Escape Convention
Base Creative have just returned from exhibiting at the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry's annual conference up in Edinburgh (www.bacd.com).
Although we have clients from all possible sectors and industries, we have a number of dental clients who we work closely with, and attending gave us a chance to speak to both existing and potential clients to find out more about what they are looking for from their web design and marketing agency.
Over the three days, Iain and I spoke to several hundred dentists and dental practitioners and one thing became clear: more and more potential patients are now going online to find the best dentist to go to. Merely being the closest, most convenient or cheapest dentist is no longer a guarantee that they will visit. The result of this is that dentists who have not invested the time and effort required to have a fantastic web presence are falling behind, whereas those who take their online marketing seriously are attracting more and more patients and are not losing out to their rivals.
What was really encouraging was that the majority of those we spoke to knew that a great website that brought in many new patients had to be both an attraction and a conversion tool. By attraction, I mean that it has to attract qualified visitors to the site through effective Search Engine Optimisation; by conversion, I mean that when a potential patient visits the site they are inspired and influenced by the website design and layout to the extent that they follow the “call to action” (what you want the user to do, i.e. pick up the phone or fill in the site's contact form).
All in all, it was a fun and stimulating three days, we met a lot of great people and look forward to staying in touch and hopefully working with lots of them in the future.