What Do Dentists Really Want?

Most other marketing firms “just do SEO.” They don’t “get” dentists. The reality is dentists don’t want SEO, they don’t want AdWords, and they really don’t even want a website…

What dentists DO want is qualified patients walking through their front door.

We “get” dentists. We know how they think, what questions they want answers to, and what their hot-buttons are. That’s why our commitment to understand our dentist clients (and prospects) goes way beyond “just doing SEO.”

Our comprehensive approach to marketing isn’t the fastest nor the easiest, but it does yield the best results, bar none. We’ve worked hard to isolate the main questions we’ve been asked over the years, and now we’ve made them available here in a series of short videos!

Got a question not answered here? Ask us, and we’ll answer you with a video.

Our Approach

The “Nitty Gritty”

 The problem most dentists don’t know about that is costing them new patients and cases

One of the biggest myths in dental marketing was that by just building a website, new & qualified patients will flow into their office, like water out of the hose when you turn on the spicket. Some dentists bought templated cookie-cutter websites while others built more customized ones, but regardless, many guys had the mindset of “if you build it they will come”. The reality is, you have less than three seconds to convince your potential patients that your are their best choice and that they should do business with you. The first impression might be your last impression too.

 Why did my old website stop working suddenly?

Google is constantly making changes! From their multiple Panda releases over the past 15 months, to killing off Demandforce in late 2011, they are always changing the game on how to get to the top of their searches. You may have gotten by in the past with a simple website, but with the Panda in town now, without great content, you simply won’t make page 1 on Google. There’s many reasons why your website might have stopped working, but give us a call and let us send you our Website Audit and we’ll show you how to get your website attracting new patients again.

 I am a dentist so why would I need a website?

You can have the best office, staff, equipment and expertise… you might be “Dentist Of The Year” with all of the right credentials and certificates… but if you don’t have the right systems in place to not only ‘be seen’ but also to pre-qualify, follow-up and close the cases, your prospective patients (that you’ve spend lots of time and energy to attract) are not going to buy your services. Once in place though, you can count on your systems to work for you for the rest of your professional career.

 If I start working with you, will you work with my competitor down the road too?

We’ve seen our best results from working with only one doctor per market area and working with them personally. We look for highly motivated dentists who are serious about growing their dental practice by ethically attracting more qualified patients. If that sounds like you, we’d love to chat with you.

 What kind of patients will you help me find?

The first question we ask – What kind of patients are you looking for?
This seems simple, right? You would be amazed how many marketing firms never ask their new clients this. When we’re marketing for our dentist clients, we’re focused on finding patients in the niches that they want to promote. Many other marketing firms do “shotgun” marketing with no pre-qualification that results in no cases closed and a lot of wasted time. My advice is to be sure your marketing is attracting the types of qualified patients you want. Your phone may be ringing but are cases closing? Request our Website Audit and find out if your website is working for you.

 How do you target only the patients I want?

We’ve had many doctors find success by making themselves appear as “The Expert” in a particular niche in which they had specialized training. Even dentists who offer a broad array of services can become “Da Man” or the “Only doctor you should consider for sleep apnea” (for example). In your community, you can be the expert in several different niches if you approach things properly. By being the expert in a particular niche, you can attract the types of patients you want…you know, the ones that are qualified and have money to spend…

 Do you do websites? SEO? Embedded videos? Do you do it all in an integrated fashion?

We’re a full service dental web marketing firm. But our approach is very different from other firms you may have dealt with in the past. I invite you to browse around our website, checkout my books, or give us a call to learn more.

 What do you do for dentists that’s different than everyone else?

#1 We have a scheduled monthly strategy phone call to review your marketing efforts. During your monthly strategy calls, we will review your stats, efforts, as well as other success factors, such as your staff’s phone training, your sales funnel, any special offers you are running, among others

#2 We request your Return on Investment (ROI) stats monthly for both your online and offline marketing. This allows us to not only optimize your marketing by how many phone calls you received, but also by actual dollars generated. The synergism between your newspaper ads, radio or TV Advertising and your online presence is essential to your success. We can help you fit the puzzle together.

#3 Use our Zetetics Phone Tracking in all your marketing to track and record all of your leads. By tracking your phone calls and $$$ generated, we can show you with precision exactly what works (and what doesn’t). You can use our phone recordings to train your staff. Many doctors are surprised to hear us say that most offices need weekly phone training to “stay on top” of the correct way to manage patients into your sales funnel.

#4 We will make suggestions for improving your total marketing efforts. Whether on the web, in the postal mail, on the phone, or in your office, your success is our primary goal. We will be there to guide you every step of the way. Implementing our suggestions (and we’ll help you) is critical to your success.

 How much do you cost? Can I afford you?

I personally feel like all of our packages are priced very aggressively and they are a tremendous value for everything we include. Unlike many other marketing firms, our marketing packages are comprehensive and cover every aspect of web marketing you need to be successful. Our goal for our dentist clients is that they will absolutely dominate their market area and become the expert in their niches… and to do this you need to be seen everywhere online. A patient looking for a prophy has a very low barrier of entry… but a patient that is looking to lay down 20k for a full mouth rehab or cosmetic case is going to fully examine all their options, checkout all of your competition, and they will want to know that the dentist they select is the “brain surgeon” for their needs — not a “general MD.” You must have the correct systems in place to not only attract, but also pre-qualify and close the cases… and our marketing systems contain the 4 elements you need to succeed online: Visibility, Pre-Qualification, Follow-Up and Tracking. Many other marketing firms only give you the first element: visibility! Email me to get my Website Audit and you’ll be able to decode your marketing firm’s results and find out what they are REALLY doing for you.

 What guarantee do you offer with your marketing systems?

We want to be partners in your success. We are so confident in our ability to make you money that we are willing to put part of our fee “on the line.” No one else in the industry is willing to risk part of their fee on your results. After 6 months of your marketing campaign, if you aren’t ecstatic about what we’ve done for you and you’ve kept the terms of our guarantee, simply give me a call. We’ll send you a check and help you transfer your website and videos to a provider of your choosing, all with a smile. Ask us for details.

 What guarantee do you offer with your products, books and dvd’s?

We offer an unconditional 60 day refund on all of our products. This means that if you don’t feel like the product you bought was worth double what you paid, just give us a call and we’ll refund your money with no hassles.

 What do you consider “successful”?

Many other marketing firms will tell you about how many clicks and hits your website got. Some others may even have the technology to show you how many phone calls you received. But are these phone calls pre-qualified, or are they wasting your (and your staff’s) time? Are they accepting treatment, or are they dead-ends? Dental marketing isn’t about “branding” or “impressions”, It’s about putting qualified patients in your chair that accept treatment. “Hits and clicks” on your website and Facebook simply do not do that. Your dental marketing firm should be showing you exactly how many dollars you are spending monthly and how many dollars you are generating (ROI). If you don’t know exactly what your ROI is, how do you know how well your marketing plan is working? We provide all our dentist clients with our industry leading phone tracking system, Zetetics™, which allows us to give our customers an exact ROI for every marketing project they implement. This allows us to track not only the phone calls that all our marketing generates, but consults scheduled, treatment plans presented, which patients move forward with case acceptance, and real dollars generated into their bank accounts. Request our Website Audit and find out what your dental marketing is doing for you.

 I’m not sure I’ll look good on camera, what are my options?

I know how you feel. Frankly I feel the same way about being on camera, and we’ve had many dentist clients that have felt this way too. What we’ve found is that while we have spokesmodels available to speak for you, we get the best results having the doctor himself on camera. If you’re hesitant about being on camera or have had a bad experience in the past, I invite you to call us and discuss your options. Many times after a video session our dentist clients mention they “forgot the camera was even there.” We can make the experience completely pain-free… without even using nitrous oxide.

 How long will it take to get my website and marketing up and running?

There are many different “moving parts” that we’re launching with your marketing campaign. From pay-per-click to SEO, Local search to social media, website to video production.. different pieces of the puzzle have different timelines to launch. Some of them, such as video productions, have scheduling considerations to take into account. Once we begin your marketing campaign, we’ll be able to give you a guaranteed launch date for your entire campaign.

 What does my staff and I need to do?

After completing the partnership and payment information, the absolute first step is to have a conference call with you and your key staff members to review our timeline and set expectations. We’ll give you a list of the information we need, and we’ll begin laying the foundation for your videos, website, social media, and other marketing materials. We find that the doctors that have a high involvement in the crafting of their marketing and message have very high success rates, and we strongly encourage it.

 How long have you been working with dentists?

The truth is, we never intended to work with dentists. Well, not exclusively anyway. Our first dentist client & my father, Dr. Ron Receveur signed on with us to design his first website in 1997. Unfortunately much of the technology available nowadays wasn’t even conceived in 1997, leaving us very limited on how to capitalize with this new advertising medium. After incorporating in 2001, we brought on dozens of local small businesses needing web design and marketing help around the Louisville, Kentucky area. Looking around, we saw the Yellow Pages being very expensive, Radio & TV were just out of reach for most business owners… and we just had a gut feeling that this “Internet thing” had real potential. As time went on we attracted more dentists in need of a big marketing boost, we immediately took note of how little dentists were leveraging the available technology on the web. Most had nothing more than an “online brochure.”

 Do you work with existing websites? Do you transfer domains?

We handle existing websites on a case by case basis, we’re always glad to look over what you have and discuss your options with you. Give us a call to see how we can help you.

 Do you create new content for my website?

We can craft your new unique content and video to fit your practice and your core message. Whether you’re a dentist wanting to focus on implants, sedation, holistic, perio, cosmetics, etc- we can craft your marketing to attract the types of patients that you want.

 Do I own my website after you design it?

We don’t play the “hold onto your keys” game when you work with us. All of our clients are free to transfer their websites to any other provider, should they decide we’re not the best marketing firm out there for them.

 How long does SEO take?

Traditional organic natural search engine optimization generally takes about 2-3 months to begin seeing results, and within 4-8 months it’s “full steam ahead.” It depends on the amount of competition in your area. Local search optimization is much faster, and of course AdWords or pay-per-click services are instant results.

 Do I need to submit my site to the search engines?

The “add your website” forms that Google, Yahoo, and other provide are worthless and really do nothing. Without optimizing your site and forcing the Google “spiders” (because they “crawl” the web investigating what is contained on every website) to index your site, you will never appear where you need or want to be.

 Can I have more than one web address?

Absolutely. Some of our advanced SEO tactics use “mini-sites” based on specific niche areas of dentistry like dental implants, IV sedation, cosmetics, dentures, etc. which absolutely flood the search engine results with your dental practice. Google will limit how many results it will show for each domain you own, so if you want more than 2 positions, you need more than 1 domain. This is an advanced strategy that literally no one else out there is providing in the dental marketing world.

 Is Google AdWords worth paying for?

We hear from someone at least once a week “I never click on those sponsored listings and don’t know anyone that does” You might not be clicking, but thousands of other dental patients are. Some patients will only click on ads, others will only click on the free listings. If you ignore one or the other, you are losing out. Our dentist clients consistently show very large cases coming to their dental practice from just AdWords, so it’s a smart strategy to include for your dental marketing plan.