While fall may bring us colorful leaves and pumpkin spice flavored everything, it also offers a chance to spruce up your social media profiles with some quick and easy content ideas. Fall is a great time to share what’s happening in your office in a way that will keep your patients interested and engaged. 

Whether you’re decorating your office in tones of orange and brown or celebrating Halloween with your staff, be sure to share your autumn adventures on social media. Here are a few easy ideas to implement this season! 

Local Fall Scenery

Depending on where your office is located, your local fall foliage can be a great thing to highlight via social media. Is the tree in your parking lot changing its colors? Take a picture and share it on your pages! Fun fall things like going to a pumpkin patch or a local farm are popular autumn activities and make for great engagement. If anyone in your office is participating, have them create some content for your Facebook page. It’s a quick and easy way to engage your audience while also giving you the opportunity to shout out to another local business.  

Back to School

With the arrival of fall, also comes back to school season! Highlighting the students that visit your office is a great chance to connect to the local community while making those students feel special. You can feature students in a patient spotlight blog or just create a more general post wishing all the students going back to school a great start to the school year! 

Halloween

Taking advantage of Halloween content is a no-brainer for your social media profiles. Whether you’re decorating your office with spooky touches or your staff is dressing up on Halloween itself, be sure to document it on social media. Team costumes can be a huge hit on Facebook and Instagram! Taking a fun and creative approach will likely result in some great engagement. Also, pumpkin carving and decorating contests can be a fun and easy way to bring some fall excitement to your office. We’ve seen offices that have each staff member decorate a pumpkin which patients can vote for have great success on Facebook!  

Thanksgiving and Fall Foods

Don’t forget to highlight all the great fall foods this time of year! As the temperature drops, fall is a great chance to share some of your favorite colder weather dishes. Things like hearty soups, pumpkin treats, and apple pies are always a staple of the autumn season. Share some of your favorite recipes with your followers online! Thanksgiving is also a great opportunity to not only express what you’re thankful for in your office, but also a chance to show off those baking skills.  

Football

With fall also comes the arrival of football season. Is your office filled with diehard fans of a certain team or is there a strong rivalry between two of your employees? Highlight it on your social media! This gives your patients a chance to connect with your office and will likely result in increased engagement. Sharing your office’s interests and extracurricular activities shows off the unique personalities your staff has to offer.  

Fall is all about change, so make sure you highlight these changes in your office this season! Hopefully, these quick and easy tips will get your creative juices flowing. Patients love to see your office having fun so be sure to show them just that. We can’t wait to see what your office is up to this fall on social media! 

—Tyler Harris, Lead Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Fall Social Media Content Ideas appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Visibility in relevant search results hinges on how the search engine algorithms view your website.  

Search engine algorithms are designed to sort through the hundreds of billions of websites they’ve indexed to find the most relevant result for a search query. Search Engines exist to uncover, understand, and assemble all the content the internet has to offer in order to provide the best possible result for a given search query. In the dental world, a prime example occurs when prospective patients use a search engine like Google to search for a new dentist or orthodontist in their area. 

For your website to show up prominently in search results, its content needs to be visible and accessible to search engine crawlers. In short, if your site cannot be found by someone looking for a new oral health provider, you will not be able to generate traffic to your website and interest in your practice.

Keep reading to learn about 7 important ranking factors used by Google, Bing, and other search engines to determine where a website should be displayed within a given search result. 

Content Relevance

Although over-saturating your website with keywords is against Google and Bing guidelines, creating relevant content surrounding the keywords you would like to rank for is a necessity.  

I always say, “your practice won’t rank for ice cream, because you don’t have a landing page devoted to ice cream on your website.” You can’t expect to rank for “Invisalign” or “Dental Implants” unless you have unique content focused on those topics on your site.

Navigation

Your practice’s website should not be challenging to navigate or use. If a potential patient cannot find where you are located, how to reach out to you, or where to request an appointment, they will simply move on to a competitor’s website that is easier to use.

Link Quality

When Google crawls a website, they check not only the onsite content but also inbound and outbound links to conclude your relevancy for a given keyword. Even though you may be the top provider of a service in your area, a doctor who has created a successful online campaign through link building with local community programs may rank better due to Google’s perception that they are the more “trusted and preferred brand” in the area. 

Device Friendliness 

When a website is responsive, the layout and/or content responds or adapts based on the size of the screen they are presented on. A responsive website is one version adapted for each screen size – tablet, desktop, and mobile. A website must be mobile-friendly to rank well online, as determining if a website provides a great experience on ALL device types is a key component of the algorithms used by search engines. 

Secure

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, which is the protocol that provides this encryption. SSL Certificates provide secure, encrypted communications between your practice’s website and your patient’s internet browser.

They ensure that sensitive information submitted to your practice’s website is secure and creates a trusted and secure connection between you and your patients. According to Google, for example, websites that have not upgraded to HTTPS (SSL) are flagged by Google Chrome, which negatively influences rankings and traffic.

User Engagement

If a page’s experience is poor, it may result in a high bounce rate. If users are not engaging with your website or leaving immediately, it is likely to negatively affect your website’s rankings. 

Page Speed

If your website is slow to load, many would-be site visitors will get frustrated with the experience and leave right away. That is also likely to negatively affect online rankings.

By accounting for these 7 factors a practice’s website will be in a good position to achieve high levels of search engine visibility for relevant search results. Overall, search engines tend to rank a practice’s website high up in results if users are able to easily navigate and engage with that site online. 

The goal of visibility is why engaging in strategic search engine optimization (SEO) on an ongoing basis is so crucial for online success. If your practice is in need of SEO support or if you have any questions pertaining to the search engine algorithms please don’t hesitate to reach out to us!

—Naomi Newell, Lead SEO Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post 7 Keys to Great Search Results Rankings appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

In the realm of websites, the homepage is the most important page. In nearly all instances, the homepage receives far more visitors than any other page on a given website. That’s why designers are typically very attentive to a homepage’s physical appearance. 

As the gateway to the rest of a website the homepage must attract a visitor’s attention while clearly expressing the theme of the website (for example, “orthodontic practice in Seattle”). Visual appeal, including the creative use of fonts and images, is normally well accounted for. 

However, optics aren’t everything in the digital world. Getting prospective patients to a practice’s website and keeping them engaged requires excellent content. Keep reading to learn more about the importance of great content on a practice’s website!

Content is King

Regardless of visual appeal, people don’t magically find a website. After all, search engine algorithms are not able to process images and other visual elements on their own. 

Search engines do, however, use static, or rarely changing content, for indexation. Search engine algorithms look at the content on a given page in order to better understand that page’s theme. Without a fair amount of content, they have much less information to aid in the process of placing a page within relevant search results. 

In turn, the page is less likely to be displayed prominently in search results leading to less visibility from prospective patients and, ultimately, fewer clicks through to the site.

The Right Amount of Content 

After realizing the importance of having static content the obvious question becomes how much does a practice’s website need? 

Well, there is no precise rule to guide how much content a homepage should contain. Naturally, the search engines are very guarded about the inner workings of their algorithms so an exact figure doesn’t exist. 

That said, search marketers commonly recommend having a minimum of 300 words of static content on a website’s homepage. Frankly, even more content is probably advisable because the more relevant content listed on the homepage the easier it is for search engines and site visitors to comprehend the point of the page and the website as a whole. 

Of course, there has to be a great balance between content and visual elements. All content that is placed on the homepage should complement the design elements, have a purpose, and not be too overwhelming for site visitors.

What Types of Homepage Content is Needed? 

A practice’s homepage should illustrate the services offered to prospective and current patients right away. That means in a front-and-center sense the practice type should be obvious (Dentist, Orthodontist, Periodontist, etc.). 

However, the practice type alone is not sufficient because in most locations there may be multiple to hundreds of options. That’s why also having the practice’s location, or locations, clearly represented in content is also crucial. 

And the third necessary element that must be reflected is the services offered. For example, as an orthodontic practice, mentioning offered treatment types like early, adult, and Invisalign in the body homepage copy makes sense. 

The overview of the practice type, location, and services offered form the basis of what should be covered. Naturally, plenty of other applicable details can be added as well – information around these 3 traits are just the main necessities. 

In summary, a great website homepage includes visual appeal but also useful and strategically placed content. By incorporating at least 300 words pertaining to a practice’s type and location, as well as services offered the fundamental content necessities will be covered. 

If you have any questions pertaining to static homepage content or you’d like to learn more about how Sesame can build a great website that will help your practice grow please feel free to reach out to the Sesame Team!

—Mike Fitterer, Sr. Marketing Manager II, Sesame Communications

The post Online Visibility Starts with Homepage Content appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

We live in an age of authenticity. Our society is so focused on social media that many brands leverage this fascination to reach a massive audience with different demographics. 

So it comes as no surprise that the most successful practices are able to connect with their audience. Understanding what the prospective patient is looking for in a dental provider is a crucial element of growing a practice.  

Creating and Influencing Your Target Audience

The first thing you should do when building a practice brand is to identify your ideal client. To have a strong brand you need to know, see, and appeal to your demographic. The best way to do this is by building an avatar of whom you want your ideal consumer to be. Geography, age, hobbies, likes, dislikes, online status, education levels, dreams, etc. are all important factors. 

You will want to humanize your practice brand as much as possible. What is valuable to your customers? How is your practice different? And what can set you apart from other practices? All of these questions should be kept in mind when thinking about targeting new patients.

It’s also important to remember that people tend to base their dental care decisions on testimonials. Statements of approval from satisfied patients endorsing a practice tend to reign superior when someone is on a hunt for a new provider. We are heavily influenced by comments and statements from other people when making decisions. By leveraging testimonials and building a positive image your practice brand can build its demographic.

Authenticity is the Key to Success

Brands need to build trust and consumers will handle rewarding them. Making sure that your online visual representation matches your physical practice is extremely important. An authentic and consistent approach will allow your practice to gain trust from new patients a lot easier because you will not have to keep up a persona. With consistency in experience and messaging, building trust, and solidifying your practice brand become a lot easier.

Building your Brand

After finding your audience and how to speak to them, it’s time to market your brand directly. Creating an association between your services with emotion is a great way to establish a desire for what you offer.

A practice needs to understand the key desires and struggles of the targeted market to build the brand persona. By creating an association between feeling content and your practice’s offerings, people begin to associate their feeling with your practice. Of course, you need to make sure there are no negative feelings associated with the practice brand.

Finally, the best way to market your practice is to focus on messaging reflecting what you are completely passionate about. Not only fulfilling the consumer but also being fulfilled yourself is incredibly important. Without a message, you cannot have a successful practice brand.

Remember, a practice brand is so much more than a log or its visual elements. Having a brand means offering a clear story, feelings, and contributing to perception. Remember, you control your practice’s brand. Building your brand image and working on the strategy to fulfill that image should be something that is reflected throughout the entire journey of establishing a successful practice. Your brand is your chance to tell your patients a story, so make it count!

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Tips for Building a Successful Practice Brand appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Patients are picky. Oral health plays a massive role in overall health and well-being and people do not take it lightly. That’s why most people take their time and make informed decisions when opting to select a new dental, orthodontic, or specialty care provider.

In order to truly appeal to prospective patients, practices must understand the patient decision cycle and the necessity of a strong multi-channel digital marketing strategy. 

“The Rule of 7”

In marketing, “The Rule of 7” states that it takes an average of 7 interactions with a brand in order for a person to make a purchase. In the dental world, that means 7 separate interactions before a person decides to become a patient. 

While 7 is an average number that pertains to many industries, the exact number of times may fluctuate in either direction depending on the services offered, location, number of direct competitors, and an abundance of other factors. 

What is certain, though, is that when decisions about personal health are made, people tend to be calculated and thoughtful. That means that multiple experiences with your practice BEFORE becoming a patient is the rule rather than the exception. 

It Takes More than a Great Website

As the prevalence of the internet has grown over time, so too has the importance of having a strong digital presence. Data indicates that nearly every prospective patient will interact with your practice online in some form before becoming a patient. 

The natural tendency is to think of a practice’s website exclusively as the requisite for a great online presence. However, while a great website provides the online foundation, more is needed. For example, an appealing website is unable to be effective if people can’t find it online. That’s why search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) marketing are crucial components of online marketing. 

It’s also important to account for social media channels. Many prospective patients learn about a practice because of a great social post that lands in one of their feeds. Some people on social channels may never even visit a practice’s website so having buttoned-up and useful social content is also a necessity. 

Overall, the most successful practices have a great digital marketing strategy across all of the top channels – specifically an excellent website supported by a strong SEO, Social, and PPC presence. By extending effort into each of these channels a practice can really expand its digital reach, increasing the likelihood a prospect will discover the practice and be interested in learning more. 

If your practice has any questions pertaining to the aforementioned digital marketing channels or any others please feel free to reach out to us! 

—Mike Fitterer, Sr. Marketing Manager II, Sesame Communications

The post It’s Time to Unify Digital Marketing Efforts appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Humans are visual creatures by nature, so it comes as no surprise that video content has continued to grow in popularity within the past decade. Video content is any type of content that features video. It can come in many forms such as vlogs, GIFs, live videos, testimonials, presentations, and more. The demand for this sort of content continuously surpasses all other traditional content types, and many American consumers prefer video over live TV.

In fact, the average person watches more than an hour and a half of online video content per day. Videos alone have become the most popular source of information and entertainment for people today.

What can Video Content do for Your Practice?

Virtually everyone is pressed for time, leading to limited attention spans. Aesthetically appealing and fun to watch videos tend to reign supreme. After all, watching a video is like being told a story. Storytelling in business is key when it comes to creating engaging video content. With video, you can also appeal to specific segments of your audience who wouldn’t otherwise relate to your brand. For example, people who are averse to reading and may be able to consume the content easier through video can be a new targeted audience.

Video content is both easy to consume and share plus it’s typically interchangeable across platforms. At the end of the day, sharing a link to your favorite video is much easier than sharing a whole blog.

Creating and sharing your video content can also have a positive impact on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). With the technology available today, search engines assume the content is much more relevant to the user’s search when collecting data from an embedded video on a website.

A business is much more likely to have great search results placement if their website makes use of embedded videos. Also, it is much easier to boost your SEO efforts through video content because it can increase the time spent on a website which in turn can be a factor in the rankings. The longer and more engaging the video is, the longer a user will stay on the website.

Types of Video Content

There are a few different types of video content available for creators and marketers to use. Some of the most popular include:

1. Live Video – Many audiences would rather watch a live video than read a blog. Also, all major social media platforms have implanted a means to produce live videos. Typically, you want your content to be fun, interactive, and raw, giving viewers an inside look at your practice.

2. Tutorials – One of the most effective types of video content, tutorials create value for readers by capitalizing on industry expertise to educate on desired skills. Also, it is so much easier to watch a step-by-step video on how to do something than to read about it. 

3. Behind-the-Scenes – This is a great way to humanize your company by showing off your company culture, the creative process, any fun bloopers, and highlighting personalities around the practice.

4. Explainer Videos – These are short videos your practice can create to explain your brand or a product/service. This can be a great tool to connect with your audience and give them an idea as to what your practice offers. 

5. Q&A’s – These videos provide interesting topics because they allow the business the opportunity to address and answer questions posed by their audience. They also create a lot of engagement because you need to have your audience ask questions before the Q&A and then come back to the video to listen to their answers. Q & A’s allow a business to build credibility while also serving a genuine purpose.

Tips for Creating Video Content

The internet is saturated with content. Marketers that manage to think outside of the box are those who will come out on top. 

Engagement is the key to making an effective ad and, in this case, it is the same with video content. Typically, if you make an audience sense a gap in their knowledge it is easier to get them engaged because there is a payoff in the end. For example, if you create a great video on how easy it is to whiten your teeth at home on a budget, many people will want to stay and watch it because it is relatable.

People who watch the first 3 seconds of your video will often continue watching through the video or at least up until 30 seconds. Make the first part of your video the most interesting, introduce your subject, and include funny content.

Understanding your audience and using signs of engagement to determine whether or not the content is engaging is important as well. A great way to do this is by getting the audience to empathize with a point of view using ethos, pathos, and logos as follows: 

• Ethos: Establish trust between the business and the audience by establishing credibility. 
• Pathos: Evoke an emotional response to increasing audience engagement. 
• Logos: Incorporating facts and figures, double-checking references, backing up claims, and giving credit all play a part in your content’s success.

The most important tip to creating video content is to be genuine. People want to connect with their brands and find ways that they can relate even more. The more genuine you are in your content the more support you will receive.

Understanding the different types of video content and how to create appealing videos is the key to developing a new marketing method that appeals to existing and new audiences. If you have any questions about creating videos for your practice please feel free to reach out to us. 

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post How to Create Engaging Video Content appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Attracting prospective patients to your website can be challenging. Especially in larger towns and cities where people have more options when it comes to selecting a dental care provider. 

The necessity to stand out from the competition is why so much emphasis is placed on digital marketing efforts like search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC), and social media marketing. But a practice’s website itself plays an equally important role in the new patient process. 

Keep reading to learn how to nudge prospective patients towards becoming new patients at your practice. 

What is a call to action? 

Website visits from prospective patients are worthless on their own. A practice’s website must clearly show people what services the practice can provide for them AND articulate the next step in the process. 

A great website doesn’t make visitors guess what action they should take – it clearly illustrates the action. The call to action provides a clear direction prompting visitors to take a specific action. 

Without a directive that can be followed, visitors will reach your website, be unsure of what the next step towards becoming a patient should be, and leave the website without taking any further action. People don’t change dental providers often and the process is frankly not intuitive, so they need to be shown what to do next rather than have to guess on their own. 

What are some examples? 

The most common call to action is a “Contact Us” or “Request Info” link or button. Every website should have a Contact Us option listed either prominently within the navigation bar at the top or in an obvious location throughout every page on the website. 

For example, Sesame uses a “Request Info” bar that lives on the right side of each page within the website and scrolls along with a visitor’s movements on a given page. If someone clicks the button the form expands as in the following example.

The more obvious the location, the better. A “Get a Free Consultation!” button front-and-center on the homepage, for example, is very visible and compelling.  

Think about what action you want prospective patients to take and have that action (think “Contact Us,” a “Learn More” button that links to a contact form, etc.) be very visible on your website. 

In short, an excellent call to action will help more visitors to your website take requisite steps towards eventually becoming patients. If you’re unsure of how effective the call or calls to action on your website are, please feel free to contact us! 

—Mike Fitterer, Sr. Marketing Manager II, Sesame Communications

The post Your Website Must Have a Great Call to Action appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Google has finally confirmed its much-anticipated Page Experience algorithm update rollout. Their new website evaluation factors may cause fluctuations in ranking and website performance as its crawlers determine if your website is compliant with the new updates.

The Page Experience ranking factors will prioritize websites that provide a quality user experience to visitors. Basically, when someone is searching for a new provider and arrives at your website, how user-friendly is it?

Each page within your website has its own individual URL. Once evaluated, every URL receives its own calculated score and it’s determined if it passes or fails Google’s web vitals assessment.

The following are the five signals the Google Page Experience update will focus on when crawling and ranking websites.

1. Core Web Vitals

These are a new set of three performance metrics that focus on how performance connects to user experience. There are three metrics, as follows:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)- The number of seconds it takes for any page’s main content to load. The ideal LCP load time is 2.5 seconds or faster.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)- The amount of time it takes to load any layout shifts of any visual page content; I.e., anything that is a part of the look and feel of your website; photos, videos, etc.,
• First Input Delay (FID)- This is the amount of time it takes for your practice’s website to become interactive. The ideal load time in this instance would be 100 milliseconds.

2. Mobile-Friendliness

Whether your site has issues with a mobile-friendly design, as flagged by the Google Mobile-Friendly Test tool or Google Search Console.

When a website is responsive, the layout and/or content responds or adapts based on the size of screen someone is using. A responsive website has one version adapted for each screen size – tablet, desktop, and mobile.

3. Safe Browsing

Whether your site has any malware issues, harmful downloads, deceptive content (e.g., phishing), or other similar issues as flagged by Google Search Console.

Exchanged data is encrypted to keep it secure from eavesdroppers. That means that while the user is browsing a website, nobody can “listen” to their conversations, track their activities across multiple pages or steal their information.

4. SSL Certificate/HTTPS

This ranking signal will determine whether your site has an SSL certificate and uses HTTPS. If you do not have one already, we recommend that you consider adding an SSL certificate to your website.

An SSL Certificate provides secure, encrypted communications between your practice’s website and your patient’s internet browser. SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, the protocol that provides this encryption. SSL Certificates ensure that sensitive information submitted to your practice’s website is secure, and creates a trusted and secure connection between you and your patients! According to Google, websites that have not upgraded to HTTPS (SSL) are flagged by Google Chrome, which negatively influences rankings and traffic.

5. No Interstitial Webpage/Pop-Ups

No intrusive interstitials on mobile – whether your site displays intrusive popups to mobile users who are clicking through from Google search (AKA the mobile popup penalty, which has been around since 2017). 

Any pop-up that makes it harder for users to access information from your practice’s website will ultimately hurt your website’s rankings. 

If your website already accounts for these 5 traits this algorithm update is unlikely to seriously impact your rankings. However, if any are missing updates or a redesign will likely be needed in order to maintain or improve search rankings.

Don’t forget that Sesame can help! If you’re unsure about the current status of your website as it pertains to this update or you know changes are needed please feel free to contact us! 

—Naomi Newell, Lead SEO Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post 5 Google Page Experience Factors that will Influence Rankings appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Diversifying content is a great way to grow engagement on your social media platforms. Instagram makes it easy for its users to do this as it offers many different options to create and share content. 

One of its newest additions is Instagram Reels, “a new way to create and discover short, (and) entertaining videos on Instagram.” With a 15-second recorded (and edited) clip you can share fun and creative content with all your followers on your Instagram Feed and also potential followers through the Explore page. Keep reading to learn about Instagram Reels and how they can benefit your practice. 

Short Video Flexibility

Creating Reels gives you complete creative freedom with what you want to do. Maybe you want to share a tour of your practice. Or maybe you would prefer to educate your followers on how to avoid getting cavities. When it comes to Reels, there are a variety of opportunities available for engaging your audience. And as an added perk, you don’t need to have specialized editing skills because Instagram makes it easy for creators of any skill level to create Reels.

Why Reels Make Sense

Now you’re probably wondering why you need to create Reels on top of posting your usual photos to your Feed, engaging with viewers via Live IGTV, and updating your followers on current events on IG Stories. The answer to this question is Tik Tok.

Ok, so what does Tik Tok have to do with Instagram Reels? Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, people have had to get creative with what sorts of activities to participate in because the majority of the world was closed. 

Tik Tok started growing tremendously during this time and now has over 800 million users of which at least 90% are on the platform daily. In August 2020, Instagram launched Reels as a direct competitor to Tik Tok. With Reels being brought into the Instagram family, consumers quickly found new ways to engage with their audience and grow their following.

It Makes Business Sense

Looking at it from a business standpoint, Reels are extremely important to grow engagement for your following today. Reels allow businesses to be more personable with their audience which creates a trusting relationship between the business and the consumer. You can also use Reels to tell your business’s story, show your values, and educate others on your products and services. Another great perk to using Reels is they give your business leverage on Instagram. As more people look at your content through the Explore page, your channel can be boosted up and suggested to other accounts thus helping with your exposure.

Content Ideas  

Reels are an amazing tool for building your engagement with followers and they can be incredibly fun to create. Note when creating your content, have fun and don’t hold back, as consumers like real, and they like fun. Here are a few ideas that can apply to your practice and are great starters to build other content ideas from:

1. Meet the Doctor(s)
2. Invisalign vs Braces – advantages and disadvantages of both
3. Do’s and Don’ts of Brushing and Flossing
4. Comparing kinds of toothpaste, which you should invest in and which you should skip
5. Dental Routines
6. Day in the life of the dentist or orthodontist
7. Best toothbrushes on the market, drugstore vs high-end
8. Debunking industry myths
9. Daily reminders for oral health
10. Showcasing your services and products

Reels can be a great tool and can benefit your business in the long run. And the longer your followers can stay connected to your business and social media, the more sincere the connection will be, aiding in the development of longer-term, happy, patients. 

Staying up to date with the newest trends in social media can and will make a lasting effect on your business. And don’t forget to have fun!

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

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One of the core aspects of SEO is the continued creation of fresh content for your website. New content helps illustrate to search engines like Google and Bing that you are an authority on a given topic and that you are actively updating your website. 

Still, not all content needs to change. In the SEO world, static content that rarely needs to be updated, if ever, is referred to as “evergreen content.” 

Defining “evergreen content”

Evergreen content is content that is not time-sensitive and will stay relevant over time. Evergreen content always revolves around a certain topic that is pertinent to its readers and doesn’t change frequently. 

For any given office, pages like the Contact Us page are good evergreen content examples because practices don’t move locations very often. Many services pages also change infrequently. The core aspects of Invisalign, for example, aren’t going to change unless there is a big product update.

The general rule is that evergreen content does not address current events, trends, or any time-sensitive subjects that are only momentarily relevant. 

Why does it matter?

Evergreen content can help to pull a practice’s website higher in relevant search engine results, boosting visibility for that practice from prospective patients searching for a new provider. Because indexation often takes a while, new website content frequently takes some time before influxes in search visibility and the resulting clicks occur. In short, some patience will be required. 

Evergreen content’s benefit is that it continuously answers questions people include in search queries. As the content stays relevant, it becomes a website staple which will help boost website authority on a given topic. Authority is a major ranking factor that can lead to higher search rankings.

In summary, when developing your website and its content, ongoing updates for non-static content are important. However, if the topic is unlikely to change, don’t feel like you’re making changes just for the sake of making changes. Evergreen content can help drive steady traffic to your website and help your practice get discovered online!

—Aliah Rasmussen, SEO Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Why Evergreen Website Content Matters appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

In this day and age, we’re constantly flooded with so much information on social media that posts can get lost in the shuffle. 

Determining and optimizing for the specific times and days you have the best chance of catching your patients’ attention is important for increasing your engagement with visibility on social media platforms. 

There is no one size fits all solution for determining your optimal posting time but keep reading for some tips on when you should launch your next post!

Get Seen

Posting at your unique optimal times can help you reach a higher portion of your followers, which likely will result in higher engagement. 

This is important because most social media networks have algorithms in place favoring content that receives an initial spike in engagement – typically in the first 15 minutes after a post goes “live”. Posts that receive quick engagement signal to the social media networks that it’s quality content and their algorithms should push the post to more people. 

Since Facebook and Instagram are now prioritizing new, quality content, your best chance at getting your content seen is posting when your followers are online and scrolling.

Think Like a Patient

When determining your optimal posting time, it’s important to think like your followers. What makes sense for them and their schedules? 

In general, weekday mornings generate the highest levels of engagement since that’s when most people are just waking up and checking their phones. On weekends noon to early afternoons are popular since it’s usually when people have some downtime. 

Keep in mind what’s happening in your area. For example, say there’s a big sporting event. It wouldn’t make sense to post during that time as you know many of your followers will be preoccupied.

Thinking like your followers will help you understand their behaviors online and increase your chances of getting your posts in front of them.

Utilize Tools

Most social media sites offer analytics showing your office’s peak posting times. Facebook and Instagram both offer this on their business profiles. 

For Sesame Social members, our Sesame Social Posting Suite gives you everything you could ask for in terms of post analytics: where your followers are located, their gender, their age, and, most importantly, when they’re most active. All of these are important factors in determining when and what you should be posting. 

Also, we do all the hard work for you – when you post through our social tool, there’s also a “Peak Time” button that automatically schedules your content at its optimal viewing time!

Making sure your content is seen and engaged with can be a difficult task, but if you determine your optimal posting time it can be a simple way to “hack” social media algorithms. 

Most importantly, ensure your posts are reaching your audience. Sesame Social gives you the tools to make this easier for you and we recommend taking full advantage of them. 

Just remember, by scheduling your content for the best time to post, you can increase your reach, boost your engagement and, ultimately, gain more followers!

—Tyler Harris, Lead Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post Determining Your Optimal Social Media Posting Time appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Tracking the performance of a given page on a website is relatively easy. With Google Analytics and countless other analytics programs, by including a snippet of code within the back end of a page, data for metrics like clicks and the average time length of visits are recorded and easily viewed. 

But what about feature performance? How do you track how people are interacting with the features that exist on a page like clicks on a button or even where visitor attention is drawn to? 

In this post, I’ll cover a few options for learning more about how visitors are interacting with content on your practice’s website.

Google Page Analytics 

Does your practice’s website have Google Analytics tracking set up? If so, there is a free Chrome plugin available called Page Analytics that will allow you to see basic information about what visitors are clicking on, as the following screenshot illustrates:  

The catch is that this product from Google is now deprecated, and it hasn’t been updated since 2019. That means there is no available support from Google and the only way to determine if it will work for your practice’s needs is to download and test it. However, assuming you’re able to get it to work, the information can be useful.

Heat Mapping Software 

A more thorough option is to use heat mapping software. Some of the most well-known providers are Crazy Egg and Hotjar. 

Using 3rd-party heat mapping software that is added to a page’s code can provide a great understanding of how people are scrolling on a page and precisely where they are clicking. 

Here’s an example Hotjar provides on its website: 

This type of detailed information offers useful data for determining how to modify a given page to optimize based on the ways in which users are interacting with it. And with most heat mapping software companies, you can get a free trial or pay a low rate on a monthly basis in order to access the tool. 

The Sesame Team 

The website design and search teams at Sesame possess an abundance of experience. 

Sesame’s dedicated designers are constantly striving to build the perfect practice website while Sesame’s SEO experts continuously review and implement the latest search strategies for member practices.  

Due to this wealth of experience Sesame’s teams of specialists hold a strong understanding of what works well and what doesn’t on websites. If you are a Sesame Premium Website or SEO Member, don’t be shy about asking your Account Manager or SEO Specialist for advice. 

So, if you’re trying to determine how people are interacting with a page on your website using the Page Analytics plugin or getting 3rd party heat mapping software are good options to pursue. Existing customers can also leverage Sesame team members for recommendations. 

If you’d like more information about tracking onsite performance, feel free to reach out to us. 

—Mike Fitterer, Sr. Marketing Manager II, Sesame Communications

The post Monitoring Website Feature Performance appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

When it comes to your practice, your patients are everything. Without them, where would you be? 

For this reason, it’s important to take time to respond to patient reviews on social media. After all, sharing their thoughts on your practice takes time and that alone should be remembered and acknowledged. 

Responding to reviews helps to build better relationships with patients and giving prospective patients visibility into the interactions can provide an indirect way to market your practice. Perhaps less obvious, these interactions sometimes highlight areas of improvement for your office to work on. 

There are a few types of reviews your practice can receive; positive, neutral, and negative. In this post, I will focus on positive and negative reviews. Follow along for guidance on why it’s important to respond to each type of review in addition to some helpful tips on responding.

Positive Reviews

When it comes to responding to positive reviews, you may be taking for granted this wonderful opportunity to boost your social presence. 

Not only does responding to a patient’s review reaffirm their positive experience, it also provides you with another opportunity to market your practice and get the word out to others.

So, keep these best-practices in mind when you’re replying: 

1. Always be sure to thank the patient for their positive review. This reinforces the relationship with your patient while making them feel valued and appreciated.

2. Let the person know that you look forward to continuing to provide them with excellent service in the future. Not only does this highlight the good service you provided, but it also gives them confidence in staying with you long-term.

3. Politely use the opportunity to ask the patient to tell friends and family about their experience, potentially attracting some new patients via referrals.

It’s also worth mentioning that whenever you receive engagement on social media, your practice receives a strong social signal which can help boost your site’s search rankings. The more people that engage with your content, the better your content will perform on places such as Google.

Negative Reviews

When people think of reviews, negative reviews are often the first thing that comes to mind because of the impression they can leave. It’s important to carefully assess your negative reviews, as they can help uncover weaknesses that your practice may have. In doing so, you can find ways to improve on these areas. 

If you are able to resolve any negative experiences, the reviewer may edit their initial review or create a new review to counter the initial one. Sometimes a course correction is even more powerful than simply getting a positive review from the start.

With negative reviews, remember:

1. Before responding to a negative review, ensure that it’s a valid complaint from a legitimate patient. If they do not appear to be a patient, let them know you cannot locate their name in your patient list and encourage them to reach out individually with their name to solve the issue.

2. Regardless of how the patient phrases their review, it’s important to stay professional and thank the patient for bringing this matter to your attention. This allows them to feel as though their voice is being heard.

3. In your response it’s important that you sympathize with the patient. If the details in the review go against your practice’s core values, let the patient know that, and also mention what your practice will do to improve in the future. This shows the patient that your practice cares about their experience.

4. In the event that you did something wrong, own up to it! There is nothing more commendable than saying “We know we made a mistake. We’ve learned from this experience and are better for it.” Doing so shows that you take your patients seriously and want to create a better environment for them.

5. Towards the end of your response be sure to provide the patient with a way to get in touch offline to make things right. Regardless of your course of action, it’s important that you provide them with the ability to speak with someone individually to clear the air and maintain the relationship.

6. In the event you are able to work through the patient’s issue, and it’s appropriate, you can ask them to update their review or post another review as a follow-up to the original one. Such scenarios can help keep your reviews positive and helpful to your practice’s appeal.

While there are several ways to respond to reviews on social media, we hope we were able to provide you with a few helpful tips and suggestions that your practice can utilize.

Responding to reviews is a good way to communicate with your patients and it allows everyone (prospective patients included) to see how much you value their experience. Regardless of a given review’s nature, it’s important to stay professional and provide your patients with the same amount of respect.

If you have any additional questions when it comes to responding to reviews, or any other social media questions, please reach out to us! 

—Nicole Gamble, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

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Determining where to place advertising dollars can be a daunting task. An abundance of platforms and possibilities exist and they all claim to be your best option. 

That’s why I decided to write this post. Is your practice’s main intention with advertising to attract new patients? If your practice has some ad budget available I suggest you begin with running search ads through Google Ads. Keep reading to learn why!

Target Interested People 

Search ads show up in various areas of search results after someone performs a search query, most prominently at the very top in many instances such as the following example for a Sesame brand search:  

When prospective patients look for a new dental services provider, they generally perform a search query to see what options exist in their area. By having an ad for your practice show up for the types of searches they perform (think “Dentist in Seattle, WA” and similar) you can immediately attract a prospect’s attention and compel them to click on the ad to learn more. 

Positioning – Especially in Competitive Markets

Google’s largest source of revenue is derived from search ads, and 89% of searches in the USA happen on Google. Every time an ad is clicked on, Google collects the cost of that click. In short, they earn A LOT of money every single day and it’s why ads on Google get front-and-center treatment. 

Since search ads are pay-to-play, you can pay to have ads for your practice featured prominently in relevant results. This is especially important for practices operating in markets where people have many options, such as in large cities or even suburbs. 

Having your practice’s website appear on its own within relevant search results generally requires search engine optimization (SEO) support and, while worthwhile, can take some time. 

With search ads, however, you pay for positioning so an ad for your practice can be placed near or at the top of search results. That increased visibility will help drive more traffic to your website from prospective patients. 

Incremental Clicks 

Even if your website is ranking well in search results, running paid search campaigns can help boost overall traffic to your website. 

That’s because having multiple listings within a search result increases visibility for a practice by taking up space that would otherwise go to competitors and allowing the practice to provide more information (services, location, staff info, etc.) to prospective patients right away. 

The result is more overall website (or landing page) visits. Although somewhat dated now, in 2011 Google did a study with results indicating that 89% of the traffic generated by search ads is not replaced by organic clicks (clicks on non-paid results). In short, your practice will get considerably more traffic to its website by running ads on Google than it would without an ad effort. 

Quantifiable Results

Perhaps the most important element of Google Ads is that results are easily quantifiable. This contrasts with many forms of advertising like print ads, billboards, and handouts which don’t have very accurate methods of performance tracking. 

With search ads performance tracking is simple. Results are tracked within the Google Ads platform so your practice can easily determine what’s working and what isn’t and make adjustments accordingly. Crucially, you can see if your advertising efforts are paying off. 

In summary, because of superior targeting and positioning capabilities, Google search advertising allows practices to get right in front of prospective patients. Engaging in paid search also helps to generate more overall clicks to a practice’s website even when they are already well-placed in search results and performance can be easily quantified within the Google Ads platform. 

If you have any related questions or your practice is in need of PPC support please feel free to reach out to the Sesame Team!

—Mike Fitterer, Sr. Marketing Manager II, Sesame Communications

The post Why Search Ads Help Attract New Patients appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

The only constant with Google’s algorithm is that there is no consistency. Google continuously updates how they present search results to its users as part of its quest to give them an ideal experience. 

On that note, Google is expected to roll out their latest update any day now. This update aims to give priority to pages that present the best possible user experience. 

So what does that mean for your practice? Keep reading to learn about the 3 most important things you should know about the update.

1. What does page experience even mean?

The good news is that page experience is exactly what it sounds like. When you go to a website, you want everything to load quickly (page speed), be clear (visual stability), and be easy to navigate (interactivity). These factors are what are called “core web vitals.”

There are also some non-core web vital signals like having a mobile-friendly (i.e. responsive design) website, having a secure (HTTPS) website and lacking intrusive elements like pop-up ads.

If your website currently meets these requirements, your practice is already in good shape. If your website isn’t responsive or doesn’t yet have HTTPS, your site is likely to be impacted. 

1. The update won’t immediately affect rankings

The update is set to be rolled out any time in mid-June. However, Google has said that it will not play a full role in search rankings until the end of August. This gives users time to make updates to their site before they are impacted and for Google to monitor for any major issues during the update. 

Use this time wisely. Audit your website to determine if there are any issues with what was covered in the previous section. It’s never too late to get your website up to speed (no pun intended)!

How can I prepare for this update?

If you have a website provider like Sesame, we’ve already built your website with these factors in mind and are constantly working on improvements. 

If your website is not with Sesame or is more than 3-4 years old, it’s time to start going through the checklist. Is your website responsive? Is it secure? Do you have any intrusive programs or advertisements that impede the user experience? If you also have too many large images on a page, it may slow down the page loading speed which can influence rankings.

So, take inventory of your site and locate areas for improvement. As always, a consistent SEO approach will help to drive results for your practice. 

If you do have questions about Google’s latest update or would like to discuss your website, Sesame is here to help!

—Phil Horton, Sr. Search Manager, Sesame Communications

The post Understanding Google Page Experience appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

In most markets, patients have options. Before selecting a new dental, ortho, or specialty practice most people perform a fair amount of research. Factors like location, hours and a practice’s area of specialty all contribute to a prospective patient’s decision-making process. Still, there is often plenty of overlap amongst competing practices in these broad types of categories. That’s why having [...]
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It takes a certain amount of creativity to develop an effective and engaging social media strategy. Fresh and interesting content can catch your patient’s attention, keep them informed with the on-goings in your office, and get great engagement helping your content perform well. 

We know it can feel daunting to keep up with your in-office postings but it is a crucial step to the success of your social media performance and it will also help your online community flourish with potential patients and current followers. Below, you’ll find 5 quick and easy content ideas that will help drive engagement and keep your social media channels up to date. 

1. Patient Achievements

It may seem like a no-brainer, but showcasing photos of your patients and their treatment at your office is an easy way to build organic engagement online. Photos and videos that highlight the experiences patients have during a visit to your office (such as before and after, first visits, and patient spotlights) give patients a glimpse of what their experience at your office will be like. People love seeing you do what you do best – creating and maintaining beautiful smiles – so be sure to show them off on your social media channels.  

2. Birthdays

Staff birthdays are a great opportunity to connect with your patients and your team online. Highlighting a staff member’s birthday allows patients the opportunity to wish them a happy birthday while also giving your team member special recognition. If you’re looking for some genuine engagement, make sure you’re including birthdays in your upcoming posts! 

3. Food & Gifts

Photos of delicious-looking treats and goodies are very popular on social media. Any time someone in your office brings in something special, like donuts or flowers, be sure to snap a picture for Facebook. These types of posts are quick and easy to take and can be a real crowd-pleaser. 

4. Employee Spotlights 

Similar to staff birthday posts, employee spotlights are a great way to highlight your team members on your social media channels. An employee spotlight, however, goes a little deeper than the typical birthday post. They provide a great opportunity to show off your team member’s interests and hobbies which some of your patients might connect with. They are also an excellent opportunity to show off any office pets, who are always well-received online!  

5. Candid Moments

 Capturing the fun, organic moments that happen in your office is an easy way to illustrate the unique environment and vibe your office has. Is there a staff member in your office who is always goofing off? Highlight that person via your social media profiles! Videos of office members having fun (i.e. – doing the latest TikTok dance for example) are always a hit with patients and your online followers. This type of content may be harder to capture, but usually pays off in great organic engagement and gives you a chance to highlight what makes your office truly special.  

To review, coming up with unique in-office content may seem challenging at first but if you keep our suggestions above in mind you can have a library of ideas that can be used more than once and at any time of year. 

If you have any other questions about coming up with the right social media strategy for your office our Sesame Social Team is here to help!  

—Tyler Harris, Lead Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications

The post 5 Always Great Social Media Content Ideas appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

Do you have a service or a few services that your office offers that you would like to market on your Facebook business page? 

Adding a “Services” tab to your Facebook business page is a quick and easy way for current and future patients to discover the variety of services you provide. Within this blog post I will cover how you can add this tab to display your own unique services. 

1. Click On Services. On your Facebook business page you will notice the “Services” tab at the top next to “Home.” 

2. Add a Service. Once you’ve selected the “Services” tab there is a button that reads “Add a Service.” Click here to get started! 

3. Details of Service. Next, a window will pop up where you can fill in the blank on the specific service with details like name, price, description, appointment duration, and even images. This is a great spot to add a few before and after photos (with the patient’s permission, of course). It’s important to note that you can’t add a link to the description so make sure you include a catchy call-to-action and your office phone number. 

4. Additional Services. Once you’ve completed and saved your first service entry you can add additional services to this tab by clicking on “Add a Service.”

5. Publish. Once you are finished adding your services make sure all your services are published so they are viewable to your patients. 

In short, adding a services tab to your Facebook business page is a great way for future and current patients to learn about the variety of services your office provides. You can’t add links in the Services tab so make sure to list your phone number so patients can call to schedule an appointment. 

If you need any additional help or have questions on the best way to market your services across Facebook and your other social media channels, the Sesame Social team is here to strategize the best approach for you! 

—Jennie Rogers, Social Media Specialist 2, Sesame Communications

The post How to Add a Services Page on Facebook appeared first on Dental Marketing & Practice Management | Sesame Communications.

When a search engine crawls the web for results for the search query a person has placed, page headings are particularly important.  

In this post, I’ll cover the hidden and visible elements of H1 page headings and why they hold significant importance for search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

Heading Tags Overview

A portion of page headings are actually not visible to the searcher. The searcher sees the wording on the web page but there are also tags that tell a search engine that specific wording is part of a headline. These tags are designated within the code of a web page’s content. 

Heading tags range in order of importance from H1 to H6 with H1 covering the theme for the entire page and H6, if used, covering a minor sub-theme.  Most pages just use H1, H2, and H3 tags at most.

The H1 heading text is the most crucial for SEO. It helps the search engines understand more about the theme of the whole web page, so search engines look to the keywords in the H1 header to pull the best content for user results. 

The Importance of the Visible H1 Headline

Having the visible portion of page headings makes your page content easier for people to understand. It’s the first text someone sees on a page so if it’s relevant it provides a quality user experience, helping ensure search results rankings continue to improve.  

Without a page heading, readers would be confused about the theme of the content. This navigational cue clarifies the page’s contents, removes confusion, and prevents users from immediately bouncing from your site. The H1 header should contain the primary keywords for the page, which will help drive the audience towards reading the page’s content.

For example, a relevant page heading would be the following: 

Orthodontics for Children in (city and state the practice is in)

A title like this one helps patients know they are on the correct page when looking for an orthodontist for their child, in a city near them. 

By having a relevant page title for each website page that is also set correctly as an H1 you will be able to quickly show both site visitors and search engines the main theme of a given page. In short, make sure to have the heading AND designate it as an H1 in the back end. 

If you have any questions related to page headings or are in need of SEO support for your practice please contact us. 

—Aliah Rasmussen, SEO Specialist, Sesame Communications

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Do you know that social media plays an essential marketing role for your practice? Not only do your existing patients use it to keep up with you, but new patients use it as part of their decision-making process when choosing a new provider. It’s important to keep your online presence up-to-date but when you already have so much going on in your practice, that can sometimes fall to the wayside. 

So, what is a content calendar? Well, it’s exactly what it sounds like – a calendar of content ideas for your social media channels. Why is putting a content calendar together a good idea? As we’ve already touched on, your practice is busy and it’s not always easy to sit down and think about or execute a plan for your practice’s social media efforts. By putting together a calendar for the near future, which could be days, weeks, or even months, you are setting yourself up for success. You can even use tools to schedule out your posts to make even better use of your time.

To get your creative juices flowing, here are some ideas to keep in mind when planning your calendar.

1. Office events

Do you have anything fun or out of the ordinary going on in the office? Events like staff birthdays, contests for patients, product promotions, or even just holidays around the office provide great social post material.

2. Google is your friend

You’ve probably seen that most days are “National Day of _____”. Use this to your advantage. Do a search for upcoming national days and incorporate them into your strategy. These days range from various food themes, to behaviors, and art. Find some that resonate with your practice and add them to your calendar to post about. 

3. Ask your staff

Your staff is a great source of content for your social media channels. Not only can they offer ideas you may not have thought of, but they are also a source themselves. Find out all of your staff birthdays and be sure to add those days to your calendar. Determine if anyone has special themes they are comfortable sharing like anniversaries, family celebrations, pet pictures, or other accomplishments that they are proud of. Social media platforms provide you with the ability to tell the story of your practice and giving patients an insight into the people that work there is a great way to do that. 

These are just a few examples of things you can use to help create your content calendar. It is far from exhaustive, so don’t limit yourself to these ideas alone. Take the time to put a calendar together now and save yourself the stress later!

If you have questions about setting up a social media content calendar, Sesame is happy to help!

—Phil Horton, Sr. Search Manager, Sesame Communications

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