When Dr. Fred Puccio of Midland Family Dental Care asked his new patients how they found his practice, many answered that they had found his practice on the Internet.
According to research from BIA/Kelsey and ConStat, 90% of consumers turn to search engines like Google and Bing to find local services.
That’s why it is essential for local businesses, even dental practices, to maintain an online presence.
It used to be that to be found all you had to do was call your friendly Yellow Pages rep. You told them what ad you needed, handed over your credit card and Voila! you could be found by prospective patients for the next year.
Today, people are still letting their “fingers do the walking” but it’s on the keyboard of a computer or smartphone. One of the key ways to be found today is through search engines.
Once you commit to setting up a blog and have been writing it for a while this question inevitably creeps into your mind.
According to our friends at HubSpot, (who have some of the best data out there as their software tracks metrics for thousands of small businesses) you need to blog at least once-a-week if you expect your blog to help you grow your practice.
The answer to this question does not seem very clear to many of the medical practices we speak to.
When I first read about blogs I did not understand them either. I did not “get it”. What was this strange thing called a blog that seemed to be some kind of online journal? It did not seem to have any value as a business marketing tool whatsoever.
But reading further about blogs I came across a description that set off a light bulb for me. The description said a blog was basically a website with a publishing tool behind it.
Many medical practices still don’t have a blog. In fact, many practices we speak to don’t fully know what a blog is or why they would want one.
So why would you want a blog?
Be Known
A blog is a web publishing tool. Because a blog is an easy-to-use publishing tool it makes updating simple. The more your blog is updated, the more “Google love” it gets, and if your website sits on the same domain (web address) as your blog, the more “Google love” your website gets too. Having a blog is a sure way to move up the Google rankings.
If you’re trying to reach Millennial consumers – those Americans born between 1980 and 2000, approximately – you probably immediately think of using digital channels such as social media and mobile.
After all, the “Net generation,” as Millenials are sometimes called, grew up with the Internet and have an unprecedented facility with the online world. The Pew Research Center tells us just how “connected” Millenials are – “Millennials outpace older Americans in virtually all types of internet and cell use.” (source: Pew Research.)
You might think that traditional media has no place in your marketing mix if you want to reach this hyper-connected group. Think again. Compelling research compiled from different sources by the Association of Magazine Media shows that this group not only reads magazines, they value them as a credible source of information.
When we discuss shooting video with local business owners we often hear the question “why should I pay money to hire a professional videographer when I can just shoot the video myself – after all I have an iPhone [or a digital video camera]”.
We thought we’d pose this same question to one of our friends, professional videographer Paul Lin.
So, Paul: “Why would anyone hire a professional videographer when they can always shoot video themselves?”
On reflection, it is not a surprise that Dr. Fred Puccio of Midland Family Dental Care is well versed in leading edge dentistry.
He offered to speak to us about how he uses digital marketing techniques to attract new patients and keep his current patients happy but as we talked we found out he teaches other dentists how to use sophisticated computer-aided design techniques.
A few years ago Dr. Puccio noticed that when he asked new patients “how did you find us?” they started saying “the Internet”. This is when Dr Puccio became very interested in digital marketing.
