Email and Internet marketing has not changed everything. They have, however, made it possible for the marketer to engage the audience more fully. Radio and TV commercials are fleeting. Print marketing is static. Both examples limit the experience for their respective audiences. eMarketing can completely enlighten the audience about your brand. This article will reveal how it can effectively build awareness for your practice brand, what it won't be able to do and why you must start utilizing it in your practice-building repertoire.

Raising Brand Awareness Online

There are three ways to raise awareness of your brand online: active engagement, proactive placement, and passive placement.

• Passive Placement

This involves utilizing various local/regional Web sites and Search Engine/Directory rankings. These are passive because the participant has to be somewhat focused on your type of service before they will start "bumping into your image" on these sites. The person who has given up on dentistry because of fear or lack of understanding about the new possibilities will never become aware of your brand even if you’re the top site in a Google.com search. No one will ever search for a cosmetic dentist if they have never heard about cosmetic dentistry or are not convinced of its value to them.

This method can be helpful, but it is less likely to develop an enlightened client base. This is because they are searching for any dentist, not necessarily you. Are you out staking your claim to being the best brand of dentistry or waiting for someone to discover your diamond in the rough? Of course, determining if any of these strategies are for you requires more than asking a few people what they think. It depends on your local marketing options, the competition, your budget, your practice focus and other factors. Here is a list of options and where they come in our ratings of value to those practices that want to attract more patients who want and will pay for cosmetic and advanced services.

1. Top National/Regional Yellow Pages site in your area
(SuperPages.com, Smartpages.com, QwestDex.com)
This is the top choice because they are usually promoted heavily in traditional media. The cost depends on the package you choose: usually a hot link to your site with placement at the top of the search list is $30 to $100 per month depending on what your competition is doing.

2. Local/Metro Newspaper Web site - Dentist search
These sites are heavily marketed, but they aren't top of the mind when searching for a dentist. The cost is anywhere from $10 to $250 (or more) per month for an enhanced link to your site at the top of the list.

3. Chamber of Commerce Site - Member Directory
It is less visible and will provide fewer new patients than the previous sites, but its clientele can have more influence on referrals than ten patients from most other sites. The cost is usually included with membership.

4. Paid Search Engine/Directory Placement in national sites
Each site has its way of charging for this service: pay per click, per page view, per month or a combination of these methods. Some people think that fewer people click on these "advertisements" than "real" search results, but that really depends on what kind of product or service is being promoted. Furthermore, you can almost guarantee a first page spot (without significant costs) as compared to "real" search results. The cost can be from a few pennies a day to a hundreds a month depending on what your competition is doing on the site.

5. Search Engine/Directory Listings - Getting ranked on the first page (the top ten or twenty)
First of all, there are hundreds of sites that you could be listed on. Currently, Google and Yahoo remain the top two search engines. The trouble lies in how each of these sites determines rankings by some type of algorithm, standard or combination of the two. These have changed and evolved every year since the Internet began. This can mean a constant tinkering to your site that may or may not produce the results you want.

Which SE/Directory site is the best for you from a local standpoint? To be sure, you should probably be on the top 20 sites. Getting a top ten ranking is still possible but not guaranteed. How much does it cost to try? Thirty to $500 per month for tinkering and resubmissions - some sites also charge an entry fee just to get on the list. And, even if you are number one on all the sites, you still might not reach the consumers you want.

• Proactive Placement

Banner and tile ads on Internet sites can be employed in standard areas such as on the page where dental searches are performed. For example, if a site visitor at Google.com, SuperPages.com or YourMetroPaper.com searches dentists in YOUR town USA, your banner or tile ad would show up on that page - either at the top, on the side or at the bottom, depending on what you paid for. However, this is only focusing on a narrow group of people that are looking for a dentist.

What about those who want to improve their career, love life, or overall well-being? Are all of those people typing in dentist? If you focus on those with TMJ, neuromuscular or occlusal caused pain, are they necessarily typing in dentist if they have aches they feel are not "associated" with their teeth? How do those who need your services but aren't aware of you become aware? You find ways to introduce your brand that are not typical to the traditional search. Do you think plastic surgery would have become the rage if it had only been advertised in the Yellow Pages - a very passive traditional medium? Here are some suggestions for proactive placement:

1. The local or localized Wedding Web site - banner or tile ad that will show up in categories besides health. Even a standard listing with a hot link in the Health/Beauty services section is much better than the dentist section of a Yellow Pages site. Brides and the entire wedding party are going to be more willing to pay for elective services than the standard dental patient. The cost here can very, but a standard listing can be as low as $10 per month - in the national sites with local links it can start at $50 or more per month. Banner or tile ads can be two to four times as much (or more).

2. All sites mentioned in "passive placement": However, instead of, or along with, a banner ad in the dentist search area, have your banner/tile ad show up on the cosmetic surgery search page for your area, or in a real estate/relocation, singles, wedding planning/photographer or physical therapy search. The possibilities are endless; it mostly depends on your strategy. The cost for this type of ad can very greatly. Your local or metro newspaper or magazine site would probably be the first place to attempt to reach the most upscale consumer. The cost can be as low as $50 per month or $1000 or more in larger metro areas. The localized Yellow Pages search would be cheaper, but it might not garner the same level of patients. However, it could be a good place to experiment with the strategy.

3. Sponsor Pop Up Ads: There are sites that allow a certain number of advertisers to rotate as a major sponsor in a pop up ad. Your ad would appear every fifth, tenth or 20th time someone visits the site. Pop up ads can be annoying to some, depending on the message presented, but they also seem to be very effective compared to standard banner ads. The pricing hinges on the site and its prominence and usage in your area.

• Active Engagement

This involves email marketing. Sending out emails, whether it is to your current patients or to a prospective list of area consumers, can be a very powerful way of bringing your brand into top of mind awareness. Both of the previous types of eMarketing are some form of waiting for the consumer to come to the Internet. This waiting or passive format is much different than opening up your email program and finding a compelling presentation already served up with your entire brand (in your Web site) ready to be displayed. Even the top spot on Google.com can't give you this type of brand awareness immediacy or proactive interaction.

Another exciting element of this type of marketing is the ability to track how well it works. All three categories of online marketing can be monitored for effectiveness. Adjustments and/or reductions can be made to continually develop better campaigns. How many people see your Yellow Pages ad each day and don't call? Did your newspaper ad get noticed and still not work? How many people saw your cable television commercial and then forgot your telephone number? eMarketing might not have changed everything, but it does give the marketer more reliable information to work from and use to make effective changes.

Click here to view an example of an eNewsletter.

eMarketing's Limitations

No one is reading email or navigating the Web as they are driving to and from work (lets hope so at least). Few emails have jumped out of the computer to a coffee table for casual viewing. As of yet, few upscale women-focused cable TV programs are interrupted by a Google.com top ten listing. Even fewer upscale Symphony Programs have electronic pop up ads that powerfully confront the patron as they grab one from the usher.

Therefore, eMarketing doesn't garner every consumer that you want and need. Some day eMarketing might become the only way to market your services (of course, television didn't make radio go away 50 years ago), but even now it has advantages none of the traditional methods can muster. Until television and the Internet really merge, Internet sites and email will offer the most innovative and powerful marketing solutions.

Why You Must Utilize eMarketing!

Imagine walking up to every home in your area that would and/or can pay for your services and offering to present a 30-minute PowerPoint and "laser light show" about your brand of dentistry. Of course, you are actually at home and watching television and this is all happening in an instant. That is the POWER of the Internet.

Yes, some might slam the door (delete your message) and others might throw every objection at you they can (put off calling you for a year or two), but you could do this every so often without any worries (no one slamming your foot with the door). So what if 1000 people say "NO" to your "virtual case presentation", all you need is 5 to 10 patients a month to respond to make your efforts payoff. This might be where they get the term virtual reality. In this case you are the virtual and upscale door-to-door salesperson, but your brand becomes reality for the e-prospect in a very short period of time.

What kind of information does your next $25,000 patient need? eMarketing can serve it all up in one burst almost instantly. How many magazine or newspaper ads or direct mail pieces or radio/TV commercials would you need to send out or broadcast to transfer the same information? Is it time to get on this marketing rocket ship? Not sure? Let us help!

For more information about eMarketing, call us toll-free at (800) 950-7133.

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