Summary:
No matter what industry you are in, if you want more customers and/or more business growth, it starts with:
- Knowing thy customer; and know what the biggest common problems are that your ideal customer types have, so you can be the provider of the ‘solutions’… and then broadcast this on all your marketing, your Facebook page banner, your website, etc, etc.
- Excellent ideal customer written avatars
- A review of your business, including updating your SWOT Analysis
- Situational and Needs Analysis work
- Writing down the challenges, concerns and problems your business is having
- Writing down your next 12 month goals and your goals for each year during the next 5 years. Also write down the goals you wish to achieve in the 10 years (if not sooner)
- Auditing your website, social media, current marketing & advertising
- Review sales processes
- A variety of other audits and activities
- Data reviews, including but not limited to enquiry conversions, website traffic, social, staff performance, etc
- A bespoke growth roadmap, created by digital marketing experts who know what they are doing
My team and I provide each of the above services to our clients who come to ask asking for help with their business growth. The only one we don’t is ‘auditing their sales processes’. We can provide tips in this area, but we do not specialise as ‘sales trainers’.
Do Growth Roadmaps help businesses grow?
They sure do! They are EXCELLENT at helping businesses grow, when they are done correctly.
You can have growth roadmaps written for your entire business. You can also have growth roadmaps written for specific things like ‘turning your website into a conversions-focused website‘.
‘AI’ can also help when assembling growth roadmaps. I know ‘AI’ is a contentious subject, but currently many AI tools are useful and MANY businesses are using them in many ways, to improve productivity and to stay competitive. Many people are also using AI tools like Google Gemini, CoPilot or ChatGPT to help write a ‘growth roadmap’.
Note: When you do this, the AI is not perfect. You STILL need to show what it has generated to your digital marketing business growth expert and ask them to:
- Check that it is accurate
- Add anything else into the growth roadmap that the AI has missed.
As an example, if you have a dentist business and you want your website to help your business gain more customers/clients, you can provide your favourite AI tool this prompt:
“How can I transform update my dentist website so it makes my business more money.”
A Website Growth Roadmap for Dentist businesses:
I ran this prompt in ChatGPT. Below is what it provided. I have also added to it. All information is sound, tried, true & tested and if you implement it in your dentist business, it will help increase your number of new customers/ clients.
Please note: The below information is of use and value to any service-based business, not just dentists.
First, you need to view your dentist website not as an online brochure, but as a 24/7 new customer/new patient-booking machine 🦷
1. Get brutally clear on the money goals
Before touching the design of your website, ask yourself (and write your answers down):
- What services make you the most profit?
(e.g. implants, Invisalign, veneers, whitening, emergency, general check-ups, cleans, fillings, etc << List them down, then tell your website disigner what these are (in order of profitability), so they can features these services on your website homepage, AND so they can created dedicate webpages for each.) - Who do you want more of?
- Families?
- Cosmetic patients?
- Kids?
- Emergency / pain patients?
- What is a good patient worth to you over 12–24 months?
Your website should push people toward those services, not everything equally.
2. Rebuild your homepage around conversions (not ego)
If you’re not sure what a conversions-focused website is, once you finish reading this blog post, it’s worth also reading this other blog post titled “What is a conversions-focused website“.
Most dental websites fail in this area. They are often just ‘brochure-style websites’ which do not provide the value, ROI or growth that a ‘conversions-focused website’ provides.
Please note: You need to work with your website design expert to make these changes. An excellent website dsigner can get results that a junior website designer and/or you (as the owner, manager or employee of the dentist business) will be unable to achieve.
In the ‘Above the fold area’ on the website homepage you must get it improved so it has:
- A clear value proposition – eg:
“Gentle, modern dentistry in [Suburb] – same-day emergency appointments available.” - An excellent website design ‘look and feel’
- Be extremely easy for people to use, including those who will be accessing your website on their mobile phones
- One primary CTA
Book Online or Call Now - Trust signals that are easy to see and read:
Google overall rating- Years in practice
- “Serving [local area] families since…”
- A very attractive authentic photo
Tip: ‘Below the fold’ or somewhere on the home page (or even as a ‘pop-up’), a very good idea is to also add this:
- Provide an ‘offer’ that requires people to opt-in with their email address. That way you are building you mailing list (your ‘leads list’). Then get your website designer to set up weekly autoresponder emails that send to each person who joins the list. Info about this website strategy is here.
Also it is very important the following is also done:
Make sure your Website Designer has setup Google Analytics in your website.
Create a Hotjar account, then send your account logins to your Website Designer. Ask him/her to add this to your website. They and you will then be able to see:
- Recordings of how people are using the website
- Heatmaps showing which parts of each page visitors are finding most useful
You can then use this data (combined with the Google Analytisc data) to make further conversion-rate optimisation changes to your website, if the data tells you it is needed.
[An introduction to Hotjar is in the below video.]
Side note: If you’re not sure what “above the fold” means, Google: “what is the above the fold area of a website”.
Kill these homepage money killers:
Long welcome messages Thin content (a lack of quality/ useful content) on a homepage. A good example of very useful content on a website homepage is: www.apers.com.au and www.advancedthermography.com.au Stockimage ‘smiles’ images (with no context — which are also not authentic and look fake) “About Us” — if you want some short ‘about’ info on the homepage, move it to a less prime area of the home page (move it further down the page)
Bonus tip: Get a well created short 2 – 3 minute ‘about your business’ explainer video created, and then get your website designer to embed it in your homepage.
Videos are of course more engaging than just text. They are also more memorable. It’s a great way to help further increase conversions. The video though MUST be ‘on-brand’, of benefit to the viewer and not an ‘ego-piece’. As an example, the video on this page is not bad: www.mackellargroup.com.au/about-us
3. Create high-intent service pages
Every profitable service should have its own dedicated webpage – eg:
- Dental Implants
- Invisalign / Clear Aligners
- Emergency Dentist
- Teeth Whitening
- Veneers
- Children’s Dentistry
- etc
Each page should:
- Speak to the patient’s problem(s)
- Explain the solution simply
- Handle fear + objections (pain, cost, time)
- Show proof (reviews, before/afters, guarantees, etc)
- Include relevant FAQs on each of these pages
- Provide an ‘offer’ (relevant to each page) that requires people to opt-in with their email address. Then get your website designer to set up weekly or fortnightly autoresponder emails that send to each person who joins the list.
- End each webpage with a strong CTA (Call to Action)
👉 If Local SEO work is done by a professional, these pages then rank better in Google and AI Search… PLUS they convert MUCH better than a simple short webpage.
[An example website: www.apers.com.au ]
Less profitable services can then either:
- Have their own page << this is best
- Be mentioned on 1x page (using sub-headings)
An example website: www.hinklerpodiatry.com.au
4. Make booking stupid-easy
If booking an appointment isn’t effortless, you’re losing money daily.
Best setup:
- Online booking visible on every page
- Click-to-call for people viewing your site on mobile phones
- Sticky “Book Appointment” button
- Emergency patients can book in under 30 seconds
Bonus money move:
- Different CTAs for different pages
(e.g. “Emergency Appointment Today” vs “Free Invisalign Consult”)
5. Use social proof like a weapon
Dentistry is high-trust, high-fear.
Add the following things to your website:
- Google reviews embedded on key pages
- Short patient testimonials with photos
- Write Case Studies… and include before and after photos. (There are website plugins that can be used to make this more visually interesting as well)
- Video testimonials from clients
- Any awards your business has won in the last 2 years
- Any other note-worthy thinks that helps website visitors perceive that your dentist business is better than all of your direct competitors
- Out-play your competitors with a FAR more excellent website. Make your website a site that people stay on for longer, are impressed by, etc. THIS will help lead to more customers, as you increase the traffic to your website (See section 6 – below)
- Add a “Why patients choose us” page
- A really engaging ‘About’ page. Ensure it emotionally compells. Also include your values, vision and mission statement in this page. It is a very good idea to put some good effort into your About page. Some of the reasons are in these two blog posts: SEO your about page and is your about page holding you back.
- Real photos of:
- The clinic
- The team
- The dentist(s)
6. Local SEO = consistent new patients
To make more money short and long-term:
- Optimise your Local SEO for:
- “Dentist [Suburb Name]” (do this for each suburb you market to, if your business is in a larger city like the Sunshine Coast). “Dentist [Location]” (do this for each location – eg. Bundaberg, Bargara, Gin Gin, etc)
- “Emergency dentist [Suburb]” (for each suburb and/or location)
- “Dental implants [City]”
- Add suburb-specific pages (and/or locations) for each of your highly profitable services — do this if you serve multiple suburbs and/or areas (these are called landing pages). Two examples of landing pages are here: Podiatry Bargara and Rent Lone Worker Personal Alarms.
- Tight integration with your Google Business Profile
- Schema markup for reviews & services (Google: “what is SEO schema data” to learn what this is)
- Start a blogging platform in your website. Work with an excellent SEO content Writer who knows how to do ‘Search Everywhere Optimisation’ and not just SEO. Excellent informative and useful blog posts are key.
- Build citations (Google: “what is an SEO citation” if not sure what this is)
- Get your SEO person to help your website get some excellent SEO backlinks. Google “what is an SEO backlink” if not sure what this is.
- Get your Local SEO person to do ALL the effective SEO work. Then watch the traffic to your website increase (via your Google Analytics reporing data) and also watch the number of enquiries increase… AND then convert as many as you can to new customers.
Amongst things, excellent Local SEO work will also reduce reliance on paid ads over time.
- If needs be though, get a Google Ads expert to run Google Ads for you, in addition to Local SEO.
7. Add conversion boosters (advanced but powerful):
By including the following, you will also further increase conversions:
- Limited-time offers
(Eg. Free Invisalign consult – this month only) - Payment options information
(Eg. Afterpay / Humm / payment plans available) - An Exit-intent Offer
(Eg. $130 new patient check & clean – for a limited time only – claim the coupon code) – (Google “What is a website exit-intent offer” if not sure what this is) - Follow-up automation for abandoned bookings
8. Online Social Media Ads:
If you feel you need even more vsitor traffic to your website:
- Ask your website and Facebook Ads expert to run Facebook Ads that will build leads and also help produce more enquiries
- Ask them if you should also look at using Google Ads, YouTube ads, TikTok ads, etc.
- Consider also using remarketing and retargeting
9. Track what actually makes you money
If you’re not tracking, you’re guessing.
At minimum:
- Track phone calls
- Track online bookings
- Track online form enquiries
- Track which pages convert
- Also track the number of enquiries that convert to new customers
- Know your cost per new patient (CPA = Cost Per Acquisition)
If you gather and keep this data, send it to your Local SEO expert each month.
- They can then calculate your website conversion rates.
Once you know what your website conversion rates are, you can dial in how many ‘qualified website visitors’ you need per week, to reach your monthly sales targets (for new customers). Eg: If your average fee for an adult ‘check-up and teeth clean’ is $180+GST, and you want to do 80 ‘check-ups and cleans’ per month, with a little bit of maths you’ll be able to reverse-engineer how much ‘qualified website visitor traffic’ you will need per month (every month) to achieve this target.
Additional Tip:
Don’t forget to send bulk emails to your customers and leads lists. A dentist business should only do this ever 3 – 4 months, instead of fortnightly or monthly.
Use software like MailChimp for this, or your holistic sales CRM software (like GoHighLevel) if you’re using CRM marketing automation software. If you have been in business for any amount of time, you konw that it is very, very important to keep your customers and prospects:
- Informed
- Engaged
- Updated
This helps your business:
- Stay ‘top of their mind’
- Helps remind them to refer you to others
- Let’s them know about new offers, VIP offers, new services, etc… and any other changes in your business.
This will help lead to more repeat customers and more word of mouth referrals. Use this method along with your SMS check-up reminder methods.
Wrapping up
I don’t have time to write a full conclusion summary for this blog post. I need to get back to the list of jobs my team and I need to get done this week for clients.
The big mindset shift take-away for this blog post though is:
Your website should answer one question very clearly:
- “Why should I trust you with my teeth, and how do I book right now?”
Whether you own a dentist business, or a business in any other medical industry, or any form of ‘service-based business’ in any industry, if you:
- Make your website as great as you possibly can
- Treat your business as a marketing and sales machine, not an online-brochure
- Make your website as appealing to your ideal customer types as you can
- And apply all the things written in this blog post…
… you will gain an increased number of enquiries, customers and sales.
Btw: the above ‘website growth roadmap’ for dentist businesses is not the be-all-and-end-all of what can be done. It does though cover many strategies that, when combined, are very effective and can easily be implemented.
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