The anxiety that goes with knowing you need to see the dentist can be enough to keep you up at night. This is especially true if you don’t have a dentist and/or haven’t seen one in years. In most cases, what you find yourself doing is going online to seek out the most reputable and affordable dentist in your local community.
The dentist you end up going with, just might be the one who not only boasts lots of positive reviews on medical websites, but who also utilizes an effective and easy to navigate website of their own.
The better the website, the more likely the better a dental practice’s ranking on Google. But in order to achieve this excellent Google search engine ranking, a dentistry practice might want to seek out the services of a dental SEO company that specializes in the industry.
A dental SEO (Search Engine Optimization) company will have a firm grasp of precisely how many persons are utilizing Google to search for a dentist in the local area. Or said another way, how many prospective patients will an effective SEO strategy bring to your practice?
The same holds true for dentistry practices that offer cosmetic makeover services. According to a new report, like any other consumer, cosmetic dentistry patients live in a brave new digital world. But what does this mean for a dentist practice?
Patients and potential clients are increasingly researching and making their purchasing decisions by using the world wide web. Dentists who make a concerted effort to maintain a strong web presence by using effective digital marketing strategies will always gain more local and regional awareness from new patients while attracting more traffic to their practice’s website. The strategies encapsulate everything from brand reputation, website design, and of course, SEO.
It only makes sense that patients will search the internet for the very best dental care available in their local community. It’s possible they start with a referral by speaking with friends, family, and neighbors.They might then head to Google for more information. Statistics show that 75 percent of patients go online for a brand new health care provider and/or dentist.
So then, what’s this all come down to?
The “digital-first mindset” is a portal to becoming the primary solution for attracting potential dental patients.
That said, here are some dentistry website best practices that can have a significant impact on a patient’s decision to select your practice over that of a competitor’s.
Create a Smile Gallery for Your Website
In order to attract new patients who are looking for a total smile makeover, you need to create a powerful online smile gallery. Recently, Sesame Communications performed a study called, “How Consumers Choose Cosmetic Dentists Online.” They found that a smile gallery is the first page a potential patient will visit when going to your dental practice’s website.
This is called making a great first impression. With this now clearly in mind, what’s the most efficient way to create your smile gallery?
First, and most importantly, you do not want to use stock images or models. This will turn a potential patient off since they will immediately see how fake the presentation is. Therefore, they will likely turn to one of your competitors.
Don’t overdo things. The situations that will cause a patient to move on from your website to a competing company’s site are the following:
–A site that appears overly glamorous.
–Use of stock and model pictures.
–Small, annoying flash page websites.
–Introduction pages with tons of useless copy on them.
–Intro pages.
–Too many pop-ups (only have one, if you have any at all).
–A poor user experience like difficult to navigate pages and vital information that’s hard to locate.
A Smile Gallery Should Be Representative of the Dentistry Work
It should go without saying that a dental practice’s smile gallery must contain information for each cosmetic dentistry case presented on the website. Include what procedures were done and why they were utilized. Much like creating a character, it’s important to tell a brief (brief is key) story of each case, along with the patient’s first name to keep it personalized and fun.
All of this is important because a potential patient who might be experiencing anxiety over who he or she is going to choose for a dentist, is consciously and subconsciously seeking out a caring and warm-hearted dentist. At the same time, they need to be completely informed about the procedure they might be undertaking, such asmultiple dental implants, and its overall effectiveness.
By informing them about an existing patient, you will be proving how much you care about the people who belong to your practice, not just their teeth and their money. Also, this builds trust and enhances your brand’s overall reputation. Your digital website should operate in the same manner as though a potential patient came to see you face to face. That’s why it’s of vital importance to present your best work along with a positive personality via your practice’s website.
The STEPPS for Building a Successful and Persuasive Digital Dentistry Marketing Platform
Social Currency: People want to seem smart and in-the-know to potential customers. Make them feel like they are insiders in your world
Triggers: Present your “habitat” so that when potential customers think of the word “dentist,” they are automatically triggered into picturing your practice.
Emotion: “When we care, we share.” Create SEO content that goes viral and therefore influences a potential customer.
Public: The more public and popular your website becomes, the more others will attempt to replicate it.
Practical Value: Create useful content that people can use and share.
Stories: Create fun stories that people will want to share with others. This is a “trojan horse” method for attracting potential customers.
What STEPPS comes down to is this: Creating a very “positive emotional experience” in potential patients (and existing patients) is paramount for your dental marketing campaigns along with your website user experience, especially with your smile gallery.
That’s why it’s of vital importance to take the necessary time to create a most memorable experience for both current and potential clients. You should take note that human beings make decisions using their right brain, then justify those decisions by utilizing their left brains.
The point of your smile gallery is to appeal to a person’semotional side first. In the personal stories you create, the “procedural information” contained within is intended to“seal the deal” from a logical and trustworthy point of view. That’s where the left brain comes in.
Utilize a Full Human Face
Displaying before-and-after photos of teeth seems like a logical maneuver since it directly display’s your technical skills and overall clinical ability as a dentist. But you need to always keep in mind that the emotional brain makes the decision while the logical brainseals the deal.
In order to create that emotional response in the potential customer’s mind, you need to use the full human face in your website smile gallery photos. This shows that you care more about people than just their teeth. By using a full face, a patient will imagine themselves in the before and after photos. They will already begin to feel what it’s like to have good teeth again, or perhaps, for the first time ever.
In his book, Unconscious Branding, the premise of which concerns the importance of “leading the imagination,”author Douglas Van Praetwritesabout a Porsche dealer who used the following marketing concept to increase his direct mail responses from a dismal 1 percent to an unheard of 32 percent.
In Praet’s account, the Porsche dealer hires a professional photographer to take a photo of a sleek,brand new Porsche which is parked in the driveways of numerous suburban homes. The headline on the direct mail postcard read, “Porsche: It’s closer than you think.”
In marketing circles, this single campaign is considered “brilliant” in its emotional delivery. It automatically gets the potential buyers imagining what it would be like to sit behind the wheel of their very own Porsche.
When applying this same concept to the cosmetic dentistry world, you can showcase dental makeovers in such as way that will allow your potential patients to visualize themselves having the same exact makeover. By utilizing real dental cases, you will be showcasing your clinical skills while assisting prospective clients to positively identify with your particular company brand.
