BUILDING YOUR ONLINE PORTFOLIO – I truly believe the internet has made living my life significantly easier than it was before. From online banking and bill pay to airline reservations, music purchases and RSS newsfeeds, not a day passes I don’t utilize the internet to perform tasks that would otherwise take more time and effort to accomplish. Recently, I started going online to investigate every business I consider using, and found I am quick to make negative judgments about those companies without a website. This opposition is based on my personal belief that any entity with a solid foundation and modern business approach is capable of providing online financial and organizational information. Typically, I decide not to work with these slow-to-catch-on businesses, regardless of who they are — from an individually owned dentist or physician to a small bed & breakfast. In this issue’s 20 Questions, I had the chance to interview Officite LLC president Glenn Lombardi, whose company is a leading provider of website and internet marketing solutions. Glenn shared his advice on how dentists should approach establishing a presence on the web, and I think you’ll be surprised by the simplicity!

Question 1: I think a lot of dentists are afraid of how much work it’s going to take to do a website because they have no idea how to put it together or even how one is made. How much work really is involved for the dentist, when it comes to building a website?

Glenn Lombardi: The best advice I can give is to find a qualified, experienced web design firm that specializes in your profession. I say this because if a dentist were to use a general web design company, one that does not have expertise in the dental community, the process would be much more involved. The dentist would be responsible for selecting colors, conceptualizing designs and directing layouts. Then, that information would go through a creative process, which can take up to three detailed meetings and perhaps as much as three months to complete. More importantly, the dentist then would be responsible for writing all content for the new website, including a practice profile, service descriptions, information about procedures and treatments — just to name a few elements. Trust me, writing content can be laborious. This part of the process alone can take up to three months and can turn into a full-time job for the dentist.

When a dentist chooses a web design firm that specializes in his or her field, however, the process is quite simple. That’s because, first and foremost — as is the case with Officite — much of the process is already complete. We have already gone through surveys of patients to find out what they are looking for in a dental practice website, including colors, feel, touch, navigation and detail. We also write and supply all the content. With more than 3,100 doctors using our services and 2,000 websites to our credit, we have a well-rounded library of options for dentists — from information on Invisalign^® to detailed descriptions of veneers and general teeth whitening services. We tell our clients it’s anything anyone would want or need to know about dentistry. Our goal is to make the process simple using our researched and proven system that incorporates well-written content with clean navigation and a contemporary, smooth design. All our clients need to give us is their basic information to get a professional, manageable website up and running. And generally, all of it can be done in three to five business days.

Q2: It’s good to point out that Officite handles the written content because dentists are notorious for confusing the patient as they explain what needs to be done. And usually, the dentist will turn to the dental assistant to ask for help or clarification. So, I guess it stands to reason that if they were to write their own website, it may lose a lot of effectiveness, just from the fact they aren’t the best at describing — in patient-friendly terms — what kind of services they offer.

GL: Exactly. People searching the internet want quick, simple answers. Once they gather enough information, they will decide if they’re going to come into the office. Essentially, you have to make sure the navigation is clear and the content is written well, not only to inform but also to drive them into the practice.

Q3: I’ve noticed in my personal life that for every business I want to use or every restaurant I want to go to, I always look at their website first. If they don’t have a website, I actually get suspicious. So for a dental practice, once I commit to Officite and say, “OK, let’s make a website,” how long does the process of customization usually take?

GL: If you sign on as an Officite client on Monday, you should expect to have a live website within three to 10 business days. The only thing that usually takes a little bit of time is a picture, whether of the office, the doctors or any staff members. We usually recommend a professional photographer take those pictures to ensure the highest quality and fastest turnaround time.

Q4: It’s amazing that a site can go live within the span of about a week. To go from having no web presence to having an established, mature-looking site in that short time is amazing. Speaking of time, once a dentist has a website, how often should it be updated?

GL: We feel that dentists should be updating their websites at least quarterly, if not monthly. Like you said, one of the problems you encounter is looking suspicious if you don’t have a website these days. And consumers don’t expect a plain or outdated-looking site; they expect it to have relevant information and look contemporary. If it has old information, the consumer also worries about the strength and quality standards of the company. That’s why, when it comes to a doctor, we recommend updating the information at least quarterly. Updates can include any new information about the practice; any relevant materials you learned at a conference; or, a new technology being offered, such as a laser. The goal is always to make the site look fresh and modern. Another benefit of updating the site regularly is search engine marketing. Each update increases your chance that the search engines will recognize and show more-relevant information when current patients look for you online. Your site will keep climbing in search results, which translates to more potential patients.

Q5: Based on your research, are patients going online to research things? No-prep veneers, for example, are getting advertised in magazines and things like that. But when it comes to a patient moving and looking for a new dentist, are they really going online and using online tools to find dentists who provide these services?

GL: Absolutely. The internet has become the consumer’s No. 1 source for medical information. When people see information in People magazine, for instance, about new procedures, research shows they are most likely going to search Google^® or Yahoo^® for “no-prep veneers,” see what comes up and then read about it. I want to point out, however, that the term “dentist” is searched more than one million times each month on the internet. And the term “dentist” with a city locator is also used quite frequently, too. For example, the words “Chicago dentist” were entered more than 10,000 times last month. That means we are finding in most locations, people are searching for a dentist online. In fact, our clients have generated more than 50,000 appointment requests from the internet.

Q6: Really? 50,000 appointment requests? And that is out of the 3,100 clients Officite manages?

GL: Correct.

Dr. Michael DiTolla: That is really amazing. So, does the patient make an appointment request or can they actually schedule an appointment online?

GL: They can do either. An appointment request is just an email sent to the office; the office will then follow up with the patient. This is helpful for people searching online after-hours. Rather than printing out the practice phone number, they can easily send a message directly to the office. The other option is appointment scheduling, which is tied to an internet-enabled practice-management system. It can be attached directly to the site and allow patients to select and secure appointments.

Q7: So, is there a way for your clients in Chicago, for example, to get preferential results when their patients or prospective customers do a Google or Yahoo search?

GL: Yes, in both cases there are two ways to advertise your site. The first is through general search engine marketing. That means you can buy the term “Chicago dentist,” and every time that term is searched, your advertisement will appear in the paid-advertising space (which is usually displayed to the right or above the organic search results). You only pay if someone clicks on the ad, and you have the ability to set a click amount and a monthly budget for that search term.

The second option probably is more applicable to practices outside a major city. For instance, if your practice is in Laguna Niguel, California, and you only want to advertise within a five-mile radius of your office, you can buy general terms like “dentist” or “veneers” or “whitening” without any local identification. Google now knows, based on your IP address, where a searcher is accessing the internet, and supplies applicable search results for that area. If a consumer in Laguna Niguel puts in the word “dentist,” your site would appear, as long as it’s within five miles of the searcher’s location. But if someone in L.A. enters the term “dentist,” they will not see the practice’s ad because it’s fallen out of that five-mile perimeter.

Q8: It’s fascinating that they can really dial it in like that; the web almost all of a sudden becomes like direct mail, if you wanted to do that. I think people were a little afraid of the internet because they thought they were going to get lots of hits and interest, but it would be from 80 miles away and nobody wants to drive 80 miles to the dentist. They want to go four miles. So this new technology has significant advantages, enabling advertisers to be that geographically specific.

GL: It’s a brand new technology that is offered through Google and Yahoo. In both of these search engines, you can buy any key search term without the locator within a certain radius of your office. This gets targeted local hits to your website that you can turn into new patients. It has become a huge tool for dentists, helping them market to specific terms in their area.

Q9: And as the general dentist population gets younger — and the older guys retire — we know these are the dentists who grew up with computers and are very web-savvy. Obviously they know how powerful this tool can be. You’d expect more dentists to start having websites — and especially well-designed websites. How would a dentist go about differentiating their practice to attract their ideal type of patient?

GL: First, they need to brand their practice. That means identifying what they do that is special or unique, and really pinpointing how they set themselves apart from their competition. If they’re doing no-prep veneers, for instance, and it’s a point they would like to highlight to prospective patients, then they need to brand their website and any marketing they do to that specific area of expertise. They also should plan to buy the key search terms tied to that branding message. If they’re doing sedation dentistry, for example, they should buy keywords tied to sedation dentistry. Or, let’s say they’re doing Invisalign, it’s all keywords associated with that: like “braces,” “orthodontics” and “orthodontist.” So first, brand the practice and then brand the website to match. These two steps will tremendously help in attracting the ideal patient.

Q10: That’s a great idea. Here at the laboratory, we have a lot of dentists who use a couple of our appliances. One is called Silent Nite^®, which helps to prevent snoring; the other is called TAP^®, which aids in treating sleep apnea. This is still a relatively new area for dentistry, and it’s an area medicine has kind of ignored while dentistry was unsure what to do about it. But we’ve discovered that with these appliances, we can stop snoring and we can treat sleep apnea; however, patients don’t know that because they’re not sure if they should go to a dentist or a physician. It sounds like these specific search terms you can purchase — whether it be “snoring” or “sleep apnea” or “stop snoring” — is an area where a website can really be helpful.

GL: That’s exactly it. And that’s a great analogy because it’s exactly the way people are going through the process: they’re first looking up the ailment, whether it’s snoring or sleep apnea, and then making their next decision from those results. So buying related search terms in your area, and including ad content on the right that says, “Dentist treating snoring” or “Dentist treating sleep apnea — appliances and treatments available. Please call for an appointment,” would be a great way of going after that niche market. That is a great example of how it works.

MD: We’re also the No. 1 producer of athletic mouthguards in the Unites States, for high school football teams, for college football teams and even youth sports groups. We also make these mouthguards for sports like hockey, basketball and football, where athletes are required to wear it. Again, dentists want to get involved in this but they have no idea how to tap into this basic patient without driving around town, going from school to school and trying to sell this. So the internet and those search terms seem to be a great way for dentists who tend to be shy and introverted to get involved in mouthguards.

GL: Exactly. Another great example.

Q11: How can a dentist use their website to educate patients and increase case acceptance? When talking to consultants, it’s often asked how dentists are doing with their case acceptance — which generally hovers around 60% with new patients versus 80% with existing patients. Either way, there is an awful lot of dentistry diagnosed in dentists’ offices where they don’t get case acceptance. Sometimes it’s financial, but oftentimes it’s the dentists’ inability to describe the procedure. Is there a way the website can help dentists increase their case acceptance?

GL: A good website will actually address the issues of both cost and education. To start with the cost issue, many dentists feel uncomfortable having this conversation with their patients. They’re really not sure how to position the financial options, and by offering a website where patients can get information on financial alternatives, like CareCredit^®, helps to eliminate this awkward or embarrassing exchange. The patient doesn’t have to say, “I can’t afford this.” Instead, they can go to the website, find some useful tools and come back and say, “I’d like to use your CareCredit program.” Being that cost still is the No. 1 reason people don’t move forward with an elective service, the website can help by highlighting some financial arrangements that may not be articulated properly in the office.

The second way a website can be used to increase case acceptance is through education. How many times does a patient come in to the office, get presented with a case treatment, and then have to go home and discuss it with someone else — another decision-maker in the family? Let’s say it is an $8,000 veneer decision; when the patient goes home, they are trying to articulate what they were told in the office, and only about 10% of what they understood is reiterated to the other decision-maker. By having the information about the veneers, along with before-and-after photos available on the website, the patient can articulate the right message to that other decision-maker. It helps them accept the cost issue and agree to move forward comfortably with the treatment.

Q12: You mentioned CareCredit, which I’m a huge fan of, and that’s a really good point. If I’m looking for a new dentist who does no-prep veneers but I know they’re kind of expensive, if I go to a website and it says something about “interest-free financing,” I think I’m much more likely to make an appointment there. And that’s because I know the practice has some financial alternatives available.

GL: You’re right. When cost is the issue, offering that information about financing options and alternatives immediately on the website becomes an integral part of the case acceptance. We recommend this information is a key element of the home page — that way it becomes an easy and approachable way for the patient to decide which dentist to see. It’s part of that well-rounded approach I talked about before: offering financing information, before-and-after photos, educational content, animations, detailed explanations of services — everything on your website. It gets that patient or prospect feeling more comfortable with the doctor because many of the concerns are addressed before they even walk in the door.

Q13: You know, it’s funny: I teach digital photography classes, and for a long time dentists would want to take their own photographs (this was mainly pre-digital) but they never would get them developed. After a while, I’d convince them how important before-and-after shots truly are. I’d say, “Look, just buy a photo album that someone else did because that’s better than nothing.” You need to have something to show your patients. With this said, I surely can see a dentist thinking, “Well, maybe I’ll just put my own website together and save some money.” And since reaching that decision, nothing has materialized because they’ve been poking around at it for two or three years. When you look at the lost opportunity cost for not being up on the internet — wow. I’m sure you’re probably a big advocate of: have somebody do it for you and have somebody whom does it for a living do it right.

GL: Exactly. In fact, we have a library of before-and-after photos for doctors who need them. We also offer our before-and-after photos to help them get started.

MD: That’s great, because that is really a barrier. You know, we see it at the lab all the time — we practically have to beg doctors for photographs. Quite honestly, I think staff members would be happy to take the before-and-after shots; they can actually become proficient very quickly. So it’s nice to hear that you guys have those before-and-afters and those animations for them because that’s just another reason a dentist will procrastinate and not get their website going.

Q14: Let’s talk a little about the patient experience. What effect does it have when patients can access forms and directions and practice information via the website?

GL: As a new patient is scheduling their first appointment, the staff should be directing them back to the website prior to coming into the office. There, they’ll find a new patient form and a health history form, which they can download, fill out and bring in when they show up for their first appointment. We also give them the ability to access directions, in addition to some general practice information. It’s a good idea to have a “What to Expect” section and a “Meet the Doctor” section. Together, these features make the patient feel much more comfortable before their first visit. By the time they arrive, they’ve seen a picture of the office; a picture of the doctor; been given directions; and, filled out their forms. That makes for a great initial experience for that patient.

Q15: That’s a fantastic idea. I briefly mentioned before that I’m almost skeptical of businesses that don’t have websites in this day and age. Am I crazy to think that or do you feel the same way?

GL: I agree with you: if you own a business, one of the first things you do is get your letterhead, business cards and a website. Medical practices that don’t have a website or have websites that are five or six years old that haven’t been updated really amaze me, because today it’s easy to spot a website that was built five years ago. It has the look and feel of outdated technology, and consumers recognize that. It’s so important to keep that website updated so it looks fresh; patients appreciate the fact that you are committed to your office and everything related to it. If your office environment has a certain feel you want to convey, that also should be consistent on your website. That way, you can feel proud of it and people can get a good feeling about you and your practice.

Q16: That’s interesting. I’m 43 years old and I’ve been using computers at least since college and obviously can’t picture life without them. But the reality for dentists older than myself has always been: get out of dental school, get your business card printed and then hang out the wooden shingle. There has really never been a lot done in the way of marketing. Oddly enough, these older dentists could be the ones who these websites benefit most — I would think — because they really haven’t had much exposure to the community.

GL: That’s true, and that’s the other thing we always recommend: make your website the focal point of your marketing. When you run an ad in your local newspaper, on the radio or even in direct mail pieces, use the limited time and space you have to get your message across by directing readers, listeners or viewers to your website. It’s the best place to educate them and give them a great presentation. In my own community newspaper, which I read every Thursday night at home, I look for listed websites, and if I see don’t see one listed I have to remember an office phone number to call them the next day. But if there’s a website, I can jump right to it. We highly advise making the website a focal point of all marketing efforts. It gives you the best chance of getting your message and your branding across.

Q17: I think you’ve answered the objection for the dentist who says, “Oh, it’s too much work (to do a website)!” Because you guys do it all. Essentially, they just need to provide a few photographs. So I think we’ve gotten past that objection, but what would you tell the dentist who says it’s too expensive?

GL: That’s a very good question. Websites can be as inexpensive as $1,000 to set up or as much as $5,000 to set up. The cost depends on the features and functionality needed at the practice. Regardless, the return on investment is clear: patients are going online in significant numbers and if you can generate just five to 10 patients from your website in the first year, the return on investment is there. Our typical doctor who gets a new patient from the web averages $1,100 in revenue from that patient in the first three months, based on the internal surveys we’ve done. So, depending on how much you spend, between five and 10 new patients are going to give you return on investment. It also becomes a great marketing tool that just keeps giving. Unlike the Yellow Pages^®, where you might have to spend $3,000 to $7,000 a year to be in each book, this is just a one-time investment and a nominal monthly maintenance fee. The return on investment is never-ending.

MD: And in the Yellow Pages, it’s all by seniority. There are plenty of full-page ads for dentists and you really never can get ahead of everybody else. But the internet is really unique in its ability through Google and Yahoo not only to purchase selected search terms and a link to your practice, but within a very specific graphic area and by procedure — whether it’s laser dentistry or veneers. In that way, a website sounds a lot more selective and effective than a Yellow Pages ad.

GL: Exactly. And there’s a lot more people using the internet search than the Yellow Pages.

Q18: Now, going back: you mentioned websites that feel dated. Not only do I feel a business without a website is behind the times, I’d even go as far to say that if a website is without [Adobe^®] Flash^®, I feel that way, too.

GL: A good website has to have some movement, some display, to it. It needs some animation to make it lively and captivating. Now, adding some video is a recommendation for good websites as well, although I’m always hesitant to recommend video because it’s really driven by the personality of the doctor. Some people look good with video, some people don’t. But if you have a strong personality, a minute or two of video can be a powerful element.

MD: That’s a great idea. Are you talking about maybe being able to see some before-and-after veneers via the video? Or what would you be talking about in terms of video?

GL: Well, maybe when you go to the home page, there’s a brief 30 seconds of video from the doctor, introducing himself and the practice philosophy. Then, if there’s more than one dentist in the office, it might highlight the other partners on camera for a quick 15-second introduction. And then let’s say one of the things you’re branding on the site is mouthguards or the sleep apnea and snoring treatments you mentioned earlier. This would be a good opportunity to have a 60-second introduction centered around your philosophy on that particular product, which helps the patient feel more comfortable and brings them into the office. These seconds of video are limited, but they make your message very specific.

Q19: When you look at other marketing services in dentistry — I can think of 1-800-DENTIST off the top of my head — you pay a certain amount monthly, it’s certainly not cheap, and they really don’t guarantee you new patients. They give you a ballpark figure of about 15 referrals that may or may not make referrals to you. In that situation, the patient calls them and your office is kind of described to the patient. But when I start to think about what Officite offers with websites, I realize it’s so much more than that. Patients really must almost feel like they know your practice with a website compared to one of those telephone referral services.

GL: Exactly. They’re being brought directly to you through the website; they’re getting the education and information right there, and it’s much more personal.

Q20: If a dentist is interested in seeing your site or sample sites, what is a good place for them to go to get an idea of what you guys do?

GL: That’s easy: officite.com. It offers the best representations of everything we’ve talked about here. It’s comprehensive and will give any dentist the education they need to feel comfortable choosing us as their professional website design firm.

To contact Glenn Lombardi or inquire about the website services offered by Officite LLC, call 888-738-8835 or email GLombardi@officite.com.