Tips for an Effective Website

There is power in a well designed website no matter what industry you are in. A great website is a major tool for attracting and retaining customers.  So, ask yourself this; is your website working for or against the growth and progress of your business? Here is a checklist of a few fundamental characteristics your website should have to be successful.

• Information: Your visitors are looking for information. Period. Be sure that the information on your site answers their questions while still being organized and simple.  Proper use of information on your website will assure that your visitors will not get distracted and bounce. Take the time to make the information easy to find, understand, and apply. Another important fact to remember about the information on your site is to “Keep it above the fold”. The more scrolling visitors have to do on your website, the less likely they will be to stick around.
• Stay focused: Visitors are almost always driven to your page by links from advertisements, blogs, and other outside sources.  Make sure that the landing page of those links coincides with the information provided in the advertisement or blog where the link was found. You don’t want a visitor looking for information about a dentist’s payment plans to be sent to a page providing directions to the dental office. The result would be a quick bounce and the loss of a possible new patient. 
• Build Trust: Keep in mind that most visitors to your website are there for the first time and know little about your business.  A visitor who is not familiar with your company will be hesitant to leave you their contact information. Build credibility and let them know that your business is established and trustworthy. A great way to do this is to show reviews from customers, list partnerships, or show awards that your business has won.

 Don’t underestimate the influence that a great website can have on the success of your dental practice.

Don't Get Left Behind

More and more marketing is steadily being shifted away from traditional advertising like print and newspaper ads, to online formats. The importance of an online presence continues to grow as evolving technology change consumer’s behavior.  Check out a few of these stats as well as this video to see just how much the world has changed and how important it is for your business to be online.

• 78% of Internet users conduct product research online.
• 57% of businesses have acquired a customer through their company blog.
• 67% of B2B companies and 41% of B2C companies have acquired a customer through Facebook.
• Companies that blog get 55% more web traffic.
• Facebook’s share of the display market grew from 7% to 12.2%.

 So, for the month of February I want to talk about the importance of your Dental practice’s online presence. We’ll talk about websites improvements, online advertising, blogging and other social media tools that you can use to help grow your practice. Consumer behavior is changing and if you want to get the best results from your marketing campaign, these posts over the next month will really help you to get on the right track.  

Motivating Your Employees to Accomplish Goals

More often than not the initial challenge of accomplishing goals is met with excitement and determination, but as time passes the excitement seems to fade and the likelihood of accomplishing the goal goes with it. What can you do then to maintain the initial excitement that is felt when setting goals? How can you keep your employees motivated to give the challenge all they have all the way through the finish line? Here are a few ideas of things you can do to keep your employees motivated.

• Be the example: You have to start with yourself. If your employees see you losing motivation than they will more than likely follow suit.  Take time each day to quickly evaluate yourself and make sure you are doing your part to accomplish your business’ goals. There will be days when it is hard to remain positive and optimistic but doing so will go a long ways in helping your employees to keep course and do their part as well.  Be the example.
• Creative Reminders: Anyone can simply type up a goal, print it out, and pin it up in the office where everyone can see it, but is that really effective? Finding fun ways to remind your employees of the goal and their part in accomplishing it will help maintain their motivation. Don’t allow the goal to get old; keep it fresh with creativity.
• Baby Steps: We are all familiar with the famous line from “What About Bob” where Bob uses "baby steps" to accomplish his goal. Although the concept might seem comical in the movie it actually contains a lot of truth. Looking at a goal as one large task is like trying to drink through a firehouse. It is simply too much at one time, but if you break it into small baby steps it appears much more achievable.  Breaking goals into baby steps for your employees will keep them motivated because they will be able to see progress. Otherwise they will never feel like their work is amounting to anything and that their goal is no closer to completion than it was the day before.
• Reporting & Rewarding:  In a previous post we talked about how the work rate increases when work is reported, this concept is critical for keeping employees motivated to accomplish goals. Develop a system of reporting so that you can review your employee’s progress over time.  Remember to be creative.  Making the reporting progress fun will really benefit your employees. If your employees are accomplishing their “baby-step” tasks be sure to reward them so that they continue to work hard. Not recognizing your employee’s efforts  will put you on the fast track to unmotivated and unhappy employees. 

Don’t let the initial excitement of setting goals die in your office. Help your employees to stay motivated all the way across the finish line. Be sure to reward them for their work so that the next time a goal is set they will once again find the motivation to finish the race. 

Accomplishing Your Goals

Seeing that our posts this month have been primarily about goal setting I thought it would be appropriate to continue the trend. We have talked about important techniques to keep in mind while setting goals so that they can be as effective as possible. We have also discussed some of the benefits we gain from working towards goals and how yourself, as well as your business, can grow from setting and working toward goals. Today however I want to talk about a few things you can do to be sure you accomplish your goals.

Accomplishing goals is not easy, but it is worth it. It takes hard work and dedication to follow through to the end and accomplish your goals. So here are a few ideas of things that you can do to be sure that you accomplish your goals and that you and your business grow from them.

• Passion: You can’t expect to find the motivation to accomplish a goal that you really don’t care about. Make sure that you set goals for yourself that are driven by a passion. If your circumstances require that you set a goal for something that you are not especially passionate about, find a way to discover passion within that goal. Find a reason to love it. If you can find passion behind every goal you will find it much easier to motivate yourself to accomplish it.
• Write it Down: It has been said that a goal that is not written down is simply just a wish. Be sure to write down your goals so that you can easily remember what it is that you are working towards. If it is not recorded you will not accomplish it.
• Review: Once you have written your goals down, review them often. Put them in a place where you will see them everyday so that you can be reminded of what you are working towards. Take time each week or month to analyze your progress and find areas where you can improve. Accomplishing goals is a process, not an event.
• Support: If you have goals set within a group, make sure that you all support each other. Remind each other of what you are working towards, and congratulate others for their work to accomplish the goal. Working together and supporting one another will go a long way to help you accomplish your goals.
• Reward Yourself: Be sure to reward yourself when a goal is accomplished; you deserve it.  A healthy reward for accomplishing a goal is a great idea because it will provide another source of motivation. 

Obviously this list doesn’t include everything that you can to do to help yourself accomplish your goals, but maybe these ideas will spark your imagination and help you find the techniques that will work for you and your dental practice.  We would love to hear about your experiences and what your practice does to help accomplish your goals. Share your stories and ideas in the comments area below. 

The Power of Setting Goals

In our last blog post we talked about how Weave can help you accomplish some of the goals you might have set for the New Year. Now I want to talk a little bit about the power that goal setting itself brings to your business.

Goals reflect the desires of our hearts and our vision of what we can accomplish. If we do not set goals in life we will never be able to fulfill our full potential. The same can be said for our business. Setting goals will drive your business to reach its full potential. As we learn to set and accomplish goals we begin to accomplish much more with our time than we would otherwise. So besides the rewards we uncover as we fulfill our goals what other benefits come to us along the way as we work towards them?

• Clear Vision: Setting goals gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. As you set and work to accomplish your goals you will see that the tasks you complete each day have more purpose. Your work becomes more efficient because you are focused on a clear vision and it is reflected in your productivity.
• Unity: As your goals create a clear vision for yourself and your employees, a sense of unity begins to grow between yourself and those you work with. People better understands each other needs because they understand the end to which all of their efforts are directed.  Having goals for those within an office provides a sense of unity for employees and motivates them to all work harder together.
• Joyfulness: There is definitely a sense of accomplishment that comes from uniting with others to fulfill a common goal. This sense of accomplishment creates an excellent work environment where people are happy and motivated.
• Confidence:  As you and those you work with continue to accomplish your goals, confidence within your business will grow. Confidence is contagious in a work environment and can be a fantastic asset to your business.

As the new year begins and you begin to establish goals for your dental practice, look for the benefits that your practice will experience as you work towards and accomplish your goals. The power to grow your practcie is in setting and accomplishing your goals.