Dental Marketing with Blogs: Case Study for Social Media Lead Generation
Richard Geller
January 06, 2008
I run a business that helps attract leads to off-line professionals such as psychologists and dentists. What used to work no longer works on the Internet. I want to discuss what works today and how you can incorporate this information into your present website to get more patients or clients.
I will discuss three factors that can make you successful as a web marketer today. Dental marketing and blogs is a case study -- the principals work for patient generation from the web for any professional practice and many other off-line businesses.
What used to work was creating a website with content and then "search engine optimizing" it. SEO, or search engine optimization, consists of doing things to your "metadata" and organizing your site and using various keywords in certain ways throughout your content.
That no longer works to get you a lot of website visitors.
Today, Google uses universal search and Yahoo and Microsoft are soon to follow. That means that Google shows the results of blogs, videos, and news along with the old-style website search.
Sites that constantly create fresh content in your field will be at the top of Google, at least for awhile. So websites that are static and don't create fresh content all the time sink down lower and lower.
That means today, to get the search engine rankings, you need a constant stream of fresh new content.
Another thing you have to realize that is different today is the prominence of social media sites. Social media or social networking sites include Myspace and Facebook and YouTube, which everyone has heard of. But they include Digg, Zimbio, Reddit, Xanga...I could go on and on.
Most people spend only 1% (or less) of their time on Google. The rest of the time they are hanging out at these social media sites, among other things.
So you need to reach people at the social media sites.
Lastly, you are completely missing the boat if you do not capture people's email and name when they do visit your site. If you don't work very hard to capture their email and name, and then market to them on an ongoing basis, you will waste 98% of your marketing money.
How do you capture emails and names? You offer a freebie such as a free report, CD or DVD. Or less effectively a home study course sent through email. Whatever you offer, this is your chance to work hard to attract a prospective patient, and then market to them.
Many dental patients think about dentistry months before they pull the trigger and actually come into a dentist's chair. If you have been sending that patient emails, you have been building a relationship with that patient so when they are ready, they will think of calling nobody else but you.
You will have to send them blog entries, videos, audios and articles that interest them. You can't be a nuisance to them.
If you set up a blog site, and you promote the blog constantly on social media sites, and capture visitors email and names and then market to this list, you can get a flood of new dental patients to your office. These will be high quality patients that you enjoy working with.
The same principals work for other professions. Today, getting patients or clients from the web no longer means setting up a website that is "optimized". It means having a blog, promoting on the social media sites, and building your own in-house list.
If this interests you, you will want to get a free click here copy of my book, the $59.95 all time bestseller on dental marketing and case acceptance now in it's third edition. And click to get your book and learn more about blogging for dental patients .
I will discuss three factors that can make you successful as a web marketer today. Dental marketing and blogs is a case study -- the principals work for patient generation from the web for any professional practice and many other off-line businesses.
What used to work was creating a website with content and then "search engine optimizing" it. SEO, or search engine optimization, consists of doing things to your "metadata" and organizing your site and using various keywords in certain ways throughout your content.
That no longer works to get you a lot of website visitors.
Today, Google uses universal search and Yahoo and Microsoft are soon to follow. That means that Google shows the results of blogs, videos, and news along with the old-style website search.
Sites that constantly create fresh content in your field will be at the top of Google, at least for awhile. So websites that are static and don't create fresh content all the time sink down lower and lower.
That means today, to get the search engine rankings, you need a constant stream of fresh new content.
Another thing you have to realize that is different today is the prominence of social media sites. Social media or social networking sites include Myspace and Facebook and YouTube, which everyone has heard of. But they include Digg, Zimbio, Reddit, Xanga...I could go on and on.
Most people spend only 1% (or less) of their time on Google. The rest of the time they are hanging out at these social media sites, among other things.
So you need to reach people at the social media sites.
Lastly, you are completely missing the boat if you do not capture people's email and name when they do visit your site. If you don't work very hard to capture their email and name, and then market to them on an ongoing basis, you will waste 98% of your marketing money.
How do you capture emails and names? You offer a freebie such as a free report, CD or DVD. Or less effectively a home study course sent through email. Whatever you offer, this is your chance to work hard to attract a prospective patient, and then market to them.
Many dental patients think about dentistry months before they pull the trigger and actually come into a dentist's chair. If you have been sending that patient emails, you have been building a relationship with that patient so when they are ready, they will think of calling nobody else but you.
You will have to send them blog entries, videos, audios and articles that interest them. You can't be a nuisance to them.
If you set up a blog site, and you promote the blog constantly on social media sites, and capture visitors email and names and then market to this list, you can get a flood of new dental patients to your office. These will be high quality patients that you enjoy working with.
The same principals work for other professions. Today, getting patients or clients from the web no longer means setting up a website that is "optimized". It means having a blog, promoting on the social media sites, and building your own in-house list.
If this interests you, you will want to get a free click here copy of my book, the $59.95 all time bestseller on dental marketing and case acceptance now in it's third edition. And click to get your book and learn more about blogging for dental patients .
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