More Stuff About Mobile 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?

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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

Social Media Marketing: What Really Matters

What Do Patients REALLY “Click” On Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn & Twitter?

Many dental marketing firms out there make social media marketing seem like “rocket science,” and are leading their dentist clients to invest their marketing dollars in the hype of Social Media, leaving them [the "dental marketers"] as the only one with cash in their pocket when the music stops…

And Here’s Why:

Facebook is a FOLLOW-UP Medium… a way to keep in touch with patients and prospects that you already know.

So Where Should You Focus Your Time?

EyeTrackShop just completed an eye tracking study of people browsing various social sites. Why does this matter? Because it definitively shows you exactly where your prospective patients are looking. And where people are looking is where you want to be…

Here’s What Really Matters to Dentists in the Social Media Arena

1. Profile pictures matter, and attracted the most attention on Facebook.

You can see clearly (right image) the main focus of where your patients are looking is on your profile picture and your most recent status update. Notice the LAST advertising position gets more eye-views than the top position. In the left image, take notice of the path their eyes follow.

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2. Job title garnered more attention than profile photo on LinkedIn.

In fact, it got more attention than anything else on the page.

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3. Who you know does matter.

People always look at those little thumbnails of friends that appear on many social profiles. You can see this in the data from the Facebook, Twitter, & Google+ profiles.

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4. Content is still king.

The further your posts are down the page, the (exponentially) fewer number of people look at it.

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How to Stay In Front of Your Patients Until They Are Ready to Buy

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How to Leverage Social Media Marketing
To Find More Qualified New Patients?

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Big thanks goes to our friends at EyeTrackShop for putting this eye-tracking study together.

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Posted in Drip Marketing, Mobile Search, Social Marketing, Web Marketing | Tagged mobile marketing dentists, social media dentists, social media marketing | Leave a comment

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

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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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

You Have 3 Seconds to Convince 50% of Your Patients

Your prospective patients are busy people. They are looking for the information that they need and a service that will provide for their problems, and they don’t want to spend all day finding it! Recent studies have shown that an average of 50% of your website visitors will leave your website within 3 seconds unless you can provide them with a compelling reason to remain.

How much money are you investing into promoting your dental website? SEO services? Local search? Pay-Per-Click advertising? 50% of your marketing budget is being wasted if your website can’t make that all important first impression.

Consider the Expression ‘Surf the Web’

Today’s internet population doesn’t tend to stay on one website for a long time – instead they jump from page to page, moving on until they find something that’s interesting and attention grabbing. And even if you do catch the attention of a prospective patient, if they can’t find the information they want they will still leave your pages within seconds.

This is a problem faced by dental practices across the globe, but fortunately there are three steps that you can take to maximize the potential of your website.

Capture Your Audience with a Strong Headline

Your headline could be the one piece of content on your website that makes your visitors decide whether to stay with you or move on. The usual ‘Welcome to our website’ might look polite, but does it provide a potential patient with a reason to read on?

Do you even have a headline? If not, now is the time to think about how to capture your prospects attention with one line of text.

Why would your headline entice a reader to keep reading? Incorporate a strong reason into the text to lure them into your content.

Could a visitor leave your website without regretting it? Make sure they know that you have something important to say, and that they will miss out if they leave without learning more.

A headline is such a simple and powerful tool, but it is one that many websites get wrong.

Keep Your Audience with Compelling Content

When it comes to the internet, Content is King. And no, we’re not talking about content written for search engines, but content written for the real human beings that want to learn more about you and what you do.

Search engines today are incredibly sophisticated. They will rank your website high in their results should your visitors remain on your site to read it.

Step into the Shoes of Your Future Patients

If you are concerned that your content and headlines aren’t delivering the results that they should, then your first step is simply to put yourself in the shoes of your patients.

Think what you would like to see if you were suffering from a dental malady. Think of the fear that could keep them from making an appointment. Think of the problems that plague them. Think of the issues that keep them from falling asleep at night. By addressing these points in your headlines and content, you can be confident of increasing the amount of time these visitors spend on your web pages.

You might run the best practice with the best training and offer the best service around, but if a patient can’t find the information that they need, they will keep looking for another dentist.

I challenge you to load up your website and imagine that you yourself were a patient, looking for a particular treatment.

Would you stay on your own site for longer than 3 seconds?

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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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These Four Questions Will Make or Break Your Website

We all want our web sites to work perfectly every time. But there are some questions you need to ask a prospective Web developer before signing up with them. First, you want to know what Web standards they use, so you know your web site will grow as technology grows. Make sure your web site is designed with search engine optimization as a forethought, not an afterthought.. Make sure your Web developer tests your web site across multiple browsers and multiple versions so your web site always displays correctly no matter what your visitor uses. And, finally, learn how your Web developer handles problems with your web site. You should demand stellar customer service because, after all, this is your business. Give us a call to see how we can make your web site the best it can be.

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AOL Keyword: SmartBox

Staying on top of current internet trends and marketing tactics, we’re excited to announce that we’re now easily found via AOL Keyword SmartBox!

Wait. Stop. Hold up. This is 2011, not 1999.

At one point, this was THE linchpin in EVERY successful internet marketer’s play book. Nowadays, I don’t even know anyone who uses AOL, let alone their keywords.

Although a very dramatic example of a change in marketing tactics, trends and algorithms are in a constant state of flux these days. If you’re still handling your web marketing like you did in 2005, or even 2010, you will be left behind very quickly.

Google’s major December 2010 update, dubbed “Panda,” has completely changed the game (and continues to). No longer is it good enough to just throw up a website with good content. You must update your site regularly with unique & compelling content, you must have video, and you must be mobile.

The early adopters in any marketing trend – be it AOL keywords, Overture, AdWords, Local Search, Video SEO, or Mobile Marketing – always have a leg up on the rest of the herd (who eternally play catch-up).

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Does Your Practice Need a Mobile App or Website?

Click the image to enlarge

Credit: Mashable

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Online Marketing: A Vital Tool for Ailing Traffic

Let’s face it: without a website, your company is all but invisible. However, just having a website is not going to boost your success alone. You need to have visitors – traffic coming to your website from different locations on the Internet (search engines, social networks, PPC ads, etc.). Generating that traffic is no mean feat, either. While you might think that getting a quality website up and running is all that you need to do to start benefiting from this technology, there’s much more to it than that. Online marketing is the answer.

What Is Online Marketing?

There are many different aspects of online marketing, all of which fit together to create a seamless whole, much like the pieces of a puzzle. If you’re missing any of these vital pieces, you won’t have the whole picture, or in this case, the traffic that you need for the best ROI and profitability.

Search engine optimization is one of the most important parts of online marketing, and is able to turn your website into a magnet for customers through natural search results. No matter what else you do, optimizing your site with keywords and phrases is essential.

Social media marketing, or SMM, is also a vital consideration. As more and more people begin using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks, having a presence here becomes more and more important.

Blogging is another part of online marketing, and allows you to create a more relaxed, personal face for your practice. Through your blog, you can make patients and other professionals aware of things that are going on in your own practice, talk about changes in the industry, explain processes and procedures, and more.

Online video is another biggie – it’s a real powerhouse for marketing, and can generate major traffic (and vital conversions). Online video is a tremendous tool for highlighting expertise, and explaining products or techniques to prospective patients. Online video can also be embedded in your site, your social network pages and in your blog, too, boosting your return on investment.

Online Marketing Is No Silver Bullet

Many dentists are under the impression that search engine optimization, social media marketing and other marketing tools will change their traffic flow immediately. However, this is not the case. A good online marketing plan needs to comprise methods for both short-term and long-term success. PPC campaigns are good ways to boost immediate traffic, but will not offer long-term benefits. Search engine optimization is a great option for long-term success, but will not change your traffic flow and profitability overnight.

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Factors in Mobile Web Design

Actually, it’s not as complicated as it seems. The most important thing that you need to remember is that screen sizes are very different with mobile devices. While a patient browsing your dental office website from a computer will be able to see your full design, those on mobile devices will not. Rather than forcing them to scroll up and down, or side to side, mobile design gives them an experience that fits their screen.

Another important consideration with mobile access is that the technology used in the site design fit the capabilities of the devices used to access your site. That’s a complicated way of saying, “Mobile devices have unique capabilities – take advantage of them.” One of these capabilities is click-to-call, which allows mobile browsers to click your practice’s phone number and instantly make a call.

That’s a powerful tool, and one that your practice needs in order to be competitive in this modern marketplace. Another similar capability is click-to-email, and you should also make certain that you have online mapping technology implemented. This allows your patients to find your office with a single touch of their screen.

So what the trend towards mobile mean for your practice?

It means that if you are not capable of delivering a website designed for mobile browsers, your patients will go elsewhere. It’s a lot like being invisible – if they cannot find you, they cannot choose you from other options.

Once upon a time, accessing the Internet meant using a computer. Desktop and laptop computers reigned supreme. However, that’s no longer true. Take a look out in your waiting room at any given moment in the day and chances are good that you’ll see several patients browsing the World Wide Web, but they’ll be doing so on mobile devices – smartphones, androids, iPhones, tablets and the like.

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