Dental Tribune U.S. Edition

Dental marketing in 2013: Your website is your smile By Patrick Goodness, CeO The Goodness Company In a recent survey conducted by www. match.com, more than 5,000 American single adults, both male and female, were asked how they judge members of the opposite sex for attraction and compatibility. Seventy-one percent of women and 58 percent of men rated the smile as the most important attri- bute for measuring attractiveness. For those in the dental marketing in- dustry, this report comes as no surprise. Additional support for the importance of a beautiful smile comes to us from a survey by the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AACD). This survey concludes that nine out of every 10 adults in the United States consider an attractive smile to be an important social asset and eight out of 10 believe that an unattractive smile makes a person less appealing to the opposite sex. Is your website's first impression attracting the right patients? It is clear that a beautiful, white smile is critical to overall attraction and to making a successful first impression. But in the world of dental marketing, how important is your dental clinic’s website in making the critical first impression and to attracting the right patient? According to Dr. Hong Sheng, who conducted an in-depth eye-tracking research study at Missouri University of Science and Technology, it takes a website user less than two-tenths of a second to form a first impression when viewing a website and only 2.6 seconds for a user's eyes to land on an area of a website that impacts his or her first impression. What draws the most attention on websites? According to the study (Science Daily: Feb. 15, 2012), the website locations that drew the most attention of study sub- jects were as follows: • Logo: Subjects viewed the logo for about 6.48 seconds before moving on. • Main navigation menu: Subjects viewed the main navigation menu for an average of 6.44 seconds. • Search box: Subjects viewed the search box for just over 6 seconds. • Facebook and Twitter links: Subjects spent about 5.95 seconds viewing these links. • Main home page Image: Subject’s eyes fixated on the main home page image for an average of 5.94 seconds. • Written content: Subjects spent 5.59 seconds viewing written content. • Bottom of a website: Subjects spent about 5.25 seconds viewing this area of the home page. What is abundantly clear is that a company’s website is an essentially critical tool for demonstrating consumer at- tractiveness. Put simply, your website is your online smile. Nearly 90 percent of profes- sionals use company web- sites as their primary tool for gathering information and forming impressions prior to contacting a vendor for pur- chases. In today’s Internet- savvy marketplace, the failure to have a high quality, profes- sionally designed dental web- site, filled with critical content is a failure to reach almost 90 percent of your target market. Invest in your online smile Time and again I hear dentists telling their patients the im- portance of quality dental work and the value of investing in the best dental care for future health and happiness. Yet, a cursory review of thousands of dental practice websites across the U.S. reveals a surprising lack of investment in quality dental website design, dental branding and informative dental pro- cedure content. In short, the dental industry’s online smile is a bit stained and missing a few teeth. As a dentist or dental clinic owner, your success in the increasingly com- petitive dental marketplace is predi- cated on your ability to communicate with potential patients about what makes you different and most impor- tantly what makes you better than your competitors. This is a valuable el- ement of results-driven dental practice marketing. Build a patient base that knows you, likes you and trusts you An investment in quality branding and website development for your dental practice is critical to building patient base that knows you, likes you and trusts you. That's the foundation of health care relationship marketing. The AACD reports that nearly half of all participants surveyed said they would like to make some improvement in the appearance of their smile. If your branding is out of date, your website needs a makeover or it’s time to rethink your marketing approach, seek the advice of a professional den- tal marketing agency to help you craft a dental marketing plan that delivers results and will prepare your practice for years of success. If you’re not convinced that this ar- ticle applies to you, please take an honest look at your logo, website and marketing materials and ask yourself, “Would I be impressed with my first impression?” It’s never too late to make an improvement to your online smile. The Goodness Company The Goodness Company is a global health care and medical tourism mar- keting organization. You can learn more online at www. GoodnessCompany.com and at www. MedicalTourismMarketing.com. PaTrICk GOODneSS is one of the most recognized names in the global health care and medical marketing industry. Health care organiza- tions from around the world rely on Goodness for in- sightful marketing consultation, mar- keting planning and international public relations services. The results-driven approach to marketing that Goodness delivers has helped hospitals, medical centers, medical practices, dental offices and medi- cal organizations around the world transform their brands and increase their sales and profitability. As CEO of The Goodness Company, Global Healthcare & Medical Tourism Marketing, Good- ness has earned the confidence and repeat busi- ness of some of the world’s top health care organi- zations. Goodness offers a wide spectrum of marketing and public relations consulting services focused on building powerful branding and in- creasing sales. His health care marketing experi- ence, global network of clients and colleagues and ability to build and deliver valuable marketing con- cepts and tools that generate significant results are the reason for his popularity and his leadership in global health care marketing. Goodness is recog- nized globally for his work in the following areas: • Health care marketing • Health care destination branding • Medical and dental practice branding • Medical tourism marketing • International health care public relations • Social media marketing • Relationship marketing You can contact Goodness via email at patrick@ goodnesscompany.com. According to an in-depth eye- tracking research study at Missouri University of Science and Technology, it takes a website user less than two-tenths of a second to form a first impression when viewing a website and only 2.6 seconds for a user's eyes to land on an area of a website that impacts his or her first impression. Photo/Provided by The Goodness Company ‘In short, the dental industry’s online smile is a bit stained and missing a few teeth.’ Dental Tribune U.S. Edition | June 2013 A13iNDUStRY NEWS