More Stuff About Local Search

Facebook, Twitter & Mobile…. VIDEO for Dentists

Videos now go hand in hand with good search engine optimization practices. Not only do they provide the informative content people want to see “live,” but they can also be used to help your website rank higher in the search results, thereby getting you more patients. The research group Forrester found that videos were 53 times (5300%) more likely to receive first page organic rankings than were traditional static text-only web pages.

Did you know that 48 hours of video are uploaded every minute to YouTube, resulting in nearly 8 years of content uploaded every day? It’s true… The fast-movers and early adopters (as they prove time and time again online) will take the Lion’s Share of the new patients, while the rest watch the “video train” rush by, wondering when their turn is.

OK – I’ve Got Video… Now What?

Leveraging your video properly includes so much more than just putting it on your website! Integrating your video into your social and mobile marketing strategies is paramount to your success.

Here’s what YouTube says about how their video gets spread around:

Social Video

17,000,000 people have connected their YouTube account to at least one social network (Facebook, Twitter, etc)

100,000,000 people take a social action on YouTube (likes, shares, comments, etc) weekly

Mobile Video

YouTube Mobile gets over 400,000,000 views a day (13% of their total views)

Facebook Video

150 years of YouTube video are watched daily on Facebook

Twitter Video

Every minute more than 500 tweets contain YouTube links

Want to know more?

Order my latest book for just $1, then contact our awesome sales guys.

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Posted in Local Search, Mobile Search, Search Engine Optimization, Social Marketing, Video on the Web, Video Productions, Web Marketing | Tagged dental video, local search for dentists, no dentists without video in 2012 | Leave a comment

What Walmart’s Checkout Line & Your Dental Practice Share

Any time you go through a checkout lane in WalMart, you’ve no doubt noticed the hundreds of items that are surrounding you as you wait to check out. Most will be small ticket items, a buck or two here and there.

They certainly don’t compare to the big ticket items found in other places of the store, but they are big money makers. Even though WalMart might sell a $599 snow blower in one department and a $1000 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 isle.

Why? Because That’s 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, instant gratification, 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 specialties 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.

At the same time remember we’ve already discussed well established facts and trends.

Well over 95% of people looking for a dentist, or any local service for that matter, will search online and on their mobile phones.
86% of them will immediately pick up the phone and call, symbolizing the power of the “checkout isle” phenomenon.

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 medium means you have to be there and be seen.

We can help… 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.

The next time you go through the checkout line in your favorite store, think about the marketing angle and remember this blog.

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“We took your bailout money, and your mortgage rates are going up.”

A Google+ page showed up last week, shortly after Google+ opened up to businesses, mocking Bank of America.

Of course, the page was a fraud, but that didn’t keep whoever put it up from getting 7 days of laughs out of it before it was taken down. An organization the size of Bank of America you would expect would be very protective of their brand…

So how are you protecting your brand?

We hear from dentists occasionally that they are not embracing social media, they don’t have a Google Places page, and they aren’t using reviews online. Unfortunately, burying your head in the sand and avoiding these sites doesn’t mean your patients will too.

We hear from dentists like this occasionally, usually after they find negative reviews online about themselves. They are in a panic about what they should do and how to “get them deleted.” Unfortunately at that point, options are limited. These problems are much easier prevented and avoided completely.

BrandJacked! If it Can Happen to BofA, it Can Happen to Your Dental Practice

Imagine these two scenarios:

Scenario 1) You have an unhappy patient. It happens to all of us, don’t kid yourself. That patient runs home, gets on Google and leaves you a scathing review. It’s the only review on your Places page, and Google displays and syndicates those terrible words all over the internet. Anytime a patient searches for you, they find Susie’s hateful remarks.

Scenario 2) You have an unhappy patient. She runs home, gets on Google and leaves you a scathing review. But this time you have 35 GLOWING reviews already there from patients that are ecstatic with your dentistry. Google knows everyone gets a bad review from time to time, and that 1 negative review gets buried amongst 35 positive ones. Next time a patient searches for you online, chances are they’ll never see the bad one.

“It’s too much work” or “I don’t know how to get started”

If you’ve tried before and found it to be too much work, you probably didn’t have a system in place to automate it. If you have no clue how to get started, don’t worry, we’ll show you.

For beginners, we have a step-by-step guide available at no charge on our website. This 30 page free report “The New Yellowpages” is perfect for those dentists wanting to dive in and get started now.

For those more seasoned dentists looking to supercharge their online reviews and Google Places, grab a copy of my latest book (110pgs) “How to Stay In Front of Your Patients Until They Are Ready to Buy: The Authoritative Guide to Social Media & Drip Marketing for Dentists.” It’s available at no charge from our Facebook page (http://www.whypatientsdontbuy.com).

Keep Moving Forward.

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Legions of “Dental Marketers” Are Getting It All Wrong

Many dental marketing companies are leading their dentist clients to invest their marketing dollars in the hype of Facebook and the glory of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, making the cost of a connection very high and leaving them [the "dental marketers"] as the only one with cash in their pocket when the music stops…

There are ways to reach the prospects YOU want that need treatment in the niches that YOU provide.

Hint: It’s not Facebook or PPC… and here’s why:

Facebook is revolutionary, but in order to “Friend” someone, you have to know them first. Even on your Facebook Business Page, for them to “Like” you, they have to know you. Would you “Friend” or “Like” a complete stranger? Of course you wouldn’t. That’s why Facebook is a FOLLOW-UP medium, a way to keep in touch with patients and prospects that you already know.

Let’s talk about AdWords (Google’s PPC program). AdWords allows you to get your dental practice to the top of the search results by just bidding more than your competitor.

Sounds great, right?

The problem here is two fold:

1) By bidding more, your cost of acquiring a new patient just went through the roof by paying $5, $10, $20 or more just for a single click into your website (do not make the mistake of confusing a “click” with actually getting a “prospect”!!).

With the average “conversion rate” from clicks to prospects being only 3% to 8% (which was great a few years ago when you only paid $0.50 for a click… read #2 to see why), you could be easily paying (and not realizing) $300-$800 PER PROSPECT just to generate leads.

2) PPC was, for years, one of the best kept secrets for lead generation. 5 years.. even 1 to 2 years ago the number of dentists advertising in Google AdWords was, in many local markets, a fraction of what it is now. Since AdWords is a bidding war, more bidders = higher bids = diluted results because more people want “a piece of the pie.”

There are ways to attract qualified patients in the niches that you want to specialize in.

Do you want to know more about successful web marketing? Contact us, we’re here to help.

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Posted in Local Search, Mobile Search, Offline Marketing, Paid Search (SEM), Search Engine Optimization, Social Marketing, Video on the Web, Video Productions, Web Marketing, Web Site Design | Leave a comment

New Dental Marketing Guide Shows Why Eliminating Outdated Marketing is Critical To Stay Profitable in the New Economy

The New YellowPages, released by SmartBox Web Marketing, shows dentists how to find the new patients and cases they are looking for by targeting specific niche’s within their dental practice.

Every month, Google reports many medium sized U.S. cities see 75,000 to 85,000 searches for dentists and dental related keywords!

The effectiveness of your Local Search strategy makes all the difference when it comes to getting your dental practice seen by these potential new patients in Google Places and the local search.

Click here to Download the press release (PDF)

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The Yellowpages is Dead

I came across some very telling numbers in Simba’s Information Industry Forecast today…

Spending in the Yellowpages was down 16.2% in 2010, it’s 3rd consecutive double-digit decline (YP has declined every year since 2003). The 2011 outlook is similarly negative, and they are estimated to be down another 12% to $12.8 billion.

I checked in with Google to get their take on the situation, but they had no comment… I assume they were too busy growing 34% since last year and are on track to a $40 BILLION 2011.

When was the last time you opened the Yellowpages to find something?

Looking for new patients? They are searching online too. We’ve been pioneering the way dentists market themselves on the web for over a decade. Submit your information below and we’ll contact you in 24 hours.

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Google Announces Major Algorithm Change, 35% Affected

Google announced yesterday that they are rolling out a major update to their search engine “algorithm” (the formula they use to calculate your website’s rank) that will make their search results “fresher.”

Last year, we blogged (three times actually) about Google’s changeover to Caffeine, which allows them to update their indexes extremely rapidly, much much faster than in previous years.

Faster is Better (on the web, atleast)

Fresher results means more relevant results. But Caffeine was only an infrastructure change (to make sure Google has the ability to index, crawl and return searches faster). Now Google has changed their search algorithm to show fresher results — fresher than ever before.

35% Of The Searches Have Been Impacted

To put it in perspective, the Panda updates that flipped the net upside down earlier this year only impacted about 12% of the searches… This new Caffeine algorithm update is affecting upwards of 35% of all the searches on Google. While they have different names, Google’s reasoning behind both updates is the same [learn why in my latest free report...].

Why Google, Why?

Google’s self-stated goal is to provide users with the most relevant results and a great user experience.

Delivering the websites that people are searching for faster and better increases user satisfaction and keeps them coming back to Google (Google is on track to make 40 BILLION this year in advertising, up 35% from 2010). Google knows that stale websites don’t make people searching happy, so now they are simply blocking them out.

Why Dentists Needs to Take Notice

No longer is it just enough to have a static “brochure” dental website on the internet. If you plan to dominate your local area and get the lion’s share of new patients, your dental website needs to be a honed and sophisticated sales funnel, turn-key with lots of video, systems to keep in touch with your prospective patients after they leave your website, and most of all – it must have FRESH and RELEVANT content.

The Fall of Boilerplate Websites

If your dental website looks the same as the guy down the road, why would a patient choose you? Maybe now the better question to ask is, why would Google rank you? With Google’s intelligence growing exponentially, it won’t be long until those still hanging onto old (stale) websites & marketing tactics are completely left in the dust…

Avoiding the Google-Slap

There is one “for sure” way to get penalized & de-ranked by Google — and that’s by doing nothing. Google wants fresh, relevant & unique content. So give it to them!!

Download a copy of my latest free report (no games, instant PDF download) and find out what we’re doing with our best dentist clients to keep them at the top of Google. I’ve broken it down (step-by-step with lots of how-to images) into 9 simple tactics to avoid the Google-Slap. You can download it here.

Far too many dentists are waiting until the 3rd story of the house is ablaze and no amount of miracle marketing is going to keep the backdraft from taking them out. Don’t wait until it’s too late to take action…

Update 11/7/11: Google has clarified their initial impact statement and now says “noticeably impacts 6-10% of searches depending on the language and the domain you’re searching on.“

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Local Search Evolved [infographic]

Click to enlarge this infographic

All the credit goes to our friends over at MDG!

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Do You Want Impressions & Clicks or Dollars In Your Pocket?

Some dental marketing firms will tell you about “exposure” and “branding.” Others will talk about “hits” and “clicks.” Still some might even show you “impression” charts and complicated measurements of readership.

Are you marketing for “branding, impressions and exposure,” or are you marketing to bring in the new patients with money to spend?

The downside to all of these is neither tells you EXACTLY how many dollars came back into your pocket.

Last Friday I had several monthly strategy calls with our dentist clients. We embrace phone call tracking with every piece of marketing we do, so naturally they are a hot topic for conversation during these monthly calls.

Here are the results from two practices we’ve been working with for about 4 months. Think about it.. …

Practice 1 – July 1-Sept 31, 2011 189 Phone Calls from Website Only 143 Calls from Newspaper Print Ads	Practice 2 – July 22-Sept 31, 2011 140 Phone Calls from Website Only


Click to enlarge this image Click to enlarge this image	Click to enlarge this image Click to enlarge this image

Interested in getting a landslide of new patients into your dental practice? Send me an email at colin@smartbo

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Posted in Company Announcements, Drip Marketing, Local Search, Mobile Search, Offline Marketing, Paid Search (SEM), Phone Tracking, Search Engine Optimization, Social Marketing, Video on the Web, Video Productions, Web Marketing, Web Site Design | Leave a comment

2 Fresh New Special Reports Due Out in October

With all the game-changing updates Google is making, we’re going to be working overtime to get both these special report updates out ASAP so you can begin taking advantage of the recent changes.

The first special report is “The New YellowPages: How To Get Your Dental Practice Found Online Where 97% Of People Are Searching”

If your dental practice isn’t all over the local search right now, then your competition is – and they’re taking your patients. This new special report will show you, step by step, what you need to be doing with Google Places and the local search so you can get the lion’s share of new patients.

Every month, Google reports many medium sized U.S. cities see 75,000 to 85,000 searches for dentists and dental related keywords! The effectiveness of your Local Search strategy makes all the difference when it comes to getting your dental practice seen by these potential new patients in Google Places and the local search.

The second free report is “The 9 Simple SEO Secrets of Google Panda: How Google’s Paradigm Shift is Affecting Your Rankings”

New patients aren’t to be found only in Google Places… Organic search results still give a great ROI by generating tons of phone calls & new patients. This new free report will arm you with the tools you need to dominate the organic rankings on Google in this new “Panda” world.

SEO, in a nutshell, is presenting your site to search engines in the best possible light. There is no magic road to great search engine optimization… and anyone who tells you differently is simply lying. One key factor to getting good ranking in the search engines is quality content. This new special report will give you all 9 secrets you need to know to survive the Panda.

Both reports will be available for download here next month on our Books & DVD’s page. If you’d like an advance copies, click here to request them.

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Reaching Out to Your Local Community with Video

Television commercials have a habit of staying with us. They can make us fall in love with company mascots, infect our minds with catchy jingles and, most importantly, introduce us to local or national businesses. What if your own dental practice could appear on screens in the homes of those prospective customers you long to reach? Can you imagine the impact a television advert targeted to your local community could have on your business?

Here at SmartBox we have real and extensive experience of putting dentists, just like you, on the map with television commercials. You can take advantage of our expertise; allowing us to put together a creative and powerful commercial for you, while you carry on with what you do best, your dentistry. And what’s more, we won’t just create your advertisement and leave you high and dry. Our marketing experience means we can help you to realize the very best place to launch your commercial, be it online via YouTube, or broadcast onto television sets in your very own city or state.

If the thought of a television commercial advertising you and your very own business excites you, then give us a call right now for more information. We’ll be more than happy to help advise you on this next step for bringing more customers through your front door.

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What is this Web 3.0?

So we all have heard about Web 2.0, but what’s this 3.0 jargon?

Web 3.0 is simply the next “revision” of the internet. But before we jump into that, let’s review what Web 2.0 really “is.”

With more devices than ever getting plugged into the internet, it’s not long before our carton of milk sends us an email notification reminding us it’s almost empty.

Click here to continue reading this article on our website…

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