Dental Tribune U.S. Edition

The ultimate online presence Industry Report DENTAL TRIBUNE | July 201110A AD Why are videos and other multi- media features being used more often on websites? Research has shown that most web- site visitors do not read content on the website, especially on their ini- tial site visit. This makes the role of multimedia features such as video very important. You can capture the attention of these potential patients with a high-quality production very quickly and help in forming a favor- able opinion of your practice in matter of minutes. Which search engines are the most important? As most of your readers know, Google has the most prominent pres- ence among online search engines. Yet, that also means other major search engines such as Bing and Yahoo! offer opportunities that may be overlooked by some of your com- petitors. In other words, because most people focus on Google to attract visitors to their websites, the costs per visitor on Google networks are higher than on other search engines. So while the number of total visitors coming from Google may be higher, the cost-per-lead on other search engine networks may be lower. Is it important to offer promo- tions to online visitors? It depends. If your goal is to convert the maximum number of visitors to patients of record, you do want to offer as much as you can in terms of promotions. If your goal is a more long-term image-building plan, then the focus should be on the quality services you offer as opposed to quick conversions. What is the best way of capturing patient information online? A website contact form is a great tool to capture visitor information that can be used to reach out to a prospective patient. You want to make the form very visible and easy to complete. Require only the minimum amount of information and, if you can, offer an incentive for the potential patient to complete the form. What is a common mistake den- tists make when it comes to web- Part two of an interview with Dr. Sean Fahimi, president of Solution21 site design and marketing? I would say expecting immediate results. Just like any other market- ing method, it takes time to find the necessary exposure online. Pro- spective patients need to see you more than just once before they are ready to trust their dental health to you. Website design and marketing has to have both long-term and short-term goals and planning to be successful. DT For more information, please con- tact Solution21 at (877) 423-8125. working on recall or a treatment coordinator working her pending file can prioritize calls so that “A” cat- egory patients are contacted before the “B” category patients, “B” before “C” and so on. Working the most profitable and compliant cases first just makes good business sense. • You can quantify the quality of your referral sources. If you pull a ZACC grade on new patients, you may discover that one marketing/advertising source is regularly sending you patients in the high-risk category while another referral source is sending you won- derful, low-risk patients. In this scenario, where should you focus your marketing dollars? Do you really want to spend marketing dollars in a manner that results in low quality, low dental IQ patients? Remember these are the patients who cannot afford your treatment plan, who only want to fix what hurts and who often disrupt the wellbeing of your practice via failed and can- celled appointments, poor clinical cooperation, delinquency, etc. • You can assess financial integrity. There are more families today with only one working wage earner, but that doesn’t mean you have (Image/Provided by Solution21) f DT page 9A g DT page 11A