Interested in getting your own video critique? Click here

…unless you give them some piece of information that they feel truly applies to helping them solve their question or concern.

Effective marketing has less to do with what you as a dentist wants to say and more to do with conveying the proper message that directly applies to the problem your patient is looking for the answer to.

People don’t care about your practice, credentials, or history, they want to see how they can solve a concern they are dealing with. If you position yourself as the solution, they will see you as a dentist that truly provides value to them.

In the past four years we have seen the single largest growth of information availability in the documented history of our world.

No longer is just putting an advert up enough. Patients don’t want to just “find a dentist” – they want to find “the best dentist for them.” Your patients now have the ability to get to know you, get tons of information, read what other patients think about you, get a first impression of your staff and office — all in their underwear and without ever leaving their home.

Wikipedia, WebMD, Facebook… all these information-superhighways allow your patients to find any and all the information they want. We all have developed D-ADHD (Digital Attention Deficit Disorder)… we all want the answers to our questions RIGHT NOW.

If your website just talks about YOU and about YOUR services, YOU’RE losing new patients.

Your patients are searching for the answers to their problems. Your website should address THEIR problems and solve THEIR needs. It should educate them on what is available because educated prospects are better consumers of the dentistry you offer.

And I don’t mean clinically educate… those clinical videos and pamphlets will only scare them away! (When you go to the mechanic do you want to know how they fix your brakes, or do you just want to know that your car will stop safely?)

When you answer their questions, you will win them over.

So how do you answer their questions? Simple.

…Then you will become their hero.

And that’s our marketing philosophy.

The web marketing world is filled with lots of hype and confusion.

One “expert” will tell you that social media is the way of the future, while another preaches that SEO is the tried and true method, while yet another says that local search is the best thing since sliced bread.

Yet none of them can tell you which one REALLY works and which ones DON’T. So what do most dentists do?

Confusion breeds indecision: The Analysis-Paralysis Effect.

I’m a numbers guy. I like to know the bottom line before I make a decision. All too often though companies don’t let you compare “apples to apples” to see which provides the better value. They don’t tell you about the pitfalls of their own marketing agenda. So you end up:

Neither is good for your dental practice.

One bonus of our Swift Kick! package is the fifteen minute video critique of your entire web marketing campaign where we show you step by step exactly what you’re doing right (and what you’re not).

So what does a successful dental web marketing campaign look like? Here’s one example:

To find the new patients and cases that YOU want, you have to design your marketing campaign to not only dominate the entire first page of Google, but you also must provide killer content and information to your prospects, automatically follow-up with all your prospects for 12-24 months after initial contact, and you have to scrupulously track all your marketing so you know what is (and is not) performing.

Einstein also once said that insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results…

SmartBox Web Marketing helps dentists with advanced clinical training to attract the patients THEY want, to automate their follow-up marketing, to create automated referral systems for existing patients, to create the best dental websites imaginable, and to track down-to-the-penny the results all of their marketing is bringing them.

To learn more about what goes into creating the best dental websites, click here to download our new free report The Dental Website Audit (free download, no email required).

If so, take notice of Google’s latest major update: The Penguin.

While innocent looking, watch out. If the Penguin thinks your dental website is TOO optimized, it will turn your top ranking website into sushi.

Want to learn more? Click the button below to watch a short video…

Is this website performing well? Where is it failing?

The heat map shows where your prospects are actually clicking. The scroll map shows where your prospects are spending the most time looking at.

What’s your opinion? Post your comments below using Facebook.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

I get asked that question all the time. Dentists that do have a website believe, like many people who have websites, that all they have to do is put it up and people will find it. Not true!

If you are the only dentist is a 100 mile radius I’m not talking to you, but if you have competition in the same local area your practice is located in, listen up!

I will bet you the bank that your website is not being “seen” in ways that count…

And in ways that get you more patients!

A lot of people also ask me, “Why would Google go to the time and expense of creating 50 million mini-websites for businesses, and then give them away?”

The answer is ‘money.’ How Google turns free Place Pages into revenue really doesn’t matter right now, so I won’t bore you with details. Suffice it say, they do… and they ARE betting the bank this works.

Remember Google Maps?

The little dots are those dental practices that have not taken Google up on their offer for a free Place Page. The big dots are the ones that have.

Google spent hundreds of millions of dollars developing 50 million mini-websites.

Which dentists do you think are going to get preferential treatment: The ones that claim and work their Place Pages, or the ones that don’t?

You see, for Google it’s a matter of “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”, like it or not. They are going to make money off of this venture, and if you don’t play you won’t.

Those dentists that don’t play the game aren’t even in the ballpark when it comes to a shot at getting new qualified patients.

Here’s 3 we did this past week for a few savvy docs wanting to find more new patients in their niches.

They certainly don’t compare to the big ticket items found in other places in the store, but they are money makers. Even though WalMart might sell a $599 snow blower in one department and a $700 flat screen in another, based on square footage, the checkout line is the most profitable real estate in the store.

The last time I checked WalMart merchandise was selling at a rate of $5.00 per square foot on regular shelves and $28 per square foot at the checkout aisle.

Why?

It’s because that is where everyone is. A snow blower might be bypassed, and in reality they don’t sell that many compared to the number of gum packs in checkout isles. Everyone has to go through a relatively small space to get out, and while you are standing there, you are a captive audience. WalMart also knows the last minute decision in a checkout line is immediate and swift.

“Mom, can I have a pack of gum?”

How many times have you heard that and the parent, probably you included, has succumbed to the ease and immediacy of throwing a pack of gum on the conveyor belt?

Being where people are at and allowing them to satisfy their need for “immediacy” is important!

If someone is searching for a dentist, especially in today’s world of quick internet searches and the prevalent use of smart phones, YOU HAVE TO BE SEEN IN THE MOST VALUABLE PIECE OF ADVERTISING REAL ESTATE OR YOU WON’T GET THE BUSINESS!

Today that means you have to be seen on the web.

Your website displays information about your dental practice. You can emphasize your advanced clinical training and let your prospective patients spend some time getting to know you via your website and videos… but not if you aren’t there AND NOT IF YOU CAN’T BE SEEN.

It’s a simple concept but an important one: Provide the information when and where people are looking for it, and be the best at it, or drop down to the $5 a square foot rent district.

People act quicker today than they ever have before.

Technology has spawned a global “checkout isle” mentality. Turning that into a lucrative, patient attracting practice dictates you be there.

Talk to us about how you can capture the “checkout line” mentality and make it work for you and your dental practice. You will get the lion’s share of qualified patients who are searching.

So the next time you go through the checkout line in your favorite store, remember this email.

Notice they did not say “cell phone”. They didn’t even say “web-enhanced” phones where internet connections are possible. They said “Smart Phones” – the ones that act more like computers than phones – the ones that take up 20 times more bandwidth than a normal cell phone.

I don’t know if you personally own one now, but having a smart phone is like turning a kid loose in a candy store.

You can’t possibly imagine all the wonders you could do or have until you get there…

Already 62% of people looking for local goods and services, including dentists, do so with their mobile phones. And that number is projected to rise sharply by the end of this year.

Look, let’s take a hard look at what this means for you and your dental practice.

You want to attract more qualified patients. You can tell me anything, but when there’s no one else around, the truth of the matter is getting more qualified patients is your main concern right now.

Refer to our free report The Dental Website Audit. It shows how in an itty bitty town in northern Michigan – far north of freeways and the latest trends – 10,000 residents (including babies and senior citizens) conducted almost 200,000 searches for local services, including dentists.

If that is the case now, what will it be like as more and more people use the internet and mobile devices?

Radio and TV spots don’t have the punch in today’s modern world. Yellowpages listings do not get you more patients (YP will be completely extinct within 18 months). You need a way to get your website up, seen, and hooked up for mobile searches… QUICKLY!

The early adopters and fast movers will have a dominant head start on the rest of the pack…

But here is the catch

Putting up your internet “billboard” and working hard to get it ranked, and therefore seen, COULD HURT YOU!

It’s true! Google and other search engines have rules you must play by or your efforts will actually hurt you.

Furthermore what works today may not work tomorrow. That’s because the giants like Google are constantly changing the rules lest anyone figure out their “algorithms” and dominate any particular market.

What does this mean for you as you try to get new qualified patients?

You have to know how to play by the rules. We only use techniques which have been tested and actually endorsed by the major search engines, and while this means we play by the rules it also means we have to keep up on the latest “whitehat” techniques to keep your practice growing. Your website – your lifeline to new qualified patients – will never be shut down because of something underhanded we do.

So here is the “kicker”:

You know what advertising medium people are using to look for “dentists” in your area – on the web and mobile devices.

You by now realize it takes work to be seen by potential patients…and you could try and do this yourself if you really wanted to invest that kind of time after-hours.

But many times dentists or their office staff stumbles upon a “blackhat” trick without knowing it and BOOM!… you are shut down.

Don’t think it doesn’t happen… It is so prevalent that there is a term for it… the Google “slap”. Once slapped it takes months, if ever, to get it straightened out. In the meantime you are missing out on the daily patient traffic.

If you want more qualified patients the right way, get started by scheduling a complimentary 20 minute consultation with me, Colin Receveur.

Reserve your consultation here: http://www.smartboxwebmarketing.com/response.htm

We’ll not only get you more qualified patients, your “billboard” will never be taken down by Google and phone calls for new patients will increase – we guarantee it!

More patients – it’s what you want, right?

Some dentists are satisfied with “just having a website” and not truly leveraging it as a marketing tool to attract the patients THEY want… and they are missing boatloads of new patients.

Many of those dentists who are doing some web marketing are doing it wrong by spending all their money on the attraction and none on the conversion…

We recently launched a pilot program with a select group of dentists to allow us to actually SEE what your prospective patients see when they visit your website. Our technology allows us to see where they click, where they scroll and read, and what they do while they are on your website more than ever before.

This allows us to develop highly effective, more aesthetically pleasing dental websites that generate YOU more results from every marketing dollar you spend.

If your website hasn’t created a steady stream of phone calls into your dental practice, checkout our new free report The Dental Website Audit. It’s a free download (PDF), no email address needed.

        

One of the most prominent features of search engine results, and particularly important for mobile searchers (rather than driving around, getting lost and stopping for directions), is the use of maps!

But just giving text to your potential patients is not enough anymore! Online and mobile searches go way beyond that.

For now, just think about all of the places that use mapping as one of their main services when giving your information to new potential patients:

OnStar
CitySearch
MapQuest
TomTom
Garmin
AOL Local
Yellow Book Online
Google Place Pages
infoUSA
Local.com
Yahoo Local
411.com
AskCity
SuperPages.com

…just to name a few…and this does not include any local pages that allow you to advertise as a part of the community, chamber or through associations.

Plus you can certainly show your location on your own website and other pages you display on by linking to one of these maps.

All of these search based maps need to be checked for accuracy and updated. I was looking in one city just last week and found a dentist office on a map that was off by half a mile! That sets up frustration on the part of your new patient… something you don’t need.

Anyone who has looked on MapQuest has discovered roads that are not seen, locations that are just plain wrong, and mileage estimates that are way off!

Unfortunately what many digital map users and, in your case your patients, don’t realize is that it is up to the business owner to make sure the maps are accurate. If you take a look at the partial list above of possible mapping locations you’ll see that this takes a bit of work!

So picture these scenarios:

A local potential new patient has just completed a search on their mobile phone. The map that is displayed shows you on “Main Street”. Your actual location in on “Spring Street”. They bypass you in favor of a dentist that is closer, when in reality you are the closest.

Or a new patient sees the digital map and it is off – way off. Despite the fact that your front staff is probably going to hear about it (in tone that’s not pleasant) and that the patient is going to be late for an appointment, is that really any way to provide a good first impression?

You could go through the list and make sure all of the maps show you in the right location, but do you really want to go through the “Dental Mapping Maze”?

Let us help you with your online marketing. Our dental marketing systems have been proven with hundreds of dentists over the past decade to find you more new qualified patients.

Watch this video to learn more…

Did you know you can effectively market yourself in a “dental niche” and do it quicker and easier than you can market yourself as a “general dentist”?

One of the tricks is to use “long tail keywords” in your online media. Chances are those elective case procedures you want to attract are searching for you right now…

The trick is to use those dental niche specialty terms without using too much “dental-ese”. Use terms the public will readily know, but ones not every person who is looking for a dentist would type in the search bar.

When you want a new car, you don’t search for “car”. You search for “2012 Torch Red Corvette”. And when your patients are looking for solutions to their loose dentures, they don’t search for “dentist”, they search for the answer to their problem.

Here’s why this works so effectively!

Last month there were over 5,000,000 online searches across the U.S. for only “dentists”. That’s a lot of people needing dental work. If you are using the word “dentist” or “dentists” (and plural uses of the word should always be used – search engines count them separately) you can be represented in your area.

But every dentist on every corner will use at least one of the words “dentist” or “dentists” in their web pages and mobile marketing. That’s a lot of competition.

Use the “long tail” or expanded phrases for your niche or specialty cases YOU want to attract. If you do dental implants, put the phrase to work for you. By adding “mini dental implants” or “dental IV sedation” (for example) to your list of optimized words, you’ve expanded the keywords into areas not all dentists will use. The patients looking for dental implants will however, and you’ll get the business!

By standing out you are eliminating a lot of the other dentists who don’t do dental implants (or whatever your niche is) and crushing others who might be doing dental implants but don’t know this tactic.

Watch the video below to learn more…  

Fact: 97%+ of People Looking For A Dentist With Your Training Look Online Before Calling.

It’s true… Web marketing for dentists works, but there are a lot of myths and misconceptions about what it takes to attract new patients with your dental website and other online tools.

Our new free report, The Dental Website Audit, will arm you with the tools required to audit your website and your web marketing firm and show you how to attract more & higher quality patients.

If you want to learn the secrets of how to attract more high quality patients, pre-qualify them for the services YOU want to offer, automatically follow-up, and track your results down to the penny, then my free report is a must read.

Click Here to Read More >>

[I also blogged about this last year and last month.]

Remember what the YellowPages books looked like five.. three… even last year? Remember that big yellow full-size book that was 2 to 3 inches thick and chocked full of advertisers and listings?

I just got this years YP in the mail today. It’s been downsized to a meek 5 x 11 and less than ¹/₂ inch thick… a slim reminder what dominated local business marketing for the better half of a century.

Did the advertisers stop advertising?

Businesses are still spending money to find customers, and consumers still need to find local providers for the services they need, so what’s changed?

Ten years after mainstream adoption of the internet, businesses have realized that consumers are going to the web to find what they need, and they are transitioning their marketing dollars accordingly.

Does your dental practice “Get Found” on the web?

Confused about where and how to get started? Not sure your web marketing dollars are producing for you? Our Swift Kick! Web Marketing Package will show you everything you need to know about how to dominate your local market area…

So why is it not attracting you new qualified patients?

The reality is, the problem is not your dental website(s). It’s not your web address, it’s not the colors you chose nor your bio & credentials, and it’s especially not how many keywords you’re ranking for. It’s your differentiation. It’s your uniqueness, or lack of…

Pick a city and you’ll be able to find at least a dozen dentists using one of the 6 BIG Wewe’s:

If you are targeting the patients that want free x-rays and exams, uniqueness doesn’t matter because these leads are only interested in “cheap.”

But when you want the $5,000-$50,000 deep disability reconstructive and cosmetic cases, you want to see the doctor who’s the expert, who does it full time. You don’t want to see the guy who “lists that he can do it” on his website. You’re looking for the expert in the niche that you’re researching.

Your patients don’t know you’re the expert unless you tell them.

The problem for many dentists is they expect their patients to “know” they are the best choice while not differentiating themselves as the obvious choice. They camouflage themselves amongst their competition, and when patients are trying to decide, they all look the same. So they keep looking…

If you want to attract the cases and patients that YOU want, your patients must see you as that “brain surgeon” (a.k.a. the master of one not the jack of all trades). You must be their hero and answer all their questions.

…And then (and only then) will they choose you.

Marketing is like playing ‘darts’.

When you play darts, you can hit lots of places on the dart board and still score points. But if you aim for the bull-eye, you’re going to score the most points with the least amount of throws.

It’s not about turning away patients that don’t need your other services, but rather about making you stand out as the expert in a specific niche area and attracting the patients needing that specific dental care.

By only marketing to attract the types of patients and cases you want, you can stay profitable in this new dental economy without discounting and without being insurance dependent.

How do you attract the patients you want?

Your advertising is a mirror reflection of the type of patient you will attract. If you want to attract the large cases and patients with money to spend, your marketing must be attuned to the needs of those patients (Hint: “Free whitening and x-rays” isn’t going to do it…).

When you want a new car, you don’t search for “car”. You search for “2012 Torch Red Corvette”. And when your patients are looking for solutions to their loose dentures, they don’t search for “dentist”, they search for the answer to their problem.

When you answer all of their questions, you will be their hero, and they will pick up the phone can call you.

So what’s the next step?

My grandpa used to say “brains are cheap”. And he was 110% right.

You don’t need to learn the nitty-gritty “how-to”, you just have to surround yourself with smart people. There isn’t any “get rich quick” scheme’s and there isn’t “a Google switch” to transform your website into a rock star overnight… But there are rock-solid ethical ways to get YOU seen by the patients YOU want.

The first step for many docs towards growing their practice and achieving economic freedom is just a click away…

A warm thank you for Colin Receveur for bringing our practice into the 21st Century with Google SEO which is proving to be very successful.

I thought I’d take this moment to thank you Colin for building our website and getting us to the point that we’re actively promoting our practices on the web and through Search Engine Optimization.

Our daily phone log and recorded calls into our internet phone number we’ve been very pleased with and our website is beautiful – you’ve done one heck of a great job.

I have forwarded our website on to a number of my orthodontic friends asking them to give you a call and to use any information on my website since they are not in my competitive area. You guys really “have it together” from getting my website going to all the videos you filmed both in your studio and here in our office. They are very well professionally done!!

Our staff has been very impressed with all you and your team has done, and our patients now go to our website much more often, about two to three times as often as they used to, which has been incredible for our retention and internal referrals.

I’m super pleased to say our website and SEO has worked very well just as you said it would and we look forwad to our mobile apps and some other subsequent marketing tools and ideas that you have.

Thank you again Colin and your team at SmartBox Web Marketing for everything you’ve done for us.

Google’s Matt Cutts announced that Google is working on a search ranking penalty for sites that are “over-optimized” or “overly SEO’ed.”

 
Matt Cutts said the new over optimization penalty will be introduced into the search results in the upcoming month or next few weeks. The purpose is to “level the playing field,” Cutts said. To give sites that have great content a better shot at ranking above sites that have content that is not as great but do a better job with SEO.

[Source: Search Engine Land]

They were being asked to do something that took them a billion miles outside their comfort zone.

Someone was actually asking them to destroy their business.

This law firm has just run head-first into 180 degree thinking.

So what’s 180 degree thinking?

Let’s drop all logic for just a moment and play a game that makes your brain run awry…

Imagine you run an airline. You know… Delta, Southwest, American, etc.

Now imagine that you want to destroy your airline as ethically as possible. How would you do it?

You’d do everything your customers hate.

So let’s make a plan:

Good start, eh? Now let’s suppose you changed your mind…

You decide you don’t want to destroy your airline.

What would be the first thing you would do to grow?

That’s easy… wider seats, attractive & smiling hostesses, be on-time, and serve great food and drinks.

And that’s what made the lawyers uneasy.

Because when they went through their 180 degree thinking concept… When they stopped thinking about "How to grow my business" and they turned it 180 degrees, instead they came up with the hard truth.

…And the truth made them squirm.

So what did their clients hate?

And guess what those lawyers did, day-in and day-out?

We’re all good at bugging our clients.

Now I’m not taking potshots at lawyers, I’m just saying – we all do it. And most of the time we don’t even realize we’re doing it.

Even as you read this article, your patients are searching for an exit sign. And no, they won’t leave in a fit of rage yelling and screaming.

94% of your unhappy patients will quietly slip away from your practice without saying a word, unless you ask them a critical question…

What would you have to do to destroy your dental practice?

First, do this exercise in your head: What dumb things would we have to do to run off our patients?

Write down every possible thing you can think of…. EVERYTHING that would make your patients stampede out of your practice.

Now that was easy, right?

The hard part is sitting down and actually asking your patients "what bugs you?"

Funny enough, the fear of feedback doesn’t lie with your patients. It lies with you.

Yeah you – the one who’s afraid of what your patients might say. And now that you’ve got their feedback, now you have to fix something.

In every case study we’ve done before, the patients were more than happy to talk about their bad experiences – they just didn’t know how.

Getting complaints is like winning the lotto!

You need to ensure you’re getting a constant stream of complaints (or if it makes you feel better, call it "feedback”). Get rid of the "feedback" form and go right to your patients, face-to-face. Let them know if anything goes wrong, to come talk to you.

Complaining patients don’t want to leave your practice, they want to be wooed back. Fix the problem, and let them know how you fixed it. Patients brought back from the brink are extremely loyal.

Richard Branson, billionaire serial entrepreneur and CEO at Virgin Atlantic Airways, has been known to make personal appearances at the gate when flights are late to apologize. Can you imagine how you would react to this?

Remember, it costs 8 times as much to get a new patient as it does to keep an existing one.

Can you see what’s happening?

In effect, you’re removing failure.

And when all the failure is gone, guess what you’re left with?

Just the success.

180 Degree Thinking is Only For the Brave.

The lawyers were uncomfortable. The airlines squirmed a little. You’ll have this same "butterflies in your stomach" feeling when dealing with 180 degree thinking.

Get over it.

If you want to grow your practice, it’s vital to employ 180 degree thinking.

And if you want to destroy your practice, that’s easy.

Just do nothing.

…or why not be all five?