This article is a contribution from guest author Chad Erickson, Co-owner of MyAdvice.
What’s the key to retaining your dental patients? Of course, you have to make sure you have enough new incoming patients, but you’ll also need to make sure those patients are the right fit for your dental practice in the long term. By fine-tuning some of the elements of your website and local search profiles, you can help make sure you’re attracting not only more patients but also more of the patients who are most likely to stay with your practice for the long haul. Here’s what to know.
Step 1: Fine-tune your website.
You know your website is important for bringing new patients into your practice, but what exactly do patients care about when they look at your website? According to a study MyAdvice recently conducted of 250 dental patients, the top answer (at 50%) is your About Us page. People want to know who will perform their dental procedures – they care about your expertise, experience, and the why behind what you do. Your website is a chance to showcase that information, and not just on your About Us page!
Dental procedures are notoriously scary to many people – building trust with patients before they even contact you means they’re more likely to be the patients that come back time and time again. Your website also needs to make it really easy for your potential patients to contact you, as well as find information about the procedures you offer. Offering information up front makes it more likely for patients in the research phase to contact you, and making it easy for them to find your contact information makes it easy for them to do so. f
Step 2: Dial in your local search profile.
Local search profiles can be so frustrating – not only are these profiles subject to change by user suggestions, but they can be automatically updated without warning. And, as it turns out, people hate encountering incorrect information on local search profiles. In fact, 49% of the people we polled said they’d choose a different dentist if the one they were researching had the wrong info or conflicting info on their local search profile or website.
If you can’t afford to potentially lose half of your incoming patients, you can’t afford to ignore your local search profiles! That means auditing your local search profiles as frequently as possible (we recommend monthly at the bare minimum) for any changes and updates that need to be made, as well as checking your website for incorrect information, is incredibly important.
Your local search profiles need to be optimized, too – which means adding information well beyond your basic name, address, and phone number (often referred to as NAP info). Why does this matter? Because Google and other search engines utilize a metric known as “relevance” to rank local search profiles, which is a measure of how likely your business is to provide the service or product a searcher is looking for. Failing to add all of the information on your local search profile, such as the primary and secondary categories your business falls under, adding information like services you provide, attributes your business has (parking, anyone?), your hours of operation, and a link to your website, means that you’ll miss out on relevant searches happening near your business.
Take the time to add the information and keep updating your listing with things like photos to keep your profile fresh, and you stand a greater chance of the right patients finding your practice.
About Chad Erickson:
As a trusted senior executive and co-owner of MyAdvice, Chad Erickson has been consulting clients on the best marketing strategies for their businesses since 1999. With a focus on both the internal and external aspects of effective marketing, he plays an instrumental role in MyAdvice’s growth, as well as the development of our comprehensive, best-in-class digital marketing platform.
In addition to being an industry leader in digital marketing, Chad understands the complex aspects of owning and running a business. He has a proven record of raising capital, acquiring companies, and developing strategic alliances within the industry. He is also a faculty member for many of the top medical and dental conferences. Visit myadvice.com to learn more about how we can help you with local listings management, reviews, and other aspects of your digital marketing campaign.
In addition to being an industry leader in digital marketing, Chad understands the complex aspects of owning and running a business. He has a proven record of raising capital, acquiring companies, and developing strategic alliances within the industry. He is also a faculty member for many of the top medical and dental conferences. Visit myadvice.com to learn more about how we can help you with local listings management, reviews, and other aspects of your digital marketing campaign.
About MyAdvice:
MyAdvice empowers business owners and professionals to increase their revenue by attracting and retaining more clients through digital marketing. Our SaaS-based platform enables hands-on control and visibility into the performance of online marketing activities, backed by 20+ years of best practices and expertise in maximizing those efforts. MyAdvice’s six-stage Pyramid of SuccessTM provides a proven step-by-step plan for how and when to implement growth-oriented marketing tactics for the greatest impact, including website design and maintenance, local directories, customer reviews, social media, search engine optimization (SEO) and paid advertising. Learn more at myadvice.com
