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

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