The Website As A Sales Machine
Getting the Basics Right
Many dentists have now become far more savvy when it comes to promoting the practice and have reaped the many benefits of this approach.
While it is accepted that as Dentists, you are oral health experts, that’s not the same as being an expert marketer and so it is useful that everyone in the industry needs to learn some basics when it comes to winning the new patients.
Every patient is important for your practice and we really can’t afford to be losing any of them.
There are many “Dental Marketing” expert providers to choose from and in a time of social media, it is understood that sites like Instagram & Facebook can provide ample opportunity to showcase your services or products.
Google is still the king of search – However, Google is still the king of search, by a mile and should never be overlooked. It’s where people go to search and also read up on potential providers and so it really should be central to your strategy.
UK Google Search Sample Stats 22nd July 2021
- Dental implants was searched for up to 100, 000 times
- Inivisable braces – up to 10,000
- Invisalign is still an extremely powerful brand with up to 1 million searches in the last 30 days
These stats tell us that to ignore Google, if you are a Dentist looking for new patients is a big mistake.
Getting the Basics Right:
The Website – There are certain basics that the website needs to have. It can be relative to a landing page for a particular service or, indeed, the home page but you do want to try to incorporate some of the following:
Contact Details – Along the top – Whether it’s a phone call or an email/form, you want to have the contact mechanism right at the top, so that it’s easy for them to just click a button on the phone and make that enquiry.
Calls to Action – You will need to include specific call to action indicators. This can be as simple as a “Call Now” button, in red, prompting the patient to pick up the phone
Offers – What is your offer? Dentists, over the years, have become very savvy when it comes to offers. Included with your Invisible braces quote will be a whole host of extras (Free Consultations, 3D simulation scans & X-rays, teeth-whitening kits, among other items. This is a superb way to go. The combined value of the items is often over £1,000.00 & up to £1,500.00. Patients love these free extras and it really does go a long way to demonstrate value for money.
It is crucial to have the offers clearly signposted . Even if it is just a button that says “Over £1,000 worth of extras”. The key is to get this towards the top of the page so that it’s visible early on.
Above the Fold – This means visible on the page BEFORE scrolling down.
This is one of the most overlooked areas of the website and the best way to score fast points. It begins with a simple assumption – people will only look at your website for approx. 2 – 5 seconds before they decide whether or not to stay & read more, or leave & move on to the next one. This means that you have 2 – 5 seconds to convince them to stay and learn more.
According to an article in Hubspot, 55% of web visitors leave your site after 15 seconds.
Therefore, the message is clear – Get Your Key Points, above the fold, preferably in Bullet format. This way, within 2-5 seconds, your key message is seen.
ReachLocal in the USA ran over 33,000 global PPC campaign and getting the bullet points above the fold was one of the key learns. They track conversions against their landing pages and so the numbers are extremely convincing. Just simple bullets detailing your services:
- Dental Implants
- Invisible Braces
- General Dentistry
- Free Consultation
- Implants From Just ****
Get these above the fold & you let your patients know that you can provide the service he/she is looking for, within seconds.
Social Media Icons – Don’t place these at the top of your website. This will be counter-intuitive to many who see this and indeed, you may be surprised but the logic is simple: You work too hard ( and probably spend a lot of money) to get visitors to your site. You want these to be patients and you want them to send an enquiry or book a consultation. If your social media icons are at the very top of your website, then you work hard to get them to your site and within 2-5 seconds, you invite them to leave your site. This is not what you want.
It is accepted that social media is powerful and we all want people to give our Facebook page a like, but that’s not more important than keeping them on your site. The main objective, always, is to turn the click into an enquiry or a consultation so that should be the focus of your landing page, first & foremost.
The social icons can appear a little further down or sensibly, in the signature panel which is where you will usually find them.
A Sample of a Dental Landing Page – (Above the Fold factors only):
Many of the above suggested points are incorporated into the sample below, from the contact number at the top right, to the Offer in red & the bullets above the fold.
What comes next?
The key, once these basics are in place is the marketing. Whether your strategy is search engine optimisation strategy or a more aggressive PPC / Google Ads campaign (which will deliver immediate new patients), or even if you are trying to drive traffic via social media posts, the website or landing page mean very little if the traffic doesn’t naturally follow.
It’s important to remember that getting the website right is only half the battle; the marketing is the other half. However, if you get these basics in place, your website or landing page will be designed with conversion in mind and not just serve as a brochure.
Ask us about Website or Marketing support. We’ve been doing this since 2009 & we can help get you more patients.
Add Call Button Here. Red. Hyperlinked.