Internet Marketing:The cost-effective business booster

Source: Contemporary Esthetics

Over 70 million people use the Web every day, according to a 2005 report conducted by Pew Research,1 yet relatively few dentists use the Internet to proactively market their practice. The reason: Many think it means investing a lot of time and money-without clear results.

Some companies will charge dentists about $1000 monthly to design and host a Web site. Meanwhile, online dental ad services require dentists to pay up to $2000 for 6 to 12 referrals per month. Of course, there's no way to know how many of the referrals convert into patients, which means you must commit to spending up to $24,000 a year without knowing the outcome. No wonder so many dentists don't give Internet marketing a second thought.

But some dentists have discovered a way to make Internet marketing a cost-effective business builder. They're using something new: pay-for-performance advertising, which means dentists only pay when they reach their desired results, including increased brand awareness or new patient phone calls. And it doesn't require a huge time investment.

Pay-for-performance methods can be tailored to fit dentists' needs. This is especially important for esthetic dentists, whose business is mostly based on new patients seeking one-time procedures. As more people hit the Web to find dentists, dentists who hit the Web to advertise will be well-positioned to build their business now and into the future.

Square One
Starting an Internet marketing campaign can be challenging. The biggest mistake dentists make is starting without a defined goal. If the goal is to increase brand awareness in a major city, this would require a different strategy than one focusing on finding new patients. By establishing goals early, it's easier to spend money more appropriately. Otherwise, it's like going to buy a car without any model or price in mind. Before you know it, the salesperson convinces you to buy a Porsche that you're only going to drive to the grocery store on Sundays.

Once the goal is set, it's time to crunch the numbers. The key to spending advertising dollars wisely is measuring return on investment (ROI). Dentists should identify their desired business results, decide how much they want to spend to achieve them, and select a pay-for-performance model and partner that best fits this plan.

To help dentists decide which pay-for-performance method is right for them, they must first understand the advantages and disadvantages of each. Pay-for-performance advertising is broken into 3 major types: pay-per-click, call-forwarding pay-per-call, and search-oriented pay-per-call. Each works differently depending on dentists' goals.

Pay-Per-Click
Pay-per-click places ads on search engines, such as Google and Yahoo!, to drive people to the dentist's Web site. Most Internet users are familiar with this list of ads, also known as the "sponsored links" section, that appears on the right side or top of the results page when running a Google search.

Here's how pay-per-click works: dentists bid on keywords they believe potential patients would type when searching for a dentist. The keywords are related to the dentist's business. For example, an esthetic dentist would bid on keywords such as "esthetic dentist" or "cosmetic dentist." Keep in mind that other esthetic dentists are probably bidding on the same words.

When someone searches for a keyword, ads by the top 5 to 10 dentists bidding on that keyword appear on the search results page. The ads are listed by the amount of the bid, highest to lowest. When users click the ad, they are taken to the dentist's Web site. The dentist pays the keyword bid price, typically $8 to $12 a click, only when someone clicks their ad-hence the name pay-per-click.

Although popular, pay-per-click is not flawless. It has several drawbacks, including the investment in time and money and an undefined ROI.

Time and Money Investment - The cost of each click follows the law of supply and demand. A popular keyword, such as "dentist," is typed more often than something specific like "tooth whitening dentist in Chicago." This makes popular keywords expensive, typically running $8 per click and up.

Less popular keywords aren't typed as often, so they're usually less expensive. But that also means fewer people will see the ad.

It's important to note that dentists can control their budget by capping how much they spend daily, weekly, or monthly. For example, if the dentist wants to spend no more than $500 one month, and he or she is paying $10 per click, 50 people can click the ad. But once that limit is reached, Google takes down the ad.

Here's where pay-per-click can get expensive-if the dentist's goal was to attract new patients, and 50 people click the ad, how many of those 50 people will actually seek an appointment? This metric is based on a number of factors, including the quality of the site, the targeted geography for the ad, and unpredictable patient behavior. Industry norms would predict a conversion rate between 1% and 5%. This will lead to a cost per patient acquisition of $200 to $600.

However, if the goal is brand awareness and not patient acquisition, that same pay-per-click campaign will look very different. In a well-run pay-per-click campaign, if 100 people see an advertisement on their search results page, approximately 2 will actually click on the ad and come to the site. In this case, the dentist would have paid only $0.20 to be visible to each person who is searching dental related words in a geographic area.

Setting goals up-front will help evaluate whether pay-per-click is a viable option and allow dentists to determine how much they should be willing to pay for a desired outcome.

Undefined ROI - If dentists are looking for more than just exposure and brand awareness, it can be difficult to determine ROI from a pay-per-click campaign. How is it possible to track the number of new patients received based on clicking an advertisement? While dentists can always ask new patients how they heard about the practice, it's difficult to create an exact match between advertising cost and the resulting new patients.

When dentists pay for performance with pay-per-click there is a disconnect between the performance being paid for and the overall goal. The dentist is paying for a visit to a Web site when the overall goal may not be site views, but rather, winning new patients. The closer the link that can be shown from payment to desired outcome, the easier it is for dentists to spend marketing money wisely and achieve the desired goals cost-effectively.

Call-Fowarding Pay-Per-Call
Another pay-for-performance method is pay-per-call. This is divided into 2 types: call forwarding and search-oriented.

Call forwarding services such as YellowPages.com display dentists' ads with a toll-free telephone number. When users click the ads, they see a brief information page about the practice.

When someone calls the number, the pay-per-call service forwards the call to the practice. The dentist pays for each forwarded phone call. Call prices vary between $10 and $20 each. For dentists, the conversion ratio of new patients seeking an appointment is about 10%, a significant improvement over pay-per-click's 5%. At that rate, each new patient can cost between $100 and $200 when recruited through call forwarding.

However, as with pay-per-click, dentists wind up paying for undesirable traffic. Not only are new patients calling, but so are telemarketers, equipment companies, and even competitors who want to drive up costs. Plus, dentists pay for calls that come through after hours. Many call-forwarding pay-per-call companies require long-term contracts that do not let dentists set daily, weekly, or monthly budgets, making it harder to control their marketing spending with call-forwarding.

Search-Oriented Pay-Per-Call
A newer and more cost-effective strategy is search-oriented pay-per-call. Users log onto specific Web sites, such as www.BRINGOdentist.com, where they enter their zip code and service criteria, including payment method and preferred appointment time.

These services then search their wide databases of prescreened, qualified dentists for those that match the user's service criteria. The user is connected via telephone to the appropriate dental practice to schedule an appointment. This means every phone call is a patient seeking an appointment-making the conversion rate 100% when getting a prospective patient on the phone. Then, it's up to the office to turn this prospect into a new patient. At that rate, each new patient costs the price of a search-oriented call, which is about $30 to $50 each.

This type of pay-for-performance advertising also cuts out the middleman, so dentists know right away how patients found them-giving an exact ROI. Likewise, dentists can decide upfront if they want to accept the new patient, and are only charged for connected calls, so there are no surprise fees.

Search-oriented pay-per-call has several other benefits. It brings dentists closer to charging them for what they really want-new patients-and eliminates building a Web site, running an in-house marketing campaign, and suffering abandonment.

Selecting the Right Model
Each pay-for-performance marketing model serves different goals. Pay-per-click is better suited for dentists who are Web savvy and want to increase their brand awareness by getting their name and messages out in public. With more people coming online everyday, Web sites are a key way to increase exposure. With bids on the right keywords, Google ads are a good way to increase Web site traffic.

Pay-per-click is also suited for dentists who have a marketing background, in-house marketing director, or ad agency help. Knowing effective advertising keywords is essential for a successful pay-per-click marketing campaign, so most individual dentists should consider hiring a company to help them design and manage this.

On the other hand, some dentists simply want new patients, and are not as concerned about brand awareness. They want someone to pick up the phone and make an appointment, and they don't necessarily need a Web site to accomplish that. Pay-per-call is a great option when dentists are focused on new patient acquisition.

Both call-forwarding and search-oriented pay-per-call serve this purpose because they do not require a Web site, and payment is associated only with a desired outcome-getting a phone call from a prospective patient. However, call-forwarding pay-per-call can be less cost-effective because the dentist does not have any control over whether it is a patient calling or a telemarketer. In addition, dentists will often have to sign longer contracts without the ability to set spending limits.

Search-oriented pay-per-call is best-suited for dentists who focus on the lowest cost-per-patient acquisition, who want to participate in a pay-for-performance plan instead of committing up-front money, and those who have little or no time to spend on marketing efforts. Because the service provider handles all the work for the advertiser, dentists only have to make sure they have a competent receptionist at the phone at all times. And most of all, it provides one-to-one ROI. Every call is a new prospective patient on the telephone looking for an appointment.

Clearly, the Web isn't just for researching new dental procedures. It can also build business. And as more dentists turn to pay-for-performance models for their marketing goals, practices that don't jump online now might find their practice out of luck-and out of new patients-in the near future.

With the right method in place, dentists can leave the marketing to the experts and focus on caring for the patients-and filling their waiting rooms

Reference 1. Rainie L, Horrigan J. Reports: Internet Revolution. A decade of adoption: How the internet has woven itself into American life. January 2005. Available at: www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/148/report_display.asp. Accessed April 12, 2007.

BRINGO plasticsurgeon is a Bringo.com company