P.J. Lloyd is the CEO of Site Revamp Corporation and writes in his blog for his company often. Site Revamp is a web design and development company that specializes in search engine optimization and internet marketing solutions. P.J. recently wrote a very interesting article titled “Yellow Pages vs. Search Engines” in their blog. The article focused on specific statistics and facts regarding Internet usage against yellow page usage. The following are some excerpts from this well written article…

“According to Jupiter Media, over 64% of people looking for information online, use search engines. If I can type what I want into a search engine and find what I need, I don’t need to go through the 100 pages of ads in the Yellow Pages. Search Engines are getting more precise down to an industry specialty and geographic focus, while also continuing to be easier to use.

I’m not sure about you, but as a business owner, the last thing I would do is give my prospects a list of my competitors. The Yellow Pages does just that. Using search engines, you can differentiate yourself from everyone else. Given that your site is optimized, when the ideal client is looking for what you do, they find you, not your competitors.

And did you know that as far back as February 2004, The Kelsey Group and Bizrate. Com found that 64% of Internet users who make purchases online prefer search engines to conventional Yellow Pages. Go figure.

he Yellow Pages Integrated Media Association commissioned a study finding that the printed Yellow Pages have seen usage decline from 2.0 average weekly lookups per person in the mid 1990s to 1.4 average weekly lookups in 2003. However, the economics of publishing printed Yellow Pages remains incredibly strong, so even with decreasing usage; the books continue to appeal to advertisers at maximized ad rates. With more research validating Search Engine Optimization and benefits, listen for the ripping of those Yellow Pages rate cards.

Bottom line: Realize that yellow page books and yellow page online directories do not differentiate you from everyone else. Make sure your site tells what you do, where you are located and invites the client to take action with your firm. Welcome to search, the killer application that is leapfrogging the current directory model. Search is the future: the question is - are you are going to be a player or a spectator? Good Selling!”

You can read more of this article by clicking here. I found his lists of statistics and information very appealing and interesting. It’s obvious that the Internet is a much more effective and cost efficient means of advertising for the Dental Industry, and for all industries for that matter.

Last post we talked about stats from Pew Internet Stats concerning email among internet users. We are planning on writing several posts regarding the stats that we have received. Like last time we reported that 71% percent of American adults claim they use the Internet. That is a “majority” of Americans.

In a study taken in February and March of this year, out of that 71% of internet users, 91% said they use a Search Engine to find information. This number shows us that along with email, search engines are critical tools for the everyday internet user. They are almost as mandatory as the Internet itself. With this being said, how does that apply to a dental practice?

Dentists need to stop focusing so much on print ads such as the yellowpages and start focusing on organic search engine optimization. The dentists who decide to do this now will get ahead of their competition and it will pay off in the long run.

According to Pew Internet Stats and a survey conducted between February and March of this year 2007, 71% of American adults use the Internet. And 91% of those internet users send or read email! That’s right! You heard correctly! It’s that large of a number. It’s pretty safe to say that’s a majority of American adults who send and receive email often. That makes email a critical form of all types of communication.

That’s why we feel strongly about our Med eMail program. Med eMail is our web based application that helps a Dental Practice send appointment confirmation and appointment reminders via email. It is nowdays a critical form of communication and must be adopted by businesses of all types. Including Dentists.

It is said that it takes a mother with small children 20-30 minutes to fill out their forms at the Dentist Office. Also that with elderly people it typically takes even longer than that. The poor mother with little children running around everywhere driving her crazy, has to sit down for 30 minutes just to fill out the forms her Dentist requires her to complete. How stressful must that be for that mother? If only the mother could fill out the forms at home on the Internet before she came to the office. That way, she would not have to deal with it when she came in. She could just come in and get her teeth worked on and get out.

That’s why PatientDocs.com created a service to provide Dentist Offices everywhere to have their forms filled out on their website. This service of Online Forms makes life easier for everyone. The office staff and the most importantly the patients themselves. And perhaps even more importantly than that, the mothers with small children!

Dental Internet Marketing is beginning to carry a name for itself. It is beginning to become it’s own subject and carry on quite the conversation. Dentists everywhere are starting to grasp the power the Internet has on their respective communities. And they are at the same time beginning to understand how they can use the internet for their Dental practice. It’s been a long time in the making. But it is happening slowly but surely.

The fact is that the Internet will be a profitable and beneficial tool for the Dental Practices that choose to use it and use it wisely. Those who do not will be left in the dust. The common patients these days are beginning to look for Dentists in their area by doing “Google Searches” or by searching online directories such as Dex Online. It’s important that Dentists everywhere understand the minds of their new generation potential customer/patient. These people are talking about their dentists on blogs and on MySpace. They are reading reviews and ratings on websites about their local dentists. The internet is turning into one big word of mouth for the Dental Industry. And the Dentist who decides to take the internet “by the horns” will benefit from this internet tool the most!

Open Source applications are for all types of businesses. Better said, Open Source applications are for every business! And that includes the Dental Practice and industry as well. A dental practice should be able to spend most of it’s dollars towards things that actually physically benefit each patient. The problem with paid software is that it’s mediocre and it costs alot of money. Open Source applications, when choosing the right one, can be much more beneficial for a practice and of course they are free. You typically only have to pay a professional to set it up for you. When I speak of open source applications in this case I am talking about Open Source software. If you want to learn about what kind of open source software would be good for your practice check out www.chasesagum.com, a blog about open source software for businesses.

An example of this would be Sugar CRM. A CRM stands for customer relationship management. Sugar CRM is open source meaning it’s free to download. You would use it to track your patients and/or marketing campaigns. This type of tool would help you with Advertising and Marketing as well as Sales and Customer Service. To learn more about Sugar CRM go to www.sugarcrm.com.

Skype is a voice over internet (voip) tool that allows you to make phone calls over the internet at a very, very low cost. Skype has millions of users worldwide and has become a very popular and favorable internet tool for businesses. At PatientDocs.com I use Skype for all of my outbound and inbound phone calls. I pay only $38 dollars a YEAR for unlimited phone calls anywhere in the United States to any phone, even landlines. At $38 a year, you really can’t go wrong. That will literally save any Dental Practice thousands of dollars. To learn more about Skype go to www.skype.com and read up on them. If you want someone to talk to you about it in person, contact us and we will walk you through the details on how Skype can be used in your Dental Office.

Two weeks ago we held a phone seminar with 10 different Dentists’ teaching them how the Internet can help their practice. It went really well and we have had a great response from our listeners. We plan on giving the presentation again. We want to share the white paper with all those who are interested in learning about it. You can download it free by click the following link…Phone Seminar June 2007

We are also interested to hear any feedback on this download on how we can make this presentation better. Our goal with this phone seminar white paper is to teach and instruct Dentists’ how to effectively use the Internet in their practice and benefit from it. Thanks

We recently gave a telephone seminar through the American Dental Association concerning the topic of Internet Services and the Dental Office. We had 20 dentists from the southern California area listen in as we lectured on the subject. We had a wonderful response and were glad to hear compliments regarding our presentation and the information we provided. I want to give you a summary of that presentation here in this post.

We provided information regarding the Internet as a solution to specific problems that many Dentists’ office experience. We interviewed 5 different Dentists’ from 5 totally different locations to find out what problems Dentists’ are experiencing in the area of Practice Management.

Problem 1: Educating Patients

We found that all 5 Dentists’ had trouble finding enough time to fully educate their patients as much as they wanted to. We solved that issue by showing them how a Dentist office could have a Patient Education Portal on their website, full of articles and links to helpful information.

Problem 2: Waiting Rooms

The time consuming effort of the patients filling out forms when they come into the office was shared by all 5 Dentists’. We instructed the Dentists’ by showing them how they can put their forms online and have their patients fill them out and submit them to the office before they even come to the office.

Problem 3: Communication with Patients

All Dentists’ agreed that their level of communication with their patients were not fully optimal. They also agreed that sending out information to patients via mail became quite expensive over time. We showed them how automatic email reminders of appointments and other types would help solve this problem.

Problem 4: Cost-Efficient Advertising

We taught the Dentists’ regarding websites and how they are a wonderful form of cost-efficient and effective advertising. All agreed that they were for more than what they were getting in return with advertising such as Yellow Pages.

If you want to learn more about these Internet Solutions to Dental Practice Problems, Click Here to go to PatientDocs.com and learn more about what we offer. The goal of PatientDocs.com is to provide Internet Solutions for Dental Practices worldwide.

A website is extremely important to have for your Dental Practice for several reasons. The major reason is the ability a website has to bring you new patients and more revenue. And comparing to other advertising avenues, having a website is also much more cost efficient. Corine Leech, a writer for dentalblogs.com wrote;

“By now all dental offices should have and see the value of a web site. A really nice, flashy web site is terrific BUT if no one ever finds it what good is it to the bottom dollar of your practice. You have to know how to drive the general public to your site so they know you, your Team and the terrific dental services you offer. Just this past Friday, while I was in the office working, I received an email from a client I had seen as a new patient in February of 2005. On her visit we had taken  digital photos so she could see her dental needs and problems as we see them. She then talked with me about what she wanted to change in her mouth. Together we formulated a treatment plan to help her accomplish her goals. Did she schedule, no, she did not have the money. I had not heard from her until Friday. Her email stated she had been able to obtain financing at last, and was ready to schedule her $22,000 case. The link to the web is, she was originally referred to our practice through a link we have with About Cosmetic Dentistry.com, that directed her to our web site. From our web site she called to schedule her original appointment. And now, 2 years later that same web optimization, linked her back to our site where she found the link to financing through Enhance Patient Finance and emailed me to schedule her appointment. The Internet and your web site truly are the key to an untapped public who is now better educated and researching the type of dentist they want.”

This is a wonderful example of how a website can create some serious leverage for your dental practice. You will find yourself getting business you normally would never get. Best of all the “web works for you” while you are busy doing the important things for your practice. You don’t have to worry about being part time Dentist and full time marketer. Just do what you love and let the “web go to work for you”. Click here to learn how PatientDocs.com helps you with web services.