Tag

online marketing

Blog

Guaranteed Tactics for Reaching Your Most Desired Dental Patient Type

by Naomi Cooper July 9, 2018

A good question to ask yourself before beginning any marketing plan is this:

Who am I trying to attract?

After all, there are a million different marketing tactics available and a million sales people waiting to sell you on each of them. If you aren’t clear on the type of patient that you want to see more of in your practice, it will be extremely difficult to determine which advertising will work well for your practice. Not only that, you will undoubtedly waste money on a haphazard marketing plan.

I recently published an article in Dental Products Report where I discuss three of the major patient demographic groups that most dentists like to target today, and I go into detail about what marketing tactics currently work well for each. Check it out to read the specifics, but here is a quick synopsis:

  • Baby Boomers – Focus on your messaging with this group and discover the #1 thing you don’t want to avoid
  • Millennials – Find out what you and your team should be doing in order to capitalize on word of mouth with this generation
  • Moms – Get ideas on how to maximize convenience for this busy patient group, and the treatments you can promote to stay relevant

And while it is good to stay on top of the trends related to your ideal patient type, it’s important to remember the intangible customer service qualities (strong verbal skills, good customer service) that will always appeal to patients of all types.

 

 

 

 

 

video

Dental Marketing: Top Tips for Building an Online Presence

by Naomi Cooper October 3, 2016

Dental Marketing: Top Tips for Building an Online Presence Dentists today are bombarded with sales calls promising to boost their online reputations or guaranteeing the top spot on Google.

Just as there’s no magic bullet for achieving optimal oral health, there’s no shortcuts when it comes to building a dynamic digital presence.

Check out my recent video here to find out the most important steps every dentist should take when developing an effective online strategy.

Blog

5 Online Marketing Hacks for Dentists

by Naomi Cooper September 7, 2016

You went to dental school, not business school. You specialize in exams and extractions, not marketing and social media. So how do you even begin to build a savvy online presence for your dental practice?

Online marketing hacks for dentistsHere are 5 tips to demystify online marketing for every dentist:

  1. Perform an online audit – Google your name and then your practice name. What comes up? Take note of where in the search results your website appears, as well as bookmark any sites with incomplete or inaccurate information to go back and fix sooner rather than later.
  2. Claim online profiles – Business listings may already exist for the practice on sites like Google and Yelp without your knowledge. Be sure every online profile has up-to-date practice and contact information.
  3. Update the practice website – If you haven’t touched your practice website within the past 18 months or more, schedule an appointment with your web designer to talk about updating the site for modern convenience (responsive design, SEO functionality, user-friendliness).
  4. Actively ask for patient testimonials – It NEVER hurts to ask! In fact, asking patients to post online reviews actually helps spark word of mouth for the office.
  5. Don’t forget about social media – Build your presence on sites and apps like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram…and encourage patients to check in and tag the office.

To dive deeper into these strategies, and discover 5 more simple yet effective methods of improving your online marketing, check out my recent article in Dental Products Report to ensure you stay in the driver’s seat of your online reputation.

video

3 Secrets for a Modern Dental Practice Website

by Naomi Cooper May 2, 2016

3 Secrets for a Modern Dental Practice WebsiteThe practice website is the most important component of any dentist’s online strategy. But with so many self-proclaimed experts in web design, it’s difficult to figure out what you must have, what to avoid and what technology needs to be incorporated.

Here are the 3 most important features every modern dental website should have to ensure it’s attractive to patients while working to build your online presence in the most effective way possible.

Blog

Claim your dental practice’s online identity…or someone else might!

by Naomi Cooper March 14, 2016

Claim your dental practice's online identityA dentist client of mine recently decided to join Twitter and made a disturbing discovery when she attempted to create an account: someone had already created a Twitter account using her email address. Who could this imposter be? What lessons can be learned from this experience?

The fact is if dentists don’t take an active role in their social media presence, someone just might do it for them, and unfortunately it’s actually more common that you might first realize.

It is essential for dentists to monitor their personal names as well as their business names across social media platforms. Online trolls and other nefarious characters may make slight changes to your online name and create fake accounts and it is up to you to find and report these imposters.

What can you do to protect yourself? If you find that you are the victim of trolling or impersonation here are a few tips:

  1. Report trolls or impersonators to the appropriate social media company.  Keep vigilant. It may take some time to get resolved, but this is your reputation, it is worth it.
  1. Regularly search popular sites like Google, Twitter, Facebook, Yelp and LinkedIn for your name and your practice name. If something doesn’t look right or if you see a duplicate account, you may be a victim of impersonation.

TIP: If you are active on Twitter, you may want to pay special attention: According to Business Insider, trolling is mostly a Twitter issue.  “A study of 134,000 abusive social media mentions showed that 88% of them occur on Twitter. Only a tiny fraction of online abuse happens on Facebook or other social media.”

  1. Build a robust online presence by blogging and collecting patient reviews. Claim profiles on sites like Google and Yelp, and maintain an active presence on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
  1. Protect your online reputation. This Forbes article suggests some simple ways to keep things positive.

And because you have enough on your to-do list already, there are companies that specialize in helping dentists manage their online reputations, Sesame Communications and My Social Practice to name a few. Outsourcing can give you peace of mind knowing that you’re putting your best digital foot forward.

Blog

Instagram: Use This Powerful Platform to Promote Your Dental Practice

by Naomi Cooper February 15, 2016

Instagram’s popularity has skyrocketed over the past two years and it continues to soar, with online adult usage growing from 13% three years ago to 28% today. With this explosive growth, now is a great time to incorporate Instagram into your mobile marketing strategy.

Initially, Instagram was simply an app that allowed users to share photos with followers, but it has proved to be an effective marketing tool. Below are 3 ways to leverage Instagram to increase engagement and build awareness online for your practice.

  • Contests – Create photo contests. Ask patients to tag their photos with a specific hashtag to be entered into a raffle. Or have staff post photos of themselves in Halloween costumes, for example, and have patients vote for their favorite.
  • Feature Your Followers – Highlight happy patients and personalize your relationships with them by taking their pictures and featuring them in your posts. *Always be sure to get written consent before posting photos of patients online*
  • Promotions – By including promo codes in your posts you can keep your patients engaged and excited about their next visit.

The above methods are only a few of the ways to use Instagram to market your practice. As Instagram grows in popularity, you’ll be able to create an even more personal experience with your patients that’s engaging and accessible.