60 are still the fastest growing demographic on Facebook.
Return on Investment: How much in production or many new patients do you have to receive to make yellow pages a cost-effective marketing tool? Have you achieved this threshold this year? Last year? How are you measuring success?

A recent study by The Wealthy Dentist found that only 25% of respondents still report getting new patients through phone book advertising. Do you advertise in the phone book? Why or why not? Please share your opinions below.

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Postcard Mailings: What Success Means in Direct Mail

by Naomi Cooper August 30, 2012

If you are a subscriber of our blog, you will know that we often talk about social media marketing. Social media is one of the biggest buzzwords to hit the marketing world in decades. However, it does not mean that traditional methods are no longer effective, or that they should be forgone. In fact, a strategic marketing plan should include both elements of traditional and new marketing.

Direct mail, also called postcard mailing, is one of those traditional tactics that can still be effective, when done correctly. However, we have many clients who say they’ve sent mailings out before but haven’t felt the effort was successful enough to integrate into their ongoing marketing plans. When we question them further as to what their definition of success is, what their expectations are, it becomes clear that they are focused on the wrong elements of the direct mail, leading them to believe that what they believed to be a waste was actually, in fact, a successful marketing event. And it all comes down to calculating the true ROI (return on investment).

Let’s say, as an example:

You want to mail a postcard to 1,000 homes in your community. This mailing is going to cost you $800.
Your average sale is $400.
A week after sending out the postcards, you’ve received 20 new customer leads.

This is where many business owners start thinking “20 calls from 1,000 postcards…that’s only a 2% response rate“. True, it is a 2% response rate, but if just 2 of those new calls convert into new patients, then the mailing has already paid for itself.

By simply calculating your ROI and determining what you need to achieve in order to deem a mailing “successful”, you will have a much truer idea of what marketing efforts are paying off for your business.

Have you tried postcard mailings for your small business? What did success mean to you?

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Connecting with Seniors Online and Through Social Media

by Naomi Cooper August 2, 2012

Does your practice target seniors? Traditionally, tactics such as internal marketing and phone book advertising have been successful ways to reach your patients in the 65 years and older demographic. But as the reach of the internet continues to expand, more and more seniors are using the internet and engaging in social media, providing yet another way to reach patients and connect with customers.

According to a recent Pew Study, more than half – 53% – of all American adults over the age of 65 use the internet, and 34% of them use sites such as Facebook and Twitter. This age group is still in the minority when it comes to social media engagement, however their usage is growing at a rapid pace, and as our population continues to age, it stands to reason that these statistics will continue to increase.

This blog from My Social Practice offers further proof of the growing internet usage rates among seniors. So what does this mean for you? Social media is a growing influence that you can no longer afford to ignore. If seniors are a part of your target patient profile, beginning to engage online and building your practice’s presence on sites such as Facebook and Twitter can be yet another way to connect with your current patients, and reach new patients.

Have you noticed an increase in online engagement from seniors? What are some of the ways you currently reach the senior demographic? Please share your thoughts and experiences below.

Blog

Getting Your Practice Online and Engaged in Social Media

by Naomi Cooper July 31, 2012

Have you been thinking of increasing your practice’s online presence, but not sure how to get started? An increasing number of dentists have become familiar with using social media in their personal lives, but may not be comfortable or know where to begin incorporating social media into the practice’s marketing plan.

Here are a few ideas to consider when beginning your social media campaign:

– What sites are you already familiar with? This will help ease you into social media if you are using a site that you are comfortable with.

– What sites do your patients use? If you do not know, have your staff begin asking patients each day and keep track of the responses. Particularly pay attention to the sites used by patients who are most similar your “target patient”.

There are endless ways to participate in social media online. The most popular sites include Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+. It’s important to remember that, with social media, quality is more important than quantity. So if you feel you only have time to engage on one of these sites, it is better to actively participate in just one site and build your audience with thoughtful and timely posts. Once you have mastered one site, you can then think about expanding into more.

Social media is the biggest buzzword to hit the dental profession in decades. Having a presence on social media sites serves to increase the traffic to your practice website and helps new customers to find your information when searching online for a dentist.

Is your practice online? What sites have you found to be most useful for your practice? Did you have any hesitations while getting started? Please share your thoughts below.

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