Welcome to Ingenuity, Sarver Orthodontics!

Sarver Orthodontics, a leading orthodontic provider in Birmingham, Alabama has recently partnered with Ingenuity Orthodontic Marketing to unleash the magic of social media marketing and orthodontic contests for the practice.

“Effective patient communication is key for an orthodontic practice,” offers Dr. David Sarver. “And in this day and age social media has become the place where people communicate. By partnering with Ingenuity to implement a social media marketing plan and web-based contests, our practice will be better able to engage our patients and the community at large.”

Carleton Wilkins, President of Ingenuity Orthodontic Marketing adds, “Dr. Sarver is himself universally known as a preeminent orthodontist, lecturer, and teacher within orthodontic and dental circles. Ingenuity’s goal is make this reputation more easily shared among the people of Birmingham by way of social media marketing. Sarver Orthodontics is an established and trusted practice in the Birmingham area. Dr. Sarver’s patients, both past and present recommend him to everyone they know. Ingenuity is going to provide a better vehicle to increase patient referrals and improve patient-practice communication.”

With the marketing expertise, social media acumen, and web-based orthodontic contest platform, Ingenuity is set to move Sarver Orthodontics to the next level of online communication and marketing and will help introduce the practice to a wider segment of the Birmingham population. The collaboration marks yet another example of the rapidly growing popularity and importance of communication and marketing for orthodontic practices through Social Media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr and more.

About Ingenuity Orthodontic Marketing
Ingenuity is an orthodontic marketing firm that brings a unique and fresh point of view into the world of orthodontics. By creating, managing, and hosting web-based orthodontic contests and launching strategic social media marketing campaigns, Ingenuity helps its client orthodontists to better communicate with its community, and thus increase patient referrals and dental referrals. For more information, visit www.ingenuity.cc

About Sarver Orthodontics
As an orthodontist, Dr. David Sarver recognizes the importance of his responsibility to you and your child. His philosophy is based in the knowledge that orthodontists are generally the first professionals who are asked to make decisions that can enhance or diminish a patients’ facial appearance. Dr. Sarver utilizes the most advanced diagnostic and treatment techniques available today. The practice is fully committed to being perpetual students of the orthodontic profession and are dedicated to giving the residents of Birmingham, Alabama, and the surrounding areas a reason to smile!! For more information, visit www.sarverortho.com

SEO, Site Rankings, and the Orthodontic Practice

One facet of Ingenuity’s orthodontic marketing plan is to help its clients garner top ranking in the search engines.  In light of the more “glamorous”   parts of the plan, such as social media marketing and online orthodontic contests, the more mundane is often overlooked.  But make no mistake, it is of critical importance that your site rank at or near the top of the search engines for a search of “(your city) orthodontist” and the like.  

The main reason we place high search rankings as such an imperative is for the sake of brand alignment in helping to increase your case acceptance rates; let me explain.  You, as an orthodontist have worked ardently to create the atmosphere and structure of the practice itself.  This appearance reflects the overall quality and prominence of the “brand”.  At the initial consultation and case presentation, you strive to impress upon the would-be patient this quality image of your practice, the “brand”, and make it easy for them to accept on the spot.  But yet you have some percentage that do not.  The oft-heard statement of “let me talk to my husband/wife” is often code for “I’m going to do more research before I accept.”  Thus the patient/parent goes online and searches “(your city) orthodontist”.  If you rank at the top for that search, then your presentation and marketing message are aligned, and the patient subconsciously deems you as “the best.”  If you are second page, near the bottom, then the reverse may yet be true, your brand image does not align with your case presentation.  And the patient/parent then becomes a “shopper.” 

We can definitely help our clients’ search engine rankings and we bundle SEO into our overall marketing agreement with out client orthodontists.  One of Ingenuity’s key strategies in promoting the practice via social network marketing and online orthodontic contests is to generate a substantial increase in traffic to the practice’s main website.  This increase in traffic helps to boost the practice’s search engine ranking, but is often not enough to move a client site to number one.  At the core of SEO is the way in which your site is structured (at the programming level), backlinks, social mentions, etc.  And Ingenuity has an on-site and off-site search engine optimization package that focuses on all these aspects to drive its clients to the top.

SEO alone is no marketing plan.  But no orthodontic marketing plan should exist that doesn’t place an imperative on search engine rankings.

Orthodontic Marketing by way of Social Media

We are often asked to speak at both doctor and consultant meetings about utilizing social media to help grow a practice.  Social media in the field of orthodontics is, after all, our chosen niche in increasing patient referrals. Ingenuity uses orthodontic contest marketing to incentivize a practice's patients to introduce the practice to those patients' friends, families, and social circles.  But where does Facebook fit into this equation?  How do we utilize Facebook to increase the virality of a given contest?  How do we recommend that the practice conduct itself on Facebook to maximize sharing?  Do things such as posting banding and de-banding photos make sense? Is the practice violating any facet of HIPPA by posting patient photos?

The key to the success for any contest that we host in attracting new patients is formulaic.  So too is the approach we recommend that the practice itself undertake in posting on Facebook (or any social network for that matter).  The first realization is that the posts need to support a "marketable position" for the practice, something akin to imbuing a personality upon the business itself.  To meet this objective it is often advisable that the posts be more focused on the happenings of the practice than its clinical side.  So what about posting patient photos, such as banding and de-banding photos?  We'll err on the side of caution and simply not broach the legal aspects of such (we'll save that for the phone call).  But let's look at such posts from the standpoint of practicality and marketability.  On the side of marketability, the practice needs to set a clear schedule for such posts to occur.  We typically recommend that they be made en masse once per week.  The reason is simple; continual (daily) posts of this type will quickly be tuned out by the followers of the page.  Too much, too often, too similar.  Thus having a photo post en masse makes sense in terms of both marketability and practicality. Once per week makes the task much simpler.

A point that we make continually, though, is that regardless of how engaging the content of such a page may be, there simply has to be some facet or impetus that makes its followers likely to share it with their friends. Otherwise, the page is little more than a blog shared between practice and patient.  This is where Ingenuity Orthodontic Marketing really hits its mark.  We have the platform, plan, and people to make the practice "go viral," and all without the constant oversight (or even participation) by the orthodontist or team.  As such, the practice is not disrupted and can easily adapt to the new growth that the orthodontic contest marketing can yield.

Defining Your (orthodontic) Brand and the Language of the Patient Referral

We (humans) are where we are in the food chain because of language. We can uniquely share experiences and discoveries with subsequent generations such that they are not force to re-invent, but rather can expound on prior achievements. Does an idea have value? No. Not unless it can be adequately verbalized such that others can understand both its necessity, logic, and execution. Why are franchises statistically more successful than their privately held counterparts? Because the systems and tasks required for their continuance and growth are easily transferred between employees by spoken and written word. Language, whether it be in the form of a mathematical proof, user's manual, or business plan, is required if the idea is to be effectively shared between individuals.

You, the entrepreneur orthodontist, likely employ this concept even if you've never taken the time to define it as I have above. Many, if not most, orthodontists script much of the treatment coordinator's presentation of the treatment plan. You probably have some form of a script for the front desk, whether for answering calls or greeting patients as they come in. Note: If "no" is the answer to either of these, stop what you're doing and call us :)  But the vast majority of orthodontic practices do not script perhaps the most important facet of practice communication that there is; the "language of the referral."

In presentations, I typically put some poor staff member on the spot with this, "Tell me why I, a person that you met socially and has a child in need of orthodontic care, should choose Dr. 'Smith. Go." Invariably, the person stammers as the thoughts swirl only to coalesce into some form of, "Dr. 'Smith' is the best orthodontist, is caring, and is professional." I'm not sold. Are you? 

At this point I usually turn to the orthodontists in the group and ask if anyone knows their mission statement(s) off hand. You probably haven't looked at it in ages. But no worries, you probably wrote it when first you left residency to begin or join a practice. The fact is that this mission statement needs to include the words that YOU choose to describe your practice in a short enough sentence that it can easily be memorized by the staff and shared beyond your walls. Choose these words to reflect what is special about your practice. Use them in every consult, and every appointment, and every patient interaction so that the patients themselves use those same words to communicate you forward.

We have a client practice, Romani Orthodontics, that has a beautifully short catch-phrase that they use to define the brand, "Experience the perfect smile." While this is probably shorter than you'd want for a mission statement, it works beautifully as a call to action.  I get it and I'd buy it. So work on the language that you use to describe your practice, share it with your staff, make it a part of your every patient conversation . . . and you'll be amazed that your patients will use it as their own in describing you to their peers.

Back from Char Eash's meeting, on the way to the AAO

I was humbled to be one of Profit Marketing Systems South's two featured speakers at this year's meeting in Clearwater, FL.  Char is a special and rare talent in orthodontic practice consultation, so being invited to speak at her symposium was a spectacular honor.  What's more, having so many practices from across the country assembled in one location really afforded us with the opportunity to hear first hand accounts of issues facing orthodontic practices and how marketing and PR efforts seem to be something for which all are hungry.

Ingenuity's presentation was "Patient Referral Growth via New Media Marketing," and was enthusiastically received.  In posts to come, I will provide snippets as journal entries and will solicit feedback.  In fact, it has been requested that we begin offering monthly and/or quarterly "Orthodontic Marketing Webinars," which we will gladly launch on the other side of the AAO Annual Meeting.

One of the key elements of the presentation on which I was called to spend considerably more time than I had intended dealt with "defining your brand and the language of the patient referral."  Thus I'll present that as the first journal installment, followed by "social networks and the orthodontic practice" and "using orthodontic contests as a recruitment tool."  Thus we have our agenda!

That's the update, I look forward to seeing one and all at the AAO.  Ours is booth 543, so please stop by and see us.  We'd love to meet you and hear about your practice!