Going beyond the obvious

Going forward I’m afraid the obvious just isn’t going to be good enough.

Given an average bounce rate for dental web sites of 66% (to be clear, two-thirds of visitors leave with 4 seconds), if your web site looks like all of those other web sites, you may as well not bother.

Given an average of 75% of web site visits originating from smartphones, if your web site doesn’t look good and function well on the small screen, you are in trouble.

If your Facebook business page is a collection of bland OHE explanations, coffee mornings and the occasional team photo, it isn’t going to reach.

If your Instagram page is a few boomerangs of the team, some before and after teeth and gum shots and every now and then a patient selfie, it’s going to get lost in the noise.

If your patient newsletter isn’t about your patients, it will not get read (unless you have built up a loyal following and occasionally want to change the subject; for example, opening a new digital dental suite and explaining the benefits of that for the patients).

If you haven’t created a blog – well.

If your blog for patients is about dentistry – shrug.

I used to struggle to get my clients to take their digital presence seriously at all.

We seem to have crossed that bridge, with lots of practices upping their game online (albeit upping from a very low level).

The next level is to become ORIGINAL in the content you are broadcasting.

You cannot positively differentiate yourself in the market by doing and saying the same as everyone else.

OBVIOUS won’t do it any more.

You have to go beyond.