Compelling Content.... matters more than a pretty website

Sometimes, dentists will look at my practice website and snicker over the home-spun appearance and content. Dentists, generally, like websites that have cool special effects and fancy flash animated graphics. We dentists like shiny things and cool gizmos. So, we tend to think like dentists when it comes to marketing. Most dentists create or pay for marketing that appeals to dentists rather than consumers.

Dentists ooh and ah over websites that have "splash intros." Those are the landing pages that will have an animated movie of sorts. It could be an animated artist's brush painting the dentist's name or dancing teeth, for example. Sometimes you'll see one of those little "loading" progress bars with the percentage going up over many seconds, or even minutes.

Here's a clue about those "splash pages." NOBODY likes them! (except dentists) So, unless you're marketing to have dentists as patients, dispense with the fancy moving graphic intro pages!! Believe me when I say that they serve ONLY to ANNOY the typical consumer searching for a dentist. As soon as they see they have to WAIT to get to the INFORMATION they seek, they will hit the back button and find it elsewhere.

Yes, I know there's a little tiny "skip intro" or "enter now" link they can click on. Problem is... THEY DON'T CARE! They won't click on the "skip intro" link. You're making them jump through hoops to get to the information they're looking for.

Content is KING. And, yes, I'm repeating myself. But, a new patient I saw today confirms this and makes repetition of the concept worthwhile. This new patient hasn't seen a dentist in about 10 years. He realizes that he really needs to see a dentist. So, he goes to Google and starts to do his homework.

Even though my website came up #1 on the Google search results page, he visited FIFTEEN other dentist's websites. He didn't want to overlook anything. He picked mine as the winner. WHY? The content in my site was more compelling. He said he felt like he knew me already. And, THAT is the key!

The problem with most commercially created dental websites is that they are simply generic boiler-plate content. They've got no emotion behind the content. They're just dental encyclopedias. The dentist typically didn't contribute anything other than his / her name to fill in the blanks.

Today's new patient told me that after visiting my website, he felt like he knew me. He knew I was "the right dentist." I don't know which other (fifteen) sites he visited, but I suspect they were of the generic variety. When he walked into my office for the first time, it was already familiar, since my website represents it very well and TRUTHFULLY. Nothing fancy. No flashy animated graphics or special effects. It's homespun and believable.

My website has some video of me speaking, which I'm sure helps project my personality and philosophy. Click here for more info on putting this type of video on your website.  All the photos on my site are of actual patients representing my actual work. There are testimonials from real people with real names (rather than anonymous initials that could represent a phony testimonial). All of these things build tremendous credibility.

The "take home message" here is that you MUST contribute to creating the content of your website. Sure... hire a website designer to build the structure of your site. But, you need to be involved in writing the content. Don't get hung up on the appearance. Sure, make it nice. But, in the end, the CONTENT is what will compel the visitor to TAKE ACTION, which is to call for an appointment (or make an email appointment request).

The reason to have a website is to drive new patients to your practice. In order to be successful, there are three necessary steps:

1. Get visitors TO your website.

2. KEEP visitors ON your website with compelling content. And, that's today's sermon.

3. CONVERT visitors into patients by getting those visitors to take action.

That's all for now! To learn more check out The Complete Website Owner's Manual for Dentists.