For some dentists out there, location-based digital marketing opportunities like Facebook Places or Foursquare represents an easy cost-effective addition to the overall practice marketing plan.

Some dentists are already deploying their geo-location identity across multiple location-based environments.

Whether or not Foursquare goes the way of Gowalla or Google Places, all signs indicate a digitally available, location-based identity will help you monitor your online practice reputation.

It no longer matters how you feel about digital marketing, the Internet, advertising; or religion and politics for that matter.

We’ve seen these digitally rendered splotches before, but what are they, how can you get one, and what can it possibly have to do with running a successful dental practice?

We will most likely continue to see these mobile-friendly bar codes as our cell phones, mobile phones, smartphones…or whatever your preferred nomenclature for these ubiquitous – and sometimes publicly annoying – devices that will soon become our number one way to access this metastasizing thing we call the Internet.

First things first…

What is a QR code?

QR stands for quick response; the code part enables you to implant your digital dental practice footprint into the mobile-enhanced digital information superhighway of your local constituency.

A QR code stores information about your dental practice; you implant the info there too.

Then you distribute said QR code in newsletters, direct mail pieces, business cards, basically patient communications; and ipso factor, you are amongst the growing community of technologically savvy and socially available SoLoMo connected dental practices out there.

You see, you implant whatever important practice info you’d like to communicate into the code. Then you implant the code into your patient’s mobile phones.

The implantation into the patient’s phone occurs when people scan your specific QR code (from whatever communication you’re delivered) and see the important dental health info you aim to communicate.

How are we doing with all of this implant talk, do things make sense?

You could direct people to sign up for blog, follow you on Facebook, hang on your every dental Tweet, or simply use technology to connect with your dental practice in a more convenient way.

Did we mention this technology is also incredibly popular…like cell phone popular.

QR codes not only afford you another avenue to open communication with your patients and local community; properly implemented QR codes can also allow your increasingly mobile patient constituency to digitally connect with each other.

And then connect that all back to your digital dental practice footprint…and ultimately your comfy office chair.

How to Get One?

By simply downloading a (FREE) reader application onto our mobile phones, we can then scan any QR code and see the quick results.

So, as a dental patient we need a reader to view the info stored in our favorite dental practice’s QR code.

As a favorite local dental practice owner, you need to generate a code so that you can communicate whatever message it is you’re looking to send.

New patient specials, elective services discounts…whatever message you’re looking to send.

To generate a QR code for your dental practice, you can search for any QR code reader online, hook up with one free by confirming your Bing Local listing, or check out this site that supposedly ranks some of the best QR readers.

Here’s a quick easy (FREE) site you can at least play around with to generate your own personal dental practice QR code: qrcode.kaywa.com – you can get a free reader there too.

Now go read this: (there’s a special message inside)

What can you do with it?

QR codes can communicate your website URL, social media identities, geo-location coordinates, even dental discounts and promotions. Basically the code can communicate whatever message you wish to send to your existing or new patients.

Just like you’d use direct mail or a radio spot to broadcast your dental practice information to the local community, a QR code enables you to do the same thing.

The goal is connecting and communicating better with your existing patients to improve patient retention, and reach new members of your local community to increase new patient acquisition response.

Unless of course you don’t lose any patients, and you have all the new ones you can handle.

If that is the case – in this economy, keep your secrets to yourself. And forget about silly little QR codes, the lecture circuit awaits!

If you’re not that lucky dental practice, whatever message you wish to send through your practice QR codes will probably evolve, change, or expire.

That’s ok, and all part of the process. Getting your hands dirty by first doing the research then generating the code, your mind will already be spinning with ideas to incorporate into your social local mobile digital dental practice marketing plan.
 

In our ongoing efforts to promote effective social, local, and mobile digital dental marketing, we’re going highlight three specific examples of mainstream television advertising that can have a significant impact on your local dental practice.

Technology is merging with user habits, allowing us to instantly connect with your practice and even see what others have to say about their dental experience.

Dentists are getting a lot of attention lately.

Where will Angie lead us from here?

Dentistry hasn’t just gone social; it’s been that way since before the kick drill and chloroform occupied the dental dungeons of the Middle Ages. As far as we know people always had teeth, and back through history we always needed someone to tend to them.

We’re social animals. Whether we got a mule kick to remove that pesky third molar or just underwent conscious sedation, we always talk about our dental experience with others.

We share all the details and even offer opinions on things we have zero idea of what we’re talking about. But that doesn’t stop us…you can’t stop progress, right?

Don’t let your digital practice identity gather more metaphorical moss. Get social, think local, and go mobile.

 
Local knowledge rules

When we search for products or services online, the search engines generally know where we are searching from…and they provide results accordingly.

Hence the virtual land rush that is local search for the dental practice. As with all opportunity, it’s better to get listed sooner rather than later.

How can you secure your dental practice homestead on the local search prairie?

Google Places, Yahoo Local, & Bing Local.

The gold rush is on; stake your dental practice claim while the resources are bountiful – and cost-effective.

Confirm your listings, populate your profiles, and pursue local search optimization. The time to adapt is now or you will slowly watch production drop, and new patient flow stop.

Go mobile

What’s most important about all of this digital dental marketing buzz is probably the most fundamental reason for success. Social media, local search, and mobile web applications aren’t just for the techie practices out there offering video games and virtual reality in the dental chair.

Digital dental marketing is an essential ingredient to overall practice success. If your practice is not taking advantage of these online visibility channels you are missing out on increasing your gross production, plain and simple.

Mobile internet access is growing at an exponential rate, and will soon be our chosen method for connecting to the internet. How is your practice planning to capitalize on this opportunity?

Verizon® kinda puts it all into perspective in one thirty-second TV spot:

Is your practice prepared to communicate with your patients and surrounding community using social media?

Is your practice visible in the most popular local search environments?

Is your digital practice identity accessible through mobile web access?

Dental practices across the world all share one common need; new patients. Communicating with those potential and existing patients in their local community seems to still be in the dark ages.

At least the analog ages.

Or, more often than not dental practices rely on existing patient word of mouth to generate new patient referrals. This is tried and true methodology that still works today, and is more than likely one of the top new patient referral sources for the average dental practice.

Would you agree?

With technology advancing faster than we can keep up, word of mouth is still a proven new patient generator, but we can certainly amplify that word of mouth to go digital – and social, local, and mobile.

How can your dental practice take advantage of an easy to manage, automatically administered, SoLoMo new patient acquisition system?

Get social. Think Local. Go Mobile.

Social Media (So)

Forget all the stats, figures, case studies, and IPOs – they’ll be more, and they’ll all become more defined and easier to decipher as it relates to your dental practice. One thing is certain with social media marketing for the dental practice; your participation will immediately increase your online dental practice visibility.

People search online. People will continue to do so, in different ways. Your dental practice needs to have local social representation.

You’ve heard it before, and it bears repeating – Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are three of the ten most popular websites on the planet. Google is tops. And LinkedIn is not too far behind at #16.*

For a lot of you, you’re still wishing Google would somehow recognize your beautiful little dental website enough to rank it in the first few pages of search results when someone searches for a dentist in your area.

You know what they say about wishes…

Social media for your dental practice will not only complement your existing website SEO efforts by building quality backlinks, driving traffic to your website(s), and increasing keyword influence; it will also allow your local dental practice to stake a claim on (at least 4) of the 16 most popular websites in the world.

Yes, it’s the whole world, and what does that have to do with your local neighborhood, we know. Here’s the answer, as these social communities-come-local news outlets, develop into full-on social local search engines in and of themselves, your dental practice can actually have a highly visible representation within these environments.

Can you say the same about Google placement for your primary targeted keyword(s) with your dental website?

How many reviews of your dental practice are available through your Google Places page?

Local Search (Lo)

Local search is not some esoteric term resigned for the tech geeks and internet marketing mavens. Local search is the biggest change to positively affect the neighborhood small business community – of which your dental practice is a participant.

The search engines – generally the Big 3 of Google, Yahoo, and Bing – have virtually changed the local online landscape when it comes to the search engine results pages. You’ve seen it already, Google Places, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local.

Local search is not some esoteric term resigned for the tech geeks and internet marketing mavens. Local search is the biggest change to positively affect the neighborhood small business community – of which your dental practice is a participant.

The search engines – generally the Big 3 of Google, Yahoo, and Bing – have virtually changed the local online landscape when it comes to the search engine results pages. You’ve seen it already, Google Places, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local.

An over-simplified explanation of this is how the search engine results pages now base results off not only they keywords we type in, but also the location from which we are searching. They (search engines) know where we’re searching from just like they know what product, information, or service for which we’re searching.

How does your dental practice get in the game?

First, by confirming and controlling your local search engine environment profiles; that is your local search foundation. Old news.

Second, you build local online visibility on top of that foundation by incorporating website links, practice photos and videos, patient reviews…and social media. Getting there.

But this is just the beginning, with the search engines changing how they rank these independent profiles within these digitally localized environments, a boatload of time and analysis is paramount to overall your dental practice realizing local search optimization results.

Results in this case being top of the first page placement for desired keyword local searches. That and more new patients seeing your local profiles, connecting through to your website, or contacting your office for an appointment or information.

Maybe an offer or deal could entice the browser looking for a dentist, in both the local search and social media environments.

Mobile Visibility (Mo)

What is your digital practice mobile dental marketing identity?

Smartphones, mobile phones, cell phones, crackberrys, ipood’s, whatever you call them, you better have a digital dental practice identity accessible through these devices if you want to keep pace with digital marketing technology.

And your patients. Second that for the expanding ultra-portable phylum of devices.

It is estimated that in less than five years, mobile access (incl tablet computers) will be the preferred mode of choice for us to connect with the Internet. To see a recent article from the NY Times you can read here, a Google representative puts it succinctly.

“Mobile search is definitely going to surpass desktop search,” said Scott B. Huffman, who works on mobile search at Google and leads its search evaluation team. “The lines will pass, and I think they’ll pass before anyone thought they would.”

Is your dental practice prepared to deal with this shift in accessibility?

The time not to be concerned with such trivial affairs has passed, the science is evident and the people (and Google) are defining the landscape. Action is needed on your behalf if you’d like retirement to look as you envision.

The shift into mobile search optimization, geo-location applications, user-generated content, QR codes, and mobile dental marketing trends as they relate to the local neighborhood small business should be mandatory components of any dynamic dental practice marketing plan.

Your dental practice is also a local neighborhood small business, if you’re not digitally visible, accessible, and relatable, your business will suffer. That’s not fair to you or your practice.

Besides time, what prevents you from taking your dental practice digital identity Social Local and Mobile?

*Source: Alexa.com TopSites
 

No, we don’t mean hopping in the Minnie Winnie and taking local dentistry to the streets!

We’re talking mobile phones, dental practice accessibility, and local online visibility. Rumor has it those nifty little handheld lifestyle accessories we call cell phones will be the leading gateway to the Internet in no time at all. But don’t take our word for it, when Morgan Stanley speaks you better listen.

“Regarding pace of change, we believe more users will likely connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within 5 years.”