Having your own business is great! Although it can be quite a challenge sometimes. Working as a dentist in a private office is like running a small business. You have to take care of your staff, your finances, the office space and so on. Nowadays it's more important than ever to have a great marketing plan and to have a state of the art website. Most of the new patients become new patients because of recommendations by their family and friends. But over the last 5 to 10 years the internet changed the way people search for their new doctor. Who still has a copy of the Yellow Pages at home? People still ask family and friends, co-workers or fellow friends from the gym or study club of course. But they double check online on websites like Jameda, a German rating site for doctors, and decide if they like what they see on the profiles of the doctor. They also check Google Plus or Facebook, where you can also find different types of ratings.
It's also interesting that they check the website of the dental office for images of the team and doctors as well as their offered services. We routinely asked every new patient why they did chose our office and not the one next door. Most of the time the answers are:
Suggested by a friend or family member
The office is really close by their workplace or place of residency
Modern, stylish, good looking website
Really good rating online on different sites
As mentioned above the good part about being your own boss is that you can decide a lot of things. But you also have to pay for all the expenses regardless cheap or expensive. In most cases it's a good choice to go to a specialist when you want something extraordinary. In case of our online marketing strategy we decided to stick to our own expertise. I bet we saved a lot of money on that one! After reading several books on online marketing for dentists, looking through online presentations and checking blogs, we created a Facebook Fan Page, a Jameda profile for each dentist, a Medium profile, an Instagram profile, a Google Plus account and of course the main component: Our website.
The website to go to: Squarespace
The focus in the following paragraphs is on Squarespace, an online service which lets almost everybody create a fabulous website. It was back in early 2015 when I stumbled over a blog post on Medium about Squarespace. We were running a "crappy" website back then which had very limited options but was free for us. After renovating our practice it was definitely time for a change. I signed up for the free trial and sat down for 3-4 hours.
Great templates
I started by choosing a template I liked and copied most of the existing text. First I used the existing stock images as place holders till I finished to take new images of our office and staff. The options are almost limited. The available templates differ a lot and there are several example pages for each template. They are also sorted by different business types so it's easier to chose from. Images are inserted via copy and paste, you can add text blocks, quote, videos and so on. Check out their feature index. It's self explanatory and the help section is really good. Squarespace also has a great customer service, which was rewarded several times. I used it already a couple of times and they are really friendly and truely amazing.
Different available plans
First we went with their "Personal Plan" for 11 € a month. The number of pages is limited and some other disadvantages compared to the "Business Plan" which is 17 € a month. Check out their site for further information. You also have a custom domain included. We switch to the "Business Plan" after a year because we needed more pages but that was the only reason. If you are selling products online, it's the plan to go for right from the beginning.
Backend and analytics
The Squarespace backend comes with a variety of great tools. All sites are automatically adjusted for tablets and smartphones. It's easy to optimize for SEO. You have different analytic tools and of course mobile apps for iOS and Android. You can write a blog post any time, check your sold products and so on. The previous selected template is customizable in many ways - the fonts, the colors, the background. Insert your own logo, use your company's individual colors and even use a pop-up or announcement bar. We use the blog feature as well to publish articles monthly and inform patients about events.
Pimp your site by using great images
Most of the images of our office we use for our website were shot by myself. The portraits of the team were done by a photographer who is also a patient. I also used a lot of images from Unsplash. They offer a wide selection of images.
The cons
Hmm actually there is just one negative thing to say about Squarespace. If you would set up a Wordpress page, you might reduce the cost over time. But you still have to pay for the domain each year and the hosting. Besides you have to purchase a theme which fits your needs. Your technical skills have to be a lot more advanced compared to using Squarespace. You have to protect your Wordpress page, install new versions a couple of times a year and if you want to change more than just some images, you need programming skills. I build several wordpress pages and it's way harder than using Squarespace. You also have the chance to hire a programmer to change the design of your Squarespace site or add functionality.
If we would have chosen a professional agency, the results might have been better overall but I bet way more expensive as well. By using Squarespace it's easy for us to take control of our own site and update any time we want without asking anybody. It's also important for Google's algorithm to update your website from time to time.
The pros
Easy to use, great looking website, adjustable for your personal needs, usable as a personal site for artists and for business as well, newest technology, no server downtime, .... and so on and on and on and on...
Just try it out yourself!
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