| Dental practice marketing is critical to the success of | | | | the US in August 2010 - comScore |
| any dental practice because, no matter how great a | | | | - 90% of the 239 million US Internet users who use the |
| dentist is, patients will always leave: | | | | Internet to find local businesses use search engines to |
| - They move | | | | do so - the Kelsey Group |
| - They change benefits providers | | | | - 52% of people who use search engines to find local |
| - They grow dissatisfied with an element of the | | | | business information usually or always follow up their |
| service or price | | | | online search with an offline purchase - Nielsen |
| - Etc, etc etc | | | | WebVisble |
| The key to the success of a dentist's business, | | | | - 39% of people who use a search engine to find a |
| therefore, is to make every effort to minimize patient | | | | local business are looking for medical/dental services - |
| attrition while, at the same time, endeavoring to | | | | Nielsen/WebVisble |
| continuously attract a steady stream of new patients. | | | | When you look at what's going on in the search |
| This is where dental practice marketing comes in. | | | | engines at a local level - for example, in the city of |
| Dental Practice Marketing Ensures Survival and Drives | | | | Vancouver - you'll see that the numbers make a |
| Growth | | | | compelling case for dental practices to invest more of |
| Dental practice marketing provides for both the | | | | their marketing time, effort, and money into search |
| survival of a dentist's office - if patients who leave the | | | | engine marketing. |
| practice aren't replaced the practice will simply cease | | | | The following numbers are taken from Google's |
| to exist - and for its growth, provided that its marketing | | | | Keyword Selection Tool which, among other things, |
| efforts are effective at attracting new patients at a | | | | tracks and reports on monthly keyword search |
| faster rate than it loses "old" patients. | | | | volumes: |
| And yet, in spite of the obvious importance of | | | | - 5,400 monthly searches for "dentist Vancouver" |
| marketing to the success of any dental practice, the | | | | - 3,600 monthly searches for "Vancouver dentist" |
| majority of dentists seem to make some pretty poor | | | | - 2,900 monthly searches for "Vancouver dental" |
| decisions when it comes to how and where to spend | | | | - 1,600 monthly searches for "dental Vancouver" |
| their marketing time, effort, and money. They tend to | | | | - 1,600 monthly searches for "dentists Vancouver" |
| spend their marketing time, effort, and money mostly in | | | | That's 15,100 monthly searches for just six keywords - |
| the same ways they always have - "if it ain't broke, | | | | out of dozens - that people use every month in their |
| don't fix it" - and really only dabble in anything outside | | | | efforts to find dentists/dental practices/dental services |
| their dental practice marketing "comfort zone." | | | | in the city of Vancouver. |
| Well, the reality is that "it is broke" and it needs to be | | | | An Effective Dental Practice Marketing Strategy Must |
| fixed. The audiences that dental practices market to | | | | Include Search Engine Marketing |
| have moved away from the places where they spend | | | | Search engines, very simply, connect people in need of |
| most of their marketing time, effort, and money - | | | | products and services with businesses that sell the |
| consumer usage of the Yellow Pages, for instance, | | | | products and services they need - at the precise |
| continues to fall dramatically year after year - and | | | | moment when their needs are at a peak level. That's |
| towards places where most dental practices have little | | | | why they're searching on the Internet in the first place. |
| or no "strategic" visibility, such as search engines and | | | | They've got an itch to scratch - such as a tooth ache |
| Web 2.0. | | | | - and they need it scratched - and usually pretty |
| Search Engines Trump Web 2.0 Sites as Targets for | | | | urgently. |
| Dental Practice Marketing Effort and Spend | | | | And not only are search volumes for dentists and |
| And even though Web 2.0 sites like Facebook, Twitter, | | | | related terms already high, more and more people are |
| YouTube and the like generate most of the buzz | | | | turning to search engines to help them find dentists |
| these days - and with good reason because the | | | | than ever before - as searches for dentist and related |
| high-level (but meaningless at a local level) numbers | | | | keywords reached their highest volumes ever July and |
| are, frankly, jaw-dropping - they're not where a dental | | | | August 2010, according to Google Trends. |
| practice should be directing a lot of its marketing time, | | | | The message is clear: your dental practice's patients |
| effort or money for the simple reason that people visit | | | | of tomorrow will not be found where you were |
| Web 2.0 sites primarily to connect/socialize with | | | | investing time, effort, and money to find them in the |
| friends and family. They're not there to look for | | | | past. They've moved online - and continue to do so. |
| products and services and are certainly not there to | | | | And unless you move more of your dental practice |
| be marketed to. | | | | marketing time, effort, and money online - in a strategic |
| Search engines, on the other hand, are where people | | | | and cohesive way - your dental practice simply will not |
| turn when they've got an itch to scratch: | | | | be found. |
| - 15.7 billion "explicit core" searches were conducted in | | | | |