Marketing to your current patients is not a new dental marketing idea. There are, and continue to be many different strategies and programs that allow you to increase your referrals and retention.One of the concepts you won’t hear very much is the concept of “lift” as it applies to your internal dental marketing. When it comes to marketing for new patients, the best place to start is inside your practice.Lift is a term that is often you in the aerospace industry. The term applies in much the same way in your dental practice.As an analogy, let’s take the example of an airplane wing. The airplane wing without movement creates no lift, and will not cause the airplane to fly.In this same way, your patient (the wing) will not create this lift for your practice (the airplane), unless given information (movement) to allow them to talk about your practice everyday. This information is important.Many dental marketing consultants out there will tell you the easiest way to get referrals is to ask. But nobody likes to sit face to face with a patient and ask them to send their friends.With the concept of lift, a dentist only needs to convey to the patient a way to spread the word about the practice, and let the patients everyday conversations take care of the rest. When a patient has new information that pertains directly to the patient as a person, they now have the ammunition to talk to their friends, and mention you.Lift is not telling your patients to talk about your practice, it is giving them a way to talk about your practice. You are helping them refer their friends to you without actually asking.Let me give an example: If you spread news about your practice to your patients, something like your wife is having a baby. This news will create some conversational pieces about your practice that a patient can use in everyday life.Now, when that patient is talking to their friend who happens to be pregnant, they can say “Oh, that’s funny, my dentist’s wife is pregnant.”This is a simple example, but the more information you can give about yourself that will tie into everyday conversations, the better. Your patients will now be able to convey the benefits of your practice more times, and you in return create more buzz and get more referrals.How you create this lift is by sharing with people news about yourself and your staff. A normal patient cannot relate to you as a dentist, but can relate to you as a person.Here are a few simple things that you can discuss that will help to create lift:- You, or a staff member buying a new car- You or your staff getting a new dog- You, your staff, or a relative getting married or being pregnant- Telling stories from your latest vacationYou don’t have to do anything crazy, or even newsworthy. Just portray yourself to your patients as a person. If you went to Chicago for a dental conference, don’t tell them much about the conference, but tell them about Chicago being a beautiful place, or the deep dish pizza you ate.Remember, the concept of lift is not to tell patients to talk about your practice, the concept is telling patients how to talk about your practice.James Erickson is the President of EMC Dental Marketing which gives Dentists a resource for turn-key dental marketing programs and dental practice marketing education including new patient attraction, and internal marketing systems. Visit www.EMCdental.com and get a free practicebuilding kit sent directly to your home or office.
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In 2004 Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media, coined a phrase that would change the way we look at the Internet forever; Web 2.0. Since that day rumors about Web 2.0 have flown fast and furious. Within a few weeks there were over 100 guesstimated definitions for Web 2.0. Today there are thousands! So what is Web 2.0, really? It’s a concept of what could be and what already is. It’s the idea of using the Internet for greater business purposes than simple Websites and less than personal communication. It encompasses many technologies and Web methods including shared multi media, social networking, online collaboration and adding the human factor back to the Web.Primary tools of Web 2.0 include video sharing sites such as YouTube; Wiki sites like Wikipedia; blogs and various “live face” technologies. We will cover 3 of the quickest, easiest ways to optimize for Web 2.0, beginning with blogs.1.) SEO for BlogsOptimizing a blog is one of the absolute best ways to capture Google’s most coveted top spots very quickly. You can hit number 1 on Google in a matter of days. Here’s how you do it…a.) First, find a good blogging tool. There are plenty out there. I use WordPress (www.WordPress.org.) I originally picked it because it was so quick and easy to setup. And soon I realized the platform does 50% of SEO by its very nature. It’s free and you can get thousands of themes, to fit any style you wish, also for free.b.) Next, make sure your hosting provider can support your blog. I’ve never seen one that can’t. If you are starting fresh, do a Google search for “WordPress blog hosting” and you’ll find great packages that only cost $25 for a whole year. Just avoid the freebie hosts since you are almost guaranteed to be sharing server space (and likely an IP range) with sites banned by Google, which can cost you your ranking.c.) Once your blog app is installed, turn on the “permalink” option from the control panel. This ensures each posting you enter will also get its own URL. Finally, begin entering posts of 200 or more words, focusing on only 1 or 2 keywords per post. Try to begin each post title with the primary keyword for that topic.d.) To best optimize your keywords and content follow the steps outlined in SEO cbt’s release “Google Domination” (www.SEOcbt.com). This is a free computer based training module for SEO do it yourselfers that works extremely well. It was not written specifically for blogs but all the information is perfectly suited to them.Inside Tip: Register your domain name for a five year period or longer. Just extend it if needed. Google has been known to check “whois” records and assumes the longer the domain is registered in advance, the more “real” the site is.2.) SEO for YouTube VideosYouTube accounts for more than 60% of ALL online videos watched in the US. And your YouTube videos can be found in Google’s search results just like any normal Web page. This means they can rank number 1 in just days, with the right SEO.If you’re looking to capitalize on SEO for Web 2.0, this is a fast and free way to do it. I won’t get into how to upload the videos and optimize the frame size, etc. That said; let’s assume you have signed up for your free account at YouTube.com and are ready to upload your first video using their easy to follow instructions. This is all the SEO you need to know…a.) When forming your title, think in terms of “long tail” keywords, meaning keyword phrases of three or more words. Be sure these are in the same order people would search for them (eg/ “long tail keywords” not “keywords long tail.”) Also try to anticipate what the user will type in his search. “How to” is one of the most common search phrases people use in Google and YouTube to get answers quick.b.) Think of “tags” as keywords and enter them like you would the Meta keyword tag of a web page. Select only the most likely search terms people are using and keep the words in the order people use them. Don’t just use random words separated by commas. Use full length search phrases exactly how people search for them. And don’t go too crazy here. Excessive tags tend to confuse the YouTube engine. Incidentally, if you have “how to” as a tag, also add “howto” (without the space.) If “how to” returns a bunch of unrelated junk your “howto” tag can better cut to the chase in YouTube’s search engine.c.) The description is where you have the most freedom. It’s best to begin the description with your main keyword (and title) as close to the beginning as possible. Something like this works well… “Learn how to…” then follow up with several sentences rich in long tail keywords (the same ones from your tags.) Good grammar isn’t the biggest deal but try to make it friendly for people who might actually read the description before they decide to watch the video. Also remember that Google uses a natural text algorithm that can spot unnatural keyword spamming a mile away.Real Life Example: I just saw a commercial on TV for a spy movie and someone threw a knife. I went to Google and entered “how to throw a knife” (without quotes.) The top three matches include a YouTube video and Wiki entry. Wow! Welcome to Web 2.0!3.) SEO Using “Live Face” TechnologyOne of the biggest reasons for the dot com crash of ‘01 was that Websites became way too impersonal. One of Web 2.0’s strengths is the ability to help people relate to people once again. One of the most successful technologies leading the way is “Live Face.”Live Face allows a video spokesperson to meet, greet and inform your Web page visitors. As far as SEO benefits, any sort of video has usually involved heavy RealTime or Flash files that block search engine spiders and hurt rankings. Now however, there are services like Live Face for Web (www.LivefaceForWeb.com) that can add full length videos to your site without it interfering with onsite SEO one bit (due to the file’s location) while greatly enhancing offsite efforts such as acquiring the highest quality one way and reciprocal links.Most sites employing this technology report conversion increases of up to 5x. This means they are converting up to five times the number of sales they did before using Live Face technology.Real Life Example: The SEOcbt.com site mentioned earlier uses Live Face for Web and they hit number one on Google for all of their major keywords within two weeks of site launch.That’s a good start to SEO for Web 2.0. Good luck!—Mike Small is a ten year veteran SEO specialist with thousands of top search engine rankings to his credit. He is the author of seven SEO books and founder of SEOpartner.com.
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No one likes to find themselves without a job or just entering a new workforce area. This is especially true of the dental field. Perhaps it is because there are so many open positions to be filled that many people find themselves being taken advantage of with regard to being overworked and underpaid. Finding dental assistant jobs can be dangerous if you do not do your homework. You are a dedicated certified dental assistant who deserves a great job with great pay.In a perfect world you would have one job that would pay well and have excellent benefits. Your coworkers would be pleasant and your boss would be great. The patients would be easy to care for and you would never have a bad day at work. Unfortunately, personal dental care assistants know that this perfect world does not exist. They learn this on the first day of their dental assistant school training. Nothing is perfect. You will work for bad bosses. You will have terrible coworkers and terrible patients that try your patience. That perfect uniform will quickly get wrinkled and be stained beyond recognition.One huge trap that involves some dental assistant jobs, and other jobs for that matter, are the work agencies. There will always be scam artists in this world who prey on other people. If you apply for a job with an agency and they want to charge you a fee, then run away and report them to the Better Business Bureau. You should never have to pay anyone to get a job.Some agencies are temporary. If a dentist office has someone who calls in sick, then they will call the temp agency for a worker. The worker will get paid on a daily basis and fill in for however long is necessary. Some health care assistants have found permanent jobs this way so it is a viable option for some workers, especially if they are not looking for a full-time position at first.Dental assistant jobs are out there if you know where to look. As mentioned above you should never have to pay for work. It just is not right and is a scam. There should never be a placing fee charged to you. A great place to look for a job in a dental office is your local newspaper or job board such as Monster. They usually have a wide listing of local, assistant dental office jobs.Educate yourself further about dental assistant jobs from Mike Selvon articles portal. Your feedback is valued and appreciated at our medical technician blog where a free audio gift awaits you.
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