ITque Top 5 Ways to Get New Dental Patients

www.itque.net | 408.641.7030

www.itque.net 408.641.7030

INTRODUCTION Thank you for requesting the

Top 5 Ways to Get New Dental Patients.

This material is specifically for Dental Professionals. It will give you a great head start to promoting your practice and getting new patients using the power of the web and digital marketing.

www.itque.net | 408.641.7030

www.itque.net 408.641.7030

Craft Your Message

Before you do anything else, determine the messaging you want to communicate for your practice and what you want prospective new patients to take away from your website, brochures, ads, etc. Are you a family dentist, a pediatric specialist or do you specialize in oral and maxillofacial surgery? Whether you have a specialty or not, make sure you have a clear message that lets prospective patients know if your practice is right for them.

“ Whether you have a specialty or not, make sure you have a clear message that lets prospective patients know if your practice is right for them.”

Craft and Use It!

Once you have penned the perfect message for your practice, you’ll want to create your tagline, elevator pitch, messaging document, copy blocks and other supporting materials and then use them everywhere! What do we mean by everywhere? Your practice’s messaging should appear in one form or another here: • Home page and throughout your website • Letterhead, postcards, invoices, business cards • Emails, social posts, web ads, online directories • Voicemail greetings, appointment reminders, robo-calls

Oh, and don’t forget to make sure everyone on your staff can recite your pitch chapter and verse. Remember, if you have the right message and a prospective new patient calls, your staff must be able to talk about the practice in the same way as your message, or you might lose the prospect.

Want to learn more about copy blocks, elevator pitches, taglines and how to craft your message to attract new dental patients?

Register for ITque’s FREE Ecourse: How to Make Your Website a New Patient Magnet.

www.itque.net 408.641.7030

First Impressions Are Everything

Your Home Page will probably be the first place you get to interact with a prospective new patient. If you don’t have the right information in the right place on your Home Page and throughout your website, your new patient and the thousands of dollars in lifetime revenue potential she represents, may be off to the next website.

“ Your Home Page will probably be the first place you get to interact with a prospective new patient.”

Content is King!

Previously we told you “Message is King” – it is. And, since the message is part of your content, you need to focus on both. So, what content might keep a prospective patient on your site? Of course, you must include your practice name, address, phone number and some of the messaging you created in Step #1. But don’t forget the things that may separate you from your competitors and get that patient prospect to call you:

• Practice Specialties – do you have any? SAY IT! • Hours of operation – are you open weekends? SAY IT! • Walk-ins – do you accept them? SAY IT! • Insurance – do you accept insurance? If so, which ones? SAY IT! • Degrees and Certifications – you have these, right? SAY IT! And these are just the basics. The right information in the right places on your Home Page and throughout your website will get more new patients to call.

Want to dig deeper into the changes you can make to your Home Page and website to attract new dental patients?

Register for ITque’s FREE Ecourse: How to Make Your Website a New Patient Magnet.

www.itque.net 408.641.7030

Social Butterfly

There are many social media sites out there, but you simply don’t have time to manage and post to all of them. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube, Pinterest, Tumblr, Vine, Slideshare, arggghhhhh! It’s enough to make your teeth grind…sorry.

“ If you only have time to manage one social media site, pick Facebook.”

Number, Please

As we mentioned above, there are a lot of social media sites out there. And they each have a lot of subscribers. As of early 2014, here are the worldwide numbers of “active monthly users” for each of the main sites (Source): • Facebook (the big gorilla) - more than 1.28 billion active monthly users • Google+ - more than 540 million active monthly users • Twitter – more than 255 million active monthly users • LinkedIn – more than 187 million active monthly users The key phrase here is “active monthly users”. All of these sites boast huge numbers of users, but if half of those who sign up never visit or participate, they are not likely to see your posts.

If you only have time to manage one social media site, pick Facebook. It has the most active users. Not only that, but it has the most users in a demographic likely to be in their prime earning years and still care significantly about their teeth.

But what about Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and the others? What is the best fit for a dental practice looking for new patients? Sign up for our Free Ecourse below and find out.

Want to find out more about which Social Media sites work best for Dental Practices and help attract new dental patients?

Register for ITque’s FREE Ecourse: How to Make Your Website a New Patient Magnet.

www.itque.net 408.641.7030

There are dozens and dozens of online business directories that generate income by creating categorized lists of businesses (like dental practices) and referring potential customers, clients and patients to them.

“ Directories can be a great supplement to your marketing strategy, so don’t minimize their importance.”

Like Yahoo and Google?

Kinda, but not really. Google and Yahoo are the big gorillas, but you shouldn’t forget about the plethora of niche directories that make their living by organizing and categorizing certain business types or by focusing on reviews to attract new business for their listings.

Where to Focus?

The problem is that there are a lot of these directories and many of them may have incorrect information about your practice. To start, we suggest you pick the top 4-5 directories with the most traffic and make sure they are correct.

Here are the biggies: (click on each to go directly to their respective signup pages)

• Google • Bing • Yahoo! • Yellow Pages • Yelp For each of these directories, make absolutely sure your basic information is correct: practice name, address, phone number, email address, etc. For directories that allow it, go the extra step and provide some of the messaging you created previously. Information like your specialties, insurance accepted, walk-ins, etc. will separate you from your competition.

Directories can be a great supplement to your marketing strategy, so don’t minimize their importance. Having 50100 directory sites with accurate and compelling information about your practice will absolutely bring you new dental patients over time.

Want to dig deeper into these directories and how you can use “directory aggregators” to get placed in top spots across the web?

Register for ITque’s FREE Ecourse: How to Make Your Website a New Patient Magnet.

www.itque.net 408.641.7030

This is by far the most complicated of all the topics covered in this Top 5 list. Indeed, many books have been written about each. As such, we’ll try to hit on the most relevant topics as they relate to your practice.

FIRST THINGS FIRST:

SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.

The easy way to remember the difference is to remember that the “M” in SEM stands for Money. In other words, SEM is a paid service. Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing are two great examples of SEM. SEO, on the other hand, is free (generally).

Remember, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization - literally the practice of optimizing your website to make it easy for the Search Engines like Google and Yahoo (and new patients) to find you. So, your question is…which one should you focus on?

SEO is all about having great, relevant content on your site. Content that you want the search engines (and prospective patients) to find. SEO is about consistency as well. Does this sound familiar? If not, go back and review Message is King.

“ Since principles are similar for SEM and SEO, focus on SEO first, because it’s free. ” We think the best answer is focus on SEO now and SEM later. Why? The short answer is: because getting your SEO house in order is great preparation for launching a paid SEM campaign later on. In other words, you’ll save yourself a lot of money.

SEO is also about making sure that you reference keywords from all the great content on your site in things called metatags, meta descriptions and other information buried in the plumbing of your web pages.

Want to learn more about SEO, SEM, metatags, meta descriptions and how they can help you attract new dental patients?

Register for ITque’s FREE Ecourse: How to Make Your Website a New Patient Magnet.

www.itque.net 408.641.7030

Well, that’s it for ITque’s Top 5 Ways to Get New Dental Patients. We hope you enjoyed it, and we hope you take advantage of some of the ideas and concepts we have presented here. We know there’s a ton of information, so we suggest you take it one step at a time.

A perfect way to take it one step at a time is to sign up for ITque’s Free Ecourse: How to Make Your Website a New Patient Magnet.

What’s in this Ecourse? This Free Ecourse dives much deeper into the concepts you just learned in the Top 5 Ways To Get New Dental Patients list and gives more specifics and details all in a series of easy-to-read emails delivered directly to your inbox. No commitment, no credit card, no hassle.

ABOUT ITQUE

ITque is a leading IT service provider in Northern California. We specialize in helping businesses use technology and software to help grow and thrive. We don’t just recommend and install the latest, whiz-bang gadget and hope you use it, we show you how to use it to make your business more successful.

ITque has a lot of experience with the IT needs of dentists and dental practices.

If you would like to find out more, please visit: ITque Dental IT Solutions.

Please use this information at your own discretion.

While the methods and practices herein have been proven to be effective time and time again, ITque, Inc. makes NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, regarding the information contained herein. ITque cannot and does not guaranty that it will produce positive results in your specific situation.

ITque would like to personally thank Jacob Puhl and Adam Zilco of Firegang Marketing and authors of “How to Get New Dental Patients With the Power of the Web”. Their help has been instrumental in making this Top 5 List happen.

For more information, click or follow the appropriate QR Code below: ITque Home Page

ITque Dental IT Solutions

New Patient Magnet

Inc. 587 Division Street Campbell, CA 95008 408.641.7030 If you have questions about this material, please email Scott Taylor at staylor@itque.net.