woman-Thick-Frame-Glasse

Does Your Optometry Website Need a Virtual Assistant?

/0 Comments/in , /by

Your optometry website should be attractive to potential clients. This means it must be user-friendly as well as fast and informative. Visitors to your site should navigate pages to find the information they need without making unnecessary clicks. One way of ensuring this happens is to add a virtual assistant, sometimes called a chatbot or virtual agent, to your site.

Adding a virtual assistant to your website benefits both you and your customers in multiple ways, including:
Customers are able to find answers to their questions anytime of the night or day.

  • Phone calls and email questions to your optometry office are decreased.
    You and your employees spend less time fielding inquiries.
    Consumer satisfaction rates increase.

Consumers love interacting with well-built websites, and studies have shown that not only do millions of people shop for goods and services online, but more and more, they’re adding phrases such as “near me,” “open now,” and “nearby” to their requests. This is why your optometry website must provide instant access to your daily hours of operation, your brick-and-mortar location, and the services you provide. This information needs to be easy to find, and your website must be responsive and simple to use. A virtual assistant is your first line of defense.

What Does a Virtual Website Assistant Do?

Your virtual assistant is usually an animated character that pops up when visitors to your site spend time on a page.woman-Thick-Frame-Glasse It’s capable of starting a chat session and providing answers to simple questions via hyperlinks to the correct page. In this way, consumers don’t waste time clicking from page to page to find the answer they need. Chatbots such as these use artificial intelligence to provide solutions to consumer problems.

How Do I Add a Virtual Assistant to My Website?

You can partner with a marketing company such as Digital Healthcare Solutions to create a chatbot that guides clients around your optometry website. You can even customize what your animated character will say by submitting a greeting and keywords that pertain to your site. This ensures that someone is always available online to answer simple questions and provide a basic level of customer service. Better, you won’t have to pay an employee to constantly monitor the site.

Contact Digital Healthcare Solutions Today

Digital Healthcare Solutions can improve the way your optometry website looks and performs, and we’re eager to discuss options for tweaking your online presence. Contact us today for a professional consultation.
—

https://www.chatbots.org/virtual_assistant/
https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics

dental-mother-daughter

6 Effective Dental Marketing Ideas

/0 Comments/in /by

Today, a successful dental marketing campaign requires practices to combine online advertising methods with traditional advertising techniques. Below are six dental marketing tactics that are simple, actionable and highly effective for growing any dental practice.

1. Engage the Local Community

Making a dental practice visible within the community can be accomplished by sponsoring a local baseball team. Bydental-mother-daughter purchasing shirts for the team and adding the practice’s logo, the advertising information is now directly in front of parents who have children needing dental care. Another way to gain new patients is by stapling a child-size toothbrush to a custom-designed postcard with information about the importance of biannual dental cleanings. This advertising method can also be used when targeting teens and adults.

2. Build a Social Media Presence

Incorporating social media into a practice’s marketing plan is one of the best ways to build awareness. By creating social media posts, practices can highlight the benefits their patients receive as well as any unique qualities that will place them above their competitors. Consider creating posts to acknowledge staff birthdays and major holidays. In addition, practices can recognize celebrations that specifically relate to dental care (e.g., National Dental Hygiene Month, etc.).

Be sure to include photos of smiling staff members as well as pictures to demonstrate the practice’s welcoming atmosphere and office’s chic interior. By providing these visually-appealing photos, potential patients may be more inclined to schedule an appointment.

3. Create an Easy-to-Use, Informative Site

While traditional dental marketing prefers brick-and-mortar offices, a successful digital marketing campaign requires that the practice optimize its website’s capabilities.

Since the practice’s website is frequently the first point of interaction with a potential patient, the content and photos on the site must appear professional. In addition, the site must be easy to navigate.

4. Create Monthly Newsletters

Monthly newsletters are vital to a practice’s marketing strategy. The purpose of a newsletter is to maintain top-of-mind awareness and preserve relationships. These newsletters should be easy to read, helpful and, whenever possible, fun. With a newsletter, a practice can keep patients familiar with their dental staff, inform patients of current specials, new products and upcoming events (e.g., A Halloween Candy Buyback, etc.).

5. Provide Patients with Appointment Reminders

Whether providing patients with appointment reminders via a mailed postcard, a phone call, a text message or an email, these communications are essential to ensuring a patient arrives for his or her scheduled appointment. These same methods can be used to remind patients that it is time to make an appointment (e.g., for their bi-annual cleaning, etc.).

6. Mailed Offers and Postcards — Direct Mail

Despite the regular use of social media for advertising purposes, direct mail is still a feasible method for advertising, especially when it comes to Baby Boomers. Direct mail advertisements should draw attention to the practice’s specialty as well as outline any competitive price points.

—

 

  1. https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2016/11/30/dental-marketing-ideas
  2. https://www.cardinaldigitalmarketing.com/blog/10-dental-marketing-strategies-you-can-implement-right-now/
  3. https://mysocialpractice.com/2020/04/7-dental-marketing-ideas-you-can-work-on-from-home/
  4. https://markitors.com/dental-marketing-strategy/
  5. https://www.ccpedo.com/october-national-dental-hygiene-month/
  6. http://www.halloweencandybuyback.com/
low-vision-forest

5 Things Optometry Websites Do Wrong With their Blog

/0 Comments/in /by

  As an optometry clinic, your website is usually the first opportunity for people to get to know you. It’s why having a streamlined, aesthetically pleasing, and easy-to-navigate site is critical for getting patients in the door.

Another helpful factor? Having a compelling, high quality, value-rich blog! Here are five things optometry clinics get wrong when it comes to their blog:

low-vision-forest

1. Not Having One

A blog is an excellent tool that can:

  • Improve your ranking on Google and other search engines
  • Provide value to your clients
  • Educate your customers

And more! In today’s world, the risk of not having a blog far outweighs the hassle of keeping one going. Fortunately, blogs aren’t all that difficult to manage—and consulting with a digital marketing agency makes it even easier for you and your team.

2. Not Updating Regularly

Keeping your blog updated encourages readers to keep coming back. We encourage optometry clinics to schedule new posts at least two to three times per week to keep their content fresh and up-to-date.

3. Not Making Their Blogs SEO-Friendly

You need to make your blog visible and easy to find among all the other content on the internet. Becoming savvy with SEO—or collaborating with a digital marketing company that has advanced SEO insights—can help you stand out among the competition.

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” SEO basically refers to best-practice strategies that make it easier for people to find your website, including:

  • Keyword-rich tags, meta descriptions, and URLs
  • Inbound links to other pages on your website
  • Outbound links to other related websites (ideally reputable and professional ones like the American Optometric Association)
  • Enhanced image quality

4. Not Making the Blog Reader-Friendly

Reading a huge block of text is hard to do! Great blog posts that readers want to read are concise, grammatically correct, and broken up into short paragraphs. Bullet points and subheadings also make your content easier to digest.

5. Not Discussing Relevant Topics

What is your community interested in? What are their biggest areas of concern when it comes to their vision and eye health? Be sure your blog content speaks to your customers’ needs and goals. This provides genuine value for them and establishes you as a reliable resource and a trustworthy provider.

Digital Healthcare Professionals is here to help build your online presence, connect with your audience, and provide value for your existing and future clients. Contact us at 858-480-9804 if you’d like to upgrade your optometry blog and elevate your reader’s experience.

dentist and client

5 Things Dentists Should Communicate To Their Audience During COVID-19

/0 Comments/in /by

2020 brought a lot of changes for dentist offices, and with the way COVID-19 is going we can expect these changes to continue. In fact, the American Dental Association projects that U.S. dental care spending could decline by as much as 20 percent in 2021.

But pandemic or not, people still need (and want) their routine dental cleanings and other dental services.

The problem is, many current and prospective clients might be uneasy about visiting the dentist. Some may not even be sure if they can visit the dentist, depending on local or state regulations and mandates.

What this means is that it’s more important than ever to communicate with your customers clearly and frequently. Let them know what’s going on around your dental office and what you’re doing to keep patients and staff safe.

Need some ideas? Here are five things we think all dental offices should inform their customers about in the era of COVID-19.

1. Current Hours of Operation

Have your hours of operation changed recently? Be sure to update this everywhere customer inquiries may occur, including your:

  • Website
  • Social media
  • Automated voice messaging services
  • Search engine business info
  • Email newsletters
  • Physical signage
  • Any paid advertisements

2. Changes in Patient/Visitor Policies

Let your customers know if you’ve initiated any new visitation requirements, such as pre-appointment quarantining or COVID-19 testing, restricted visitor policies, reduced in-office capacity, and more.

3. How Patient and Staff Safety is Being Optimized

Reassure patients and staff that you’re doing everything in your power to reduce the risk of infectious disease spread. Possible changes to highlight include:

  • Updated hygiene and cleaning practices
  • Updated aerosol extraction devices or technology
  • Social distancing measures
  • Additional in-office hand sanitizing stations

4. The Potential Risks of Delaying Dental Care

Putting off necessary cleanings and other types of dental care due to a fear of visiting the office can lead to costly consequences down the road for your patients. Now is a good time to encourage patients to seek care if they have any concerns.

5. Any Special Offers and Discounts

If your office offers discounts, promotions, or special packages, showcase them early and often on your website and social media accounts. Special pricing and services could be especially beneficial right now for any customers who are struggling financially due to COVID-19 but are still in need of dental care.

 

Stay relevant, stay visible, stay safe, and stay operational. Contact Digital Healthcare Professionals at 858-480-9804 if you’d like to discover how we can help you grow your practice, improve your website, and keep your community in-the-know during this rapidly evolving time.

Link Building Image

The Importance of Link Building for Dental Practice Websites

/0 Comments/in /by

In general, link building involves creating links between websites or webpages using hyperlinks within the content. Your dental practice website could benefit from proper link building, but why is that the case? Here is a look at some of the reasons why having good link-building strategies in place is important for your website.

Link Building Image

Link building onsite helps site visitors navigate between pages.

Internal linking involves simply installing links in your content that lead to other pages on the same website. For example, if you have a blog that covers the topic of tooth extractions, a link leading back to the service page on extractions on your website could be logically placed within the text. If the reading visitor reads your blog and then wants to know more about tooth extractions at your site specifically, they can easily navigate to that page. Likewise, internal links installed in call-to-actions could lead the visitor to a “contact” or “request an appointment” page.

Link building enhances the rankings of your website on major search engines.

The more times web users are led to your website, the better. Therefore, if you have backlinks placed on other pertinent websites that lead to your site, you may automatically get a boost in traffic. In addition, big search engines like Google use crawlers to find your links among other websites. And these links can automatically mean that Google will see your website as more important and worthy for a higher ranking in search engine results pages.

Link building helps keep visitors on your website longer.

Bringing visitors to your practice website from multiple backlink points is always a good thing. However, internal links help keep a visitor on your site for longer periods of time. For instance, a visitor may be led to your dental website after searching out information about dental implants and finding your blog listed in search results. Once they are reading the blog, the built-in links to other informational pieces within the text can retain their attention and hold them on your website for longer periods.

Let’s Talk About Your Dental Office’s Digital Marketing Strategy 

When it comes down to it, a number of small factors affect how well your dental practice’s website performs. Link-building may be a small objective, but it is an objective that can yield effective boosts for your site rankings among search engines. If you are ready to see your dental practice website better perform, reach out to us at the Digital Healthcare Professionals for help.