In a 2014 study commissioned by Brand Science and Microsoft, the study shows that not only does online advertising deliver excellent ROI efficiency, but it also provides extra value to your other spend in the media. Can be read here [PDF].

In basic terms the report shows that the difference in ROI is striking when a campaign has an online element against those that do not have any online element. When online advertising is added into the mix, the return on investment is much improved.

From a dental point of view, this means that when a brand sponsors an event or runs a conference for their clients, the marketing campaign needs to cover all mediums.

Over recent years, this is the way the online marketing world has evolved. Brands within dentistry have been hesitant to spend all their budget on online marketing but will often use some of their budget online, to compliment campaigns in magazines, events they are hosting or to promote attendance at an exhibition.

Businesses can see that they need coverage across all mediums, their customers are constantly using and sharing digital content and therefore digital is becoming as important as non-digital channels when looking to achieve maximum ROI on their marketing spend.

Therefore, digital is certainly important in the marketing cycle and plays a part in helping produce results from non-digital media channels. This is another reason that online marketing is here to stay. 

So, did you do anything special for World Play Your Ukelele Day? Lame Duck Day? Wave All Your Fingers at Your Neighbours Day? No, we’re not kidding - these are all ‘special days’ that were celebrated last month. You may think it’s all getting a bit much, with several special calls to action competing for every single day of the year. But we’d ask you to think again, because the flip side is that these are all opportunities for your marketing to take a free ride on social media.

Step out of your dental scrubs for a minute and see things from your patients’ perspective. Most of them are logging on and off social media pretty much all day long. And the posts they’re sharing are the ones that catch their imagination, which probably doesn’t include your strict reminder to floss twice daily. So how do you grab their interest? Have fun and be engaging. Choose a few special occasion days and tie them into your practice, making them highly shareable, whilst still working for you.

An example? 2^nd March was National Old Stuff Day, so why not ask your followers what they’re planning to recycle or throw out and, at the same time, remind them to replace their old toothbrush? 2^nd March was also National Book Day, a perfect time to ask your patients who their favourite fictional dentist is (and remind them to ‘like’ and ‘share’ if YOU are their favourite real dentist)! Anything that gets them to engage with you and, ideally, share your post, is marketing gold. Your posts will be seen by not only your followers, but everyone searching for the associated hashtag. And, best of all, it’s free.

Oh and don’t forget the special weeks and months too! Most, if not all, are conveniently indexed on https://www.awarenessdays.co.uk (for more serious causes) and https://www.daysoftheyear.com (for the more whimsical) so why not put a few on your social media calendar and ride those hashtags to success?

And if you don’t have time for such shenanigans, don’t worry - we have two dedicated social media gurus on staff whose job it is to post fun and engaging content for you (yes, they do love their work). So give us a call on 01844 292086, visit our website (link to https://milkshakedental.co.uk) or connect with us on social media (@MilkshakeDental) and we’ll soon have you participating in Quirky Country Music Song Titles Day on 27^th March (just joking)!

The image above greeted me this morning in an email from Google. The email read “With last week's announcement of YouTube TV, the lines between TV and online video continue to blur.”

Read more here. I thought this was perfectly linked to part 8 of the blog on Reach and how attracting interest in your product or service needs to incorporate so many different mediums to be effective. 

So according to Google, people are watching less live TV and turning to their computers, smartphones or tablets for their favorite shows, music, and to access their news.

Marketing professionals therefore need to make sure that they are staying in front of their customers and tracking their behaviour. So as all the latest stats suggest, your customers are online, so you should be too, and sooner rather than later!

Moving online gives you access to a global audience (if that is your target) and it means your ads can be working for you 24 hours a day. The options are practically limitless when it comes to your reach capabilities when you take your campaign online.

This means that your reach increases dramatically once you start the online advertising journey, as discussed previously you have a lot more control over your ads and they are building up impressions and clicks 24 hours a day, reaching unique 

Online advertising enables you to promote your products and services locally, or even worldwide. With the print media you can only reach fix number of customers limited to a certain location, but online offers you a global opportunity and certainly a larger number of options than has ever been possible before.

So with a modern marketing plan, your reach can be greater than ever before. Your online advertising plan can incorporate social media, video, blogs, plus of course specialist sites for your particular niche. Utilising all these methods of retargeting, means you can reach your target audience a number of times a month and hopefully get your message across to your desired audience.

Thanks for reading.

Part 7 on Affordability Here.

In part 5 of the blog series, we are looking at brand awareness and its part in the online advertising journey.

Online advertising can be used to drive traffic to your site and build brand awareness. Effectively targeted campaigns can create brand influencers and reach complementary audiences.

The online space that gets booked, helps to establish your online presence, and get your potential customers / consumers excited and interested about who you are and what you have to offer. As mentioned in previous blogs, online advertising enables brands to focus on their ideal audience and tailor messages that improve both recall and engagement with the brand.

To be easily recognisable has to be the aim for every brand within their sector, which then builds your brand awareness. Creating brand awareness is one of the key steps in promoting a product. Brand awareness is particularly important when launching new products and services; and for a company to differentiate similar products and services from its competitors.

So using online advertising can be part of building brand awareness and making your target audience more aware of your brand. The more aware your audience are of your brand, the easier it is to convert the awareness into sales.

What options do we have available to create and improve brand awareness?

• Traditional advertising
• Online Advertising
• Sponsoring an event.
• Publicity stunt
• Word of mouth
• Reviews / testimonials
• Content / Blogs

So as you can see when building a brand, we have a number of options to play with but  what is the role of online advertising?

Online advertising plays a critical role in brand management and awareness whether at the corporate, retail or product level. With the help of advertising you can increase your brand's value and then it helps you to gain the new customers that we all look for :)

The end goal of any online advertising is to eventually convert all leads that you gather to actual sales. Whether it be an awareness or educational campaign, all businesses engage in advertising to ultimately generate sales! By creating a strong presence online, with whatever medium you choose, your investment in advertising and marketing will produce results and ultimately bring the extra revenue we all strive for.

So online advertising becomes a major part of building a brand and brand awareness. Online needs to be taken as seriously as the other more traditional mediums in helping to build that ultimate goal we all share of making your brand synonymous with the product or service you offer.

Thanks for reading part 5.

Looking for innovative and practical marketing ideas? Need inspiration?

7connections could have the answers you’re looking for. With a variety of different avenues from online marketing, patient relationships and referrals, to branding and social media, 7connectinos can help your practice grow and bloom. 

Throughout the year the 7connections coaches host and attend a number of essential educational events, where delegates can learn how to enhance their practice, reach more patients and streamline their business.

Aaron Ferguson from West-End Dental in Colwyn Bay attended the recent 7connections Marketing Roadshow, he says:

“What’s exciting is the fact that 7connections can add so much more to the software and solutions that are available. I would thoroughly recommend that you give them a call.”

If your practice is in need of fresh ideas and inspiration, make sure your explore the options available from 7connections.

For more information about 7connections, please call 01647 478145 or email pThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Alternatively, please visit www.7connections.com.

Gone are the days when a website that simply listed your products or services was adequate. Now, with rapidly developing technology, digital advertising and social media you can create an online interactive presence to connect with your existing patients, while also attracting new people to your practice. But what is the best way to boost traffic to your website and convert leads into customers?
 

Until recently, patient use of the internet involved the major search engines, such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. However, now Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have become search engines in their own right[1]. Competition for website surfers looking for information has therefore increased and consumers now have choices they did not have a few years ago. As the online arena becomes more flooded with commerce, buyers have the desire and ability to become familiar with a brand before they purchase. This is changing online buying behaviour and people are opting for two, three or four lead magnets before buying.
 

Traffic platforms are also changing and becoming overcrowded. Take Facebook as an example – previously you could send Facebook traffic to a squeeze page with just a headline and an opt in box, but now it is becoming increasingly strict with what kind of landing pages it allows traffic to be directed to.
 

This crowding of traffic has also caused people to become highly adept at ignoring advertising in all its forms – TV commercials are skipped and emails from unknown senders are left unopened. So although there are various options available to buy advertising, this alone is no longer an effective option for driving traffic to your website. Instead you have to earn traffic by creating valuable content that attracts visitors. Through the development of informative content, you can encourage leads to your site. Reports or webinars, for example, on the latest treatments and oral healthcare advice will engage patients and create interest. More importantly, this information will also allow you to develop a trusted relationship with individuals.
 

Building your content library one piece at a time is an ideal way to start, as this will ensure you have new and interesting topics for patients and potential patients to read and engage with regularly. These could include blog posts, videos, case studies, reports and webinars, and before you know it, you will have a substantial source of work that will help raise the profile of your practice and generate new leads.
 

Having a well-thought-out marketing system in place, such as AIM – Automated Intelligent Marketing – will then allow you to target the information to the correct patients successfully. Developed by 7connections, AIM utilises the lifecycle marketing concept to effectively target communication and create smarter lead management, resulting in enhanced lead conversion rates, increased sales and greater profits.
 

There are many ways to enhance traffic to your website, however just investing time and money on advertising without a clear and structured plan will result in a number of missed opportunities. Developing quality content and then marketing it through an effective proven system will ensure leads are created and converted and patients retained.

For more information about 7connections, please call 01647 478145 or email pThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Alternatively, please visit the new website www.7connections.com.

As with any business, it is essential to have a well-thought-out marketing plan that will allow you to attract, capture and retain patients. Customer value optimisation (CVO) is one system that can be applied to dental practices to aid success. Consisting of seven steps, it can significantly simplify the process and help your practice to grow and prosper.

Step 1: Determine product/ market fit

Dentistry is a well-established sector that will continually be required by patients of all ages. However, it is important to choose the correct product or service for the market. If, for example, you are looking to offer a new orthodontic product or service in your practice, it is worth researching whether the market for the product will be sustainable.

Step 2: Choose a traffic source

Attracting interest from potential patients online will greatly optimise your chances of acquiring new clients, selling more products and services and increasing the frequency of sales.

With a number of options to choose from, it is best to focus on one traffic source, then once mastered add a second and third. The goal throughout is to drive prospects into the CVO funnel. This begins with the lead magnet.

Step 3: Offer a lead magnet

The lead magnet prompts a transaction of information by offering an irresistible bribe that gives a specific chunk of value to a prospect patient in exchange for their contact information. With the lead magnet at the very top of the CVO funnel, increasing opt-ins here will pay dividends throughout the rest of the system and allow you to provide more tripwire offers.

Step 4: Offer a tripwire

Tripwire offers are made to potential patients that have displayed interest through the lead magnet. The main aim of a tripwire is to change the relationship from prospect to customer through offers that individuals are unable to resist.

Step 5: Offer a core product

The core offer relates to your flagship product or service, perhaps implants, orthodontic or whitening treatment. In some cases, the core offer will be profitable, but it does not have to be. If you follow through on the CVO process, you could take everything you make from the core offer and reinvest it to acquire more patients.

Step 6: Offer a profit maximiser

The profit maximiser increases the average transaction value per customer. Through an upsell or cross-sell, patients will spend more during one transaction.

Step 7: Create the return path

The final way to grow your practice is to increase the number of transactions per customer. Having gained their contact information through the initial lead magnet, you will have the ability to continue marketing, offering them new lead magnets, tripwires, core offers and profit maximisers.

Effective email marketing is one way to maintain communication with patients and increase transaction frequency. The experts at 7connections have recently developed AIM – Automated Intelligent Marketing – specifically for small dental practices. Based on proven strategies, such as CVO, AIM can help your practice to reap the rewards of a clear and well-thought-out marketing plan.

Successful marketing systems can enhance a business and allow you to make the most of opportunities. Increase patient numbers, enhance the average transaction value per client and raise the number of transactions per patient with a well-thought-out marketing solution.

For more information about 7connections, please call 01647 478145 or email pThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Alternatively, please visit the new website www.7connections.com.

Search Engine Optimisation (part one)

Using search engine optimisation

NEIL SANDERSON DENTAL MARKETING EXPERT

You are probably aware that Google now gives the top three search results to it’s paid advertising e.g. pay per click or Google Adwords. This is without doubt the most effective and quickest way to get your website to the top of Google’s rankings.

However there is also a case to be made for being near the top of the rankings organically or free listings. Some people just prefer to click on the free area rather than clicking on an advert. So whilst I would always advocate using Google Adwords as your first choice, I’d like to talk a little about search engine optimisation.

Search engine optimisation is effectively trying to make your website rank towards the top of Google’s listings. You must remember that fourth place is probably the best you will ever get because of the pay per click.

But if you can get yourself to position four of five it’s certainly better than being on page two. So  what do you need to do?

Search Engine Optimisation must do’s

1. Video You must have video on your website, this is now crucial. Not only does video move you up the rankings but it also is a brilliant tool for keeping people on your page and remember to make your video autoplay. Ideally the video should be on either YouTube or Vimeo with a link to you website rather than being embedded in your site.
2. Blog Write a regular blog, between 300-500 words. A blog is also extremely effective in influencing Google, make sure you put lots of links back to your website into the blog and also have outbound links. you also need to optimise any images you put into your blog. You also need to think of the keywords you are trying to influence Google with.
3. Google local business. This is an area often overlooked by most practices but is highly effective at getting you up the local rankings. Put as much content into this area including video, images, your opening times, any special offers, in fact as much as possible. Then get as many reviews from your patients as possible.
4. Metatags These are the short descriptions you see when you search for something and are presented with the listings, ensure that these are relevant and have your key words in them.
5. Links. If you have any links in you page ensure that they still work, Google will check for broken links, if you have lots they will mark your site down.
6. Navigation Analysis ensure that your site has good navigation and all links within the site work.
7. URL names ensure that your URL (the name of the page) is relevant and has your key words in it.
8. Content Change you need to make sure that your content changes regularly, Google doesn’t like static sites, it wants to see things changing regularly, just as you update your Social Media ensure that you regularly update your website too.

I’ll go through some of the other SEO tactics in later posts, but if you start to adopt these you should see your rankings improve, although this isn’t guaranteed and you are at the mercy of Google. As I said earlier, the only tried and tested way to get your site to the top of the listings is to advertise with Google.
 

If you would like help with your digital marketing, call me on 01767 626 398 or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit my website www.dentalmarketingexpert.co.uk Facebook page

Mobilegeddon

From the 21st April Mobilegeddon happens, you need to act now
 

For some time now I’ve been banging on about how your website should be mobile ready because 60% of all search is now carried out on mobile devices and you should have your website ready for these visitors.

Well things are just about the heat up even more. Google have announced major changes to their algorithms, (the industry is calling this Mobilegeddon that will do two things.

1. They are going to tag all websites in the search listing that are mobile ready.
2. They will lower your ranking if your site isn’t mobile ready.

The marketing press have been full of this, Read This Article. So just what does this mean to you as a dental practice? Well basically everything. As I have mentioned on many occasions 60% of all search is not done on mobile devices. This means that if your site isn’t mobile ready, people searching for you will probably never see your site listed.

But and it’s a big but, if your site is actually found by someone who is searching for you, your listing will not have the Google mobile stamp of approval so they may well decide not to bother with your site.

This Google update is not some small thing that they will roll out as they have been doing over the last two years with most people not noticing, this is a major deal for Google, (Mobilegeddon), this is why they have been flagging this up for some time.

So what do you need to do to ensure that your website is mobile friendly and you won’t fall foul of Mobilegeddon?

1. Ensure the mobile version of your site is active and functional. Responsive designs are the most popular, these are the one’s that we supply, but you can also have a separate hosted mobile version of your site. Google doesn’t have a preference, as long as mobile users’ experience isn’t interrupted.
2. Ensure Google’s mobile bots can crawl your site. If Google can’t see it, it may as well not even be there.
3. Check each individual page of your site on a mobile device to ensure navigability. Just because your home page is mobile friendly doesn’t mean the rest of your site is.

In addition Google are offering you a new tool to test your website, click here to check your website and ensure that it is mobile ready, this tool is completely free and safe, it will give you all the information you need to ensure your site is mobile ready.

Incidentally Google are also checking to see if you have a mobile app too, and again if you pass this test they will rank you higher than if you don’t so you might want to think about getting yourself a mobile for the practice (we sell these too) click here to see how our Mobile App can build your practice, it’s been designed specifically for dental practices.

We are now very busy converting many websites to make them mobile ready, if you would like us to give you a quote on making your website mobile ready, call us today on 01767 626 398 or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit the website www.dentalmarketingexpert.co.uk or check out our Facebook page.

The Company

At Wimbledon Clinics we were the first multidisciplinary clinic providing sports medicine and othopaedics in London and the South of England. Our team of orthopaedic consultants specialise in back and neck, foot and ankle, hip and groin, knee, and shoulder pain and we offer a range of solutions and options for treatment. Our goal is to provide exceptional care that focuses on the patient’s need by providing a strong non-operative care pathway alongside surgical excellence when required. Our patients know that they will not be over-treated or operated upon without appropriate trial of non-operatvie care.

The Challenge

We initially approached 7Connections as we were looking to attract new patients, and improve efficiency across the clinic. Our biggest challenge was that the principles were generating 60% of the turnover and we wanted to attract increased numbers of patients for the other specialties to even out the figures. Therefore the focus was on establishing a plan to generate direct referrals from marketing, additional revenue streams and recruitment of further associates.

The Solution

To do this first required restructuring our front of house and back office management processes. We started working with 7Connections, specifically with Tim Caudrelier, who has helped us immensely with the restructure of the team. This has delivered great results as the productivity and culture in the office has been significantly enriched. This has in turn had a positive impact upon the engagement of associates and the benefits can been seen across the clinic.

We also switched the vehicle from a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) to a Limited company to better allow us to offer minority shares as part of our succession plan. Our finance reporting was then adapted to include monthly EBITDA and forecasting in addition to monthly budgeting, this has allowed a far greater perspective on our continuing progress.

We have also implemented a range of new internal systems, have out sourced our finances (bar day-to-day invoicing and debt collection), and are now in a position to measure and track our new marketing programme, which we have just begun rolling out. The service we received from 7Connections has facilitated the smooth nature of these transitions, and we have found that Tim has been available for calls, emails and meetings and has really gone above and beyond our expectations in the asistance he provided. What’s more, we have now also just completed our first marketing sequences with Jon Barrow and hope to see results from that very soon too.

Results

Having made the changes and followed the advice given, we have managed to get to within a few thousand of our end of year forecast, which proves how robust the changes have been. We have also vastly improved our ‘referrer nurture’ program which has seen an increase in referrals from those we engaged with.

Overall, the restructure has allowed us to trim costs and we have seen a 35% growth over the last year, the vast majority of this was for the associates not the two principle shareholders.

For more information about 7connections, please call 01647 478145 or email pThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Alternatively, please visit www.7connections.com.

The marketing options available to the dental practice vary widely, with differing target audiences, messaging opportunities and costs. Private practices in particular strive to attract new patients and maintain the existing patient-base to ensure a high chair occupancy, which will help the business to thrive. Importantly, a practice wishes to minimise the limited resource that they have on marketing activities in order to maximise investment in materials and equipment and improve the clinical care that they provide to patients. Careful consideration must be given to the allocation of budget, meaning that innovative marketing solutions need to be created.

The digital age has delivered a new, more cost-effective marketing channel to the general dental practice, but it can be resource draining in other ways. Search engine optimisation (SEO), social media platform updates and advertisements on complimentary web sites have their obvious benefits, but to truly optimize the practice’s presence takes commitment. Websites and social media platforms need to be updated frequently to improve SEO and so sporadic participation will not help achieve the end goal. To put the dedication that is required in perspective, most mid-sized to larger businesses have one employee dedicated solely to the digital role.

Other popular and more traditional marketing strategies include direct mail (both paper and electronic) and print advertising. The majority of practices would not have the tools, skill or time to create these activities in-house and so would need to seek external help. A professional and thorough service would be provided, but with a fee attached and also time commitment for a briefing, alterations and sign off on the final collateral. Also, the amount spent on the activity can sometimes outweigh the results, meaning it can be a costly exercise for a smaller dental practice to pursue.

A Complimentary Innovative Solution

Principals and practice managers responsible for the marketing functions need to find innovative, economical and time-friendly solutions that are less of a drain on resources whilst still being reliable and robust. Becoming a Munroe Sutton dental practice provides a solution. With over 30 years experience of designing, organising and managing affordable dental plans, Munroe Sutton works with some of the largest and most influential companies such as CIGNA and Allianz. Listed as a preferred supplier, Munroe Sutton provides unique dental plans that save customers money. The thousands of members that seek financial savings on dental treatment are directed to Munroe Sutton’s network of high quality dental practices, offering your business free promotion to encourage new patients. What’s more, to become listed on the Munroe Sutton network costs the practice absolutely nothing. 

Rather than spending considerable time, effort and expense on trying to attract new patients, Munroe Sutton does the hard work for you and will direct patients straight to your door.

For more information please call 0808 234 3558 or visit www.munroesutton.co.uk

At 7connections, we create collateral and systems to ensure you clear your dental marketing hurdles and win the race.

The bespoke services we offer to enhance your marketing activities and maximise your return on marketing on investment include:

• Artisan Lifecycle Marketing – an innovative, automated email marketing solution that combines exceptional software from InfusionSoft with the expertise of 7connections. Focusing on the seven key phases of lifecycle marketing, the comprehensive package could help you increase new business enquiry conversation rates from an average of 18% to 80%!

• MagicBox™ – delivers a box of pre-designed and branded marketing tools to your practice door including posters, referral cards, TV loops, social media banners and patient smile evaluations. These physical and digital solutions will help drive sales, boost referrals and increase revenue with minimal cost and hassle for you, and the 12-month planner and tracker will ensure you head in the right direction.

• Ultimate Marketing Academy – a one-year programme involving quarterly meetings and 24/7 access to the 7connections library of knowledge. You’ll receive a personalised dental marketing strategy, alongside all the skills and support you need to implement it successfully – there’s also a 100% money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied with the results!*

For more information about 7connections please call 01647 478145,

email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or

visit www.7connections.com

* The 100% money-back guarantee is available if you implement the knowledge and ideas that you gain and your are not satisfied with the results at the end of the Academic year.

There is no doubt that the dental practice landscape has evolved dramatically over the last 20 years, and we are seeing this shift continue as changes to contracts, authorities and organisations affect the way we perceive and run practices. Parallel to the developments in the way dentistry is governed and managed there has been a dramatic increase in competition between surgeries, both locally and nationally. This has caused the emphasis to move more towards viewing a practice as a business, with attention given to its profitability and commerciality.

As such, the business model for a dental practice is wholly unrecognisable from that which we would have been accustomed 3 years ago, let alone to 20. Not only that, but the dentistry on offer is entirely different too. Technology has moved forward at such a pace that complex procedures that would have been either prohibitively expensive or logistically impossible are now a part of the everyday provision. As well as this the demands on a practitioner, from maintaining levels of CPD to managing staff, and the increased amount of paperwork, have snowballed, leaving very little time to consider the well-being and direction of a business.

Dentists are therefore finding themselves pushed and pulled in many directions, with their focus spread increasingly thinly over an array of equally significant issues. In such circumstances it is all too easy for one issue to take a backseat or be neglected altogether and unfortunately, more often than not, it is the marketing of a practice that suffers. This will of course have disastrous repercussions, as the reality is that marketing is just as relevant to dentistry as it is to any other business. Every practice needs to promote itself and the services it provides to ensure a steady stream of new patients. But knowing you need to make a change with your marketing and actually understanding how to do so can be two entirely different problems.

The knee-jerk reaction can be to adopt a scattergun approach, aiming everything at everyone. However, this can be an expensive and potentially pointless exercise. Closely considered and targeted tactics are much more effective in ensuring the right messages are sent to the right people. To create a successful marketing strategy for your practice, it helps to follow a tried and tested formula. The much discussed seven-step principle known as ‘lifecycle marketing’, effectively encapsulates the process of attracting new patients and retaining them by building and developing long-term relationships.

A customer centric strategy, founded on the idea of sending the right message at exactly the right time, lifecycle marketing combines CRM, e-commerce, social media and email marketing into an online system for converting leads into customers and growing sales. It utilises sophisticated email campaigns that treat each recipient individually, taking into account their level of interest in a product or service on offer. For instance, a simple exercise of splitting email recipients into three categories such as interested prospects, current patients and lapsed patients, will allow you to approach your interactions in three distinct ways, tailoring your communication to suit.

Four Main Practice Types

Across the profession, in line with the developments discussed earlier, we now see four distinct practice types emerge, each with its own identifiable set of challenges and opportunities. But whatever your practice type, adopting lifecycle marketing will help you to develop and grow your business and there are specific benefits for each category.

NHS - The primary benefit for an NHS dentist will be in the automation of the patient system and the improved efficiency of the business model – this will lead to fewer missed appointments, less time spent chasing customers and more repeat appointments.

Private - For a private practice it will revolutionise the way the dental team works, enhancing practice turnover and profitability by growing the amount of time spent performing the right treatments and increasing the uptake of elective procedures.

Mixed NHS and Private – A mixed practice will see all the benefits the purely private dentist will see, but most importantly, adopting lifecycle marketing will help to accelerate the acquisition of more private clients.

Dentist Entrepreneur (multiple practices) – The benefits for a dentist running multiple practices is the ability to automatically scale their lead generation, conversion and upsell, whilst also generating a greater consistency of service between practices AND much more efficient use of the team’s time.

No matter your practice type, the aim of your marketing will always be to increase sales and profitability. By adopting the techniques of lifecycle marketing this mission will be made far more achievable thanks to the provision of clear structures and methods for meeting new patients and expanding your clinical reach. By embracing solutions designed, customised and put together for you by the experts, you can save precious time and money without compromising the results. Working with 7connections and software giant Infusionsoft, for example, you can implement effective strategies and fresh ideas with ease.

Dentistry has certainly changed over the last two decades, but that doesn't mean your practice has to be left behind. Make sure you are able to remain competitive by ensuring your marketing is up to scratch. If your practice is feeling its age and in need of greater profitability, client retention, and lead conversions, then you need lifecycle marketing in your business.

For more information about 7connections and the Ultimate Marketing Academy, please call 01647 478145, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit www.7connections.com

Your Landing Page

Neil Sanderson

Most people think of a website as an entity in its self, this is not the case. A website is a series of pages of which you need to think about landing pages.

What is a landing page? Well the description is in the name really, it’s where people land when they first come to your website.

Most people think that the place people should first see when they arrive at your site is the home page, this again is not the case, ideally you need people to land on the correct landing page, let me explain.

I’m sure that all of you have at one time or another gone to Amazon. Can you ever think of a time when you arrived on a home page which had menu options across the top for you to find what you are looking for?

No of course you haven’t. You always land on the page that you wanted. For instance if you are looking for a camera. I typed in the search “Canon EOS 70D” and below is the search I got.

Camer search screen

All the search items are about the EOS 70D which is what you would expect, some are reviews and technical pages others are sales pages, but effectively all of them are about this particular camera.

So whenI click on the search item which takes me to the “landing page”. It comes as no surprise that the page I land on is about the Canon EOS 70D.

Because Amazon is so good at this you are presented with everything you need to purchase this camera, there are reviews, things that people also bought when they buy this camera etc. In fact just about everything you need to make a purchase, this is a typical Amazon landing page and they are very good at it.

Amazon Canon landing page

So what has this got to do with your website and the landing page that your prospective patients land on?

Well it’s about this, we have all been tought by the likes of Amazon that we want to land on exactly the page we are interested in. We don’t want to land on the “home” landing page, we know what we want and we want it right now.

People are not prepared to come to a “home” landing page and navigate around the website until they find the item they are looking for, this is why you have to promote your landing pages all the time, so that your visitors get exactly what they are looking for immediately.

If someone is looking for teeth whitening, most dental websites are set up so they will come to the “Home” landing page, they will then click on the treatment tab, then they will find the whiting link and click on that, do you see the issue?

If you want people to visit your teeth whitening page you need to start optimising this page so that Google can pick it up and display it, this needs to become your whitening landing page.

The same goes for all your other treatment, such as facial aesthetics, implants, straightening etc. etc.

Writing a blog is a great help but having the right key words on the page is also crucial, along with the correct meta description. Get ahead of your competition and ensure that your treatment pages are optimised to be your landing pages.

However you can bypass all this an just use Google Adwords, which will always send people to exactly the page you require, this is one of the huge benefits of Adwords.

If you would like more information on your website, call me on 01767 626  398 or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit our Facebook page.

www.dentalmarketingexpert.co.uk

Website Traffic, How Facebook Can Increase Yours Completely Free Of Charge

Neil Sanderson

We all know that saying thank you is a great courtesy and makes the person who is receiving, feel much better don’t we. Well here’s a tip to make those two little words “Thank You” increase your website traffic too.

As I’ve said on many occasions before, there are two things you need to concentrate on with your website, (1) you need to maximise your website traffic. (2) you need to converts as much of that website traffic as possible into paying patients.

So here’s a little tip that will cost you absolutely nothing, it may endear you to your patients and you’ll get more traffic to your website and if your website has the right things on there when they land you’ll start to get more new patients too.

70% of the population now owns a smart phone, which is quite staggering, and just about every person who has a smart phone knows how to use an app. Additionally 50% of the population use Facebook for at least half hour per day every day.

So when you have done a great job for one of your patients and they say “thank you”, why don’t you ask them to put a link onto their Facebook page and just say thank you, it’s as simple as that.

They can even do this whilst you are with them on their Facebook app!

Let me elaborate on how powerful this little “thank you” can be to increase your website traffic. Let’s say you see fifty patients per day and one in five of them post this link to your website on their Facebook page.

The average person has 500 friends and likes on their Facebook account, this means that the link to your website could potentially be seen by 5,000 people every day.

Now I know that not everyone is going to do this for you, however much you try and persuade them. So we’ll scale this down (a lot). Let’s say that only 50 people per day get to see a link posted by one of your patients. This means that upwards of 1,000 people will see the link every month (12,000 per year).

Even if only 10% of them actually click through to your website, this means that 1,200 new patients will visit your site, simply because you asked your patients to say “thank you” on their Facebook page with a link to your site.

The best thing about this is that all this new website traffic is completely free, you’re not spending a penny on advertising anywhere.

But you also need to remember that you have the right wording, graphics, video etc. on your site to convert them from website traffic to paying patients and that is a whole different subject and incidentally even more important.

If you would like to know how I can help you grow your dental practice, call me on 01767 626 398 or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit the website www.dentalmarketingexpert.co.uk, or you can visit our FACEBOOK page too.

Blogging For Your Practice

Neil Sanderson

Blogging is now essential if you want to have a successful Social Media presence and at the same time get your dental practice website up the Google natural rankings, so first things first, what is a blog?

Well you are reading one now, this is my blog and I write one every week, for two reasons, the first is to communicate with my clients and potential clients, the second reason is that blogging is one of the best ways to keep your website on the first page of Google.

A blog is simply an article written by you, usually on your website, but you can have a separate blog area too if you don’t have this as part of your site. I would recommend to anyone that if you are thinking of building a new dental practice website or changing your existing one you must have the ability to write a blog.

I recently asked for a quote on behalf of one of my clients to have upgrade his website which currently doesn’t have the ability to start blogging. Both he and I were staggered when I was quoted £950.00 + VAT.

All websites should have a blog built into them, if you build a website in one of the two major “content management systems” e.g. WordPress or Joomla, this will be provided for you automatically. Don’t buy a website without either (a) a content management system or (b) a blog section. Incidentally all the websites we build have both as standard see my siteDental Website Design and Build.

So why is blogging so important? Let’s look at Social Media first. The two main Social Media sites you should have your practice on are of course Facebook and Twitter. Neither are really geared up for having lots of content in a single post, in fact Twitter limits you to 140 characters in total.

So if you are going to engage with your patients you have to link to something else, this is where blogging really comes into its own and this is how you do it. First you write your blog (remember a blog can be any size you want) on whatever special offer you are running or something interesting about the practice. You then create a post on either Facebook or Twitter and put a link back to your blog.

This does several things, firstly it takes the person who is reading your post back to your website which is ideally where you want them. Hopefully they will take advantage of your offer or maybe have a look around your website, either way this is what you want to achieve.

Secondly Google loves this type of traffic, so the more traffic you have coming to your site from Facebook and Twitter the higher Google will rank your site. This is the modern equivalent of “link building” but one that Google approves of and rewards you for doing it.

Blogging has another great positive effect on your website ranking. Google is encouraging everyone to update and create new content for your website. A blog is the single best and easiest way to do this. If you start to blog ideally once per week or once a month even once a quarter, your website rankings will improve.

So remember, if you are ordering a new website, insist it has the ability to blog (all ours do). Insist it has a content management system (all ours do). Start blogging and see your website rise up the rankings and your Social Media engagement soar.

If you don’t have time to blog yourself, we can do it for you, simply call me on 01767 626 398 or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit the website www.dentalmarketingexpert.co.uk

Facebook Advertising For Your Practice

Neil Sanderson

I’m sure when you think of Facebook Advertising you probably think of having to post all the time and interact with your friends or the people who have liked your Facebook page, which by and large it is, but there is another way to manage Facebook Advertising.

As I mentioned in a recent blog, Facebook recently became a publicly listed company, which means that is now has to answer to its share holders, and they are interested in just two things (a) increasing their share value and/or (b) getting a regular dividend.

In order to satisfy this requirement, Facebook has suddenly become very business minded and they now offer a wide range of advertising opportunities for the likes of you and I and Facebook Advertising has become a very good and relatively cheap way to get your message out there.

To advertise on Facebook you have to have a Facebook page and of course be the administrator of it, but you don’t have to post regularly on it, the advert will do the job for you. Facebook Advertising works very similarly to Google PPC (per per click). This means that whenever someone clicks on your advert and is taken either to your website or to your Facebook page you are charged a fee.

Compared to Google this fee is very reasonable (usually about a quarter of the price), however it has to be said, it will never be as targeted as Google is simply because there is nothing that is as targeted as Google Adwords.

However if you are trying to reach a particular group of people with a particular profile, Facebook advertising (PPC) is very, very good.

With Facebook advertising you can not only decide which area you want to aim at e.g. your postcode but you can also target whether the person who sees your advert is female or male, what age group they are, what is their marital status (even if they are engaged). You can specify particular interests they may have.

So for instance you could run an advert that will only be shown to someone who is female, who is between 25 and 35, who is engaged, who likes dogs, who likes going on holiday etc. etc.

There are no other platforms that will  let you get down to this level of detail for display advertising (Google is search advertising). You can set up a Facebook Advertising campaign for just a couple of pounds per day and so long as you get your targeting correct it will almost certainly pay for its self.

Facebook advertising is also the quickest way to get people to like your Facebook page and the best part is that you will only be getting likes from the people you are directly targeting, as opposed to buying likes from disreputable sources (don’t touch them).

The best thing about Facebook advertising is that you can send traffic from Social Media to your website with is where you ideally want people to go.

If you need help and advice with Facebook advertising, call me on 01767 626 398 or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit my website www.dentalmarketingexpert.co.uk

What is the best marketing plan for your practice?

Neil Sanderson

I’m often asked what is the best marketing I can buy or do. Let’s face it there are now dozens of ways to market you and your practice.

Not very long ago you really only had two choices 1. You could place an advert in the Yellow Pages or 2. You could send out a mail shot. Those of you who were a bit more ambitious might try telesales too.

Today you have literally dozens of ways to market your practice, but which is the best marketing?

But out of all these different types of marketing e.g. Direct Mail, Social Media, Posters, Leaflets, Text Messaging, Email what really is the best marketing?

So if you said to me I can only do one form of marketing which would you choose, the answer would be Google Adwords (or pay per click). This is without doubt the most cost effective and best marketing for  you and your practice.

Why do I say this. Because unlike Search Engine Optimisation which may or may not get your website to the top of Google rankings. Google Adwords can pretty much guarantee this.

What makes this even more the best marketing, it that Google will only show your ads when someone searches for it. So just think of it this way. If you could place an advert in a local newspaper and only pay when someone looked at your advert and took action would you buy that ad, you bet your life you would.

Google Adwords does exactly this, they only show your advert when someone searches for whatever it is you are advertising e.g. implants or teeth whitening etc. But you don’t pay anything to Google until someone actually clicks on your advert and goes through to your website.

It is the ultimate form of “best marketing” and Google gives you hundreds of tools to test and hone your marketing. They are the only advertising provider that encourages you to get better at your advertising, and rewards you with cheaper ads and better rankings.

Quite literally the better you become at pay per click, the less you can spend and the more your ad will be shown. That’s why we spend so much of our time at Dental Marketing Expert, making sure that we are the ultimate experts in Google Adwords pay per click.

On average all our clients are normally in position 1 or 2 on the search and the amount we are paying Google for the ads is a fraction of what people who don’t know what they are doing are paying.

If you don’t understand how wot work Google Adwords, you can spend an awful lot of money for very little reward. In fact Google’s default settings are generally design to get you to pay them as much as possible. This is why they are now the second biggest company by value in the world.

I have spent the last two years honing my skills the best marketing (Google Adwords) and as a result I would say that I probably know more about this form of marketing than anyone in the dental profession.

I have personally spent thousands of pounds with Google, but last year I grew my business by 100% and this year we are aiming for 400% growth, using this best marketing technique.

So if you want to make a massive difference to your dental practice’s fortunes and start to benefit from the best marketing on the planet, call me on 01767 626 398 or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit my website www.dentalmarketingexpert.co.uk

The Social Media Phenomenon

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Around two years ago I wrote my first book called How Your Practice Can Survive The Recession, there is a section in it about Social Media, which I was somewhat dismissive of.

I have recently updated the book for several reasons but one of the most important reasons was that Social Media has now moved firmly into the mainstream of business and because of this, all dental practices need to take it very seriously.

My business now receives around 15% of all the enquiries I receive from either Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin, this is a massive change from just twelve months ago. Thats quite staggering, a year ago I could count the number of leads from Social Media on one hand, all that has now changed

It is also a fact that 50% of the U.K population spends at least one hour per day on Facebook. This creates a huge opportunity for your business, both advertising and posting in in general.

I regularly speak with my clients about the opportunities of Social Media and whether or not they should be active in this area, the answer is always a resounding yes.

However there is a problem, in order to have a healthy Social Media presence means you have to be active pretty much every day, its no point trying to get people to “Like” your page if you never put anything on it, and the majority of practices don’t, for one simple reason they simply don’t have the time.

So whilst Facebook, Twitter, Google Circles and LinkedIn may be free to use, they take up a great deal of time and that is the one thing that the majority of dental practices simply don’t have.

So you could give the task to one of your employees, but are you sure that (a) they will post items that are suitable and (b) will they have the time to post on Facebook and Twitter too as well as doing all the other tasks they have to achieve.

So you have a dilemma, you know that you should be regularly communicating with your patients and potential patients via social media, but neither you or your staff have the time to do it!

That’s where my company can help. Until recently I simply told my clients that they should be posting regularly on social media, but didn’t have a solution to the problem of creating the time to do so.

I can now offer a service to any dental practice, or indeed any company involved in the dental profession, whereby we will post on social media sites at least two times per day, Monday to Friday, to find out more about this unique service, go to my website http://www.dentalmarketingexpert.co.uk/social-media-dentists/ and you will be able to watch a video where we tell you exactly what we can offer you in this area.

I don’t know of any other organisation that offers this social media service, I suspect we may well be a trail blazer in this area.

So don’t waste any more time visit http://www.dentalmarketingexpert.co.uk/social-media-dentists/

Best Regards

Neil

If you would like us to increase your patient numbers, revenues and profits call me on 01767 626 398 or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Multimedia You Need To Cover Every  Channel

You only have to think back five or six years ago and marketing your dental practice was pretty straight forward, basically you could put an advert in Yellow Pages and one in the local newspaper and you’d pretty much done it. Today is very different, multimedia is the norm.

Wouldn’t it be easy if all your patients and prospective patients were the same, you could then market to them using one platform or media and everything would be taken care of. For instance you might only have to advertise on Facebook, or Google, the truth is that everyone is different and that’s why you have to cover all the bases, with multimedia.

There is an amazing statistic that 50% of the population spends at least an hour on Facebook every day. But that also highlights another statistic and that is 50% of the population don’t spend an hour or any time whatsoever on Facebook. So if you only use Facebook as your marketing platform, you’ll miss half of your audience.

The same can pretty much be said about any media you choose to look at, for instance did you know that 12 million people buy a newspaper in the UK every day? And when you ad the free newspapers that figure grows to around 15 million, quite a sizeable market.

In 2012 21 million people took action as a result of receiving direct mail. nine out of ten people who receive direct mail open it, which compares to around twenty percent who open email. Without doubt whilst direct mail is relatively expensive in comparison with online, it is one of the the most effective way to grow your patient base, do you see where I’m going with this multimedia thing.

I am asked all the time by my clients “can’t we just email them”? Well yes you could, but ask yourself this question, “how many emails to you receive every day?” If you’re like me probably between 50 and 150. Then let me ask the same question about direct mail, “how many envelopes drop through your door every day?” I suspect the answer is probably less than five and certainly less than ten, quite often it might only be one or two packages each day!

The same can be said for text messaging, how many of you use text messages to market your products and services? I suspect very few, but think again, how many text messages to you receive each day? Just about everyone looks at a text when you receive one, for the simple reason that most text messages come from friends and family and you probably only receive one per day (maybe two).

So just have a think about the multimedia that you can now market your practice with, they include:

• Social Media (Twitter, Facebook Google Circles etc.,
• Your Website,
• Your Google Places Page,
• Text Messaging
• Direct Mail
• Leaflet Delivery
• Video (You Tube)
• Google Advertising
• Facebook Advertising
• Local press advertising
• Local radio

To name but a few and the only way you can ensure that you reach as many of your potential patients is to have a presence in all these platforms, some may will perform better than others, but it is essential that you address all these areas. So when I say Multimedia is a must for your practice I hope you understand what I really mean.

Because marketing is now more and more complex, you almost certainly need help and that’s where Dental Marketing Expert can help you. Call me on 01767 626 398 or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit the website

www.dentalmarketingexpert.co.uk

Blogging Is Essential To Promote Your Dental Practice or Business

For those of you who are not quite sure what a blog is, you are reading one right now and blogging is becoming more and more an essential part of any dental practice’smarketing strategy.

Why I can hear you all saying? Well hopefully you recently read my series of articles on search engine optimisation which over the three articles outlined what you need to be doing to raise your website’s ranking on Google. One of the things I mentioned was that you need to add new original content to your website, and the best way to do that is blogging.

Blogging is effectively you writing anything you like on any subject really. Because it is your ideas and your thoughts, you can write on any subject and be an forthright is you wish. Ideally you need to make it interesting to your public. So for instance if you are a dentist the subjects you might want to cover would be around oral hygiene etc.

Having said all that don’t make your blogs too serious or technical as you’ll just lose your audience, they have to understand what it is you are trying to convey to them, equally don’t use jargon, or scientific dental terms.

Blogging is one of the best ways to increase the rankings in the natural Google search. As I mentioned in my earlier articles, Google wants to present websites to their audience that are fresh and have new original content on them. Blogging is the most natural place to put this new original content. It will quite literally do wonders for your rankings, quite often my blogs out rank my overall website.

Blogging also has the effect of ranking you for many subjects too so for instance you might want to highlight that you offer implants in your practice, well the best way to do this is to write articles on the subject, use slightly different headlines and titles for the blog and you can start to rank for implants as well as general dentistry etc.

Blogging should also be part of your social media strategy. Every time you write your blog you should be promoting this with both Facebook and Twitter, not to mention Google Circles, this again helps immensely with your Google rankings.

Being seen to be an expert in your specialist field is essential if you are to sell at premium prices. For instance if you are regularly blogging on a  particular subject and your patients and potential patients read them, it is highly likely that when they actually want to use this service that they will turn to you rather than your competitors and they will pay a higher fee because of this too.

We call this in the industry “being the trusted expert”. The down side of this is that you have to give lots of information freely and regularly, which of course takes time and effort. But you’ll see that in the long run you will gain from it immensely, the other way to achieve this of course is to have someone else write them for you and this is one the services I offer my clients.

If you want to increase your revenues and profits, increase the number of new patients and encourage existing patients to spend more with you, call me on 01767 626 398, email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit my website

www.dentalmarketingexpert.co.uk

At the recent BDTA Showcase, we had some great meetings with potential advertisers. The GDPUK Team really enjoyed exhibiting at the show, it was a great experience, something we would like to repeat.

Last week, I sent a number of follow up emails after the Show and made phone calls. By the end of the busy week, I started thinking about why companies from the dental trade should advertise with GDPUK and why we should be part of their marketing plan. I have to admit, it is not a question I have thought enough about but over the weekend, I got my thinking cap on.

So this weekend, after my feet and body had recovered from Showcase, I started to think about the question in the subject line, below are 8 reasons that GDPUK can be used as an effective marketing tool, please feel free to add to them and hopefully we can get a feel for what we are doing well or not offering enough of! All feedback would be appreciated!

1.    We have thousands of members using the site every day – GDPUK is the largest online community of dentists in the UK. Dentists proactively look for information on GDPUK to inform their decisions.

2.    Target Audience – If you want Dentists as customers, we can prove that your target audience is using the GDPUK site every day

3.    Helps your budget work harder when marketing to Dentists – Reach the dentists on their network at exactly the point when they are actively seeking advice / guidance to make an important decision for their practice or career. 

4.    Word of Mouth. The UK’s most influential dentists will talk about your brand on the forum – Create the right message on GDPUK and this will spread to other social media sites, creating improved awareness and recognition of your brand.

5.    Benefit from our knowledge of the Dental Profession – We’ve been around for over 15 years, we understand how dentists think and react, this means we are well placed to support you with your aims and we can share our insight into the dental profession.

6.    Marketing on the site can be done in a number of ways; introduce a new product, improve brand awareness, special "GDPUK" offers, data collection, sample requests, focus groups

7.    Accountability. We give our partners, a full report on the number of clicks received every week, plus the number of impressions the ad receives. This is an effective way to see how the ad performs.

8.    Adaptability. Unlike in the printed media, ads can be changed; partners can experiment with a number of messages over the period they have booked.

No matter what business or industry you’re in, if you deal with Dentists, then GDPUK has to be part of your marketing plan. Social Media is now part of the dental landscape and it’s important that you can get your message across and be part of the discussion.

By reading this, we hope you now get a better understanding of how we can help with your marketing plans, if you would like to know more, please get in This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call Jonny on 07786571547. 

Nearly every day I get an email - Get to page ONE of Google. It goes into the same folder as collecting my inheritance from my lost relative in Nigeria. It is rubbish and should be treated like spam.

First of all no one can guarantee to be on the first page of Google unless you have a paid campaign and these days in dentistry you are looking at over £1000 per month to have any chance of getting to page one on sponsored advertisements. Secondly people seem to have gone crazy and want a quick win - they forget Dentistry is a relationship business and relationships take time.

You want more patients? It is simple, just ask your existing ones. I know you have heard this before but do you actually do it with EVERY patient? Tell them how much you like seeing and treating them. Tell them you have vacancies for patients like them and give them a few business cards. Do not leave it there, follow it up with an email reminding them. Most of them never think of telling their friends and family about you unless they get asked. We also send follow-up letters asking them if the treatment was comfortable, explaining the maintenance and guarantees on their work and again asking for referrals.

We look at our day list at our morning meeting - we all instantly see the names of the people we like to treat. Make it a point for the whole team to do this every day.

Now with more and more compliance there are companies out there who can automate this process for you. After every dental appointment they can email your patients and ask them to rate the service they achieved and even ask if they are happy to write a testimonial that can be placed on your website or Google reviews

You do not need a huge marketing budget. It just needs time to make sure your message is clear and you invest in different ways in reaching your target audience. A good campaign also gets them emotionally stimulated to buy or at least investigate your practice. Convert your raving fans into your marketing force.

James Goolnik is a practising Dentist and his book “Brush” donates 100% of the profits to Dentaid. He recently led a team of 8 dental professionals to Malawi to install two dental chairs, equipment and deliver skills transfer workshops from these proceed. He is a trustee of the charity “Heart your Smile”.

www.jamesgoolnik.com