Your Marketing Strategy Can Save You Time , By Rachel Cunningham A well-thought out online marketing strategy should save you time and money. While staying on the cutting-edge is important to reach new patients and connect with existing patients, diving in without planning will cost you. In the online marketing world, advancements and updates are made practically every day. For instance, Facebook and other social networks recently made a lot of changes and Google revises its search algorithm daily. So how is it possible for a dental practice to keep up with all these changes? Your specialty is dental health, not managing online or social marketing. There are several things that you can do to improve the effectiveness of your online strategy, while also saving yourself some time. The key components are planning and utilizing the tools available to streamline the whole process. Planning Now Reduces Costs Before you dive into creating a website and launching social media pages for your practice, sit down and do some planning. Creating an online marketing strategy does not need to be a long drawn out process. You can create a strategy by doing a quick review of where you are, where you plan to go, and then deciding on what you will use to get there. Start with your goals. What do you want to get out of your online marketing efforts? New patients? Brand awareness? Referral business? Once you have nailed down your top 3 goals, take inventory. Maybe you have a website or a Google Local page that you have not touched in a year or longer. Did your office manager set up a Facebook page for your practice that you have never looked at? It’s time to centralize all aspects of your strategy to ensure consistency. If you do not have a website and are unfamiliar with social media, these are both great places to start. Use Your Resources Whether you are the only dentist in your practice, or have a staff of several dentists, you are likely busy with patients and do not have the extra time to dedicate to online marketing. Once you have determined the strategy and plan for your practice, enlist a trusted member of your staff to help. For instance, an office manager that has been with you for several years may be a great point person to updated your website and create or manage social media pages. If they do not have time to do so, they might still be a great point of contact for working with an online marketing services provider. Focus Your Efforts With all of the tools and resources out there, it’s easy to think you can do it all and get overwhelmed. Instead of taking on too much (managing a website, updating a blog, posting to social media pages, running a PPC campaign, and implementing SEO best practices while also being a full-time dental professional), focus your efforts on the most important aspects. The foundation of a strong online presence begins with a professional website. Managing one or two social media pages, along with the website, is a more realistic endeavor. Don’t try to be active on all the social networks out there or post a blog to your website daily. You will end up wasting a bunch of time and stretching yourself too thin. Instead select a few regular tasks that will help you reach your goals and stick to them. Stay Current What do you do to stay on top of the latest advancements and trends in oral and dental healthcare? Do you subscribe to industry publications, either online or print? Do the same for online marketing. Find one or two reputable online marketing industry experts and subscribe to their blog. Once or twice a week, you should see the latest online marketing news arrive in your email box. Skim the headlines and read the blogs that relate to your online marketing strategy. Don’t get carried away and follow a bunch of blogs since this is the quickest path to confusion and can be a big time waster. News travels fast in the online marketing world, so by following a respected industry expert, you will also be in the know. Analyze Results A high-quality website provider and many of the social networks include tracking and analytics. Review these reports regularly to see what is working for your practice and what is not working. If a particular social media post got a bunch of engagement, make a note and try to create posts that are similar in nature. Likewise, if a particular page on your website is popular, consider adding more information on the topic or adding similar topics to your website. Marketing online without a strategy can lead to a disjointed representation of your practice and a bunch of wasted efforts. However a little planning and maximization of available resources can lead to an efficient and effective marketing campaign. The end goal is maximum ROI using the most efficient methods. Interested in Getting Started with Social Media for Your Business? Get the free ebook by iMatrix today or call us for a free one-on-one online marketing consultation at 1-800-IMATRIX. Rachel Cunningham is a Marketing Content Writer at iMatrix, a provider of affordable web marketing solutions for small, practice based businesses. , http://bit.ly/ZlE8zS

Your Marketing Strategy Can Save You Time , By Rachel Cunningham A well-thought out online marketing strategy should save you time and money. While staying on the cutting-edge is important to reach new patients and connect with existing patients, diving in without planning will cost you. In the online marketing world, advancements and updates are made practically every day. For instance, Facebook and other social networks recently made a lot of changes and Google revises its search algorithm daily. So how is it possible for a dental practice to keep up with all these changes? Your specialty is dental health, not managing online or social marketing. There are several things that you can do to improve the effectiveness of your online strategy, while also saving yourself some time. The key components are planning and utilizing the tools available to streamline the whole process. Planning Now Reduces Costs Before you dive into creating a website and launching social media pages for your practice, sit down and do some planning. Creating an online marketing strategy does not need to be a long drawn out process. You can create a strategy by doing a quick review of where you are, where you plan to go, and then deciding on what you will use to get there. Start with your goals. What do you want to get out of your online marketing efforts? New patients? Brand awareness? Referral business? Once you have nailed down your top 3 goals, take inventory. Maybe you have a website or a Google Local page that you have not touched in a year or longer. Did your office manager set up a Facebook page for your practice that you have never looked at? It’s time to centralize all aspects of your strategy to ensure consistency. If you do not have a website and are unfamiliar with social media, these are both great places to start. Use Your Resources Whether you are the only dentist in your practice, or have a staff of several dentists, you are likely busy with patients and do not have the extra time to dedicate to online marketing. Once you have determined the strategy and plan for your practice, enlist a trusted member of your staff to help. For instance, an office manager that has been with you for several years may be a great point person to updated your website and create or manage social media pages. If they do not have time to do so, they might still be a great point of contact for working with an online marketing services provider. Focus Your Efforts With all of the tools and resources out there, it’s easy to think you can do it all and get overwhelmed. Instead of taking on too much (managing a website, updating a blog, posting to social media pages, running a PPC campaign, and implementing SEO best practices while also being a full-time dental professional), focus your efforts on the most important aspects. The foundation of a strong online presence begins with a professional website. Managing one or two social media pages, along with the website, is a more realistic endeavor. Don’t try to be active on all the social networks out there or post a blog to your website daily. You will end up wasting a bunch of time and stretching yourself too thin. Instead select a few regular tasks that will help you reach your goals and stick to them. Stay Current What do you do to stay on top of the latest advancements and trends in oral and dental healthcare? Do you subscribe to industry publications, either online or print? Do the same for online marketing. Find one or two reputable online marketing industry experts and subscribe to their blog. Once or twice a week, you should see the latest online marketing news arrive in your email box. Skim the headlines and read the blogs that relate to your online marketing strategy. Don’t get carried away and follow a bunch of blogs since this is the quickest path to confusion and can be a big time waster. News travels fast in the online marketing world, so by following a respected industry expert, you will also be in the know. Analyze Results A high-quality website provider and many of the social networks include tracking and analytics. Review these reports regularly to see what is working for your practice and what is not working. If a particular social media post got a bunch of engagement, make a note and try to create posts that are similar in nature. Likewise, if a particular page on your website is popular, consider adding more information on the topic or adding similar topics to your website. Marketing online without a strategy can lead to a disjointed representation of your practice and a bunch of wasted efforts. However a little planning and maximization of available resources can lead to an efficient and effective marketing campaign. The end goal is maximum ROI using the most efficient methods. Interested in Getting Started with Social Media for Your Business? Get the free ebook by iMatrix today or call us for a free one-on-one online marketing consultation at 1-800-IMATRIX. Rachel Cunningham is a Marketing Content Writer at iMatrix, a provider of affordable web marketing solutions for small, practice based businesses. , http://bit.ly/ZlE8zS , via Dental Teach " Daily Dental Info " http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=584235718267648&set=a.578897982134755.1073741843.110664842291407&type=1