106
Product news
Dentistry.co.uk
October 2022
Partner with us and watch your practice grow
David Nelkin explains how his company’s partnership with Henry Schein Dental Business Solutions gives practices fresh digital growth opportunities
David Nelkin CEO and founder of Xcelerator Dental
I have worked in digital marketing for 22 years, spending the last nine years specifically in the dental sector. In that time, I have worked with nearly 200 practices and have developed a strong understanding of the core components needed to grow a dental practice. Our experience has enabled us to develop a series of tried and tested methods that we know yield results. We helped one north London practice grow by £600,000 in one year alone, and another saw a revenue increase of 44% in just six months. Several others have seen increases of £200,000 in their first year with us. These are the kinds of results we expect because our process is so finely tuned.
A focus on growth
Our new partnership with Henry Schein Dental Business Solutions gives us enormous scope to expand the range of practices we work with. Focusing on digital marketing and lead conversion we can help Henry Schein’s customers, whether they are fully private or mixed practices, to optimise their digital presence by acting as an integral part of their team. Everything we do is concentrated on those components that give the best results for a particular practice, taking into consideration its environment, needs, and ambitions. We have a comprehensive approach, advising against looking solely at individual elements like search engine ranking or focusing on having an attractive website for instance, because we know it takes more than that to grow a business. Instead, we continually look to optimise a range of channels to ensure the focus is on converting leads and growing a practice efficiently. We have three programmes designed for practices at different stages, which give practices flexibility around a framework of activity split into four essential components that are proven to work.
1. Local SEO
The first step, and one of the most important for any dental business, is to review its local search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy. Ninety per cent of dental practices are not doing any of the most important
things they should be to improve their rankings in online search results; this means a huge opportunity exists. Our growth focus means that we consider this in the context of the patient funnel, thinking about who is looking for a dentist in a particular area. It is essential to target relevant people with the right messaging at the right time. Our focus is on managing a practice’s Google Business Profile listings, which is the most costefficient way to drive new patient enquiries from Google. With 60% of people searching on Google never leaving the results page, we will ensure that our customers’ practices are the ones they choose. Alongside this, we have an online review management system, working closely with the practice to secure reviews by sending automated emails and text messages to patients following a visit. There are multiple aspects to a search page on Google, and this is where efficiency comes in. We adopt a local strategy, specifically targeting people in the local area, in the knowledge that everyone will need a dentist at some point.
2. Paid advertising
Paid advertising across Facebook, Instagram and Google is essential to enable a practice to stand out above their competitors and attract new highly targeted leads. As Google Partners, we are experts in targeting the most relevant people, on the right devices at the right time. Working with Google’s machine learning algorithm, we constantly learn who the ideal people are to target. Social media advertising is great at creating awareness and engaging the right people; if these people don’t convert right away, we often find that as they progress down the new patient funnel, they then go to Google to search, they see the ads again, and this is where the conversion happens. We also know that on average, people approach two to three practices when choosing a dentist – running retargeting campaigns helps ensure a practice gets the best returns from their ad spend and it is this combination of channels which is the lynchpin to success.
3. Websites
One of our first questions to a practice is often: ‘Do you know what the conversion rate of your website is?’ We’re yet to find one who does and 90% of practices are not measuring it. This is one of the biggest missed opportunities we see for efficient practice growth. Most of the people
we capture through local SEO and paid advertising activity will visit the website. If we can maximise the number of those website visitors who go on to book an appointment, the practice will improve their website’s conversion rate. We use the aggregated and anonymous data we have from across our client base, and continuously analyse how people use the site, to test and optimise performance. We are often able to double or triple the number of leads before the practice spends a penny on marketing or advertising. We also consider patient needs around the clock. We have found that between 10 to 50% of patient enquiries are made out of hours, so we have developed a chatbot to nurture these people when the practice is closed or give them the option to book through online booking software.
4. Lead management
The fourth core element we offer is lead management through a customer relationship management (CRM) system. This is a user-friendly system to help practice teams convert more leads into new patients. It saves time through automating SMS and email communications to patients, and it gives them a daily action list of who to follow up with at different stages of the new patient funnel, meaning no more missed leads and more leads starting treatment. It is always important to think in terms of the entire patient funnel, which extends from new to existing patents. Often, practices focus on new patients as the sole focus for revenue growth. However, be it elective treatments or recommending to family and friends, existing patients are an often untapped and accessible source of growth. Our CRM is also able to integrate with other systems, seamlessly tying patient information together, from the outset of the relationship. Ultimately, we know that busy dental practice teams are often fully focused on providing high quality care and thus cannot dedicate the time and resource required to pursue every growth opportunity, and that is where Xcelerator Dental can help. We do all the groundwork, establish systems and recommendations, and then function as an extra team member, so practices do not have to. With our experience in digital marketing and lead generation, we take the guesswork out of who to target, how and when, and we run impactful campaigns that generate leads and increase revenue. Our experience shows we can add value to Henry Schein’s customers as a Henry Schein Dental Business Solutions partner and help practices achieve the growth they deserve. To set up a call with David Nelkin at Xcelerator Dental and get a discount as a Henry Schein customer, visit Henry Schein Dental Business Solutions at www.hsbusinesssolutions.co.uk/marketing-services. TWITTER: @HenryScheinUK FACEBOOK: HenryScheinUK INSTAGRAM: @henryscheinuk LINKEDIN: Henry Schein Dental UK