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In any field or profession, we enjoy being able to express our creativity. In both school and work, the most rewarding projects are usually the ones where we can do things our own way. As a dentist, you may want to jump on an original idea you have to market your practice and dental website.

Today I'm going to talk about "trailblazing," which is when a business owner decides to boldly go where no entrepreneur has gone before. While this sounds like an exciting and romantic endeavor, this concept is really at trap. For every entrepreneur who is immortalized for his "out of the box" plan, there are literally thousands who never get mentioned because their businesses go under quietly.

This is why it's most profitable to follow the best practices that have worked for dentists and dental websites before you, while slightly adding your own twist. Even Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, based his multi-billion dollar company on what MySpace and Friendster had done before him.

To consistently make more money with less risk, follow what this blog and your Customer Support Coach recommends for your dental website. This is the fastest and most proven way to the cash.

Yesterday we went into the art of getting backlinks from forums for your dental website. You may have noticed that you often have a choice what word or phrase your link appears as on another site. We call this "anchor text."

After doing some keyword research, you may find there are specific ones you want to target, such as "Belleview dentist." It's good to lean on building a number of links with that anchor text, but you'll also want to add some variety as well. It's good to use different combinations, such as "dentists in Belleview," and "Belleview teeth whitening." Also use your full dental website URL or domain as an anchor text phrase.

The main thing you want to do is keep your link profile looking as "natural" as possible. Ideally it would look like your dental website was being linked to without any of your own strategy involved

As you promote your dental website online, you can sometimes fall into the trap of posting your URL in every possible place on the internet. Forums may seem like the low hanging fruit in terms of building backlinks, but you need to go about this the right way in order to have success.

The first thing you have to know is that any good forum with a vibrant audience will have standards in place to keep spammers out. Yes, that means you. If all you plan to do is post a link to your dental website in a forum and run away, then you're only a couple steps above V1agraDr23 in their minds. Being over-promotional in any forum will get you quickly banned.

However, you can freely put your link in your "signature" in most cases. Many forums have a signature section in each post where you can talk a little bit about what you do, as well as link to your dental website. Some forums require that you've been there a while before doing this, so look at the rules for where you post.

As for what you actually say in your posts, keep it as conversational and informational as possible. The more you post as a contributing member, the more opportunities will come up for you to share information about your dental office.

We went over some follow-up strategies in the last post and today we'll dig deeper into how to use email for this purpose. The value of following up through email is that you can direct the person to your dental website and they'll have the link saved in their email program. This works for a whole range of new contacts, such as if you meet a periodontist who wants a dentist to send referrals to or a publication owner who needs a dentist to write a column.

How you put together an email depends on how consistently you're networking. If you add someone to your network just once in a while, you can write a 100% new email each time. If you're coming home from a conference with a fist full of business cards, then you'll have to be more efficient while still staying personal.

Here's a simple way to set up an email for this.

Paragraph 1 is a greeting and some contextual talk about the place you met. You can include sentences like "I think was the biggest conference <organization name> ever put on."

Paragraph 2 focuses completely on the person you met. This is where you say what was interesting about the other person's office, location, or line of work. You also can talk about a funny moment that happened when you were talking that other people in the conference wouldn't have known about.

Paragraph 3 is where you suggest they check out your dental website. You can be very nonchalant, and simply just say, "If you're curious, here's my website."

If you are following up with people from a conference setting, then Paragraphs 1 and 3 can be the same almost every time. If this is someone you met randomly during your day, then you're better off writing a completely new email, and still mentioning things in the environment, such as how your milkshake from Baskin Robbins turned, out, etc. The more you do this, the better.

So far in the Networking Tips series, we've gone through how your business cards should look and how you should be making contact with people and get them to visit your dental website.

Today we'll go over a part of networking that many dentists misunderstand: the follow-up.

Most dentists either don't follow up soon enough or sound over-salesy when they do make contact. Those two errors make up the majority of problems during the "follow-up" phase.

No matter how interested someone sounds in checking out your dental website or doing business with you, you must act under the assumption that you will never hear from them again unless you reach out. People lose cards, get busy, or simply forget who you are. Sometimes the other person will reinitiate, but see this as an unexpected bonus instead of something you should count on.

Make sure you follow up in 1-2 days after meeting. It's better to follow up with phone if the person sounded very ready to schedule an appointment or talk to you about a business opportunity. Otherwise, email will work fine.

The people you meet and follow up will generally fit two categories:

1)    People who have explicitly said they want to talk about paying you for services
2)    People who haven't

For the first category, it's fine to sell yourself. Don't be impersonal, but it's a good idea to remind them about your previous conversation and talk about how you can help them.

The second category requires a different type of follow up that we'll get into that in a later post.

There was some question about how the "script" was set up for Networking Tip #3. You may have noticed that we present the question "What do you do for work" instead of simply saying what we do.

The reason why it's better to ask what someone does for work is that 90% of the time, that person will respond by answering and then asking what your line of work is. We're so used to this type of dialogue that it takes more energy to NOT reciprocate the question than it does to spend a little more time talking.

Once you're asked about what you do, you can say you're a dentist, and see what happens. Your only two responsibilities are to be friendly and share your profession. If the person needs a dentist, he or she will take the bait and ask to find out more. Otherwise, you can't really do much.  There's no point in trying to sell someone on the value of great oral health if it's not on their mind already.

However, since this takes very little time and effort to do, you'll find yourself being the dentist at just the "right place and right time" when someone was really looking for one. Only when someone shows some real interest do you direct them to your dental website and hand him or her a card. That's all it takes.

At a recent oral health conference, I was lucky enough to witness an extraordinary networking phenomenon. Someone was suddenly blessed with new exposure to his dental website.

One of the seminar speakers apparently knew someone in the audience and said, "This man in the front row is a top notch dentist and a great contributor to health publications. All of you should snag some time with him if you can. Please, tell us the URL for your dental website so people can write it down."

I was amazed at how lucky this guy was to get in the spotlight at this large conference. I talked with him a day after and asked if he was bombarded with people wanting to talk to him.

"Oh, it's not at all like you think," he replied.

He went on to explain that he noticed several people looking at him and wanting to talk, but not coming up. When he actually came up and said hi, they said things like "Oh, I really need an expert dentist perspective in my magazine." They had not taken advantage of any opportunities to talk to him previously, and it became clear that if he had not initiated conversation, they never would have said anything.

Other people had not clearly heard his dental website URL, but wouldn't have asked for clarification if he hadn't said hello. Still others wanted to meet the "famous dentist" but were too far to get a clear look at his face so they didn't know how to find him.

The lesson here is to always keep taking the initiative in your networking no matter what kind of lucky break you think you're having. Special moments of exposure should be used as leverage to augment your networking action, not replace it. Just keep moving forward and you'll find your dental business grows at a much faster rate.

There is opportunity all around you to market your practice and dental website.  Think about all the walking sets of teeth around you and how many of them need a good fixing or whitening.  If you're shy, you'll never reach them, even if they're desperate for a great dentist like you.

The good news is that no matter how "shy" you were yesterday, there are things you can do to get in the habit of talking to new people and marketing your dental website.  The first thing to do is make a routine of introducing yourself to people throughout your day and asking what they do for work.

Suppose you're at Baskin Robbins and you have a bit of a wait in line.  There's nothing else to do, so you might as well chat up the person in front of you:

You: "I'm thinking a Rocky Road milkshake, what's your plan?"
Person: "I like Rocky Road, but if it's in a milkshake, it's hard to get the nuts through the straw.  I've been great on my diet this week, so I think I deserve a sundae."
You: "Great to reward yourself.  I'm <your name>."
Person: "Nice to meet you, I'm Toby."
You: "What do you do for work, Toby?"
Person: "I'm a journalist, how about you?"
You: "I'm a dentist."
Person: "You know, my health columnist flaked on me this week and I guess you're close enough.  Would you be interested in writing a quick column for the local paper?  I'll give a link to your website in the magazine."
(Transition into discussing your dental website and exchanging cards)

It doesn't always turn out like this, but these opportunities come up a lot more than you think.  Will you have awkward conversations where you look like the obnoxious dentist trying to sell someone into whitening treatment?  Sometimes, you will.  And that's fine.  If that happens, you'll be forgotten by the time the person crumples up his or her sundae receipt. 

You'll notice that two things happen, the more you do this.  For one, you'll be so comfortable talking with new people that it becomes natural for you to introduce yourself, even if there's no context or cute small-talk that begins the conversation.  Secondly, you'll be exposed to opportunity after opportunity and you'll be shocked how many people are interested in finding out more about your practice and dental website.  Make this a habit and you'll be very happy with the results. 

Does it seem excessive to have not one... but two posts on business cards in a networking series?

It may seem that way, but the fundamental basics of networking are so important that if they're missing, your new contacts will never make it to your dental website.  

Dentists often get sucked into the design potential for their cards and forget that the most important purpose of a business card is to direct a new contact on how to communicate with you again.

This means that you need to have your name, email, phone number and dental website URL all clearly printed on the front of the card.  You can't get fancy and assume they'll flip the card over to find your dental website on the back.

Some "bonus items" you can put on your card include your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn profile URLs.  All of these will lead to your dental website, plus a lot of professionals these days prefer to connect over social media before email or phone.  

We'll get into more advanced concepts later this week, so stay tuned!

We realized recently that there isn't enough emphasis on networking for dentists, so we're starting a series on how all of you can network better.  For all the benefits of having a dental website, it's even better if you have contacts in your industry to send you valuable referrals.  The first thing we'll talk about is your business card.

You don't need to have a flashy business card to network impressively.  It simply has to convey your information in a way that makes it easy for someone to follow up with you.  However, a lot of people go wrong with even this.

Remember that a business card can only give you an opportunity to continue a connection with someone you've already made a good impression on.  If you were boring and needy in person, then an amazing card won't save you.  The card is simply a connection tool.  
Worse than an unfavorable impression is not being remembered at all.  You have to take the necessary steps to make sure people remember who you are.

First of all, you really need to put your picture on your business card.  You can sometimes get away with skipping this step if you go to meet-up groups or conferences where you're the only dentist.  However, if you're at an industry event, then it will be a lot harder to separate yourself from the masses of other dentist.  Having a picture of you is a superb reminder for someone of who you are and why they need to follow up with you.

Beyond that, make sure it's easy to write on your card.  Some people have glossy cards that cannot retain any ink, and others have full color or black cards that are very difficult to make any notes on.  Keep in mind that when people network, they often get a lot of cards and write notes on the people they want to follow up with.  Do everything you can to make this easy for them.  As long as there is white space in the back, you should be fine.

More tips to come this week!

You've come a long way to become a dentist.   Beyond college and graduate school, you've also been rigorously tested, and mentored to dental perfection.  Now you have a dental website and office, and are fixing health conditions and giving people good looking smiles.  It only makes sense to charge a premium for this, right?

However, in this economy, a lot of patients may tell you they can't afford an expensive procedure. There also may be some disagreement whether your suggested treatment is actually worth your fee.

When this happens, the best thing to do is turn the tables on the patient and show how it's a much more expensive option to not go with your professional opinion.  Answer their financial concern with the implications of greater financial struggle down the road.

Examples of this include:

• Missed work from coming in for later treatments.  This could also include missed productivity from anesthesia for more serious dental work.
• More expensive surgeries needed down the road, including prescription drugs.
• Higher dental insurance premiums from pre-existing conditions.  

This is not to be presented in a salesy, scary manner, but in the same compassionate way you let your patient know his or her oral health is important and needs attention.  As long as you have your patient's best interests in mind, explaining the financial implications of your proposal will be appreciated.  

When you're marketing your practice with your dental website, you'll have many opportunities to interact with patients through email blasts and blog posts.  A lot of the time, these writing efforts simply don't get read because the content looks like it might be boring.  A way around this is to make your titles "edgier" than patients are used to.

Examples of this include:

"The Toothpaste Company That Loves When You Get Cavities"
"Can You Get Fired Because of Your Teeth?"

Titles like these are definitely pushing it and you can easily go overboard and offend someone.  At the same time, if you're willing to push the envelope just a little further than your competitors, than you'll get a much better clickthrough rate on your emails and blog posts.  

You have to make sure when doing this that you tailor your writing to your clientele, and start out small.  Begin by just changing a word or two of a title to make it a bit more controversial.  You'll get a sense of how far you can push the envelope.  Remember that being able to stand out will take you a long way.

As a dentist, you can never forget that your profession goes far beyond oral health and treating patients.  You are a business owner, and have your own entrepreneurial goals to reach.  You have a dental website, and want to bring in more and more patients to raise your revenues.

A "mastermind group" is a great resource to do this with.

How it works is you meet with two to five other entrepreneurs, and discuss the goals each of you have for your businesses.  I recommend you form a group with non-dentists, so you don't have to think about competition when sharing your ideas.

A good way for the group to work is you rotate and each has a turn to talk about your projects for about twenty minutes.  During those twenty minutes one person is in the "hot seat" and others ask questions and give suggestions about their goals.  

Maybe you want to add a teeth whitening page to your dental website.  A member may ask what you need to do to make that happen and how much time it might take.

You'll give your answers, and they'll help you schedule your week so you get it done before the next meeting.

You have a great benefit of both being organized on your goal, and being accountable, because you don't want to let the other team members down.

Your dental website is up for a reason: to get current and new patients to pick up the phone and call you, as well as get email subscribers.

Where most dentists go wrong, is they put their phone number and emails subscription in random places and don't bother to make sure it's very easy to find.

This is a high over-estimation of how dedicated your patients are to finding this information, as well as how clever they might be in figuring this out.

It doesn't matter if you're the dentist for the Harvard Alumni Club.  Make your website something a sixth grader could navigate and figure out how to contact you.  Your phone number should be big and in plain site, and your email sign-up form should be on the top half of the page, so your patient doesn't even have to scroll down to find it.  

No one will ever be insulted that you made your site too easy to navigate, and you'll get much more email leads and appointments scheduled.  

Your goals as a dentist surely include having a thriving office with plenty of patients paying for expensive procedures.  If you want to know how successful you'll be at this, here is a simple question you can ask to see how close you are to achieving this goal:

"Do I love being rich more than I hate being poor?"

Or "Do I love having a thriving practice more than I hate having an empty waiting room?"

Or "Do I love having a dental website with tons of traffic more than I hate having a site no one goes to?"

How you answer these will determine your level of success.  We call this success and failure polarities.

You will always be drawn to the scenario you think about the most.  This is why mountain climbing teachers tell their students not to look down.  If you're thinking of falling, you're far more likely to fall.  You have to play to win and not play not to lose.  

This can feel difficult if you're facing a second notice on paying the rent for your dental practice, but you can apply this rule just the same.  All you have to do is make your picture of success clearer and more defined than your picture of failure.

For successful people, they know exactly what they're going for, and if you ask them what bad things could happen if they fail, you'll get a confused look and a "I don't know, I guess I'd figure it out."  This is because their failure picture is so fuzzy they don't even know what being broke is like anymore.

If you've been imagining the worst, you probably have a dead clear picture of the consequences of losing, while the picture of winning is fuzzy and muddled.  To reverse this, write down a detailed description of your success picture, in the present tense.  Begin with "I am so happy and grateful I have..." and describe your dental practice, including how many patients you have, how much revenue you generate, and how great your office looks.  Take as many pages as you like.

Many business coaches recommend you look at this and visualize it for 30 minutes a day.  However, you'll get a great effect even by looking at this description once or twice a day.  It'll keep you focused on the prize and winning.