One-on-One An Interview with Dr. Paul Homoly Simply Beautiful A ...

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Michael DiTolla: Glenn, we know that dentistry and the economy, as a whole, are currently seeing some challenging times. Dentistry, in general, is slowing down because dentists are prepping fewer crowns and bridges, and elective procedures have slowed down, too. So, I can understand a dentist thinking that this would be a good time to lower overhead. <strong>One</strong> of the first things that a dentist might cut is marketing, but I’m not sure that’s a great idea—unless you are considering a phone book ad, which might cost $8,000 to $10,000. Talk to me a little bit about the economics of a Website and why, in trying economic times, a Website is a worthwhile investment. Glenn Lombardi: Well, like you said, when the economy slows down, and your practice starts to slow down, doctors look at their appointment books and begin to see openings. But that’s actually the time when they should beef up their marketing. Most dentists—when they are fully booked and everything’s going great and referrals are just walking in the door—don’t have the time to think about marketing. So, when things do slow down, it is actually the ideal time to pick up your marketing to potential patients in your area. If you look at all the options available to a dentist, from direct mail to advertising to the phone book, the dentist sits there and says, “Okay, I have limited funds and I am in a down economy. What is going to have the highest probability of producing new patients? What is the best value available for my limited budget?” And that’s where a Website can become very productive in two ways. Number one, Officite offers a Website package that gets dental practices online with an attractive, highly visible Website for under $1,000. Number two, dentists can advertise their practice or for specific services in their local area through Google AdWords and Yahoo! ® sponsored results programs, which are pay-per-click programs. That means you only pay for the patients who click on your ad and go directly to your Website. In a down economy when most dentists are cutting back on their marketing budget, for less than a thousand dollars—a $100 or $200 a month budget—you can advertise specifically to people looking for dental services in your neighborhood. MD: And with the Google AdWords, can you advertise for specific dental services? For example, if I provide snoring and sleep appliances, can I advertise specifically to those types of patients? GL: Yes, that’s a great example. In that scenario, you want to attract a specific type of patient that you know is going to require a specific service offering that will generate a specific revenue flow for the practice. So, if a patient is having an issue with sleep apnea or snoring, the first thing they are going to do is Google “snoring” or “sleep apnea.” If you type “sleep apnea” into Google right now, on the left side and scrolling down you’re going to see results related to Websites about sleep apnea information. But, if you look at the “Sponsored Links” at the top and on the right, there are numerous links highlighting messages such as “Stop Snoring Immediately! Sleep Apnea Treatment Available.” Here’s one that says, “LVI Dentist Offering Sleep Apnea Solution.” This localized search marketing technology offers dentists a new opportunity to market specifically to patients who live or work in their practice area. Here’s how it works: First, the dentist selects a radius around his or her office— a five, ten or 25-mile radius near their practice. Any time a person within this defined radius types in the words “sleep apnea” or “snoring,” your practice ad and link will pop-up on the top or right of the search results. Let’s say your ad reads: “Dentist Treating Sleep Apnea,” and contains copy specifically talking about the keyword that was entered by the consumer for the search. When patients outside your defined radius type in the same keywords, the search engine knows the location of the patient’s computer by their IP address, and thus shows your ad only to those patients inside your designated radius. The power of this new search technology is at the exact moment when a prospective patient is looking for treatment related to sleep apnea or snoring, your ad and a direct link to your practice Website is displayed. When the patient clicks on your ad, it takes them to a specific landing page on your Website that talks about sleep apnea and educates the patient—all within one click from their original search results page. The page 58 www.chairsidemagazine.com
could describe the causes of sleep apnea, what possible solutions might be used, and what appliances are available. The key is to have a call to action or special offer that entices the patient to either call or e-mail the office. From this landing page, you will be able to track how many people e-mail or call the office by using a “smart” phone number—which is a different phone number than your actual office phone number, but points to your office phone number so you can track and record each call. At Officite, we use this new technology and landing page process to track every click, dollar spent, e-mail, phone call and new patient revenue associated with your ad. And because the dentist designates a monthly budget for terms such as “sleep apnea” and “snoring,” it’s easy to track their return on investment for every marketing dollar spent. An example would be this: let’s say you get 50 clicks per month on your Google AdWords campaign. You can easily track which page each of the 50 patients visited, and then count how many take advantage of your offer and either e-mail or call the office. From there, you can track how many patients schedule an appointment and the services rendered to each patient. What’s really powerful about the program is that it’s the only advertisement opportunity available that, at the exact moment a patient looks for a specific service in your practice area—such as sleep apnea or snoring—, allows you to market your practice and drive patients directly to your Website. MD: That is pretty amazing because if I place a snoring or sleep apnea ad in Orange Coast magazine, one of the big magazines out here, and I spend a ton of money to put a full page ad in there, the people who are interested in sleep apnea may or may not ever see that ad in that magazine. In fact, the chances are probably pretty low that they do. But for a patient who doesn’t know much about sleep apnea, or any topic for that matter, dental or otherwise, they go to the Internet—the encyclopedia has become a relic, a museum piece. You go to the Internet to get information on the topics that you don’t know about. And it’s pretty amazing that right at that moment, when they enter a single word or phrase to learn more about sleep apnea, your name pops up right in front of them. And, as you mentioned, it’s local. I just typed in sleep apnea when you told me to, and it pulled up two doctors right here in Newport Beach. GL: Exactly. Each dentist is going to get different results based on their location. And that’s based on the new local search capability that Google offers. The local dentist can now compete with the national companies for patients in their area. For patients who work or live in your area, you can now market specifically to them using exact terms, whether it be veneers, Invisalign ® or snoring devices—whatever your practice specialty. And it’s not a shotgun strategy either. That’s the beauty of this focused marketing solution. You’re not sending out 10,000 direct mail pieces and crossing your fingers that 30 people are looking for your services. It’s not running an ad that goes to 40,000 people in your area looking for the 40 patients in need of a snoring device. It’s marketing specifically to the patient looking for a specific service at the exact moment they search. Plus, you can track every dollar spent to see what your return on investment is by keyword. MD: To be able to reach patients right at that moment when they have enough interest to sit down and search the Web is really amazing. That’s got to be a marketing person’s dream. You mentioned veneers. For that example, I’m sure you can have “no-prep veneers” be your keywords. There are companies out there that will sign up for a steep monthly fee, which is much more expensive than what you’re talking about, to become one of their approved noprep veneer doctors where you can get referrals from them. But instead you can use Officite and Google AdWords, set this up on your own, and have people who Google “no-prep veneers” be directed to your Website. GL: That’s a great example. Three to five years ago, the only available option to dentists for marketing their practices on the Internet was to join one of these directory sites and be listed in your area with 10 other docs, or maybe a hundred dentists. The good news is that times have changed, and Google has become the number one directory on The Economics of a Dental Website59
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Chairside® A Publication of Glidew
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Editor’s Letter Dentists always w
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Letters to the Editor “Dear Dr. D
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Contributors Michael C. DiTolla, DD
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