Congratulations to Angela Blass, DDS on the launch of her redesigned web site SmileCentralIowa.com. This is an HTML site with Flash with a content manager and it looks fantastic. The goal, which I think was met very effectively, was create a site that portrayed dentistry performed in a spa-like environment.
A site like this is the best of both worlds. It has all the aesthetics of custom-designed site, has some Flash to establish a high-end look and feel and optimizes well due to the HTML nature of the site. This is the kind of site that about 85% of our cosmetic dentists and cosmetic surgeon clients order when designing a new web site. And, for those who are wanting to manage their own content, we can do that, too.
If you are considering a web site change this year, please remember our Summer Web Site Special has only 7 days left. If you order an HTML/Flash site like this one, you can receive 4 minutes of web drop video for FREE.
In addition to this site launch and reminder about the web site special, I wanted to take a moment to recognize our loyal Dog Star Media clients. One of the difficult parts of owning your own business is the feeling that you are responsible for all aspects of the business. This includes marketing and sales which are vital functions. However, these are vital functions that are not part of dental or medical training.
Every August, I try to stop for a while and think about who I have spoken to and what we have done this year. With the economy in fits and starts, very few have had smooth years and nearly all would say things are improving. That’s good. But I really admire how all of our clients survived the Recession and are strategically building their businesses again. And, all of this is occurring in a changing landscape
Our clients have become smarter over the last few years, sharpening their savvy on knowing what to measure, how to measure it and how to react to the results. (In other words, they took our advice on metrics much more to heart when it really counted.) For the most part, wasteful spending has been identified and eliminated. Nearly all our clients use our tracking telephone numbers to measure and monitor incoming calls to ensure productivity. In its second year, our SEO program has been a great success with most clients posting new traffic gains nearly every month. Our clients have made a major tactical change, many moving from a heavy reliance on mass media to a surgical approach on the Internet.
The speed at which our clients adapted and added mobile web sites has also been impressive this year. The need for this new feature for a complete Internet strategy really popped up over night earlier this year when Google started measuring mobile use on the Analytics dashboard. So far, mobile site orders at DSM have outpaced web site orders and that is a tribute to our clients being forward thinking and wanting to make the best first impression no matter how the user comes to the site.
This has also been the year of the web re-design. As I mentioned, the majority of our clients choose HTML/Flash sites so they can have it all: custom aesthetics and search-engine relevant content in HTML code. We have redesigned many web sites this year, many of those changes were driven by the client understanding his/her site user statistics and realizing that an HTML/Flash site could improve their traffic and responses.
I guess it comes down to the wisdom to change when change is needed. That is a great theme I have seen this year in our client base. And, putting that wisdom into effect takes some guts and fortitude. So, today, I want to thank our clients for having that fortitude and trusting us to help them reach their objectives.
If we can help you with any of these marketing or media strategies, please let me know at donald@dogstarmedia.com.
