Having a dental website, blog, newsletter, Google+ page and Facebook page are all important factors in keeping your dental practice in front of your dental patients.

Some dentists are still not convinced that Facebook is an effective Internet dental marketing tool.

Last week, Facebook started the process for its highly-publicized IPO. In anticipation, the online competitive intelligence service Hitwise just released their 10 Key Statistics about Facebook, comparing the Facebook audience with that of other social networks.

Here is what Hitwise found –

1. Facebook captures 1 in every 11 Internet visits in the United States.
2. 1 in every 5 page views occurs on Facebook.
3. The average visit time on Facebook is 20 minutes.
4. Facebook’s audience skews slightly more female than the online population as a whole.(Female is 57%, male is 43%).
5. The ages of Facebook visitors are indicative of the website’s strength in the marketplace, with relative parity in distribution of its visit share by age vs. the online population (Ages 18-24 is 18%, 25-34 is 23%, 34-44 is 21%, 45-54 is 19%, and 55+ is 20%).
6. Facebook wins 499,949,430 visits from the most affluent income group versus YouTube’s 223,732,591 visits and Twitter’s 15,166,795 visits.
7. Facebook became the #1 ranked website in the US on March 9, 2010.
8. “Facebook” is the most searched term in the US and Facebook-related terms account for 14% of the top search clicks.
9. Facebook users are highly loyal to the website; 96% of visitors to Facebook were returning visitors in January 2012.
10. Internationally, Facebook ranks in the top 2 websites in every market except China, where Sina Weibo, Baidu Zhidao and Renren are the dominant social networks.

Hitwise further states that “Facebook is the largest website in the US and a top performer in numerous international markets. The fan base of the site is loyal and spends a significant portion of their time online on the social network. Facebook’s influence is seen in the presidential elections, digital shopping habits and beyond.”

Last June Hitwise concluded in their Facebook Fan Acquisition and Analysis that 1 Facebook fan is equal to 20 additional visits to a business website over the course of a year. If you have 500 Facebook fans, this means an extra 10,000 visits to your dental website a year.

Hitwise wrote, “The figure of 1 fan = 20 extra visits to a website uses a unique methodology that combines Hitwise data with data from social media experts Techlightenment. We took the top 100 retailers ranked in the Hitwise Shopping and Classifieds category and bench-marked visits to those websites against the number of fans those brands had on their Facebook page. We then also looked at the propensity for people to search for those retail brands after a visit to Facebook using our Search Sequence tool.”

Here at The Wealthy Dentist we firmly believe that your dental marketing plan should include a Facebook page. With dental patients spending more time online, dentists should increasingly be looking to use Facebook as a part of their dental marketing.

Facebook fans can play a role in dental patient retention and procurement by helping to drive dental website traffic, boosting dental practice awareness, demonstrating dental treatments or acting as a customer testimonial billboard.

On the other hand, 22% say it’s easy for new and current patients to find them online.

In addition, 48% of dentists say they’d like to improve their dental website search engine results placement.

All dentists want their dental website to show up at the top of the search list whenever someone searches for a dentist. A search-engine optimized dental website seeks to accomplish this goal. It involves a well-researched, geo-targeted keyword strategy for use in your dental website’s content.

The result is a more visible ranking for your dental website in the organic search results on search engines like Google, which brings more visitors to your dental website.

Here are some additional comments from dentists on their dental practice visibility online –

“It’s good, I get a lot of patients through the Internet. You can’t get complacent and must be on top of things, it’s ever-changing.” (California oral surgeon)

“I am never satisfied. It takes constant work. I am hopeful that I will get so busy so I can afford to delegate it. I do enjoy the game and play fairly well. If I was in a large market there is no way I could handle it.” (Missouri dentist)

“I’m looking at providers now because it seems more people are using the web as a means to get the things they want and need, including dentistry. Feel I need to give it a try.” (California dentist)

“We must update and change it to keep it current so we will be found.” (General dentist)

“There are only two of us in town so easy to find me!” (Texas dentist)

When local prospective dental patients search for dentists, you want them to find your dental website quickly and to understand what kind of dental treatments you offer. You want to stand out from your competition with a dental website listing that appears at the top of search engines.

Check out IDA’s New Patient Marketing Machine™ that targets the specific categories of high-value new patients you want to attract to your dental website. Each IDA website is targeted at one Primary Dental Market, and optionally for up to 3 Secondary Dental Markets to help your dental practice become easily found on the Internet.

6 out of 10 dentists also include Internet dental marketing in their annual budget, while 5 out of 10 allot a portion of the budget to internal referral programs.

Email newsletter marketing and Yellow Pages advertising remain in the dental marketing budget for 53% of the survey respondents, while 30% still include radio advertising and direct marketing.

Less than 10% factor TV advertising into their yearly dental marketing budget, reflecting a national trend towards developing a a media plan that does not include TV advertising.

“We hired a dental marketing firm and are getting better results.  We think that marketing is the key to getting the number and type of patients you want. Return on investment is good,” said a Virginia dentist.

“We are very happy. Our marketing has shown consistent growth of over 100 new patients a month for the last 4 years. The newest being the low cost, proprietary CRM that we have implemented that is above and beyond anything I have been shown before,” said a general dentist.

Some dentists feel dental marketing costs are too expensive, with one pediatric dentist saying, “It’s too expensive. Everybody raises prices for dentists because they feel we have more $.”

On average, dentists employ eight different dental marketing tactics to achieve their marketing goals.

What dental marketing vectors are the most effective use of your yearly dental marketing budget? Let us know in the comments!

If you want more how-to advice to address the dental marketing challenges facing dentists today, sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Survey was conducted by The Wealthy Dentist.

Google has just announced that it is introducing three new features to connect Google+ search users to their social networking profiles when they search the web.

According to Google when a user is signed in with Google+, they will receive personal results and profiles of people they know or follow. They will also be able to expand expand their results by discovering people related to their search.

Included in search results will be Google+ profiles and pages, personal photos and posts, and items that have been shared with the search user on Google+. This will mean that whatever Google+ circles a user belongs to and interacts with will have an influence on the Google search results returned.

This marks the beginning of more personalized Google search results.

Also added is a People and Pages feature where Google matches search queries to posts on Google+ that are linked to compatible content. This means when someone writes about a subject on Google+, and people in their circles Google search that subject, the comments and links are displayed automatically on Google’s page one for the Google+ users.

Google has also added the ability to see shared topics by Google+ power users on the right sidebar of the search results page, offering search users the option to connect with them on Google+. All of these are reasons why you want to add Google+ to your dental marketing plan.

Google+ just hit sixty million users and is still in its infancy.

It is important for you to create a dental practice brand page on Google+, and become an active user. Begin asking your dental patients if they are on Google+ and consider offering some incentives for patients who add your practice to their circles.

Internet experts feel more businesses will now be forced get more involved in Internet marketing and hire established internet marketing companies to ensure that their business will be found on the Internet.

Internet dental practice website design has become a major dental marketing strategy for many of The Wealthy Dentist subscribers. How many new patients you obtain from your dental website is determined almost entirely by one factor: your website’s position on the major Internet search engines including Yahoo, MSN and Google.

The Wealthy Dentist is here to help you with the ever-increasing changes in dental marketing.

The fact that one person believes something tends to convince another person that it must be true, else why would he/she have said it?

Strangely, word-of-mouth is the most neglected of all the forces at work in a dental marketing.

Word-of-mouth has probably destroyed more dental practices and, conversely, made more practices successful than all the other forces in the marketplace put together. Why isn’t it more researched/systematized/budgeted/planned for?

The principles of word-of-mouth advertising are particularly relevant to dentistry because patient referrals generate an estimated 68% of all new patients. Sound like something you’d like to try?

Here are the steps:

1. Ask! Patients are honored when you ask them to refer more people “just like them.” Use a Smile Card (referral card) to punctuate the request.

2. Track! Know who referred your new patient so you can thank them. A personal thank you card can get patients motivated to refer again.

3. Reward! The reward? A small amount gift card from a local merchant with a hand-written thank you note stimulates the recommender to do more of the same.

4. Winner! Have a contest to promote referral. When a new patient is referred by your patient with a Smile Card put that card with the name of the referrer in a “fishbowl” for a drawing. Once a quarter draw a winner who receives a gift card for say, $250 to a local mall. Make a big deal about the Smile Card drawing with a sign sporting the photo of the latest winner up in the office, on your website and in your newsletter. This is a win for the new patient, a win for the referrer and a win for you!

Dental marketing can be as simple as asking for a referral with a Smile Card when a procedure has pleased one of your patients—or sending out helpful reminders like a personal letter or a quarterly newsletter promoting your Smile Card drawing.

A little dental marketing can go a long way. Doing nothing—especially in times like these, can really deteriorate your practice.

Melinda Spitek is CEO of Hycomb Marketing Inc. Hycomb is an authority in marketing for dentists. Melinda has had plenty of hands-on experience as well, having worked 23 years in dental offices. For help with marketing, just call Hycomb at (800) 523-6961 or visit www.hycomb.com.

Using the right dental marketing phrases can create a connection with new dental patients and establish credibility.

The following video is being shared by Purplefeather on YouTube to illustrate how the power of words can change your marketing message and engage your readers.

Alonso Alvarez Barreda created this short film originally called, “The Story of a Sign.” It was the winner of the NFB Online Competition Cannes in 2008 and was produced in Mexico/U.S.A. The music is by Giles Lamb. The director is Seth Gardner.  The cast is Bill Thompson and Beth Miller.

Some of the most powerful words used in marketing are you, free, save, easy, health, and guarantee. Does your dental marketing include powerful words that connect you with your dental patients?

Lord Dental in Fort Worth Texas probably wishes they had gone the Internet dental marketing route after resident Jill Dominguez received their mail piece and thought it was a scam.

The mail piece outlined the upcoming changes for children enrolled in the Texas Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program and how they will be managed after March 1st. It included an advertisement for the services of dentist Leyla Lord.

Upset, Jill Dominguez wrote to Dave Lieber, the watchdog reporter for the Star-Telegram. She stated, “Nowhere on these forms does it say ‘solicitation’ or ‘advertisement’ or any such thing.” Dominguez felt the mailing could be a violation.

Lieber contacted Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the Texas health commission who told him,“Our rules do limit direct marketing for health plans and providers, and this mailing violates that rule. We’ve contacted this dental office to let them know. The state rules that apply to our managed-care organizations and providers are new territory for dentists, so the dental office may not have been aware of these rules.”

Goodman further states that, “Direct marketing is defined as marketing that targets an individual. It’s someone calling you, knocking on your door or sending a mail out directly to you. Direct marketing doesn’t include radio, TV or print ads because the audience there is broader. When someone hears a radio ad, they know that the ad wasn’t meant specifically for them.”

The state then contacted Lord’s dental practice after Dominguez’s complaint.

It turns out dentist Leyla Lord’s husband is an attorney and he responded to the claim that Lord’s dental practice was using direct mail marketing for advertising her dental practice by saying, ”The mailings blanketed the 76103 ZIP code as a way to alert his wife’s patients and others in the neighborhood about the change (when Texas moves to a managed-care system).”

In response to Watchdog Leiber’s quote of the Texas law, that a dental practice “shall not conduct any direct contact marketing except through enrollment events,” Lord’s husband pointed out the ridiculousness of the “direct contact” statement and asked what it means.

I guess it means you better be careful what you mail to your dental patients in Texas. Stick with Internet dental marketing. It’s safer.

Read more here: Fort Worth dentist’s mailing opens a whole can of worms

69% of dentists report that insurance, as a dental marketing tool, brings in new patients to their dental practice, while only 18% disclose that dental insurance doesn’t bring them new dental patients.

Only 13% said that they don’t accept dental insurance in any form.

“Dental insurance lets me give the patients what I want to do without concern for payment. I give a higher level of care than they would have other wise,” shared a New York dentist.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics states that a the primary indicator of access to dental care in the United States is dental insurance. Studies have shown that persons with private dental insurance have more dental visits in the previous year than persons without private dental insurance.

The Wealthy Dentist asked dentists if participating in dental insurance plans was an effective dental marketing vector to bring new patients in to their practice.

Definitely a provider of new patients . . .

“Yes! With better and faster payors than there used to be.” (California dentist)

“Yes, but it is not insurance …it is a defined plan of benefits that dentists agree to accept at a huge discount!” (Pennsylvania oral surgeon)

“Yes, because we found that a number patients of record for many years suddenly disappeared. When finally contacted (many who avoided post cards, letters, phone calls) said they switched to someone who was an insurance provider. Not because they found fault with anything we had or had not done, but stated the economy as the reason they switched. We found that the patients did not value all that we did/had done for them over the years. We sent them a letter welcoming them back if they felt they were not satisfied with the treatment they received at their providing (cattle call) practice.” (Florida dentist)

“More new patients but at a reduced fee (PPO).” (General dentist)

“It has provided us with new patients and kept some patients who might have gone elsewhere had we not become a provider.” (Texas dentist)

“If you treat everyone to the highest standard, no matter their social economic status, type of dental insurance, or depth of their pockets then you will be rewarded with new patients. Some may refer others, fee for service or with “better” insurance coverage. Never judge a book by its’ cover. Treat others the way you would like to be treated and you will have a very successful and rewarding career.” (Top New York dentist)

Dental insurance brings patients at a cost . . .

“It brings in patients that are insurance-driven and may not have high value for quality dentistry.” (California dentist)

“Dental insurance brings patients that do not necessarily value good dental care.” (General dentist)

“Metlife has such a large number of clients in our area, so it would be a much slower new patient flow as a non-provider. The large discount stinks. We do get some non-plan patients referred to us though. I find that in general, plan participants don’t have much loyalty.” (Tennessee dentist)

“With so many dentists on the PPO provider’s lists, it proves not to be a source of new patient generation like the insurance companies promise it to be.” (California dentist)

“It brings in new patients, but at a “cost”. The fee schedules are terrible. I currently consider the write-off as a marketing expense.” (Kentucky dentist)

Two things to note –

Dental insurance plans are really not “insurance” in the classic sense. These are really “ discount benefit” plans.

Second, for an advanced dental marketing strategy on maximizing your profitability from dental insurance plans watch the quick video tutorial at www.dentalmarketingintelligencereport.com/advanced-marketing-strategies

Dental practice marketing can be one of the dentists’ greatest challenges and in the current volatile economy — greater even than running a dental practice and managing a dental staff.

The Wealthy Dentist has compiled our top 10 dental marketing articles to help dentists boost their dental profits in 2012.

Top 10 Dental Marketing Articles from The Wealthy Dentist

1. Dental Marketing: 7 Ways To Turn Your Dental Office Into a Hot Marketing Machine
Dental marketing is more than just a geo-targeted, search engine optimized dental website and an effective email newsletter marketing plan. It also involves branding and an effective dental office display…[Read more]

2. Dental Marketing: A Guide for Avoiding Negative Online Reviews
In customer service it used to be said that an unhappy customer would tell nine to fifteen other people about their negative opinions. Today an unhappy dental patient can influence hundreds of people by leaving a negative review on an online review website… [Read more]

3. Dental Marketing with Google Offers
Who in their right mind wouldn’t want $421 dental package with exam, X-ray and take home whitening for life for just $59! I’d sign up personally if I lived in Portland. This is exceptionally great marketing title that grabs the most jaded consumer by the throat…[Read more]

4. Dental Marketing: Google Offers vs. Groupon
Not long ago Google tried to buy Groupon for something like 6 billion dollars. Groupon turned the offer down. Within a month Google started Google Offers. Mike Blumenthal’s blog reviewed the early test results on Google Offers for the local Portland beta test…[Read more]

5. Dental Marketing: Geo-targeted Local Search Strategies
According to Google, 97% of consumers search for local businesses online. A geo-targeted local search strategy makes it easier for your dental practice’s prospective new patients to find your dental website and your practice. But what exactly is geo-targeted local search? …[Read more]

6. The Essentials of Dental Patient Marketing: Dental Office Presentation
Marketing your practice through a powerful dental office presentation strengthens your identity, reminds people of your dental practice and is simply good business. Dental practice marketing may seem — to the dentist —like an overwhelming task…[Read more]

7. 5 Simple Online Marketing Strategies for Dentists
The right Internet dental marketing strategies have been proven to grow a dental practice and attract new patients. With over 5,000,000 searches for “dentist” online, it’s now more important than ever to have a viable web presence…[Read more]

8. Dental Marketing: How to Set Up a Google+ Dental Practice Page
Google has launched Google Plus For Business which now allows dentists to create a Google Plus Page for your dental marketing. Google Plus For Business is a set of tools that can help you grow your dental practice and enhance your dental marketing efforts…[Read more]

9. Dental Marketing on the Internet: What is the Value?
Social media has joined the Internet dental marketing toolbox along with multiple targeted websites and directory listings that are now required for maximizing new patient flow. Dentists measure many things in order to determine if their actions justify the cost…[Read more]

10. Dental Marketing: A Doctor and His Dog
As much as many of you would like to think that you should be drawing patients from across the country with your marketing, the truth is that the average urban/suburban dental practice draws close to 90% of its new patients from within a geographic circle of 6 to 8 miles…[Read more]

The Wealthy Dentist keeps its word. Since 1985 Jim Du Molin has been giving no-hype dental marketing and practice management information that can help dentists attract more patients and better run their practice.

“If the economy improves, as it should, we all should do better in 2012!” said one dentist.

In fact, when asked what they expect for 2012, 77% of the dentists who responded to our survey anticipate a better financial picture, while only 23% expect 2012 to be a bad year.

When asked about the past two years, 42% of the dentists said 2011 was economically better than 2010. However, for 40% of dentists, 2011 was economically worse than 2010. 18% saw no difference economically between 2010 and 2011.

Here are some dentist comments:

Dental marketing worked…

“We plan that each year will improve over previous year due to addition of an associate and definitive marketing strategies utilizing the Internet Dental Alliance web sites!” (Oklahoma dentist)

“We didn’t have a better year by mistake. It was due to being proactive and using targeted dental marketing.” (California dentist)

“We streamlined our dental marketing efforts, increased our marketing return on investment, focused more on internal marketing, and tightened our belts on our overall office expenditures. We will end this year with more new patients and economically much better than the previous 3 years. We are riding out the economic storm fairly well.” (Ohio prosthodontist)

“I feel our picture is 50% real and 50% what’s in our head. If we stay positive and use services like yours we can make our results better than average. How much better depends on our head and the help we get.” (Urgent care dentist)

Implementing new strategies helped …

“We are staying afloat because we offer a very wide-range of services for a General Dentist – Invisalign, Sedation, Implant placement and restoration, CEREC, most Endo, Perio, and Oral Surgery. Without this broad offering, we would be doing much worse.” (General dentist)

“We are down 5% but we completely remodeled our office doubling our space, had 5 of 8 staff members pregnant, losing 4 of them, worked through the construction dust and noise, and were still only down 5%, so I am happy with 5% downturn. I look forward to 2012.” (California dentist)

“In order to turn things around, I have completely had to change my practice. I have a management group I am now using and am revamping office systems. We are working hard to maintain the high level of care we have always offered, but am now participating as “in network” with dental insurance, and am now thinking about profit centers and time management. We are trying for a balance that doesn’t diminish our ability to do awesome dentistry, but it will be more difficult with the restrictions that insurance companies place on treatment. Illinois has been hit hard by the economy, with the “reported” unemployment level finally getting down under 11% for the 1st time in 3 years in December with the seasonal Christmas hirings. The actual unemployment is around 21%.” (Illinois dentist)

“I spent time creating additional avenues of wealth.” (General dentist)

“I will continue as I have through thick and thin, modifying as I see necessary, continuing to update skills, and taking very good care of my patients. While this year was a downturn, compared to many of my local peers, it was truly a minor one.” (South Carolina dentist)

“I am dropping Delta Premier. I tried it this year and I can’t give that 25-35 percent discount.” (Illinois dentist)

Looking to 2012 for relief …

“Our goal is to increase by 30% in 2012.” (New Jersey dentist)

“The first half of 2011 was the best ever. The second half saw a decrease relative to 2010. The trend is for 2012 to be flat, so I am playing it very conservative right now.” (Virginia dentist)

“They must improve in 2012!” (General dentist)

“In 2012 I definitely need to change how I do business in regards to PPOs. I use to be an all fee-for-service practice. That dwindled, and now I am busy, but not profitable. (California dentist)

“If President Obama loses we’ll see a much better economy.” (General dentist)

The Wealthy Dentist would like to thank all the doctors and specialists who have participated in our dental surveys over the past year. We find your insights and comments invaluable and we appreciate the time you take to offer feedback.

We wish all of you a very prosperous 2012!