Which of the following is most important to the bottom line of your dental practice business?

A.  Higher rankings in Google

B.  More traffic on your website

C.  More links to your website.

D.  More patients in your appointment book

I won’t insult you by pointing out the obvious answer to the question.  However, I will point out that 80% of the dentistry practice websites that I have viewed do not address this problem appropriately.  Read on to find out how to graduate to the next level of internet marketing.

Why did I save this post as the finale of this series on the categories of professional SEO?  Because it is by far the most critical and the most often left neglected.  It is the bottom line.  It is what pays the bills.  It is “Conversions.”

A “Conversion” for the sake of this post is the act of converting a website visitor to a patient of your dental practice.  For an e-commerce store it would be the sale of a product and for a charity website it would be a donation to the cause.

It is the most neglected of the four C’s because it is often considered to be the last piece of the puzzle.

Quick Check-Up

Try this:

Navigate to your website and have a look with fresh eyes.  Do not scroll down the page or click on any of the links.  Can you identify without a doubt a clear Call To Action on your screen?  If you can identify the Call to Action this post may not be worth your time.  But if your website is like most that I have seen — read on.

The Call to Action

When we are searching the Internet for the solution to a problem (I have an achy tooth, I need to reach someone that can discuss the cost of Invisalign) we are wanting needing someone to smack us over the head with clear instructions describing how to ENGAGE with your business.

“Contact us Today for a Consultation”

“Get your Smile Analysis Today”

These communicate urgency.  They tell the prospect what to do.  They are clear Calls To Action.

The Offer

Give me a reason to ENGAGE with your business.  Consider the difference between the above and the below:

“Contact us Today for a FREE Initial Consultation”

“Get your complimentary Smile Analysis Today”

As a potential patient, I need to know why I should choose you over your competition and (again) I need to be hit over the head with the message.

Observe the difference between this:

Example of No Offer

And this:

Call to Action with Offer

The Vehicle

Give me as many clear methods of ENGAGEMENT as possible:

-  A phone number

-  A lead form

-  An email address

Make it Accessible

Make these methods of contact available on EVERY page of your website.  When I visit your website I may be ready to fill out a lead form, make a call or send an email immediately.  I also may be interested in reading about your staff, the atmosphere of your practice or finding more information about your location or the services you provide.

At any point while investigating your practice I may decide that you are the dentist for me.  It is at this point that you must have these methods of Conversion available.  Make it available on EVERY page.

By signing up for the free eNewsletter you will get access to the video “6 Proven Methods to Generate Dental Patients From Your Website.”  In this video I show two websites that are doing a phenomenal job at displaying Calls to Action and Conversion Methods.

As always let me know if you have questions by contacting me here or leaving a comment on this post.

People react to tough times in a predictable manner – they sit on their money. Many people consider chiropractor services and dental work to be discretionary and are therefore more likely to endure a bit more pain before making an appointment, or skip that next dental visit. You are probably feeling it in your bottom line, and if you aren’t, you will.

This means that the same amount of dental practices and chiropractor offices are competing for less clientele. Increase your online marketing spend to weather the storm, or face the prospect of lower revenues in 2009.

Consider the life time value of a patient when deciding on your internet marketing spend. The latest statistics show that the life time value of a dental patient is about $22,000. With this in mind, consider investing more in marketing to get patients in the door.

Try this:

Divide your total monthly or quarterly marketing spend by the number of new patients you are bringing in the door for the same period of time. This is what it costing you to bring in new patients. Is it currently $200, $500, a $1,000 to bring in a new patient? If you haven’t done this kind of math, you will find it enlightening.

Internet marketing is effective during this time because you can’t afford to be targeting people that are not interested in your services. Online marketing targets people at the split second they are searching for your services. When someone is typing in ‘veneers roanoke virginia’ your practice needs to be displayed.

Direct Mail, radio, television, and newspaper advertising are all examples of mass market advertising that puts your message in front of thousands of people, most of which are uninterested in what you are offering. Internet marketing spend continues to grow year over year because it is two things – accurate and testable. The accuracy comes from its ability to target those that are actively searching for a particular service.

But testability is what is driving most businesses from the mass market advertising to the internet. Analytics programs that can tell you where you are succeeding and where you are failing. Pay per click campaigns that can give you true ROI figures. Online marketing shatters the theory of the mysterious “black box” into which marketers of the past deposited their money.

As always, let me know if you have questions. You can leave a comment below or contact me directly here.

This site supports everything from optometrists and chiropractors to kidney specialists and podiatrists. The site does not support dental practices, however, which I found to make little sense.

It took me about 10 minutes to sign up for an account and link to my doctor. Your patients can then set up appointments by visiting your website and clicking the link to Relay Health or logging directly into Relay Health and clicking on ‘Appointments’ from their home screen.

Click to enlarge image

You will be able to send messages to the patients that are associated with your practice through Relay Health. The last message I received from my doctor was reminding me that I needed to get my flu shot.

Other features include:

- Patients can upload their health records

- Physicians can upload lab/test results

- Patients can contact their doctors

- Patients can manage all of their family members from one interface

- Patients can manage prescription refills

Making an appointment takes about 2 minutes once you have created your profile in Relay Health. The appointment maker asks you to give three dates and times when you will be available.

While I will be the first one to tell you that you must concentrate on increasing traffic through the SEO and SEM for your physician or dental practice, it is what you do with that traffic in the end that matters. Give your existing and prospective patients the ability to interact with your practice via the internet.

Please let me know if you have questions by leaving a comment or by contacting me directly here.

What is this issue? CONVERSIONS

Many people come to The SEM Firm in hopes of ranking #1 on terms such as ‘physician chicago il’ or ‘dental practice callaway county.” Others will insist that the problem is that they are not getting enough traffic. Most of the dental marketing materials and materials that I see for physician web marketing are leading people astray.

The truth is that rankings are just a means to an end.

The truth is that traffic is of secondary importance.

What is critical is that the traffic that you do have is translating into CONVERSIONS.

Rankings do not make you any money. Traffic does not put food on the table. Conversion from a visitor to a patient is all that matters.

What is a conversion for a dental practice or physicians office? An appointment. Your website should be capable of (at the very least) generating some leads of people that are interested in your services.

Do you make it easy for visitors to your website to do business with you?

If you really want to make it easy for your visitors to do business with you there are some relatively inexpensive appointment making programs available including a great one from Appointment Quest. If you are spending the time to get better rankings and traffic you must put yourself in a position to close the deal on your website.

Here are some tips:
1. Make it very clear what visitors should do to become a patient. This called a Call to Action (e.g. Click here to schedule an appointment)
2. The Call to Action should appear on every page and should link to your Conversions Page (You never know when the visitor will read something that makes them say “I need to see this doctor!”
3. Create a Conversions Page where visitors can fill out a form or make an appointment.
4. If you are using a lead generating form — Keep it as short as possible. Every extra field decreases conversion.
5. Consider a third party software that can book appointments for your Conversions Page.

Don’t: Obsess about your rankings and traffic.
Do: Obsess about converting visitors to patients.

Let me know if you have questions or comments by posting in the Comments section. I will be happy to help.

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dental web marketing; dental marketing materials