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Cosmetic Dentists Who Are Coming of Age

Take a guess as to what these five Cosmetic Dentists have in common...

Gateway Dental Arts (Salt Lake City)

Terry Bass, DDS (Oklahoma City)

Joseph W Worthington, DDS, PC (Fairfield, CT)

More Smiles Dental Spa (Covington, LA)

James Loye, DDS (San Diego)

Answer: Each has "come of age" by asking Page 1 Solutions to develop their Facebook Fan Page. They have chosen to give Social Media Marketing a chance.

But why?

Social Media Marketing the newest frontier for the Internet. By creating and maintaining a fan page on Facebook, friends of friends can easily get to know your business easier than before for a fraction of any advertising cost. Ultimately, if down with a little effort and an open mind, you can pick up additional clients through social media marketing without damaging your checkbook.

Word of Mouth is considered the greatest form of advertising. But just imagine if one of your clients loves their new smile so much they become a fan of your practice's Facebook profile. They may go so far as to post before and after pictures on their Facebook profile page.

Guess who will see these before and after pictures?....

Answer... Their best friends and acquaintances from their hometown, college, relationships and past.

Chances are, your client's Facebook friends live within your market. Consider the phrase: Birds of a Feather flock together. All it takes is for one friend of a friend to see your client's smile and they might consider taking this friendly endorsement to heart and contact your office.

Does this sort of thing actually happen? Of course it does. Getting business from friends of friends via social media is easier than you might think. Don't be skeptical.

Check out this video from www.socialnomics.com for some encouragement and ask yourself if you are "coming of age"?

Three Tips to a Successful Online Dental Gallery

Your online dental gallery is one of the most important things your website can tell your visitors about your work. Many people visiting a cosmetic dentist's website won't contact the office unless there are before and after photos of their procedure available. Dr. Babak Firouzi, DMD, has a great example before and after gallery on his website. We'll use this as a guide to give you three great tips for a successful online dental gallery!

1. Clear organization is a must. It is important that your website visitors know where to find the before and after images they are interested in. Having clear navigational buttons, either on the side or top of your website will help navigate your visitors to the images they want to see. Dr. Firouzi's site has a clear button on the left hand side that says, "Gallery of Smiles". You can also name this button "Smile Before and Afters" or something similar.

2. Show them only the images that they want to see. It is also good to separate out before and afters for different procedures, that way visitors aren't bombarded with images that they don't want to see. Dental before and after photos can be a bit graphic, and visitors will appreciate not having to wade through images for procedures they aren't interested in. Dr. Babak Firouzi's site offers images for these procedures, separated into three separate pages:

• Porcelain Filling Gallery
• Porcelain Veneers Gallery
• Teeth Whitening Gallery

3. Organize the images on the page. This one seems pretty basic, but it is important that your online visitors know which two images of teeth belong to the same person. Dr. Firouzi's site handles this by simply placing the dental procedure images very close to each other, within the same border, so it is apparent that they belong to the same person.

Dental Marketing Questions that Google Analytics Can Answer

It takes a lot of time, energy and money to really successfully run and maintain an internet marketing campaign. Thankfully, there are some great tools out there to help you keep an eye on your efforts! Google Analytics is a free tool from Google that shows you in a clean format exactly where your visitors came from, what they're looking for, and how they navigate around your site. This is a great tool for answering many of your internet marketing questions! Here are some questions dentists may ask themselves that Google Analytics can answer.

How do I know if a paid online service is worth the cost?
When trying to evaluate an online service such as Press Releases or Ad Campaigns, try to integrate them as much as you can with Google Analytics. With Google AdWords, integrating with Google Analytics is a snap, just make sure that you set up both your AdWords and your Analytics account with the same email address, and follow Google's instructions. You can also use Google's URL Builder to create a custom URL to use in press releases and banner ads that will track clicks on the URL in Google Analytics.

By tracking clicks and ad campaigns in Google Analytics, you can easily compare your different online investments and see which ones are sending the most valuable traffic to your website. This integrates well with external campaigns such as radio ads - if you purchase radio advertisements, ask to also get a link from their website using a custom URL. You might be surprised at how much traffic that link will send!

How can I measure my website's performance?
While your website's positioning in search engine result pages (SERPs) may be entirely up to your internet marketing company, you can control how well your online visitors convert into patients by tracking their movements through your website.

One great basic way you can do this is by setting up Goals and Goal Funnels. A "goal" on your website is a specific page that you want your future patients to land on; for most websites, it is the "Thank You" page that visitors get after they've filled out a contact form. A "funnel" is an ideal path that your patients might take through your website. One example of a funnel might be:

Home Page > About Dr. Dentist > Dental Financing Options > Contact Page > Thank You Page

By setting up a funnel, you can see where visitors on your website enter and exit an ideal path. It is not necessarily bad that visitors exit the funnel, so long as the page they go to next makes sense.

Another great way to track certain visitor actions is Event Tracking. You may want to work with your dental web marketing company on getting Event Tracking set up, as it is a little more complex than other tracking methods. Event Tracking allows you to track certain elements of your site that a visitor might interact with, such as a button, image or link. This is a great way to know which dental forms are downloaded, which dental coupons or promotions are more interesting, or even whether a top navigation link is more effective than a side navigation link.


How do I know whether or not my content is effective?

There are a ton of reports in the "Content" section of Google Analytics that are designed specifically to answer this question! Your "Top Landing Pages" report will show the pages that visitors "land" on the most, meaning that is the page they enter your website on. Some metrics you'll want to keep your eye on are "Time on Page" and "Bounce Rate".

Time on page is pretty self-explanatory; it's the average amount of time that visitors spend on that page. If this number is lower for some pages than others, you know your content is not very engaging.

Bounce Rate is the percent of people who land on that page and then leave without visiting anything else on your site. A high bounce rate is a big red flag for your pages - if you have a lot of visitors going to your tooth whitening page, but that page has a 100% bounce rate, you'll want to have the content for that page revised STAT!

Do you have any other questions that might be solved with web analytics? Please feel free to post them in our comments section!

Facebook Advertising for Dentists

Facebook has quickly become a valuable dental web marketing tool. And while many practices have recognized the importance of having a fan page on the site, most are still neglecting the value of advertising on the social networking site. Facebook Advertising, which is essentially a pay-per-click platform, is easy, affordable, and a great tool for branding your practice.

Unlike Google Adwords, Facebook Advertising is not yet very competitive, so the cost-per-click is still very affordable (often times under a dollar). Facebook is also unique in it has a rather advanced targeting. While Google limits the advertiser to certain keywords and locations, Facebook can target by age, gender, location, interests, and more. This is not to say that it is a better option than Google, but rather to point out that it is different.

It is important to keep in mind that the main difference between a search engine’s sponsored listings and Facebook's, is that on a search engine, users are actually seeking out your service. They are searching for a “Cosmetic Dentist in Denver,” while on Facebook, you are seeking them out. This is why traffic to your website from a Facebook Advertising campaign will not necessarily convert in patients (right away). It may not even generate much traffic, but it is GREAT for branding. By having your practice's name and logo appear in front of your target demographic on a regular basis, you are implanting your brand into their minds. And when it comes time, they will already be familiar and feel connected with your practice.

Facebook offers a cost-per-impression option, but it is generally not the best option for a campaign. Although when compared side-by-side the cost-per-impression is cheaper than the cost-per-click, it is safe to assume that there will be exponentially more impressions of your ad, than actual clicks. Again, this is because Facebook Advertising is a much better tool for branding, than for generating traffic to your website.

If you are familiar with Facebook, then setting up and following a campaign is not hard. You can find step-by-step help here. If you are new to Facebook, enlist the help of your staff, your kids, your friends, anyone! Chances are that you know someone who is Facebook saavy.

And as always, please feel free to ask questions or leave comments!

Blogging to the Teeth - Dental Blogs

So you're a dentist, and you have a blog. Now what? Many dentists may not realize it, but a blog has a lot of potential for not only bringing in new patients, but making them feel comfortable about your office before they walk through the door. Writing about the latest procedures, topics and success stories is a great way to connect with your audience! Here are some example blog entries from two of our favorite dentistry websites.

Dr. Josh Bernstein, DDS, in San Francisco, California.

• Implants Then and Now Using Guided Implant Surgery. Dr. Bernstein explains in his own voice the difference between dental implant procedures of the past and those of today. We should be thankful for technological advancement!
• Headaches, TMJ, Grinding Teeth, and Vertigo. Dr. Bernstein discusses the causes and symptoms of TMJ. Who knew that vertigo might be a sign of a dental problem?
• Invisalign. Dr. Bernstein discusses the benefits of Invisalign. Did you know that Invisalign actually improves your smile faster than regular metal braces?

I Hate CPAP! in Chicago, Illinois.

• I'm Interested in Alternatives to CPAP. Dr. Ira Shapira responds to an inquiry about a sleep study as opposed to CPAP machines.
• Improving CPAP and Appliance Comfort With a PAP Pillow. Dr. Shapira talks about a sleep website that he loves, and recommends the PAP Pillow for those who are more comfortable sleeping on their side while using CPAP machines.
• The Best Prices on CPAP Supplies and Equipment. Although Dr. Shapira's website is about alternatives to CPAP, he acknowledges that many people love and depend on their CPAP treatments. In this blog entry, Dr. Shapira aims to help those people find the best prices on their CPAP supplies!

Great Posts in Recent Dental News!

There have been a ton of great topics circulating cosmetic dentistry news sources in the last week. Here are some of our favorite blog entries from dentists in North America!

• Eat, Drink and Be Merry! (While Still Taking Care of Your Teeth) by Dr. J. Mulder Jr. in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This guide will tell you how you can enjoy those red wines and coffees for the holidays and still have a great smile!
• Pre-Consultation Considerations by Cherry Creek Orthodontics in Denver, Colorado. Some things to consider before going in for your dental consultation.
• Tooth Scaling and Root Planing by Aesthetic Dental Studio in Calgary, Alberta. Has a dentist ever said these terrifying words to you? Learn exactly what tooth scaling and root planing is and put those fears to rest!
• The Advantages of Dental Implants by Joel L. Schaffer, DDS, in Boulder, Colorado. If you're considering dental implants, this guide might help show you if it will provide you with the advantages you're looking for.
• How Invisalign Works by Laurel Lakes Cosmetic Dentistry in Laurel, Maryland. Everyone wants to get this amazing alternative to braces, but how exactly do they work? This blog entry answers your questions.