1. What exactly are you trying to accomplish with your advertising? Are you trying to increase sales?  Increase customer visits?  Establish your reputation?  Build credibility?  All of the above?
2. What is your unique selling proposition?  Can you articulate specifically what makes you different from your competitors?
3. How much do you spend on advertising per month (print, trade shows and events and online)?
4. What is your exact return on these investments (revenue, new customers and/or repeat customers)?
5. What are your top 3 to 5 keyword phrases that you try to rank for in the search engines?
6. What is your page rank on Google for local searches for your business?
7. What does your website look like on a cell phone or hand held device?
8. How much traffic is coming to you from Facebook and other social media sites?
9. Do you have a system to capture the contact information of your past, present and potential customers that have given you permission to market them?
10. Do you have a system in place to gather testimonials from satisfied customers and publish them where future customers can see them?

Facebook Ideas for small business

If you are a Dental practice manager and run a  Facebook page for a Dentist or an Orthodontist office, here’s a list of 13 content ideas that you can use on your Facebook page to keep the communication going with your dental patients.   Online marketing is an effective and inexpensive solution to market to patients you already have in your dental practice. We found these social media ideas by surveying seven successful dental clinic Facebook pages, including Dr. Edward DDS, Mark Zuckerberg’s (founder and CEO of Facebook) dentist.  We figured that, as the father of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, he would know the secret to marketing for Facebook. Judging from his page, the idea is pretty simple: Make a lot of comments, answer everybody, and post a lot of photos of your dental team or small business.

Before and After Photos: Everyone wants to see how they could look.  This is by far  the most effective way to sell something.

Show new equipment or techniques: by showing you are an expert in you field, you can gain the confidence of your patrons. 

Continuing Education and Training:  Let your customers know you have taken a new course or become an expert in a new technique.    

Promote new products: Of course this can lead to short-term sales increases, but might also attract new prospects to your practice or business. 

Be a source of news, tips and education on dentistry:  Share links or other industry articles.  A local veterinary clinic has posted a great pet articles and some of your patients may find this interesting.  Any interest will increase web traffic.

Endorsements from your customers: Yelp.com is a great way to have your patients or customers post useful information about your business.   Hopefully, it will all be good but any feedback will increase traffic. 

Promote a contest:  A local orthodontist offered a free Ipad to one lucky winner that entered the contest by hitting the “like” button.  

Answer patients’ questions:  Without giving out personal or medical information, it is helpful to post answers to common questions. 

Ask open-ended questions as conversation-starters: Happy holidays and season greetings, what is everyone doing for New Years Eve?  

Survey your patients about new directions for your dental practice: Are you remodeling your dental office? Why not ask for input on popular color schemes.  Before making changes to operating hours ask for peoples opinion on the matter.  

Make you office appears fun:  Snap photos of fun moments,  holiday parties or summer Bar-b-ques. Having fun positive people as employees will attract fun positive patients and clients.   

Show that your staff is experienced and friendly: Posting a note or photo about an employee’s anniversary for 5 or 10 years of service shows how your business is stable. 

Create a well-designed Welcome tab:  Take a few moments to select the best pictures for the page, professional photographs are strongly suggested to get a professional look to your page.

friendly family Facebook post

Facebook can help your business,  listening to your customers can  give you a reality check. It’s easy to listen to good news, but what happens when a customer gives you bad news or a bad online review? Acting on bad news might just be the best thing you can do to make your business better. So be brave, and learn what these opinions are, by simply asking.