Does that sound strange?
Some social media pundits are screaming, “Websites are dead!” That’s not true. Websites still contribute in one very important way to effective online marketing—and that’s search results.
Make Sure Prospects DO Find Your Website
Optimizing your website so that a prospective patient doing a random web search more easily finds you is a great tactic. We always recommend that. There are a number of great SEO consultive resources out there for dental practices. But once a prospect discovers your practice, you should be doing everything in your power to be sure they never visit your website again. Here’s why…
Web 1.0
In ancient days, a website had many objectives. It was all you had—a digital version of your tri-fold printed brochure, your direct mail piece, and that billboard ad you ran. It was (and likely still is) a static snapshot in time. Websites provide your address, phone number, list of services, team bios, and maybe some dated before/after photos. The sophisticated ones may even have a way to request an appointment. It was called “Web 1.0”.
Web 2.0
Marketing has changed. In the words of social media thought leader, Chris Brogan, “Today, marketing is about engaging with communities and delivering products and services with stories that spread.” Seth Godin adds, “You can no longer market to the ‘anonymous masses’. They’re not anonymous and they’re not masses. You can only market to people who are willing participants.”
Effective Dental Social Media Marketing
Effective dental social media marketing engages people how, when, and where they want to engage. It also provides the opportunity for your patients to easily share their love for you and your practice with their own trusted, highly-scalable, permission-based social networks. Your social site provides a place to tell your practice story and to strengthen relationships with both patients and prospective patients.
It’s Very, Very Rare… But Occasionally We See An Exception…
Your practice may be one of those very, very rare exceptions. If so, I apologize to you for the premise behind this post. Having visited and analyzed thousands of dental practice websites over the last 12 years, we have run across a few cases where the practice really understands social media marketing, does all of their own original blog content, effectively utilizes other social media outposts, and is truly spending the time and energy necessary to turn their conventional website into a social site. If you’re one of those practices, sincere congratulations!
The Minute A Prospective Patient Finds You, Steer Them Toward Your “Community”
Your best strategy for convincing prospective patients that your practice is their best choice is the same strategy you use to retain current patients, increase case acceptance, and build practice equity. Create a dental social media marketing platform that increases top-of-mind awareness and builds trust, loyalty and confidence in your practice.
Is Your Dental Or Ortho Practice Ready To Get Serious About Social Media Marketing?
My Social Practice is the only dental-exclusive social media company providing affordable, highly creative ideas, content, strategy, and support that ensures your practice’s social media marketing success in 10 minutes a day. We’d love to visit with you about how we can help your practice.
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Ready To Begin Finding New patients with Digital Marketing?
About the Author: Jack Hadley is a dental marketing expert and one of the founding members of My Social Practice. My Social Practice is a digital dental marketing company located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Jack is passionate about helping dental practices grow. If you’d like to book Jack or one of the other members of My Social Practice’s speaking team, you can do that HERE. Interested in learning more about the benefits of SEO for dentists, our dental websites service? Learn More Here.
