Creating a Web site for your dental specialty practice costs time and money. But if prospective patients search for your practice online and instead find the site of a competing practice, your efforts have been wasted. Your Web site has to rank high on the search engine lists, and the best way to boost your ranking is to update the site regularly.

Word-of-mouth recommendations were once literally just that—comments exchanged verbally among acquaintances. Today, those comments are posted on the Internet for the world to see. Positive comments can boost the image of your dental specialty practice, and there’s nothing wrong with asking patients to write a short review about your practice. Whether you’re an endodontist, oral surgeon, orthodontist, pediatric dentist, periodontist or prosthodontist, here are a few tips about how to ask tactfully for online reviews:

Few dental specialists would question the role of word-of-mouth marketing in acquiring new patients. But many are still reluctant to use social media. A recent survey of small businesses illustrates this disconnect. Among those surveyed …

A couple of recent marketing surveys bring to mind a crucial missing piece in the marketing plans of many dental specialists. The first survey, conducted by Sagefrog Marketing Group, found that 68% of business-to-business (B2B) companies allocate 5% or less of their revenue to marketing.

With people taking a more active role in choosing their health care providers, word-of-mouth advertising is increasingly important to the success of your dental specialty practice. A strong Web presence is essential, as is maintaining communication with existing patients and referral sources. But what about the people who ask friends or family members for a recommendation?

Building a blog for your dental specialty practice is a great way to bring your dental practice Web site to the top of the search engine lists. In addition, a well-categorized blog will, over time, serve as a library of information for your dental patients or dental referral sources. How can a blog best benefit your dental specialty practice?

The state of health care in the United States is constantly changing, meaning it is more important than ever to market your dental specialty practice. If you are an orthodontist, you might find that Invisalign has eaten into your business. If you are an endodontist or pediatric dentist, chances are that dentists who once referred patients to you now take those cases themselves. Bottom line: Marketing your dental specialty practice is crucial 12 months of the year.

Print will never be dead, but marketers are increasingly using the Internet to market their practices. This includes not only Web sites, YouTube and social media but also electronic newsletters. The following are eight reasons you should consider sending an electronic dental newsletter:

Trust is the cornerstone of your dental specialty practice. Patients return to you because they trust your expertise and your treatments. But building trust with patients starts long before they call your practice for an appointment. Here are three ways to build trust among people before they come into your dental office.

Word-of-mouth marketing is not a new concept for orthodontic or pediatric dentistry marketing. Parents have been recommending dental specialists to other parents for decades. But understanding how word-of-mouth marketing works in the digital age is a new imperative for your dental practice.