5 Ways Your Website Drives Away New Patients
by Joy Gendusa
Did you know that 80 percent of Internet users (roughly 93 million Americans) search for health-related topics online? As a dentist, that should make you think about your website in a whole new way.
Are you happy with the first impression your website makes? If you’re not — should you be? Yes.
A lot goes into a website; much more than most dentists think. And making sure your website is aesthetically pleasing and at peak performance is important when turning your prospects into patients.
So how do you know your website is a marketing tool instead of a pretty design? I’m going to show you 5 elements to look out for (and include!) when creating your website.
1. Design
Your site needs appeal to your patients and be inviting. But more than that, it needs to convey a specific message. If your unique selling proposition (i.e. what separates you from other dentists) is “gentle care and attention,” you don’t want a website theme that makes you look like a huge operation, or comes off as impersonal. The design is the first step in capturing your visitor’s attention and cannot be overlooked.
2. Marketing (Get a Plan!)
This is crucial. Your entire site must be developed with a marketing plan in place. Every image, word and link should be geared towards a particular goal; in your case — scheduling an appointment.
3. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Free web traffic is better than paid web traffic. While you can buy Pay-Per-Click ads on Google (and they can be effective), you can also optimize your website to bring in organic traffic (people who find you by searching phrases on Google). For dentists, local business listings are the most effective way to do this. When a web user types “[Your City] Dentist” into a search engine, your practice should be one of the first listed.
4. Copy Writing
Words are power. I know it’s tempting to think you can do this on your own. RESIST! There’s a reason people have full-time jobs writing advertising copy — there’s more to it than you think. Hire a professional copywriter to make sure you are communicating clearly. Save the dental jargon for your peers, the average patient will not understand or have the attention to figure it out.
5. Programming
Ever clicked on a site just to wait a lifetime for the page to load? Come across a link just to find out the webpage does not exist? These are programming issues. Flaws like this look unprofessional, which is a fatal blow to the conversion process. Make sure your programmer is a pro or you will pay the price in missed opportunities.
When you’re ready to promote – call a professional!
To ensure you’re better than your competition, make sure your website is ready to dominate the competition. PostcardMania, a full service marketing firm, has been helping dentists nationwide increase new patients and gives free marketing advice based on proven results just for calling in. They can give you a FREE review of your website and let you know how it stacks up!
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Mention TheVisibleDentist.com and you’ll receive $50 off your first order. Call PostcardMania at 1-800-628-1804 ext. 226 and ask for Samantha Dewyngaert.
Joy Gendusa is the Founder & CEO of PostcardMania®, a full-service postcard direct mail marketing company and a recognized leader in postcard marketing innovation.
Awarded Tampa Bay Businesswoman of the Year in 2008, the true-life details of Joy’s accomplishments are inspiring.
April 14th, 2011 at 9:45 am
Thank you for the plan.
I’d like to ask for some tips/references as far as evaluating the quality of a marketing plan. (Perhaps this might be a future post in your blog?)
Just last week a friend/acquaintance, whom we’ve hired for the website to do logo (very good) and SEO (mediocre), has pitched us a “marketing plan”. Given my uneven experience with this contractor, and given marketing is neither her formal training nor an established strength, I have doubts whether to hire her again…OTOH, she has teamed with an apparently good marketer…who, then again, is not specialized in dental offices. I wish I were able to identify whether a marketing plan is good or not!
Thanks in advance for any guidance.
April 14th, 2011 at 10:11 am
@Newton dentistry
An overall marketing plan for dental practices could include both an online effort to make your website more visible in the search engines and off-line advertising such as direct mailers, radio ads, newspaper inserts, and a well-made and positioned sign, street-side.
The ‘quality’ of any marketing plan is of course proportionate to its success in putting patients in the dentist’s chair. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. Depending upon your specific needs and goals, you might want to network with other dentists and determine if what they are doing and who they are working with could also benefit your practice.
While it might be okay to get your feet wet and save some money experimenting with a novice marketer, I’d suggest finding a company or individual who has a track record of success helping dentists design and implement a marketing plan that pulls in the patients; afterall, that is the ultimate goal.
And finally, always track your results for any given campaign; then focus your efforts on those channels which produced the best returns and dump the turkeys.
John
April 16th, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Dear John, thank you for the guidance. It makes a lot of sense to require a clear goal, to be able to measure it, and to track progress toward it - something you stressed in another post, I now realize. And so does networking to find out a marketer’s reputation. Thanks much again!
April 21st, 2011 at 1:31 pm
Great post! I especially agree with the necessity for good writing. Sloppy writing is a pretty big deterrent for potential patients!
April 21st, 2011 at 8:03 pm
Of course you agree Hannah …you’re a copy writer!
jb
April 29th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
You have posted some great information about. Dental Websites have to make a really good first impression in terms of design, look, easy to use and much more. We also design sites and have had great success getting new patients the dentists
April 29th, 2011 at 10:22 pm
I found your blog very nice and informative. Thanks for sharing with us.
May 17th, 2011 at 12:28 pm
Great article!
It gave me some good ideas for our website! Thank you!
May 17th, 2011 at 12:54 pm
Glad you enjoyed it Brandi.
Have a great day!
John
June 2nd, 2011 at 6:58 am
Nice site, nice blog and good post. Have put a lot of time and effort into our site and feel it should be enticing and inviting to new potential patients.
We also have a great dentists blog.
June 14th, 2011 at 5:20 pm
Very good post. In my rush to get to the meat of your posting, I almost skipped over this juicy fact: 80 percent of Internet users (roughly 93 million Americans) search for health-related topics online!
Woe to the professional who does not have a marketing plan to capture more than his/her share of that traffic!
August 9th, 2011 at 6:53 pm
The class of a marketing plan is of course that the proportionate to its success in putting patients in the dentist’s chair.
And I found your blog very good and informative too.Keep it up and looking forward for more to this site.
August 12th, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Great article! I think that many dentists are satisfied as long as the hygiene schedule is full. They do not realize it many times until it is too late that they should have been growing their practices in many different ways during the good times so that there would have never been any bad times. I especially liked the part about waiting for a page to load. It is amazing how many practices seem to have websites that were designed in the 1990’s that just do not work now.
August 16th, 2011 at 7:48 pm
I can attest to this because I hired several “turkeys” before finding the company I currently work with, Focus Internet Services. They have done amazing things with my business, and converted an internet/dental relationship naysayer (me) into a believer. The internet is grossly underused by most medical professionals, but needs to now be recognized as another necessary part of advertising along with TV, print, etc.
October 31st, 2011 at 7:29 am
thanks for your tips, very useful!
November 1st, 2011 at 8:33 am
Great article! Thank you! The web has become a significant source of new patients for our practice so I can attest that its worth the investment.