Friday Five Roundup: Future of Marketing and the Dental Industry

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Peninsula Review

Dental Implants : No Longer A Fear Factor

For the past few years, dental implants have become the most successful and innovative dental procedures. The costs are much more affordable than expected, and the pain is minimal and manageable. Interest in dental implants is growing as the procedure has become more accessible to all.

Read the article on peninsulanewsreview.com>

2
Forbes

The Future of Marketing is Marketing As A Service

In the past, marketing has been focused around the brand and the product. However, the future of marketing is heading towards focus on service, targeting your audience but also taking the right next step for them, going beyond just the product, and improving the entire customer journey.

Read the article on forbes.com>

Friday Five Roundup: From Dental Halloween Costumes to Content Marketing

1
Science Daily

Dentists Get Cracking on the Stem Cell Front

Researchers have developed a new method for extracting tooth root pulp that quadruples the number of stem cells that can be harvested and replicated to treat a variety of medical conditions.

Read the article on sciencedaily.com>

2
Marketing Land

Facebook Details Instant Article Subscription Program as Test Launch Nears

Facebook confirmed earlier this year that it planned to start testing a subscription program for Instant Articles as soon as October. On Thursday, the company said that test will begin "over the next few weeks" and offered details, including how those subscriptions will work and which publishers have signed on to put their articles for Facebook (mobile only) behind a paywall.

Read the article on marketingland.com>

Tackling Your Online Reviews

By: Faiza Akbar

Today, more than ever, online reviews have become just as important as word of mouth, making it critical to maintain a positive online presence. Online reviews are often the first point of contact for many of your potential patients. They are an authentic and reliable way for potential patients to make a quick decision about whether or not they want to visit your healthcare practice. 90% of consumers state that they read less than 10 reviews to form their opinion of a business, giving you only a brief window to convince them why they should visit your healthcare practice. There is no doubt that finding a practice with stellar reviews and 5-star ratings would be a clear, convincing factor for most, but how do you get there? With countless platforms for online reviews, managing them can seem like a daunting task. However, as with any other facet of marketing, managing this diligently and proactively is an asset to your practice's reputation.

Related Article : Online Reputation Management for Practices

Prioritize

The first step is figuring out which review websites you need to focus on. Not all reviews hold the same weight. Google Reviews are the most frequently read, and what patients are most likely to be familiar with. Before a potential patient even gets to your website, the first things they see (if you have excellent SEO rankings [How to improve your SEO]) when they Google you, along with your contact information, are the reviews people have left.
After Google, your next two focal points might be a social media platform like Facebook and a general review platform like Yelp. Collectively, these three sites account for 80% of online reviews. Only after considering these should you turn your focus on industry specific review sites. Whether RateMDs or HealthGrades, you should focus on the one with the largest engagement in your area, which you might determine by searching "Best (Dentist) in (your area)", for example.

Update

Once you have decided which websites are best aligned with the interests of your patients and practice, it's time to get to work. Managing online reviews is not a one time project. It is something that requires your ongoing attention. 73% of consumers find reviews older than 3 months to be outdated and irrelevant, so it's important to ensure you have new and updated ones. Monitoring your reviews is the first step to achieve this. If you notice a streak of reviews that simply leave star ratings and no comments, you can encourage your patients to leave more detailed reviews. Try gently suggesting patients who give you positive feedback in person, to also leave an online comment. You can also ask for reviews in your monthly newsletter, on a section on the homepage of your website, through email reminders, or at the end of each appointment. This way, you can keep your reviews updated so that they appear more trustworthy and relevant to potential and returning patients.

Friday Five Roundup: From Celebrating Hygienists to Digital Marketing Trends

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Dentistry Today

Whitening Market to Reach $7.4 Billion by 2024

Consumer demand for cleaner and whiter teeth is at an all-time high, and it looks like it's not slowing down anytime soon.

Read the article on dentistrytoday.com>

2
Marketing Land

4 Advanced Targeting Strategies for B2B Marketers

Here are four advanced targeting strategies that can help you engage with your B2B audience across all stages of the buying process.

Read the article on marketingland.com>

Supersize Tweet: Twitter Doubling Its Character Limit (BETA)

By: Aiman Ghori

Twitter, since its conception, has carved out a niche audience that prioritizes brevity. The site allows users to interact in real time and to the point, mostly! Conversations about topics including politics, sports, social issues, and current or live events are often held in a witty manner- without the clutter of additional information.

On Tuesday September 26th, Twitter announced that it was testing an increase in character limit for randomly selected users. Those select users' tweets will now contain 280 characters, twice the number the social media site is known for. But not all Twitter users are happy about this increase, despite the claims Twitter makes about many users who are frustrated with the 140 limit. So why is Twitter making such a drastic change from its differentiating factor compared to other social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram?

139 characters pic.twitter.com/WkfdXL8oLh

— Caitlin Kelly (@caitlin__kelly) September 26, 2017

Aliza Rosen, Twitter's Project Manager who revealed this new test on Twitter's official blog, shares some of the research that went behind making this momentous decision. The blog explains that languages such as Japanese convey "double the amount of information in one character as you can in many other languages", particularly compared to English. Their research shows people who tweet in English hit the character limit more often than those who tweet in Japanese. So the increased character limit is an effort to level the playing field for users who tweet in English or French, and find the 140 limit too constraining. This will allow users who tweet in those languages to express more, while still maintaining the site's promise of brevity.

Friday Five Roundup: From Dental Treatment Costs to B2B Marketing

1
Science Daily

High Sugar Consumption Gives Rise to Dental Treatment Costs in the Billions

Worldwide, people are eating far too much sugar. This has negative consequences for their teeth and for their purses: seen at the global level, the costs of dental treatment are currently running at around 172 billion US dollars (128 billion euros).

Read the article on sciencedaily.com>

2
Marketing Land

But Do You Love Me? A brand intimacy agency ranks brands based on emotional connections to consumers

MBLM's 2017 brand intimacy report ranks 386 brands across 15 industries based on emotional connections brands have with consumers.

Read the article on marketingland.com>

Six Reasons Why You Should Invest in Podcasts

By: Faiza Akbar

While commercial radio has been around longer than nearly the entire population has been alive, modern podcasts are a refreshing change to most other saturated marketing strategies. There are many reasons why podcasts are distinct, not only in their format but also in the way they operate and accomplish your goals. A podcast's approach is rooted in the dynamic user experience it offers that allows for flexibility and individual preference. So if you're exploring new ways to improve your marketing strategy, here are a few reasons that podcasts should be a top contender.

Uniqueness

Interest in podcasts is definitely on the rise but it is still an underutilized platform. Breaking into the podcast scene will set you apart from your competitors and allow your audience to interact with you in a unique, refreshing way. On the surface, it may appear that podcast listeners are a small, exclusive part of the population, but this statement grows more untrue each year. It is also important to note that most podcast listeners are highly committed, as 85% of them will sit through a majority, or the entirety of an episode. Once you garner an audience, they are very unlikely to bail halfway through your message. "Skimming through" podcasts is not really a thing. This allows you to provide more information, and overall have more of a presence in your listeners' day, making them more likely to return.