Readability Matters!

August 26, 2022
Blogging, Dental Advertising, Dental marketing, internet dental marketing, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

ProspectaMarketing endeavors to meet our clients marketing needs and extend their reach through every possible medium. Audiovisual elements are absolutely crucial in this endeavor and if you haven’t read our article on the core tenets of visual media, check it out immediately! However, another vital element we have covered on this blog – one that is at least as important as audiovisual media – is written content.

If you have read our article on the importance of engaging website copy, then you already know the core elements of creating this text-based content. However, how are you supposed to check if that content is tracking well with readers and getting the correct message across? In an arena like dental advertising, it can be even more important to transmit your goals and information effectively and objectively, as patients are often looking for health-related facts that leave little room for subjective writing. Readability checkers are, at least partially, the answer.

What Is A Readability Checker?

You can infer what a readability checker entails pretty easily by the name: it’s a tool used by blog specialists, website copy writers, and content creators the web over to ensure that their content is grammatically and structurally correct. However, it’s more than just a glorified spell-checker. A properly designed readability checker will also test your content for proper flow, repetition of words, transition phrases, and a host of other fluency and syntax standards. In short, it will make sure your work sounds as professionally written as possible.

There are three types of spell-checkers our blog team recommends when creating written content.

  1. Yoast Plug-in: This particular spell-checker mainly applies to WordPress users. If you’re generating content for a blog, mailing list, forum, or media gallery, using the Yoast Plug-in is a good way to check your progress. When enabled, it will show a color-coded symbol to the right of your blog posts in your blog viewing window in WordPress. The color ranges from red to green, respectively indicating low to high readability levels. Red means your post needs work, yellow means it’s almost there, and green means you’re good to go. The plug-in also enables a similar column with identical symbols for SEO optimization, which means you can use it to both check the accessibility of your text and test how high it will rank on search engines. Yoast not only lets you know that you Readability or SEO are low; it gives you suggestions to help you fix it. All the steps you can take are arranged in an easy-to-access drop down menu so you can easily get your post in the green.
  2. Microsoft Word Readability Checker: What if your written content is not being generated via WordPress? Our best tip is to either create your text entirely on a blank document on Microsoft Word (or a similar, text-based application), or at least copy paste it into a blank document before posting it to your preferred back-end web service. Why? Microsoft itself has a hidden readability checker that few people know about. Making use of it is easy and free! While you’ve got your Word document open, search the top row of toolbar options for the “Review” tab. Then, find the category titled “Spelling & Grammar.” At this stage, you’ll be able to choose spell-check options, but, depending on your version of Word, there should also be a category or option titled “Readability Statistics.” With this pop-up page, you will be able to access statistics like your text’s Fleisch Reading Ease Score. Metrics like this can be helpful in examining whether your text flows well and is understood easily by your intended target audience.
  3. Grammarly: Though focused primarily on grammar and spelling, Grammarly is also great tool for ascertaining how to improve the clarity, fluency, cohesiveness, and vocabulary of written content. It offers real-time assistance and a host of tools. The only drawback to this robust readability system is that most of the features are locked behind a paywall. The only free features are grammar and spelling!

Why Is Readability Important?

In an ever-evolving online landscape, your practice’s potential patients will have no patience for improperly written walls of text riddled with mistakes. They have the ability to quickly click away to another page and come equipped with the increased online literacy of a generation raised on the internet. These standards make readable content an absolute cornerstone to your advertising campaign.

At ProspectaMarketing, we can assign you a specialized blog writer and even help you iron out clunky marketing copy. We are an experienced Internet marketing firm specializing in dental practices and the tools of Internet marketing. We help you reach key prospects who are looking for what your practice has to offer. Our unique and thorough approach provides visibility, financial accountability, and ongoing refinement and improvement. You can find out more by contacting Lane Anderson toll-free at 1-877-322-4440 Ext 101, by email using the form on our Contact Us page, or online at ProspectaMarketing.com.

Content-Specific Dental Marketing

June 17, 2022
Dental Advertising, Dental marketing, internet dental marketing

At ProspectaMarketing, we’ve spoken at-length about our unique, in-depth, all-points approach to digital dental marketing. This makes sense. For most of our practices, a marketing initiative that emphasizes a host of services is the right choice. After all, if your practice offers many general, restorative, and cosmetic dentistry options, you want to keep your patients informed of your status as an end all, be all source dental treatment.

But what if your practice requires a more content-specific approach? At ProspectaMarketing, we are versed in more than just generalized dental marketing. During our initial meeting with practices, we perform an in-depth analysis and interview the dental team in order to facilitate a mutual understanding of your areas of interest.

From there, we focus on creating treatment-specific content that highlights your practice as an authority on said treatments. This way, you can cut across the noise that most businesses make online, visual or otherwise, and set yourself apart in the eyes of your patients. For example, if you are a cosmetic dentistry practice, patients should see you as a practice that specializes in cosmetics, not a dental practice that forgot to add the rest of their dentistry landing pages!

In order to ensure the efficacy of your specialized marketing effort, we create:

  • Content-Specific Landing Pages: When it comes to your website, a singular, specific focus on a service shouldn’t translate to a singular, specific landing page. Many branches of dentistry and health services can be split up into several subject areas. If you’re a dental implant-only practice, we might consider designing a landing page like “Dental Implants.” Then, we would split that generalized page up into several other landing pages, like “Am I Eligible For A Dental Implant?”, or “Types of Dental Implants”, or even “What Are Dental Implants?” This way, we can generate a large enough amount of content from a single service.
  • Customized Copy: Though this is a service we provide for all our clients, it is even more crucial to have original copy when you’re trying to become the authority on a certain subject. At ProspectaMarketing, we can overhaul old, outdated copy and keep your website fresh for your new visitors, and reliable for your regulars.
  • Custom Blog Service: For most of our clients, we employ the use of Listpipe™, a blog service that provides our writers with fresh article ideas. Our writing team then customizes these articles for our clients. However, for a treatment- or service-specific practice, we encourage signing on to our custom blog service. This way, you can have content written from the ground, up. The content will be unique to your website and will go a long way toward keeping Google Index bots on it long enough for your pages to be archived. (You can learn more about Google Indexing by reading our previous blog post on the subject.)

ProspectaMarketing has helped advertise site-specific content for practices that focus on general, restorative, and cosmetic dentistry. But we’ve also advertised on behalf of more unique practices. To this day, we’ve worked on marketing initiatives for practices that focus on:

  • TMJ
  • Sleep Apnea
  • Orthodontics
  • Pediatric Dentistry
  • Denistry for Seniors
  • Emergency Dentistry

Whether you represent a general dentistry office, or a more content-specific practice, we are here to help! ProspectaMarketing are an experienced Internet marketing firm specializing in dental practices and the tools of Internet marketing. We help you reach key prospects who are looking for what your practice has to offer. Our unique and thorough approach provides visibility, financial accountability, and ongoing refinement and improvement. You can find out more by contacting Lane Anderson toll-free at 1-877-322-4440 Ext 101, by email using the form on our Contact Us page, or online at ProspectaMarketing.com.

The ProspectaMarketing Difference

June 3, 2022
Dental marketing, internet dental marketing

Here at ProspectaMarketing, we manage the marketing and advertising prospects of hundreds of dental practices. As a dentist, you might be wondering why it’s necessary to have a viable digital marketing campaign. After all, dental practices have survived for years on word-of-mouth. Right?

Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. The digital media landscape has become inexorably intertwined with our day-to-day reality in the last few decades. With the slow but inevitable crawl toward the market of meta-reality now in full effect, and the far-reaching influence of digital and social platforms felt at every aspect of daily life, the average consumer has started to prioritize easily accessible, online information about the businesses they invest in.

This applies to dental marketing as well. With this new reality comes a wealth of information that, until now, has been available only through dental literature. Patients can now access objective dental analysis online and make their own conclusions about their dental health. Far from a negative, dental practices must see this as a tool. By employing the use of our marketing tools at ProspectaMarketing, you can help your practice become an authority in this new space; an international, far-reaching digital space where consumers are craving guidance on matters of dental health.

Why Choose ProspectaMarketing? 

ProspectaMarketing can provide your practice with an in-depth, all points approach to digital marketing. While other marketing formulas might dictate a strict focus on local listings, website design, or digital optimization, we encourage the use of all of these in tandem. By taking advantage of every advertising avenue, we can ensure your brand has far-reaching influence and authority.

In simple terms: we believe every tool at your disposal should be used to get your message out there. In this spirit, we employ the use of the following:

  • A team of professional copywriters that deliver top-notch website copy.
  • A team of SEO specialists that provide visibility for your practice in an ever-expanding ocean of search engine results.
  • Local listings professionals that are ready to ensure you’re reaching your intended audience
  • Google Analytics testing to increase your website landings.
  • Weekly blog entries to keep your website fresh for the Google Index bots.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re interested in finding out about more of our marketing and advertising options, and find yourself in need a company to manage your dental marketing strategies and provide you with excellent visual media for your digital advertising effort, we are here to help! ProspectaMarketing are an experienced Internet marketing firm specializing in dental practices and the tools of Internet marketing. We help you reach key prospects who are looking for what your practice has to offer. Our unique and thorough approach provides visibility, financial accountability, and ongoing refinement and improvement. You can find out more by contacting Lane Anderson toll-free at 1-877-322-4440 Ext 101, by email using the form on our Contact Us page, or online at ProspectaMarketing.com.

The Core Tenets of Visual Media

May 20, 2022
Advertising Media, Dental Advertising, Dental marketing, internet dental marketing, Video

At ProspectaMarketing, we create and manage all sorts of visual marketing materials for the dental practices we represent. From website design to local listings, all text needs images and visual cues to lead the reader to the right material. Without it, all you’re left with is an empty digital presence and a virtual hub that doesn’t draw visitors in.

Our team has put together a list of the core tenets of visual media; that is, the 5 most important rules to follow when using any images or videos on your website, social media sites, blogs, or any other digital marketing avenues.

The Rules

  1. Strive for Creativity: An engaging picture can be an absolute game changer for a website. The marketing authority Hubspot conducted a study this year that 70% of companies invest in some form of audiovisual media marketing. This includes videos, photos, and even music! In a pool as large as that, you must strive to choose pictures and videos that are unique to your services and that are stylish. Use music and colors that draw the eye.
  2. Don’t Overdo it: Though it might seem to fly in the face of the previous point, you don’t want to overwhelm your digital visitors with a carnival of mismatching colors, loud sounds, and intense images. As with everything, balance is key. Ensure you only ever use three types of font styles in your web presence, be it your website or other digital hubs. Another good tip is to make sure your pictures match your aesthetic. Pick three or four main colors that  your dental practice uses often and try to pick images and visual media that complement them.
  3. Videos, Videos, Videos: The aforementioned study by Hubspot also pointed out that the primary form of media used in content marketing is video. With a new generation of consumers, who are all tech savvy, comes an affinity for quick, engaging, quirky videos. Even as a dental practice, you can take advantage of this! Make sure to keep videos on your website and social media sites updated and share them often!
  4. Image and Video Licenses: After a few months, image and video licenses might begin to expire. This could lead to dead links and redirect loops in your digital hubs. Don’t let this happen! We recommend keeping an updated document with all licenses and license numbers, as well as their expiration dates, and checking it often.
  5. Labels and Descriptions: It is often important to label and describe images. The benefit of an image description is two-fold. Firstly, it helps the reader identify the media, if the actual image doesn’t load. Secondly, it can clarify complex factors (like complicated dental or medical procedures) to consumers, so they immediately know what they’re seeing.

If you need a company to manage your dental marketing strategies and provide you with excellent visual media for your digital advertising effort, we are here to help! ProspectaMarketing are an experienced Internet marketing firm specializing in dental practices and the tools of Internet marketing. We help you reach key prospects who are looking for what your practice has to offer. Our unique and thorough approach provides visibility, financial accountability, and ongoing refinement and improvement. You can find out more by contacting Lane Anderson toll-free at 1-877-322-4440 Ext 101, by email using the form on our Contact Us page, or online at ProspectaMarketing.com.

Advanced Digital Marketing Strategies

May 10, 2022
Dental marketing, Internet Marketing

At ProspectaMarketing, we want the dental practices we represent to consistently increase the impact of their digital presence. In order to facilitate this, we utilize major applications, like Google Analytics, as well as advanced digital SEO tools. But, what can you do? Is there any way that you, as a dentist or dental team member, can support your online marketing campaign?

Of course there is! However, our team knows how hard it can be to participate in your marketing campaign once it has launched. When a professional marketing team plans and designs so many aspects of the practice’s image, it can often feel like your input is not necessary. This couldn’t be further from the truth!

Our team works with you to delineate marketing objectives. We prioritize your needs as a practice and tailor our services to your unique local and SEO strategies. This ensures that your message is being delivered as effectively as possible; but, most importantly, it ensures that it remains your message.

In order to help you out, our incredible team has put together a list of tips and tricks. These are all things you can do to make sure the framework Prospecta has helped you put in place yields the results you want!

How to Ensure Success In Your Marketing Strategy

  1. Effective Website Copy: We’ve written at length about this on previous articles, but we can’t stress it enough! Writing engaging, unique website copy is crucial to keeping potential patients on your website once they’ve found it. As a team, we employ a vast number of digital processes to ensure that your page landings increase, but it’s up to you to make sure that, once those patients “land,” so to speak, the website they are reading is grammatically correct, matches your service tabs, and is easy to use.
  2. Unique Visual Media: Pictures and videos are gold. In an age of immediate digital interaction and decreased attention spans, having visual media that is unique, represents your audience accurately, and stands out from the crowd is an absolute must. When designing your website, managing your advertising, or even editing a blog post, make sure to avoid blurry images, compressed files, and awkwardly sized media. Make sure that any and all image licenses are still valid; if they’re not, ensure that no images were replaced by dead links when they expired. Keep videos short but image/audio quality high. Scrub any unnecessary metadata from images (especially if they contain patient information!) Only use three font types on your website and make sure your aesthetics match on all social media, sites, or apps that represent your practice.
  3. High Review Response Rate: Something else we’ve focused on before are online reviews. It is absolutely crucial to encourage AND respond to reviews. Inform your entire dental team of this objective and make sure they are trained to follow up every interaction with a friendly: “If you enjoyed your experience, please leave us a review!” Using e-mail and text-based marketing, you can even follow up with them after visits to ensure that they don’t forget. Once your review numbers are high and consistent, respond to every review. Good experiences will be solidified in the patient’s mind, and it also offers an opportunity to clear the air about misunderstandings. When responding to a negative review, don’t be defensive. Be understanding, apologize for the inconvenience (when it’s reasonable), and ensure the patient that any interactions moving forward will be positive.
  4. Basic Understanding of Google Analytics: While we handle things like web presence, SEO, and leads, it’s always a good thing when a dental team has a basic understanding of online analytics. At Prospecta, we use Google Analytics to assess a website’s performance. It offers many metrics, but one of the most important ones is Page Landings. We encourage all our practices to familiarize themselves with this tool. At the very least, you should know how many people are viewing your site and how that number changes with each shift in your strategy.
  5. Variety of Content: Though easy for practices that offer a variety of service pages on their website, variety of content is harder when you represent a specialized clinic. However, it’s not impossible. If, for example, you only offer TMJ and Sleep Apnea treatment, you can split up your topics into “The Causes of TMJ,” The Benefits of TMJ Treatment,” “Sleep Apnea Treatment Options”, “What is Sleep Apnea?” and many more. This creates diversity of content even in the most specific content areas.
  6. Google Index Rate: The Google Index constantly sends out bots out to scour the internet for unique content. So, while this is connected to our previous point, it focuses on unique content more specifically. Make sure to avoid cookie-cutter text and that your written content is specifically tailored to your practice. Google will not index a website that doesn’t have a high percentage of unique word and phrase permutations. If you want to ensure that you show up first on search results and that your web presence is pronounced, you’ll want to focus on this point specifically.

Our team is ready to help you get your message across to your audiences. We can help you manage your advertising efforts and attract new patients.

ProspectaMarketing are an experienced Internet marketing firm specializing in dental practices and the tools of Internet marketing. We help you reach key prospects who are looking for what your practice has to offer. Our unique and thorough approach provides visibility, financial accountability, and ongoing refinement and improvement. You can find out more by contacting Lane Anderson toll-free at 1-877-322-4440 Ext 101, by email using the form on our Contact Us page, or online at ProspectaMarketing.com.

The Importance of Engaging Website Copy

April 4, 2022
Dental marketing, Internet Marketing, Websites

Web,Development,And,Coding.,Cross,Platform,Development,Website.,Adaptive,Layout

ProspectaMarketing specializes in comprehensive digital marketing for dental practices all over the country. We help our clients with everything from creating and monitoring local listings, to managing user reviews. One of the most crucial factors we emphasize is effective, engaging website copy.

Without a website that makes users want to engage with your content, you can have all the search engine optimization and visibility you want; the truth is that patients will not stay on your site for long. If you’re using a tool like Google Analytics, you might see a high number of page landings, but your retention rate might be low. If this is the case, then the chances that you are turning leads into appointments is low as well.

The Vital Elements of Website Copy

There are three cornerstones to creating exciting, engaging website content: originality, accuracy, and diversity. Our marketing team has put together a primer that explains how each one works. Check it out below!

Originality

We all run into a common marketing roadblock: everything’s been written about! In the face of the nearly-infinite host of dental articles and websites out there, and the accessibility that search engines provide patients with, it can be easy to feel like there’s no way to write original content. But this is the wrong attitude! We encourage you to come up with new angles to reformat and redeliver similar content.

What makes your practice different? Do you have special technology that other practices in your area lack? Did your top dentist receive special training in a specific area? These are the factors to be looking for. Even something as simple as images of a local event your team attended can make your website stand out!

Customer feedback is another way to make your content original. By including unique statements from actual patients on your website, you can ensure that nobody has ever shared those specific phrases before. Just don’t forget to abide by HIPPA requirements, obtain permission from the patient, and, if necessary, label the feedback to match the treatment the patient signed up for.

Original content has never been more important, especially if you want search engines like Google to index your content. For more on indexing, check out our article on the importance of blogging!

Accuracy

This one might seem obvious, but user-friendliness is of upmost importance to this new generation of digital consumers. And nothing is less user-friendly than a website that is not accurate.

Plenty of practices can fall into the bad habit of setting up a website, and then just sort of leaving it to run by itself. However, this means that your marketing campaign can fall prey to image licenses that expire, broken links, and unusable redirect loops. Running weekly checks on the backend and front end of your website, and relying on tools like Google Analytics to gauge website activity is a priority for any business looking to market their brand effectively.

In general, we recommend a few things during this weekly check:

  1. Look for pages that describe outdated or inaccurate services and either update them, or remove them entirely.
  2. Test every link to make sure they lead to the correct pages and articles.
  3. Check images to make sure they have not been removed by a bug, an expired license, or a formatting issue.
  4. Access Google Analytics and check the tab for Page Landings and Site Speed to verify your clicks and the effectiveness of your website’s responses.

Diversity

Though similar to originality, this factor actually encompasses how varied and diverse your content is. If you’re a specialized healthcare provider, it might be hard to delineate a variety of services. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have tons of pages!

Obviously, having pages that are filler is a no-no, but if you think about your practice’s competitive advantages, you can find new angles and areas to talk about. What about a page that details your unique, patient-centered philosophy? Or one that delineates the unique technology you offer? Even patient testimonials and before-and-after pictures can have their own page landings.

Why Is It Important?

A new type of consumer has made an appearance in the market. The internet-savvy, media-focused generations that are now looking for quality dental care will always prioritize ease-of-use. Factors like optimizing your website for mobile, creating a direct digital pathway to your original content, and responding to reviews are now absolutely vital to ensuring that your potential patients feel at home on your site. Check out our articles on these and many other topics!

If you treat your digital hub like a real hub, a hearth where old and new patients can trust the information they find and rest from a sea of confusing, inaccurate content, you will go a long way toward installing a solid foundation for your team in the community.

At ProspectaMarketing, we can help you write engaging website copy and attract new patients. We are an experienced Internet marketing firm specializing in dental practices and the tools of Internet marketing. We help you reach key prospects who are looking for what your practice has to offer. Our unique and thorough approach provides visibility, financial accountability, and ongoing refinement and improvement. You can find out more by contacting Lane Anderson toll-free at 1-877-322-4440 Ext 101, by email using the form on our Contact Us page, or online at ProspectaMarketing.com.

The Power of the Blog: Authority and Visibility

March 15, 2022
Dental marketing, Local Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Websites

At ProspectaMarketing, we provide a host of invaluable services for our affiliated dental practices. From local listings to search engine optimization, we can help your team take advantage of a wide-ranging digital marketing campaign that can help you become a household name in your area. One of the unique ways in which we do this is through the use of specialized blog content.

Blogs might seem like a section of your marketing campaign that you could probably leave by the wayside. After all, they are read less and less each year. Patients often prioritize other, more informational, less subjective sections of your site over the content in the blog. So, in terms of leads – that is, the amount of avenues for patient acquisition that a certain piece of digital copy provides for the practice – blogs are not doing much of the heavy lifting.

However, our team strongly recommends keeping and updating a blog on your website. Though it might not be the most accessed section of your digital hub, and the blog might not provide direct clicks by interested patients, well-written, customized content can provide several major benefits to your practice that far exceed any costs. Our team has listed some of the benefits below.

  1. Site Accessibility: First and foremost, a blog provides a place for visitors to find certain subjects you might not have an entire page about, or else makes the site more accessible for people who are looking for information. Certain messages cannot be properly expressed through copy, and benefit greatly from customized communication avenues. Examples of content a blog can prioritize include yearly and monthly events, charity drives, upcoming changes to your services, reduced or altered hours, and patient feedback.
  2. SEO, Location, and Key Words: A blog service that is tailored to local SEO strategies can prioritize keywords, locations, and a proper digital pathway for visibility. While it’s true that the blog post as a whole might not be scanned for details, the pages within it provide more pages of content filled with those attractive key terms that search engines like to prioritize. The more pages like this on your site, the more likely you are to provide online visibility for your practice.
  3. Google Index: This leads neatly into our next point; the Google Index is a tool that any and all dental teams must take advantage of. The company itself describes the index as a solution for the internet’s “ever-growing library, with billions of books and no central filing system.” It works just like a real index in a book, providing a list of websites for Google to add to their search engine. The algorithm sends out “crawler bots” to scan your website for new, fresh, original content. If they find any, the bots will index those unique pages and store the information at Google, which then prioritizes them in search results. A blog is a perfect way to keep fresh content regularly appearing on the site. Unlike the rest of your pages, which must remain somewhat static so that patients can have a consistent perspective on your services, a blog can provide new content every week!
  4. Variety: Blogs can cover sections of your marketing effort that have not received as much attention or funding. If your practice specializes on implant dentistry, but has just received new technology for teeth whitening, you can use a blog to immediately begin adding content regarding your new service. The possibilities are endless, and regularly scheduled blog posts can enable you to add new elements to your existing campaign without needing to restructure and retool your core goals.

But the one of the most important ways in which keeping an up-to-date blog can help you is the opportunity to establish your website and practice’s authority.

Website Authority vs Website Visibility

There are two general types of blog posts you can include on your page.

Firstly, there’s what we like to call an “SEO Blog Post.” This is a customized blog post that deals with a regional service and primarily uses local SEO to concentrate key words and locations in one place on your site. Locations are often included in the title and text, so that our Local Listings department can keep track of their traction and visibility. This kind of post is primarily used as a tool for fostering search indexing, as mentioned previously. It can help your visibility.

The second kind of post is what we call a “Site Authority Blog Post.” This sort of post often forgoes local SEO in order to provide truly authentic material. They cover raw medical and dental knowledge and can be used to establish a sense of trustworthiness in your status as an industry leader. However, it can be difficult to provide original content on subjects that have already been studied for years. Considering there’s an ocean of websites out there, crawling with bots, this can also mean that reaching a non-local audience is too daunting to consider.

So, while this sort of post has the potential to be the most beneficial, you must make sure that the text is fresh, new, and somehow different from anything else on the web. Examples include: new technologies, research, the medical background of the dentist and their team, and any unique ethos, mission, or angle your practice uses to differentiate itself from others.

At ProspectaMarketing, we can help you establish website authority and visibility through original website copy and custom blog content. We are an experienced Internet marketing firm specializing in dental practices and the tools of Internet marketing. We help you reach key prospects who are looking for what your practice has to offer. Our unique and thorough approach provides visibility, financial accountability, and ongoing refinement and improvement. You can find out more by contacting Lane Anderson toll-free at 1-877-322-4440 Ext 101, by email using the form on our Contact Us page, or online at ProspectaMarketing.com.

What is Patient Attrition and How Do I Avoid It?

February 14, 2022
Dental marketing, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

Happy,African,American,Dentist,In,OfficeAccording to a study by the dental care company Henry Schein®, dental practices lose 17 percent of their active patients each year. As a leader of your practice, how are you supposed to ensure that your patients continue to pick you for their dental needs?

In marketing, this potential loss of patients is referred to as patient attrition, and it is a problem all businesses have to deal with. But when it comes to an area like dentistry, which can be subject to sudden insurance policy changes that are outside your control, dentists must rely on online marketing tools in order to keep patients returning.

How To Mitigate Patient Attrition

Let’s start with the cold, hard truth. In an environment where external changes are common, some patient attrition is unavoidable. However, by using some of these handy tips, you can mitigate the problem and ensure that your dental practice has a constant influx of satisfied patients.

  • Online Marketing: As obvious as it sounds, practices that have little or no online presence are less likely to retain patients. If a person is looking to follow-up on dental care and finds it difficult to access their records online, receive updates about closures on social media, or request appointments on their dental practice’s website, they will likely search for a more tech-friendly replacement. In this day and age, social media has become customer service, and it starts before your patients even call! Make sure to keep your website and social media accurately updated with your current policies and services.
  • SEO: We harp on it a lot, but Search Engine Optimization is absolutely key for any practice trying to retain patients. In an ocean of Google search results, using an app like Google SEO can help your listings rank higher on searches. According to a recent study on appointment reminders, text messages and e-mail are increasingly ineffective ways to keep patients updated. The reality is that most people leave their texts and e-mails unopened, especially when they contain obviously standardized messages. A good SEO strategy not only attracts new patients, but helps old patients find your site again if, like many people, they don’t respond to standard reminders.
  • Online Reviews: Patient feedback is your friend! Make sure to publicize your online reviews on an easy-to-access section of your website. 67% of people will consider leaving a review for a positive experience. This means that satisfied, responsive patients are walking marketing tools for your practice.
  • Give Your Marketing Effort Time: If you’ve recently launched an updated website or retooled your digital marketing in any way, giving your new approach time to work for you is important. Marketing efforts can snowball and pulling the rug out from under your new strategy in order to retool it too frequently can erode patient trust. Make sure to put forward a consistent, informative marketing aesthetic in order to avoid attrition.
  • Reach Out: The quest for patient retention does not start or end at the office door. Use all available messaging services, including text and direct mail, to thank patients for their visit, remind them of any additional appointments, and follow up on their dental health. Make sure to use original, or original-sounding messages to come off warm and approachable. Avoid generic text like the plague. Some patients might not read it! But the ones that do will feel a personal connection to their dental practice.

Whether you are thinking of kickstarting a successful marketing campaign, or want to improve your pre-existing marketing efforts, ProspectaMarketing can help you attract and keep new patients so that your practice can continue to grow! We are an experienced Internet marketing firm specializing in dental practices and the tools of Internet marketing. We help you reach key prospects who are looking for what your practice has to offer. Our unique and thorough approach provides visibility, financial accountability, and ongoing refinement and improvement. You can find out more by contacting Lane Anderson toll-free at 1-877-322-4440 Ext 101, by email using the form on our Contact Us page, or online at ProspectaMarketing.com.

The Importance of Online Reviews

February 1, 2022
Dental marketing, Online Reviews

Cheerful,Female,Dentist,Holding,Drill,And,Smiling,Near,PatientIn the last decade, social media and digital presence have become absolutely indispensable for growing your dental practice. We live in a world that is more intricately connected than ever. More and more, customer loyalty and trust are becoming cornerstones of a good doctor-patient relationship.

At the same time, the web is becoming saturated with content. This overwhelming wave of data, accurate and inaccurate, means that, while the internet is still a good place to find reliable information, it can sometimes be misleading.

As a dental practice, how is your team supposed to communicate your professional integrity and values of care? The average patient is used to standardized website and social media text, and though it is useful to highlight positives about your practice, most businesses make similar claims about themselves.

So, how can you differentiate your practice? When standard marketing is not enough to get your message across, the answer is simple: let your patients talk you up!

Since they’ve been around for some time, we tend to forget the power of publicizing online reviews, but feedback remains one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal.

Highlighting your feedback is simple. Our marketing team has put together these quick tips, based on data from the 2022 BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey, so you can be sure that patients respond to your reviews and feel incentivized to leave positive reviews of their own.

Tips for Prioritizing Online Reviews

  • 67% of people will consider leaving a review for a positive experience, while 40% will consider leaving a review for a negative experience. If a patient has a positive experience, they are far more likely to write about it than if they have a bad one. So, if people are leaving reviews, it means you’re not only providing top-notch dental care, but ensuring a customer service experience that is positive and noteworthy.
  • 89% of consumers are ‘highly’ or ‘fairly’ likely to use a business that responds to all of its online reviews. So don’t leave anybody hanging! Respond to both positive and negative reviews with professionalism. Never get defensive. Always be understanding.
  • Avoid fake reviews. 62% of consumers believe they’ve seen a fake review for a local business in the past year, which doesn’t bode well for those companies. This new generation of patient is focused on a human connection with their dental clinic, and faked feedback flies in the face of this promise.
  • If you don’t have a Patient Feedback section on your website, or if it’s hidden in a sea of copy that makes it impossible to find, it’s time to change that. 98% of consumers claimed to read reviews for local businesses, with 78% using the Internet to find out info more than once a week. Your patients need an easy digital path and unobstructed access to your testimonials, so that you can get your core mission across to them.
  • Turning a bad situation into a good one is important. 80% of consumers say they would be ‘likely’ or ‘highly likely’ to leave a review if they initially had a negative experience that was turned into a very positive experience. So, never treat a disgruntled consumer as a lost cause; treat them as an opportunity to earn even more goodwill for your practice!

In simple terms: customers believe other customers. If your practice wants to prioritize patient-centered care, it starts before your patients even walk through the door. It starts with the message you are sending out.

ProspectaMarketing can help you highlight and prioritize online reviews in order to make your team approachable and put your patients at-ease. We are an experienced Internet marketing firm specializing in dental practices and the tools of Internet marketing. We help you reach key prospects who are looking for what your practice has to offer. Our unique and thorough approach provides visibility, financial accountability, and ongoing refinement and improvement. You can find out more by contacting Lane Anderson toll-free at 1-877-322-4440 Ext 101, by email using the form on our Contact Us page, or online at ProspectaMarketing.com.

Use Local SEO To Your Advantage!

January 17, 2022
Dental marketing, Local Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

Gorgeous,Male,Doctor,At,The,OfficeDental practices with a strong local SEO strategy are well-positioned to bring new patients into their offices. How is that, you may ask? With local SEO you become more visible to people in your town who are looking for the services that you provide.

SEO stands for search engine optimization. If the term is new to you, it’s a way of designing your website to attract search engines, and thus rank high in Internet search results. Local SEO refines the strategy by targeting the people in your geographic area who are probably already searching for nearby dental services.

Indispensable

Even if you don’t know much about local SEO, you have probably seen what it can do. It’s how local businesses, like dental offices, show up on the first page of Google search results. Their listing includes essential information, like the name of the practice, its phone number and business hours, and its location – usually pinpointed on a map.

This is the power of local SEO. We don’t just search for services like dentists. More and more, search terms are localized with words like dentist near me, or dentist in my town.

  • Nearly half of all Google’s 3.5 billion daily searches are local.
  • 36.4% of websites at the top of search page results are visited by the searcher.
  • 90% of consumers use the Internet to find services in their area.

Even the devices people use for searches matter. 57% of people under thirty-five, and 53% between thirty-five and fifty-four, say they use a mobile device for at least half of all their searches. (For more on this, see our recent post on the growing importance of smartphones.)

If you have a good local SEO strategy, then the people who need what you have to offer can find you, quickly and easily. ProspectaMarketing can help you take full advantage of local SEO. We are an experienced Internet marketing firm specializing in dental practices and the tools of Internet marketing. We help you reach key prospects who are looking for what your practice has to offer. Our unique and thorough approach provides visibility, financial accountability, and ongoing refinement and improvement. You can find out more by contacting Lane Anderson toll-free at 1-877-322-4440 Ext 101, by email using the form on our Contact Us page, or online at ProspectaMarketing.com.

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