What We’ve Learned Working With Dentists
Since VCM’s inception in 2007, we’ve worked with numerous dental practices (some of which we’ve worked with twice).
We understand their patients, what they search for, and how they shop – and we also understand practice owners, how they think and what they want from their marketing spend.
Having met with and advised hundreds of practices and dentists over 18 years, from our experience, we’ve discovered dentists share a lot in common – and sometimes, certain ideologies can limit their marketing instead of helping it flourish.
So, using our real-life examples, we’ve broken down what we’ve learned about working with dentists so far this year (see if you can relate):
Not all dentists understand dental SEO, or are bought-in for the long-haul
We’re typically the company recommended to dentists when their own dental SEO efforts are failing.
We’re not usually the first company they work with – this is because the internet is full of companies like us all promising the earth (and more patients).
However, not all companies like ours deliver, which destroys their belief in SEO from the get-go. Leading them to think that it’s rubbish, or it just simply “doesn’t work.”
Eventually, though, these dentists always reconsider exploring SEO again (because ads are not working either) – and this is where we step in. And our job is already 10 times more challenging, as we have a client who does not trust the process, is very cautious with their spending, and is ready to cancel their contract at the slightest traffic dip.
Our advice
Sometimes you’re right – you need to know when it’s best to call it quits and pause your SEO. By not understanding the industry, it can be easy to be overwhelmed with meta tags this, and robots.txt that… But it’s always the strategy and approach you need to give the most attention to, rather than how it’s actually done.
For example, you want a company that delivers 100% unique, human-generated copy for your website monthly, whether it’s 5/10 treatment blogs or pages, paired with good quality links and a strategy first to target your local demographic. Learn more about our dental SEO.
All dentists want fame, but some might not be ready for it
Every dentist we’ve worked for wants to be a success, a big brand (and a big name) that becomes the go-to in their area (and beyond) for cosmetic work; otherwise, we wouldn’t be involved.
The best practices work towards the long-term, ensuring their marketing is future-proof forever. They understand that it all takes time.
While some other clinics can get antsy, jumping from strategy to strategy, turning ads off and on and never letting the dust settle enough to begin growing organically.
We worked and parted ways with one such company this year (we won’t mention names). They were ready to rank number one, receive a large number of cosmetic patients, and become a big name in the city.
However, the reality was that they weren’t set up or ready at all, with only one dentist on the rota, who was only available two days a week. So, when the traffic started pouring in, there was trouble.
Patients interested in their services couldn’t book – not only did the online booking system not function correctly, but there was a lack of dates available to be booked, and their demographics were working individuals, who would not be able to take the afternoon off to receive veneers. It just simply was not working.
Our advice
Everyone is ready for success and fame. But without the proper set-up, you won’t be famous, you won’t be successful, and you’ll just be out of pocket more quickly. Dental SEO enables you to capture that interest from patients, but you first need to have a process in place to make it worthwhile and profitable.
However, it’s important to also not be overready, which could put a lot of pressure on your SEO company, leading to poorer results.
Some clients we work with would have hired multiple new associates, expecting to be too busy, too quickly, causing more pressure to fill their diaries.
However, SEO is shut up and wait. The work we did this month will only begin to pay off in the months down the line, not now. So it’s also important not to be too ready, too fast.
