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One good piece of advice professional SEO services may give you is that reviews are a must for your digital marketing efforts. Your own marketing is designed to extoll your virtues, especially in a field like dentistry where you need a unique value proposition to stand out. Most dental clinics offer similar services. Take root canal dentist in Burlington as one example. You offer near-identical services, but the difference is in how you present yourself and what you offer your patients.
Reviews are another argument you can present to show potential patients what you have to offer that the competition doesn’t. The right reviews, especially when shown on Google where your prospects can see them, go a long way toward making a good first impression on your visitors.
Why Google Reviews Matter
Reviews are more than a way for patients to share how their appointments with you went. They also tell a story to prospective patients who haven’t decided whether they want to choose you as their dentist yet. Dental practices are like any other business: your online reputation makes a world of difference when it comes to attracting new clients. Here’s a shortlist of reasons why soliciting more patient reviews is a smart idea.
1. Patients trust online reviews
One aspect of online marketing is building trust and goodwill with your digital audience. Good reviews are one way of earning that trust. Reviews serve as a third-party endorsement of your quality as a dental clinic. Customers frequently check reviews for businesses before visiting, and dental clinics are no exception. What your previous patients have to say about you makes a difference when it comes to attracting new ones. Take some time to encourage your patients to leave a review, then post those reviews on your site or Google. As new prospects visit your site, those glowing reviews can build trust among those new patients and present a favourable look at your practice before they even visit.
2. Review monitoring lets you build your brand
Whether you know it or not, you have an online presence, even if you haven’t put serious effort into building it. Online resources like Google and Yelp index your site even if you haven’t. With that in mind, it’s vital you take an active hand in building your online reputation to ensure you’re offering prospects accurate information about the quality and trustworthiness of your work. Careful review management allows you to present a favourable view to potential patients. The trick to online marketing is offering prospects information that inspires confidence in the hopes of turning them into paying customers.
3. Your reviews affect your search rankings
One of the main goals of SEO according to experts is improving your search rankings to ensure more prospects see your pages. Google sees online reviews as social signals that give your site relevance. Simply put, the more reviews you have, the higher you rank on local and organic search results. More visibility also means more traffic, allowing you to attract more visitors who can convert into patients. Google also looks favourably on sites that update regularly, and that includes reviews. Securing a steady stream of reviews is just one more way to get Google’s attention and convince the search engine you’re a trustworthy site that stays active. Encourage more of your patients to leave some reviews and bring in even more visitors to your site.
4. Reviews let you read your patients
When it comes to running your clinic, it’s not just about the dental side of the business. There are other hats to wear: business owner, manager, and marketer, to name a few. One aspect of running the business is knowing what your patients think about it. It’s vital you understand your patients’ concerns as you operate your clinic. It helps to know what you’re doing right, so you can continue doing that. If there’s anything wrong that your patients have noticed, reviews also offer a way to let you find out so you can remedy the situation. Consumers tend to be open about these issues, and asking for their feedback is a great way to learn about any problems. Dealing with bad reviews isn’t always a pleasant experience, but it’s key to locating issues in your business and taking steps to remedy them.
5. Good reviews bolster your marketing
Customers are often spoiled for choice, particularly when it comes to choosing a suitable dentist. It’s all the more so when you’re looking in specific areas, like selecting a denture clinic in London, Ontario. Marketing your practice and outlining your value proposition is a must for differentiating yourself from your competitors. While you have your SEO and content to do most of the work, your reviews can do their part to reach out to prospects as well. Good reviews work as another way to show that yours is a trustworthy and reliable denture clinic. As they aren’t paid ads, but endorsements from other patients, prospects are more likely to trust it and believe that you’re a denture clinic worthy of trust. Make a habit of soliciting reviews from your patients after every appointment to contribute just a little more to your online marketing.
Tips to Help You Make the Most of Your Reviews
There’s no denying that reviews offer a boost to your dental clinic in Etobicoke. However, it’s also a good idea to know how to use them to make the most of them for your digital marketing. Keep these tips in mind to help you take advantage of your reviews and make a good impression on your readers.
- Establish a system - An easy way to solicit the reviews you want is to set up a system where patients can leave their feedback. Having a system in place makes it easier for patients to let you know what they think, enabling them to leave reviews more consistently. Leave some instructions via your website or emails where patients can see them and act accordingly.
- Use multiple review sites - Reviews left on your GMB page are a great place to share feedback with future patients, but it isn’t the only resource available. You can also share those reviews on sites like Yelp or Facebook to enable a larger audience to see them. Prospects often use a variety of sites to gauge the trustworthiness of a business, so it pays to cast a wider net to get their attention.
- Respond to reviews promptly - When receiving any reviews or testimonials, it always pays to respond right away. Treat your exchanges with patients like a conversation. When someone offers compliments or thanks, it’s only good manners to respond quickly if only to say “thank you”. As a rule of thumb, the more quickly you respond to feedback, the more you encourage future feedback as patients know you’re listening to what they have to say.
Reviews are a key part of your digital marketing, and it pays to take them seriously. Consider making it easier for customers to share their feedback to allow other visitors to your GMB page and site to see their reviews. It’s also a good idea to work with an online marketing partner to ensure your marketing stays strong, but you can start the basics on your own. Keep these insights in mind to help you develop your review strategy moving forward and present a favourable picture of your clinic to any would-be patients.
Published by Louise Marie
