June 2014

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The New Reality

Your website is the portal to your practice success

In today’s digital world, all of your marketing endeavors drive prospective patients to your website. This is both good news and bad news. While it’s good that prospective patients, including word-of-mouth referrals, are checking you (and your competition) out online before calling your office, it can come back to haunt you if your website fails to engage people.

The bottom line? Your website had better perform. It is imperative that it reflects the image you want to project, highlights the services you want to provide, portrays who you are, converts prospects to consultations, is better than your competition’s website and is found when potential patients search the Internet.

It’s Not About the Technology

Each time you launch or update a marketing campaign, the image of your medical practice is on the line. In digital mediums such as your website, your professional image, philosophy and business will be portrayed online forever. Therefore, the message conveyed by your website should be carefully and professionally crafted, protected and managed — just as you do with your traditional marketing. Your webmaster may be a wizard in Java and your 20-year-old receptionist may be able to make Facebook sing, but unless they are professional marketing experts with experience marketing premium medical practices, you shouldn’t let them, or the technology, dictate your website strategy.

Website Essentials

As the hub of your marketing campaign, your website should be the showcase of your practice’s sterling qualities. To achieve this, it needs to be visually attractive, with a coherent marketing message geared toward the concerns of patients. Your website represents you and your practice — so it needs to be aesthetically pleasing and show patients what they can expect when they get to your office. Your website’s marketing message should clearly tell patients what’s in it for them if they choose you!

The Foundation

Here are the elements your website must have to successfully convince patients that you are the best choice:

Easy to Navigate. Make it easy for prospective (and current) patients to find the information they are looking for. Information on procedures should be easy to find.

Facilitates Contact. It must be easy for prospective patients to find your contact information and to make the contact. Make sure your phone number and contact forms are visible — on every page, above the fold — and ensure that your forms and links work!

Prominent Call to Action. If you don’t ask them to call or email you, they won’t.

Key Procedures. Be sure to mention the procedures you specialize in, particularly those procedures that you want to promote.

Search Engine Friendly. Even a beautiful website is not worth much if no one can find it. Make sure that your SEO company is an expert in your specialty — and that it keeps up with search engine changes (in 2013, Google changed its search algorithm approximately twice a day).

Mobile Friendly. Between 30 and 40 percent of healthcare search is being performed on mobile devices. Your website needs to be compatible with this growing trend.

Blog. If you don’t already have one, add a blog to your website. Your blog can be set up to automatically add a post on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn every time you blog. A note of caution: If you aren’t willing to post fairly often, this may not be a good option for your practice. However, your blog posts don’t have to be a time sink for you or your practice; a good Internet marketing company can create timely, engaging and successful content for your blog.

Last but not least, make sure to keep it consistent. It’s very important that you integrate your marketing across all of the marketing platforms you currently use, from brochures to radio to social media. Your logo, color palette, messaging and other visual features should be consistent.

Contact Ceatus today for information on how to make your website a portal for success!

Read about our Case Study of the Month

Ask the experts

Q Why do some of the website listings on Google show up with pictures of my competitors, but my picture doesn’t show up?

A Last year Google implemented a program called “Google Authorship” that allows you to include a picture next to your website listing. It’s relatively easy to implement. Just set up a Google personal page and then your SEO company will need to add certain code to your website.

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Events

Maximize Your Internet Strategy

Come by the Ceatus booth for a FREE website evaluation!

Vegas Cosmetic Surgery

Bellagio, Las Vegas
June 18-22
Booth 206

Join Ceatus Media Group at the upcoming Vegas Cosmetic Surgery conference in Las Vegas.

Ceatus CEO David Evans, PhD, MBA will be giving a total of three presentations, so don’t miss out!

Choice Words: Pay Per Click Ads Can Be an Important Part of Your SEO Strategy
Saturday, June 21
9:15am

Are You (P)interested Yet? Hot New Media and Sharing Web Sites
Saturday, June 21
2:10pm

ROI 101: Are You Getting Enough Bang for Your Online Buck?
Sunday, June 22
10:20am

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CEATUS Case Study of the Month

Prominent Dentist Sees Extraordinary ROI
Leads from sites that educate patients are priceless

Background: Dr. X is a cosmetic dentist who practices in Texas. He offers comprehensive dentistry services and performs a high volume of high-end cosmetic procedures. Dr. X has excellent word-of-mouth referrals and his practice website ranks well for searches in his local area. He wanted to build on this foundation by enhancing his online visibility.

Solution: In 2009, Dr. X chose to list in Ceatus’ Consumer Guide to Dentistry Directory for a number of reasons. Consumer Guide to Dentistry is a comprehensive dentistry educational portal that receives more than 300,000 visitors per month and ranks for a wide range of cosmetic dentistry search terms that Dr. X’s practice website does not rank for. What’s more, Consumer Guide to Dentistry provides patients with dentist-reviewed educational information that is clear, authoritative and comprehensive. This is important because when consumers are educated they are much more likely to convert for treatment. Dr. X felt that positioning his practice in the Consumer Guide to Dentistry would build more credibility for his practice and enhance his word-of-mouth and website referrals. Data shows that consumers look at more than one website when researching procedures, so Dr. X wanted to be visible in multiple places online. Consumer Guide to Dentistry worked like a charm.

Results: Dr. X and his staff closely monitor the leads generated from Consumer Guide to Dentistry and have found that the practice is receiving an extraordinary ROI. Dr. X’s profile in the Ceatus Consumer Guide to Dentistry Directory worked so well, in fact, that he has renewed his profile in the Consumer Guide to Dentistry every year since 2009!

Here are some examples of actual leads:

Name: Patient X
Message:
Need front 4 teeth fixed, 25 years with same caps and they are failing and are really crooked. Hoping you can help. Oh only if you take carecredit my ins doesn’t cover this kind of work

Name: Patient Y
Message:
after years of not loving my smile, and after lots of research, I decided that I think veneers are what I need to love my smile. I would like to know the cost of a visit to find out the total cost of the procedure to get the veneers. And I also wanted to know if you did a payment plan since I understand this is a costly procedure. Thank you and hope to hear from you soon.

Ceatus also offers successful patient referral sites in other specialties, including plastic surgery. Here is an example of one of many targeted leads that are received by our clients listed in Consumer Guide to Plastic Surgery.

Name: Patient Z
Message:
I plan to get a mini face lift and peel in Nov.

Call Ceatus to find out how our Consumer Referral Portals can help your practice grow!

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Read about our Case Study of the Month

Father Knows Best

10 Reasons Why Dads Deserve the Best Father’s Day

1. He taught you what it means to trust

2. He’s fearless and practically Superman

3. His fashion-sense is always on target

4. He always remembers the important things in life

Vine

5. He’s your #1 cheerleader

6. He speaks truth in a world of deception

7. His jokes are impeccable

8. His culinary expertise is unrivaled

9. He always made sure you looked your best

10. He gives you all of his love and asks for nothing in return

This is why we love our dads!

Happy Father’s Day!

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Read about our Case Study of the Month