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Dental marketing in 2013: Your website is your smile

According to an in-depth eye-tracking research study at Missouri University of Science and Technology, it takes a website user less than two-tenths of a second to form a first impression when viewing a website and only 2.6 seconds for a user’s eyes to land on an area of a website that impacts his or her first impression. (DTI/Photo The Goodness Company)
Patrick Goodness, USA

Patrick Goodness, USA

Tue. 2 July 2013

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In a recent survey conducted by www.match.com, more than 5,000 American single adults, both male and female, were asked how they judge members of the opposite sex for attraction and compatibility. Seventy-one percent of women and 58 percent of men rated the smile as the most important attribute for measuring attractiveness. For those in the dental marketing industry, this report comes as no surprise.

Additional support for the importance of a beautiful smile comes to us from a survey by the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AACD).

This survey concludes that nine out of every 10 adults in the United States consider an attractive smile to be an important social asset and eight out of 10 believe that an unattractive smile makes a person less appealing to the opposite sex.

Is your website's first impression attracting the right patients?

It is clear that a beautiful, white smile is critical to overall attraction and to making a successful first impression. But in the world of dental marketing, how important is your dental clinic’s website in making the critical first impression and to attracting the right patient?

According to Dr. Hong Sheng, who conducted an in-depth eye-tracking research study at Missouri University of Science and Technology, it takes a website user less than two-tenths of a second to form a first impression when viewing a website and only 2.6 seconds for a user's eyes to land on an area of a website that impacts his or her first impression.

What draws the most attention on websites?

According to the study (Science Daily: Feb. 15, 2012), the website locations that drew the most attention of study subjects were as follows:

  • Logo: Subjects viewed the logo for about 6.48 seconds before moving on.
  • Main navigation menu: Subjects viewed the main navigation menu for an average of 6.44 seconds.
  • Search box: Subjects viewed the search box for just over 6 seconds.
  • Facebook and Twitter links: Subjects spent about 5.95 seconds viewing these links.
  • Main home page Image: Subject’s eyes fixated on the main home page image for an average of 5.94 seconds.
  • Written content: Subjects spent 5.59 seconds viewing written content.
  • Bottom of a website: Subjects spent about 5.25 seconds viewing this area of the home page.

What is abundantly clear is that a company’s website is an essentially critical tool for demonstrating consumer attractiveness. Put simply, your website is your online smile. Nearly 90 percent of professionals use company websites as their primary tool for gathering information and forming impressions prior to contacting a vendor for purchases. In today’s Internet-savvy marketplace, the failure to have a high quality, professionally designed dental website, filled with critical content is a failure to reach almost 90 percent of your target market.

Invest in your online smile

Time and again I hear dentists telling their patients the importance of quality dental work and the value of investing in the best dental care for future health and happiness. Yet, a cursory review of thousands of dental practice websites across the U.S. reveals a surprising lack of investment in quality dental website design, dental branding and informative dental procedure content.

In short, the dental industry’s online smile is a bit stained and missing a few teeth.

As a dentist or dental clinic owner, your success in the increasingly competitive dental marketplace is predicated on your ability to communicate with potential patients about what makes you different and most importantly what makes you better than your competitors. This is a valuable element of results-driven dental practice marketing.

Build a patient base that knows you, likes you and trusts you

An investment in quality branding and website development for your dental practice is critical to building patient base that knows you, likes you and trusts you. That's the foundation of health care relationship marketing.

The AACD reports that nearly half of all participants surveyed said they would like to make some improvement in the appearance of their smile.

If your branding is out of date, your website needs a makeover or it’s time to rethink your marketing approach, seek the advice of a professional dental marketing agency to help you craft a dental marketing plan that delivers results and will prepare your practice for years of success.

If you’re not convinced that this article applies to you, please take an honest look at your logo, website and marketing materials and ask yourself, “Would I be impressed with my first impression?” It’s never too late to make an improvement to your online smile.

Note: This article was published in Dental Tribune U.S. Edition, Vol. 8 No. 6, June 2013 issue. Patrick Goodness is CEO of The Goodness Company.

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