As an inbound marketing company, we understand the tactics that ultimately earn you new patients. We’ve touched on social media before—it’s true that an active presence on these sites is very important—but there are some other important things you can do to really leverage the power of the Internet.

Local Visibility

Did you know that there are local listings in various search engines and business directories, including Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yelp, WhitePages, and more? By listing your practice with all these sources, you increase the odds that people looking online for dentists or orthodontists will come across yours.

Because your practice is tied to a physical location, you have a limited pool of potential patients to attract in your area, which is why these directories are so important. Without local visibility, your practice is like a ghost that your potential patients won’t even see. Fix that by prioritizing local visibility.

Website Optimization

You’ve probably heard plenty of talk about search engine optimization for written content like blogs, but did you know there’s stuff behind the scenes of your website that can help too? Things like meta descriptions, alt text, headers, sitemaps, and more can help search engine crawlers rank your website higher in the results.

In addition to optimizing your website for search engines, you want it to be coded efficiently in order to cut down on load times. People with broadband Internet connections are no longer accustomed to waiting for a page to load, so if it’s taking them more than a second or two, they might just click away. Unless you moonlight as a web developer, you probably don’t know how to do all this, but that doesn’t mean you can afford to ignore good website optimization.

Analytics

There are plenty of free or inexpensive ways to track your business’s online presence and performance. One of the biggest is Google Analytics, which is plugged into the largest search engine and informs you about searches and where your visitors are coming from. There are also analytics available for Facebook, Twitter, and a number of others.

Crucially, it’s not enough simply to collect all this data—you need someone who can interpret it properly. Hiring people with marketing expertise will help you make sense of all this information and come up with actionable steps to increase your exposure and capitalize on it, gaining new patients and receiving more business from current patients.

For more information about online marketing and leveraging the power of the Internet, you can always turn to us at Inbound Systems for advice and results!

Relax. More customers are on the way.

~Inbound Systems

 

As with any business, your practice needs to make the most of limited time and money in order to grow. If all you ever do is take care of your existing patients, you won’t have a lot of room left for growth.

That’s why efficient marketing is key, because you can create something that brings in new business automatically. The beauty of a MyProViewer television in your waiting room is that it will continue to promote your practice and the various services you offer to all your current patients, day in and day out.

Better still, it’s fully automated! Once you or a member of your staff schedules the content for your MyProViewer television, it’s good to go. You don’t want anyone to take time from a busy day to change a movie or create a PowerPoint slideshow for the waiting room TV! With MyProViewer, it’s already done.

As your practice grows, everyone will be plenty busy, so set up your efficient MyProViewer now to start working for you!

The MyProViewer Team

It’s What Your Waiting Room Is Waiting For!

 

Many dentists and orthodontists like to have movies playing on their waiting room televisions, because they do a good job of occupying kids.

This might be true, but there are some compelling reasons to go with shorter content on your waiting room television (aside from the copyright issues associated with playing movies that you don’t have permission to display).

1) Avoiding Disruptions

A big risk in playing movies for kids is that they’ll get too engrossed and not want to go back to the dentist’s chair when it’s time for their appointments. You could find yourself getting behind schedule if the kids are resistant to starting their checkups before the movie is over, and a disruption in the waiting room is the last thing you want!

2) Quick Marketing Messages

Think about how long a standard TV commercial is. You’ll usually see a 15- or 30-second spot, which is enough time to get the message across and then get out!

That’s how you want it to be for your waiting room TV too, because overly promotional programming will make people tune out—and you don’t want your adult patients to miss any of the message because they have to head back to the dentist’s chair!

3) Easier to Produce

Let’s face it…you’re busy! All the stuff you do when you aren’t seeing patients is necessary, but still a distraction. If you’re producing custom content for your MyProViewer television, you want to produce something quickly and get it into the rotation without delay.

That’s preferable to taking time off from your practice to do a thirty-day shoot on location in the Mojave desert for a new commercial about veneers.

Good luck with your short, punchy content!

The MyProViewer Team

It’s What Your Waiting Room Is Waiting For!

For the past few weeks, MyProViewer’s blog posts have been talking a lot about how much more competition there is among dentists and orthodontists than there used to be, and about how marketing has become such a crucial part of a successful practice today.

One of the things that’s great about MyProViewer is that it makes it really easy to market your services—sometimes, all it takes is a few clicks.

But your waiting room isn’t the only place where you should have a strong, professional marketing presence. Online marketing is increasingly essential for oral health professionals.

That means you need a great website and compelling social media pages too. It can be pretty overwhelming, to say the least!

The Time Commitment

First of all, have you read any of those articles that talk about how you can be so much more successful by devoting just an hour per day to social media for your practice?

Well, I don’t know about you, but it’s not all that easy for me to come up with an extra hour for anything!

Without automated tools like post scheduling, it’s incredibly difficult to keep up with social media on all of these sites:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Google+
• Pinterest
• YouTube

And these are just social media pages. What about your website? What about all those online directories that your business could be listed on? Anyone who thinks you have time to do your daily job and keep up with all this online marketing is clearly being unrealistic!

Frequent Online Changes

What’s worse than simply not having time to do all of your own social media is not being able to keep up with the changes that take place!

Has it ever felt like as soon as you figure out a social network, it changes on you? That might be because they do change, more often than you might think. Facebook is notorious for total revamps to the site and frequent changes that affect both personal and business users.

As for search engines, Google makes changes to its search algorithm hundreds of times each year, with at least one or two major updates per year that change the game significantly (such as the recent Panda 4.0 update).

The rules you go by for content writing and search engine optimization need to change when the algorithm does, but you don’t have the time to keep relearning all the rules and staying on top of all these frequent online changes. Your time is too valuable for that!

Getting Some Help

That’s where it pays to get some help. You can’t afford not to have a high-quality website full of optimized content, as well as an active social media presence—but you don’t have the time to do it all yourself!

Dedicated online marketing companies can provide the marketing services you need to get the job done right, and all at an affordable price. I highly recommend that you look into marketing services for social media and blogging. The effort you put into your online marketing today will reap huge rewards in the future.

If you have any questions about online marketing or how we can help, don’t hesitate to contact us! We’re here to help.

Relax. More customers are on the way.

~ Inbound Systems

We’re excited to report that the 2014 AAO Convention (American Association of Orthodontists) was one of our best showings ever! We picked up a lot of new business from orthodontists who were intrigued by the marketing potential of MyProViewer.

As competition keeps heating up among dentists, orthodontists, and other oral health professionals, it’s more important than ever to market yourself. We can see that many of you are aware of this, because so many of the dentists and orthodontists we’ve talked to recently are really excited about what MyProViewer can do for them.

We get excited when our customers are excited!

Our business is thriving because we help your business thrive. Here’s to the future and an even better AAO Convention in 2015!

The MyProViewer Team

It’s What Your Waiting Room is Waiting For!

 

In the past few years, you’ve probably noticed how many of your fellow dental and orthodontic offices are running contests. In fact, you might have done a few yourself.

There’s a reason so many are doing contests and other promotions these days: competition.

One of our customers is based in Georgia, and he used to be the only orthodontist in his area. Today, he has competition from nearly seventy other orthodontists in the same area! That gives you a sense of how much more competitive the field has become.

Running contests is effective for a few reasons. First of all, a contest rewards existing patients for staying with your practice. Second, it’s great for word of mouth (no pun intended), particularly if the contest you choose is related to referrals!

Of course, to publicize the contest, you should definitely use your waiting room TV and MyProViewer (along with social media).

It’s a great idea to market your practice through contests. Let us know if you’ve had success with contests in the past or plan to do any in the near future!

The MyProViewer Team

It’s What Your Waiting Room is Waiting For!

Keeping patients’ attention while they are in your waiting room is much more difficult than it used to be, for one very simple reason: people’s attention spans are a lot shorter than they used to be.

The BRIEF Lab has a recent survey out that shows the average attention span back in 2000 was about twelve seconds. As of last year, it’s gone down to only eight seconds! (To put that in perspective, the average goldfish has an attention span of nine seconds.)

Why? Because there’s such a bombardment of information from so many different sources that we’ve been trained not to engage with any one activity for very long.

The Waiting Room

If you want to have influence over anyone, you need to get right to the point.

And you know who really wants to get people’s attention? Business owners and professionals just like you whose livelihood depends on successful marketing!

The question is,  how can you capture someone’s attention within that eight-second window?

Let’s focus on what your patients do when they’re sitting in your waiting room.

As a dentist or orthodontist, you know that the waiting room is a prime example of a zone that could be beneficial to your practice—if your patients pay attention to the marketing messages you’re displaying on your waiting room TV.

Unfortunately, there’s a major distraction that will compete for their attention: the smartphone. Patients in the waiting room are only going to sit there for a few seconds before they decide they’re bored and pull out their phones.

Within that narrow window of opportunity, it’s up to you to craft a compelling display that makes them want to look at the TV instead of playing “Angry Birds”on their phones for the thousandth time.

The Right Content

What content can actually keep your patients engaged? Some of the best features of MyProViewer include purely informative data like the local weather or various news feeds. You can also include non-promotional information and fun facts about dentistry or orthodontics, which relate to your practice without being in-your-face marketing.

Other great content can include eye-catching images or even videos. MyProViewer supports up to 1080p high definition, which looks absolutely stunning on a flat-screen television!

All this translates to a television experience that can attract and hold your patients’ attention while they’re waiting for their appointments to begin. While you have their attention, you can subtly include information about other services you offer—such as cosmetic procedures—to gain more business.

It all starts with those first few seconds of contact. You need to capture the patient’s interest by then, or you’ll lose it altogether. To that end, don’t forget about using customizable templates to make the display your own while still retaining the professionalism that you’re looking for in your marketing efforts.

Now that you know how hard it is to get anyone’s attention these days, you can focus on using MyProViewer to display the kind of content people will tune in to.

We’re here every step of the way to make sure you get a fantastic waiting room marketing tool!

The MyProViewer Team

It’s What Your Waiting Room is Waiting For!

Social media is all the rage these days, but I’m sure the benefits of being active on social media aren’t always obvious. As dentists and orthodontists, you have plenty on your plate without trying to keep up with Facebook, Twitter, and all the rest. You might even be wondering why you should bother with social media.

On the other hand, you want to know that you’re doing everything you can to attract new patients and keep them coming back to your practice. In reality, social media is not just an additional marketing strategy – it’s a key way to engage with patients and fuel the growth of your practice.

Engaging with Current Patients

Thankfully, you no longer need to take out a costly ad in broadcast or print media to get in front of the people who matter most to your practice. It’s as simple as posting a public message on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

And what does engaging with patients look like? It’s noticing that there’s an opening in your schedule at 1:30 and posting on social media, asking if someone wants the slot. It’s putting on fun promotions and contests. It’s offering helpful teeth-related hints and tips that they can put into practice.

Ultimately, it’s about building a strong relationship with patients. They’ll think of you the next time they need a dentist or orthodontist.

Attracting Prospective Patients

According to A.C. Nielsen, four out of five adults are on social media, which means you need to be there too. It’s a great place to attract the attention of prospective patients.

Visibility

Did you know that your visibility on social media extends to more than just the people who ‘follow’ or ‘like’ you? Even if you have only a few hundred fans or followers, your reach could be several thousand, because you’ll be visible to their friends. You will also be visible to people who search for your practice or a related keyword. Visibility makes social media a powerful tool for attracting new patients.

Branding

Like it or not, people expect reputable companies and businesses to have a website and a presence on social media. You can take advantage of this by harnessing the power of social networks to put forth your best image.

There’s also a facet of reputation management in social media. If there’s a dissatisfied patient making complaints, you can use social media to respond and show the patient and everyone else that you care and will make it right. Since most people check online before choosing a service provider, you want to cultivate a great image for your brand.

SEO

As a top-notch dental or orthodontic practice, you absolutely deserve a high ranking on the search engine results page (SERP). With so much activity on social media today, your website will get a big boost in the SERP’s if you maintain an active presence on social media.

That means you’ll get organic growth from people searching for a local dentist or orthodontist. Plus, with positions on so many social media sites, your practice could take up several of the spots on page one!

While techniques like direct mail campaigns are still important, you’re missing a key part of the puzzle without social media. Combine these marketing and branding efforts with an outstanding service experience at your practice, and you’ll find your practice growing and bringing in more patients than ever!

Relax. More customers are on the way.

~Inbound Systems

Our friends Dusty and Nikki Green at Ortho Media make incredible in house DVD’s for orthodontists! They offer a very high quality product designed to be a very effective way to connect with prospective and existing patients.

Stuffed In A Drawer?

Custom in house promotional videos are a great investment for most orthodontic

practices, the pricing varies depending on which package you choose and any

options that you’d like to include. But they certainly know that cost is always a
concern, so they offer three different packages, each designed to get the maximum

impact for your budget. Dusty and Nikki are always willing to customize a package

according to your needs and your budget.

Most of these videos take a tour of your office and then show different techniques you may use. This gives your patients a wonderful opportunity to get to know your practice a little more.

Once you have created this video, make sure to put it on your website! By doing this, you will give potential patients a sense of ease when choosing your practice for their orthodontic procedures.

But, please, don’t stop there! MyProViewer can help make your practice shine, by adding much more value to your investment. We will help showcase your video creatively, and prevent your asset from being stuffed in a drawer.

Providing you with a new avenue to capitalize on a great investment!

Taking Care Of Business

We recently talked with Dusty about a client that has been with us for 5 to 6 years. The team at Ortho Media made one of these great in house videos with them some time ago.

The orthodontic office utilized the video on their website, but was then unsure what else to do with it. They are not using this fantastic video on their MyProViewer!

Having friends in business can sometimes prove invaluable. Of course, we will be calling that office and following up on it.

We understand the value of having diverse content to display in your waiting room. This is why we have Invisalign videos, full screen content, and AAO marketing content that can be mixed in with your custom video.

By putting it on your MyProViewer, the content then gets shuffled in every so often or however you have it set to. By not using a continuous stream of the same video you will be capturing your waiting rooms attention and keeping it.

Recent statistics are showing that you only have 8 seconds to catch your audience’s’ attention. Let us help you make those 8 seconds count!

Now that you have spent all that marketing money on your custom video, use MyProViewer to take full advantage of it!

The MyProViewer Team

It’s What Your Waiting Room is Waiting For!

At the 2014 AAO Convention we packed our booth full of fun, visually-appealing elements. We had two TV’s in the booth. One mounted vertically, or in a portrait orientation, and the other in the traditional horizontal mount.

Some of the orthodontists in attendance had some interesting responses to our portrait TV mounting!

Attention Grabbing

Your MyProViewer content can, however be shown in this mode without giving your audience a crick in their necks.

We designed all of the MyProViewer content to be available in this format for one simple reason. To quickly intrigue and captivate your patients the moment they walk in the door.

Supercharge your waiting room by making it unique and attention grabbing! Showing that your office is different from the moment everyone walks through your door makes you stand out among your competition.

Does your practice need something to give you that extra edge? Let us show you how we can give them something to talk about!

A Portrait TV

Many orthodontists were very intrigued by our portrait mount.

The most interesting question this TV elicited was, “Can I show television programming or movies in this format?”

Well, you CAN, if you want to make your patients turn their heads 90 degrees to watch it!

The MyProViewer Team

It’s What Your Waiting Room is Waiting For!