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Creating A Dental Website Your Patients Will Love Posted by Tyson Downs on 1/22/15 4:34 AM Find me on: With every step we take further into the digital age, practices and small businesses need to take equal strides to keep up. Even a profession that has been around for thousands of years (i.e. the dentist) cannot simply rely on the mothers and fathers out there to instill their children with proper dental hygiene lessons. Now more than ever, dentists must rely on technology to reach their patients, both new and old, if they want to keep their practice afloat. That means having an effective dental internet marketing strategy. For todays' dentists' this can mean many things: building a website, using social media to attract new clients, making sure online directories have the proper information (NAP), etc. But of these concerns, perhaps none is quite as important as your website and how your patients and prospects react to it.
Your Dental Website is Your Salesforce and Face of the Practice
Wouldn't it be great if every person in your community could just come in and talk to you for a few minutes? You could take the time to explain to them why scheduling regular checkups is so important, brief them on good home hygiene habits and show them exactly why you are the right dentist for them. Unfortunately, that's neither realistic nor time effective, but the next best thing is: your website.
Properly done, your website stands as a reliable and accurate representation of your practice and beliefs that is available for interaction 24/7. In essence, it's the next best thing to having a face-to-face with every person in your area. When operating correctly, your website will be found by anyone in your local area who is looking for a dentist. When they get there, they will have a virtual “conversation� with you, learning all about your practice, your services, your ideals and how all of this benefits them.
This will convince the prospect that they should contact you right away to make an appointment—of course, this is how dentist websites are supposed to work. In all fairness, many dental websites do not work like this as they are either hard to find, don't convey the proper attitude or information or flat out just fail to convince the prospect that you are the best dentist for them.
Patients New and Old Should Get Value From Your Website
So, how can you ensure that your dental website is going to be effective? Quite simple, your patients—both existing and prospects—must love your site. When they get there, they should feel at ease and comforted, as if they've finally found a solution to their dental problems (because they have!). They must be able to easily obtain all of the information they know they need as well as some information they didn't know they needed.
In short, your website should be a one-stop fulfillment of everything the viewer could possible ask for and more, while still providing an amazing customer experience through ease of use and convenience. How do you do that?
Five Powerful Ways to Boost the Effectiveness of Websites for Dentists
1. Take Online Appointments Requests
Whether it's for new patients, existing patients, emergency visits or routine checkups, the world has gone to the internet and your appointment calendar needs to follow. Now, I'm not saying open it up to the point where people pencil themselves in (though that might be the future), but a simple appointment request form that takes basic information and the dates/times your patients prefer is a quick way to ensure contact is made. You can have your team check the requests with your calendar (or have an automated system do it) and then call or email back to confirm with the patient. This takes the muss and fuss out of appointment making and makes it easier for a prospect to take the biggest step towards becoming a client: the first one.
2. Use Dental Education Videos One trend of the digital age that won't be reversed anytime soon is that video is almost always more appealing (and viral) than written content. That's because it takes the thinking out of the process while also engaging the viewer on a much more visual level i.e. with moving images. Your video player should be loaded up with informative content that makes it easy for prospects and patients to learn, share and set up appointments.
3. Interactive Analysis Forms While nothing will replace a visit to the dentist's office, having a simple interactive analysis page can help get leads into your chair. For example, a simple smile analysis form that asks questions about eating and drinking habits, does
basic assessments of shade problems, etc., can be a great way to convince a prospect on the fence that not only is their problem fixable, but it's affordable as well.
4. Add Before and After Shots Everyone understands the simplicity of a before and after shot, but not many people appreciate the power. Have your clients pose for before and after shots (be sure to obtain their permission) and post them to the website by category. Your prospects and current clients should see the improvement you can provide, something that is not only great for required dental work, but will severely improve your cosmetic and elective clients as well.
5. Put a Face to the Practice Finally, going to “the dentist” can be scary, especially for younger patients or those who have an irrational fear of the dentist. But going to see Dr. Bob or Nurse Jane can make the experience all the more comforting. Put photos of the dentists, staff, office and surrounding area on your website and be sure to include comforting—yet reassuring—dentist bios under the pictures. You want to put a human face to your practice, hopefully one with big, brilliant smiles!
In theory, the number of tweaks you can make to your dental website is endless. Most will depend on your individual services and circumstances, such as location and clientele. To get a more personalized overview of how your specific practice can improve their dental website, click here to schedule an online consultation.
Topics: Web Design