Modern Dental Practice Marketing

A new year, in this generation, brings changes from Google, along with a landslide of projections about marketing trends. Last year, while Jill and I were at the Chicago Midwinter, Google rolled out Panda. This bulk of changes to Google’s algorithm prioritized original text, which only proved that MDPM’s approach to Internet marketing is on target.

Any time now, Google will launch it’s 2012 overhaul, Search Plus Your World. This article explains the changes in detail. If you prefer the short version, here you go.

When you’re logged into your Google account, Google is going to integrate your personal search preferences and trends with the results you see on SERPs (search engine results pages). If you shared a photo of your puppy with 10 people and you do a search for puppy photos, your shared photo will come up in the results with a note reminding you of how many times you shared it. Rest assured, Facebook and Twitter are not allowing Google to infiltrate personal data (or so we’re told), but Google+ is fair game. We’re promised that the results are personal to the user and won’t compromise privacy.

What will Google Plus Your World do for dentists? Maybe nothing. Or, if you play the Google game, maybe a lot! Read the rest of this entry →

You’ve heard about using Facebook for your dental office. You may have attended a seminar about social networking or read books on the subject. Perhaps you want to Tweet, post, blog, comment, and update, but you just don’t have time. How can you reap the benefits of social networking without squeezing time from your already hectic schedule? The answer is simple. Call MDPM.

What is Social Networking for Dentists?

“Social” has to do with friendly companionship, according to Dictionary.com. “Networking” relates to a group that shares information and services of a common interest. So, social networking for dentists involves a friendly sharing of information about health, wellness, dentistry, and your local community. It has to be personal; it has to be genuine; it has to be interesting to your patients.

Why Use Social Networking in Marketing?

To dominate search results for a variety of targeted keywords with the ultimate goal of increasing your patient base.

Social networking involves daily digital interaction with your current patients, as well as reaching potential patients with your brand. Done properly, social networking is part of an overall search engine optimization plan that includes website optimization, regularly posted blogs, as well as local listings and original videos, articles, and press releases.

The more places you are online, the more posts and articles are associated with your practice, the higher you’ll rank on Google. Read the rest of this entry →

When it comes to quality, oftentimes the original is your best bet. For instance, the carbonated beverages aisle of the grocery store boast brands like Kountry Mist, Citrus Drop, and Mountain Rush, but it was 7 Up that broke into the soda pop market with a lemon-lime soda in 1929. Other name brands, Mountain Dew and Sprite, gained momentum later. However, many competing lemon-lime beverages failed throughout the 20^th century. Why? Because 7 Up got it right and is the original un-cola. By 1940, 7 Up was the third on the list of top-selling soft drinks on the planet.

Consider for a moment what 7 Up had to do. This unfamiliar beverage had to win over loyal drinkers of ginger ale (1851), Dr. Pepper (1885), Coca-Cola 1886), and Pepsi-Cola (1898). For a century, people had been consuming tasty carbonated beverages. By 1940, there was staunch competition.

What does this have to do with dentistry?

The small world of dental blogging is an up-and-coming in the greater realm of dental marketing. While yellow pages advertising has dramatically fallen in popularity, many dentists don’t yet have a website. At MDPM, we have to convince dentists that blogging is important – it’s good and valuable – it will endure the test of time. While this sounds like a daunting task, the numbers speak volumes. A dentist blog with daily postings of original content can bring in more targeted traffic than a dentist website. Google Analytics does not lie!

Why should a dentist blog?

Six years ago, not many dentists blogged. Google’s algorithm was evolving as the Internet grew and people tried to trick search engines into ranking their website high on results pages. These black hat tactics, as they’re called, were booted by Google and other search engines. Today, we know for a fact that when it comes to ranking websites, Google places the greatest importance on original, informational web content. Read the rest of this entry →

If your dental practice blog has been up for over a year, or if you make daily posts, you might be thinking about revisiting some topics. As a rule of thumb, I recommend that you wait at least 90 days before introducing a topic again. In addition to this advice, I believe you should tweak your approach or address a different concept for the repeated topic. For instance, if you wrote a blog about the benefits of porcelain veneers in July, you can write on porcelain veneers again in December. However, for the new post, discuss how veneers are made or the difference between no-prep and traditional veneers. You might even document the transformation of Hilary Duff’s smile makeovers.

The Benefit of Topic Recycling

Most dentistry blogs don’t have subscribers, meaning that patients probably aren’t going to read everything posted on your blog. The main benefit of dental blogs is that they widen overall Internet presence and, thus, help dentists rank higher on Google. In this light, it makes perfect sense to write more often on the topics that would appeal to your ideal patients. If you have 10 posts on veneers, whether they’re posted in a series, on the same day, or each month for 10 months, they will give your name and website more association with the service — and the keyword “veneers.” You’ll become an expert on porcelain veneers, at least in the eyes of Google’s spiders. Read the rest of this entry →

Are you puzzled by blogging and branding? Wondering how marketing evolved from Yellow Pages ads to search engine optimization? You aren’t the only one. The marketing world has changed dramatically in the past decade! But there’s hope. You can get on the modern marketing bandwagon and bring in new patients.

Just this evening, CBSNews.com released an article about blogging. In it, Robert Pagliarini provides “7 rules of successful bloggers.” I want to take Paliarini’s tips and evaluate how they relate to dentists and dental blogging.

We’re told to create valuable content. What is valuable, when it comes to content? That depends on who you are. To a potential patient searching for a dentist or an answer to a question, interesting information not found elsewhere online would be valuable. To a dentist, a blog that ranks high on Google would be valuable. To Google, a blog that’s original and informative would be valuable. So, ideally, a valuable dental blog has unique, informative content that’s keyword rich and well optimized. When this formula is used, everyone wins.

Focus on a niche and identify popular markets are tips two and three. Obviously, the niche for a dental blog is dentistry. However, you can be more specific. Perhaps your blog should be about sleep apnea, Invisalign, cosmetic dentistry, or sedation. Many of our clients have two or more blogs. This allows them to focus on general dentistry to attract bread-and-butter patients, as well as a specific treatment that they find profitable and enjoyable. Before you blog, consider which procedures or ideas (holistic, biomimetic, systemic health, for example) are most important to you. Read the rest of this entry →