WriteBusiness.net Online Blog

Archive for the ‘Services’ Category

Social Media has changed marketing as we know it.  It’s instant, engaging, and presents a multitude of opportunities and benefits for connecting with new and exisiting patients. 

However, one of the oldest and still most cost effective social media marketing tools in your practice is your telephone!  Are you utilizing it to it’s full potential?

Although we don’t want to place or keep a caller on hold, in reality we know it’s going to happen. 

Since your caller is holding, a captive audience you might say, it’s the perfect opportunity to grab your listeners attention, but I can’t tell you how many offices I’ve called (speciality and general) and I get to listen to music  or worse yet, be placed on a dead line while holding. 

Obviously the caller wanted some type of information when they called, why not offer them additional information about you, your team, and your practice/services they may not be aware are available.

Some of the services you can share with your caller:

• Your credentials – the caller may have attended the same school
• Types of dentistry provided (ie. general, cosmetic, family, children, RCT, Perio)
• Infection Control – patients are very concerned about this area
• Your location
• Office hours – early morning, evening, or even Saturday appointments?
• Oral Cancer screening -Oral cancer is on the rise… (ie: Vizilite, Identifi3000, etc)
• Zoom Whitening (or the type you offer)
• Implants – one of the most searched for dental procedures
• Invisalign – let them know you offer clear braces
• Referrals – they may not know you’re accepting new patients
• Arestin
• Laser treatment – soft tissue management and uclers for starters

Even your patients that have been in your practice for awhile probably don’t know all the procedures and services you offer.  Let them know in a short, timely message shared while they are on hold.  Never underestimate what your caller knows, or doesn’t know, about you, your services, and your practice.

I’ve come back on the phone, after placing a caller on hold many times, to have them say “I didn’t know you offered…..   Could you tell me more about it? or Can I make an appointment?”  You never know what else your patients may be looking for…let them know what services you have available.  

Again, we should do everything possible to not place a caller on hold, but when we do these are a few of the procedures and services you can have your callers listen to while holding. 

What additional services or procedures can you add?

Technorati Tags: Building Business, Dental Marketing, engaging and connecting, engaging social media, Livvie Matthews, Patient Relations, social media marketing, Telephone and social media

You’re on the Social Media platforms, you know…”If you build it, they will come”.   You have a Facebook profile and business page, a Twitter page, a LinkedIn page, and you’re on YouTube…life is grand! 

But wait a minute!  Do your viewers, clients, and patients know “where” you are on your social sites?  Do they have you “social address?”  

As most of you know, I’m a 30 year dental business office professional and certified Social Media Specialist.  This past weekend after speaking at a social media event, I had a “Wow, I could have had a V8″ moment!  Like at all events, we had our business cards out and we enchanged cards. 

That evening when I got home and was looking at the cards I had received I noticed a few of them had their actual addresses of their social media sites.  Mine on the other hand had my email address on it!!  What’s so bad about that you ask?? 

Did you notice above I mentioned I’m a social media specialist??  Well, I’m a social media specialist…without one single social site listed on my business card!  So, I remidied that….New business cards are ordered, they’re on their way, and you guessed it….all my social sites are listed on these cards! 

My whole point in saying the above is for you to make sure you have your social sites listed on everything you have printed that is sent to New Patients or existing patients.  Here’s a good example of how it can be fitted on a business card (I’m using my usiser name as examples)

• Twitter: /Livvie_Matthews
• Facebook: /copywritingand socialmedia
• LinkedIn: /in/livviematthews
• YouTube: /LivvieMatthews

OR you could use the social icons in place of the social site’s name followed by your “address”.  Either way works just fine and will tell viewers, patients, and clients where they can find you on all the sites.

In addition to your business cards having your social sites listed, they should also be listed on your letterhead, listed in any printed ads you may still have, links should be in your email signature to your social sites, and  included in any correspondence sent out from the office

Social media is about gaining more visibility, so the more people see where they can find you, the more viewers you will have that follow you!

What about your social sites…how are some of the way you use them for gaining visibility?

Technorati Tags: Dental Marketing, engaging social media, Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, social media marketing, Twitter, women using social media

The 2nd Annual All Women’s Social Media Summit just wrapped up.  It was a blast to share the panel with such energetic and insightful women.  We were asked to choose our favorite social networking site below is a link to the video of our answers.  (The second video from the top)

http://www.facebook.com/beverly.mahone/posts/166450833373957#!/copywritingandsocialmedia

What’s your favorite social site and why?

Technorati Tags: Building Business, engaging social media, Livvie Matthews, social media marketing

This is the age of Social Media and at the heart of social media is relationship marketing.  It’s all about building relationships by increasing visibility, establishing credibility and gaining trust.    

As the shift in dentistry has turned from just running a practice to running a business (which they didn’t teach in school) so has the focus shifted and the emphasis grown every day in your business office from just making appointments and collecting the money to patient services with the emphasis on patient relations.

In the treatment rooms you perform your procedures – preventive, basic or major – sandwiched in around the business office procedures of having seen the patient before and after your procedure.

With the emphasis on patient relations, have you thought about everything that’s going on up front in your business office? This is your first and last impression area, it’s your hub of activity:

• Telephone calls are received and made
• Patients are welcomed and dismissed
• Appointments are scheduled and rescheduled
• Treatment is enrolled and financial options arranged
• Finances  are discussed and money collected
• Insurance is filed and payments received
• Relationships are started, nurtured, take root and grow

This area is not only a top producing area, it’s your in-house “specialist” area…. the actual lifeline of your practice!

When we think “specialist” we think “tops in their field” because of what they know and what they can do.  What would happen to production if any one of these areas above were to break down? Whether or not you have more than one front desk person, the break down in any one of these areas could be detrimental to your practice.

So, if you find production is down, broken appointments are up, collections are off and stress is on, consider this scenario and ask yourself this question then answer truthfully.  Once the patient leaves your treatment rooms, they are in the hands of your business office “specialist”.  Are they hearing from your Wal-Mart type sales associate or are they hearing from your CEO in charge of production?

Technorati Tags: Building Business, Dental Marketing, engaging and connecting, engaging social media, Livvie Matthews, Patient Relations

Social media marketing has definitely become mainstream and presents many opportunities for marketing your business.  One of the biggest opportunities is how it levels the playing field allowing small businesses the opportunity to market like, and be seen with, the “big boys”. 

But although still relatively new there are some mistakes you will want to avoid when using social media.  As you market you business below is a list of 5 social media mistakes you will want to avoid:

1) Trying to use social media for making sales. This is the #1 mistake to avoid. Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube are all about making contacts, opening doors, gaining trust and credibility, and building those all important relationships.

Once you’ve gained your viewers trust and you have a relationship with them, you’ll be the one they turn to when they are ready to do business. Think about it, wouldn’t you rather do business with someone you have grown to know and trust? Relationships first…Business second.

2) Going into social media without clear objectives. What are you wanting social media to accomplish for your business or practice? So many times, businesses will just jump in without knowing what their objectives are for using social media and a strategy for getting to those objectives.

Do you want to gain your targeted audience’s attention? Drive traffic to your practice, blog, or your website? Enhance your practice’s patient services? Maybe you want to grow your practice’s email list…what’s your objective? Know what it is you’re trying to accomplish.

3) Not knowing how to listen and engage effectively. To attract and engage targeted followers effectively, you need to have several elements in place. Here are a few of them:

Be clear on your target market and be familiar with the social networks they prefer to use the most. Let me put that into perspective. If you work out of 3 operatories and your patient is seated in OP 3 and you’re seated in Op 2 waiting for that patient, you aren’t going to get anything accomplished. You’re not where your patient is. So if you are on Twitter and your target is on Facebook… see the importance? Go where the “eyeballs” are… Know and be seen where your target market is!

You must have a strategy and a plan for implementing your strategy in place..FIRST.

You will want to have a practice social media policy in place. In other words, how will you and your employees handle social media in your practice? What can and can’t be said?  How will you respond to complaints or negative posts?

Are you noticing how all of these are building on one another?

4) Becoming distracted. Social media is a powerful marketing tool, but if you’re not careful it can be time consuming and become overwhelming.

Invitations to connect… invitations to events… join this group… attend this meeting… not to mention the games and other distractions.  It’s no wonder after awhile many pages just sit there gathering “virtural dust”. You MUST learn to stay focused. Remember your goals and your objectives. Stick to your game plan!

5) Spreading yourself too thin. Knowledge of the difference social platforms, the different tools like plugins, applications, widgets, etc and the time involved. Time is a BIG factor!

When first entering the arena, you might want to join only one of the social platforms… maybe Twitter or Facebook. Then as you get comfortable with that platform, move on the next. Either way, there are some short cuts you can use to help when you are pressed for time.

One of the biggest helps, is pre-scheduling your tweets using social platforms like HootSuite or SocialOomph. Both allow you to schedule your tweets into the future. Hourly, daily, monthly…whenever. It’s a great way to delegate some of the time involved.

Another is to link up content to RSS Feeds. You can also set up and create Autoresponder messages. These are messages you create to go out at specific dates and times. Sort of like having your business on Auto-pilot.

These are a few  mistakes to avoid.  What can you add to the list?

Technorati Tags: engaging and connecting, engaging social media, Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, social media mistakes, social media mistakes to avoid