How to choose the right Internet marketing campaign:

During the past year we have spoken with hundreds doctors who are overwhelmed by and ultimately can not decide on how many or which on-line marketing campaigns to invest in. We have attended several search engine optimization and Internet marketing conferences and have met many experts as well as beginners trying to persuade doctors based on one or two success stories. All failed marketing campaigns are generally doomed from the begining. High start up costs, overwhelming overhead and business plans, which no one understands, are at the root of all failures. Successful on-line advertising campaigns are very easy to evaluate and generally should take no more then 30 days to figure out. Our goal is to arm you with the proper knowledge to be able to quickly decide to pass or to take advantage of a reasonable on-line marketing offer.

· Different avenues of generating qualified Internet leads:

Pay Per Click campaigns, banner advertising, directory listings and search engine optimization are your current options to gain new patients on-line.

The only concern you should have prior to beginning an advertising campaign is the potential return on investment or lack thereof. Enter each advertising campaign with the goal of breaking even as soon as possible, if the first 30 days do not offer any hope of this happening, the months ahead are highly unlikely to be any different.

Generally, doing business with or agreeing to a long term contract with on-line marketing or advertising companies which do not offer a free trial or at least a discounted trial period, are a risk! Even some pay-per-click companies are offering $25 or $50 worth of free visitors. This option may be hard to find but everything is negotiable. If you are interested in a particular marketing strategy or company, ask as many questions as you can and if possible, find current advertisers and contact them to see if they are satisfied with their campaign. Do not ask for references from the company. Do not ask for their traffic statistics. There is no way for you to be able to verify these numbers. Claims of high traffic or guaranteed success are meaningless, in the end, only you will be able to verify the success of the campaign.

Where to advertise and how much to budget:

Deciding on which or how many on-line marketing campaigns you should pursue solely depends on your "on-line budget" - depending on the successes and or failures of each trial, your budget will constantly change. Try not to lock into an expensive long term commitment with any unknown campaign. Promises and guarantees are meaningless online. The Internet evolves so fast that a proven and tested campaign consistently yielding 20% may yield a 60% return one month and 5% another...

We personally test all advertising campaigns for 15 to 30 days prior to committing to a longer term relationship. Whether we negotiate a reduced rate or have been offered a free trial, the longest period of time we need is 30 days and that is all you could possibly need. Always calculate what is needed to break even! Will it take 1 patient per day, 1 patient per month, or 1 patient per year. Calculate how many patients are needed to pay for your ad, if the advertisement cost is within your initial budget, it is worth trying. Your practice and name should be visible on as many sites as you can afford.

What are Hits Vs. Unique Visitors:

There is a big difference between a unique visitor and a "hit". The only value worth discussing is unique visitor. Many web sites try to capitalize on the number of "hits" their site generates. This information is not important, a "hit" is the number of items which are loaded on a single page on a web site when a single visitor is trying to access that page. You have certainly have noticed the bottom browser bar which displays "loading or remaining 18, 17, 16, 15, etc.. of 30 images) a page like this generates a count of 30 "hits" for every visitor. The bottom line is: the site was only seen by one person!

How much is too much:

The saying "you get what you pay for" is only half true on the Internet. An example of this scenario is bidding for a keyword or sponsoring a premium listing on a web site. With bided listings, depending on your bid amount, you may be ranked # 1 or #10, your #1 spot may cost $4.00 per click, whereas the #10 spot may cost $0.25 per click. These cost per click figures are only used hypothetically. The fact is that the # 1 spot will yield more traffic, however, who’s to say the #10 spot will not yield a higher quality visitor. This question can only be answered after you have adequately tested both positions with hundreds of keywords, this test may cost you $30 per day or as high as $3000+ per day. Spending $3000 per day may be a drop in the bucket if you are able to convert 5 patients per day but spending $30 per day and not converting for months is a complete failure.

Sponsoring a premium listing on a website may also yield more or less patients per month compared to a basic listing. No one can control or determine what drives a visitor to email or call one doctor as apposed to another. Location, Name, Gender, Race, Age, Appearance, Toll Free Number, Website colors, before and after pictures etc… may all play a role.

Making certain that your campaign is working:

Do you have the time and the resources to analyze patient statistics? Is your staff aware of the different marketing strategies employed by your practice? There are specific questions your staff should be aware of to ask new patients. For example:

Q: Where did you hear of us?

A: "On the Internet" is not an acceptable answer!

Q: Where on the Internet?

A: "I saw your website Drsmith.com". This is still not the answer you are looking for!

Your staff should always ask for the source from which they were able to contact you, obviously this is not possible if your marketing campaign consists of 50 different options. Your staff needs to ask how each new potential patient found your website! (give you staff a list of websites or search engines you currently advertise with) Other options are to state in your advertisement "please mention this add for a free offer" or "print this page" or "cut this page out" for a free consultation.

Conclusion:

We can not make any specific recommendations or warn you about which companies not to do business with. But we will tell you about "type in traffic". "Type in traffic" is when a web surfer does not navigate a search engine or a directory to locate a desired product or service. Instead they type in their desired domain directly into the browser. These types of visitors know what they are in search of and take the shortest and the most logical path to their interest.

The quality of a type in visitor is the greatest, most powerful, asset available on-line. Implants.com averages 750 - 850 type in visitors daily. If we were to stop all advertisements and pull every link from all the search engines and directories, Implants.com will still generate between 750 - 850 visitors per day looking for Implant information. The 13 different implant procedures found on Implants.com is the result of 6 months of type in traffic statistics. One or more of the 13 different implant specialties featured on Implants.com are what our type in visitor is expecting to find when they opt not to use a search engine. These visitors do not want to see 1.5 million options to browse through to finally land on their desired topic, they take a chance and type in Implants.com in hopes of finding the implant information they are looking for.

If you are interested in speaking with us or have a specific question, please contact us and we will be happy to assist you.

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