Congratulations! You’ve invested the necessary time and money to build an attractive, effective, mobile responsive website that has all the right stuff to entice and build trust with potential patients. But… what comes next?
Imagine your website is a physical store. You’ve built the location, you’ve decorated it, and you’ve stocked the shelves. But your store is on a side street, tucked away in a quiet part of town. Your next step is to make sure the store you’ve worked so hard on gets the attention it deserves.
It’s the same thing for your website. I’ll go through some of the basics and digital strategies you can use to help drive traffic to your awesome new website.
Outline Your Marketing Goals
The first step is to figure out what you’re trying to achieve with your marketing. Do you want everyone in your area to know which products and services you offer? Do you want to focus on a specialty service? Are you working on booking more appointments? Or are you more interested in retaining the patients you already have?
Solidifying your marketing objectives will help you decide which tactics are going to serve you best.
How to Get Users to Your Website
With your goals in mind, you can start testing out a few different strategies to see which ones meet your needs most effectively.
Pay-Per-Click Search Ads
Pay-Per-Click ads are highly targeted ads that, when set up properly are unbelievably cost-effective. If PPC ads are new to you, here’s a general overview.
Search ads or AdWords put your business at the very top page of a Google search whenever someone types in certain relevant keywords. This method is crazy effective because it puts your website in front of web users who are already looking for products or services similar to yours.
There are a couple things you’ll need to consider when looking into PPC search ads. Firstly, how much competition is there in your area? The more competition, the higher your cost-per-click. You should also figure your conversion rate into the equation; IE, what percentage of visitors on your website make a purchase or book an appointment?
For instance, if each click costs 5 dollars, but only 1 of every ten clicks turns into a sale, you’ve essentially spent 50 dollars to make a single sale. If they’re spending well over 50 dollars, this might be worth it. But if they’re only spending 25, you’re losing money.
Social Media
Social media is an awesome way to build a rapport with your patients and get involved with your community. And if you use it properly, social media can also be an incredible tool to build your following.
If you’re not already using your social media platforms to share interesting and useful content, it’s time to start. Create videos, text posts, and infographics that offer relevant oral and dental health information. And don’t forget to link back to your website where users can get all the details.
It’s worth mentioning that only some of your followers will be able to see your posts organically. However, if you pay to sponsor or boost your post, it’ll become visible to all sorts of targeted users, whether they follow your practice or not.
YouTube
Video marketing is on an upswing because it stimulates the user with images and sound. No other medium does that. This unique quality makes it easier to communicate your point and make your brand memorable; studies indicate that most people prefer video content.
Just remember to keep it short. Chances are you’ll get roughly ten seconds of the user’s attention, which means you need to say your peace quickly and clearly. And of course, it’s important that your video ads are compelling enough to inspire the viewer to take action.
Evaluating Results
Of course, the only way to know which method is working best for you is to look at the numbers. Here are the metrics I recommend you look at to determine the success of your campaign. Note that the metrics depend on what elements you’re using in your strategy.
Conversion Tracking
We’ve already talked about conversions a little bit, but let’s dive into some more detail. Any time a web user does what you want them to do on your website(fill out a form, download an eguide, make a purchase), we call it a conversion.
First, you’ll have to decide what you consider a conversion for your website. For example, if your goal is to book appointments, every time a user requests an appointment with a form on your website or calls you as a result of your digital marketing efforts, that would count as a conversion.
Call tracking numbers and Google Analytics can help you track your conversions and calculate your conversion rate. If your digital marketing strategy is going to succeed, you need to take advantage of these tools.
Pay-Per-Click AdWords Metrics
- Click-through-rate: Out of all the users that saw your ad, how many clicked on it? Note that the average click-through-rate varies from industry to industry, so be sure to do your research.
- Cost-per-action or Cost-per-conversion: How much does it cost for you to get one conversion?
- Conversion rate: What percentage of your website visitors complete the action you want them to take? This can help you measure the effectiveness of your site as well as indicating whether you’re getting the right kind of visitors or not.
Social Media Metrics
- Reach: How many people saw your content? Reach can extend to your follower count and number of impressions (how many times your content appeared on someone’s screen.)
- Engagement: How many times did people interact with your content? Interactions vary from platform to platform, but they can include likes, comments, shares, and retweets.
- Conversions: How many people booked an appointment or made a purchase as a result of your post? Without conversions, the money and effort you put into social media might be wasted.
YouTube & Video Metrics
- Views: How many people have watched your video? On YouTube, the user has to watch at least 10 seconds of your content for it to count as a view. Having said that, every platform counts views differently, so your results might differ.
- Subscribers: How many people have subscribed to your channel? The more subscribers you have, the more people are engaged in your content.
- Conversions: Once again, how many people booked an appointment or made a purchase as a result of your video?
One More Thing
Paid advertising is really only half of the deal when it comes to getting more eyes on your website. The other half is all about improving your organic Google ranking through SEO. Check out this blog for details on implementing SEO strategies for your practice.
