My Favorite Software

So I was surprised today when one of my clients asked what my favorite piece of software was. I had to think for a moment...not Word, not Excel, not PhotoShop or anything fancy...no, my favorite little piece of software is RoboForm.

It's a great little application that stores all my logins and passwords in a secure little locker. I'm able to log in to one program and then it will automatically log me in anywhere I have an online account.

But wait...there's more. It will auto-fill forms for me too. I remembers my personal and work profiles; shipping address, billing address, and CC info. So ordering online or creating new accounts, takes just seconds.

And my favorite bit...RoboForm To Go runs from a Zip drive that I can use whenever I travel to quickly access all of my favorite online resources. RoboForm is simple and functional...just what software should be.

No Wait, That's 3 Ws

It seems every day we hear at least one thing from a practice that makes us giggle. We're calling prospective clients in a few key cities to verify their practice Web site address. The responses we're getting range from horrifying to silly. Our favorite today was, "Oh, wait, let me find that...it's written down here somewhere. Found it! Our web site address is ww.[practicename].com. No wait, that's 3 ws."

You probably had to be there to appreciate the humor.

What we're finding is startling. Fully 50% of the board certified plastic surgeons we are surveying in major metro markets do not yet have a site. And WORSE, the staff for more than half of the ones that do have a site don't know the address.

Give me a second to jump up on the soap box...get my balance and my bullhorn...

• Everyone on your staff who interacts with patients MUST know your Web site address, be able to spell it, and know what is on the site and why someone would want to go there
• The recall should be instant, no searching or hunting should be required to rattle it off
• The site should be OFFERED at the end of every casual interaction as a way to learn more about the practice, view before and after photos, subscribe to a newsletter...whatever your site does...as a way to extend your interaction with that patient, build your brand and reputation, and increase the value of the site to your practice

Stepping back...no wait...give me that bull horn back. We noticed while making the calls, when we are just asking for the Web address, even the practices who can provide it aren't asking if they can help us in any other way. Not one has said, "You really should go to the site to read about the doctor's experience and training and to see samples of our work...but while we're on the phone there must be some questions I can answer for you. I'm Ryan, what was your name?"

If ever there was a time to start a dialogue with a patient...it's when you are already talking to the patient! So, clearing my throat...

• If you have a prospect on the phone, introduce yourself, ask for the patient's name, and offer help. Better yet, ask if the caller would like to come in for a consultation!

Granted we're not real prospects, but the receptionists didn't know that. My advice for any plastic surgeon who is listening today, invest a bit more time and energy training your front office staff to make the most out of every interaction...that may mean making sure there is enough help in the front office to allow them to engage each caller, rather than just processing them!

Search Engine Optimization in a Nutshell

Over the weekend I got a call from a surgeon that we've worked with for over 3 years. This surgeon has attended at least one of our webinars and had untold number of conversations about search engine optimization (SEO). In this call he asked me to sum up SEO, "in a nutshell."

Here's how I would sum it up...

Search Engines Scrutinize You, and Check Your References

Search engines look at both "on page" and "off page" factors. This means they look at each of your pages (they look "on page") for how they are designed, programmed and authored. They look at how the pages of your site connect together. And mostly they are looking for which keywords are located where on each page.

They also look "off page" at other sites to see both how many sites link to you, and how those sites relate to your topic and keywords.

Search Engines Optimization Begins with the Right Keywords

Everything about your online marketing, from the topics you cover, to the names of your files, to the text you write, should all be based upon your list of target keywords. At first you should focus on the most actively searched keywords that relate to what you do in your market. Over time, a good SEO firm will help you refine the list to the terms that are most likely to attract a new patient.

SEO in a Nutshell

So, in a nutshell, SEO is about first choosing the right keywords, using them judiciously in well written text, on a well built site, and then working to secure lots of high quality inbound links from related sites.

Any questions?

What do Tasers and Flash Animation Have in Common?

I was away on vacation last week, so I missed the news about the kid that was tasered at the Kerry speech in Florida. Like the good nerd I am, I ran to Google News to get the full story. Searching for "taser" I figured there could only be the one big story. Wrong.

As it turns out, there has been at least one big taser story each day for the last few months. In the last two weeks alone, an autistic child was tasered in California, a retired New York police officer accused cops of unwarranted taser use on his son, a mentally ill Florida woman in a wheelchair was tasered 10 times by police and killed. So what do tasers and Flash animation have in common? Both were invented with the best intentions, and both serve an important purpose. But with both, irresponsible or aggressive use is harmful.

On three separate occasions last week I found myself in conference with clients who were determined to use Flash to their Detriment.

1. One wanted a Flash “splash page” a mini commercial that would run before a visitor could access any part of the site.
2. The other presented with a site made entirely of Flash and could not understand why her site had no search engine rankings.
3. The third, enamored by a twinkling firefly effect wanted moving lights behind his text.

There are some fantastic examples of Flash out there…like the animated procedure tutorials from Understand.com or Candace Crowe. A little Flash on your home page can also go a long way, as long as it does not impede your visitors.

Here’s what I encourage any cosmetic and plastic surgeons to consider before adding Flash to their Web sites:

1. Your visitors came to your site for a reason, and it was not to watch a commercial;
2. Search engines still struggle to see text inside of Flash movies…so Flash sites rank poorly; and
3. Flash is just as likely to distract as attract. Continuous movement on a page impedes reading.

So before you move to “stun” visitors with the bells and whistles, step away from the Flash and carefully consider your next move.

FROM THE RANKS PART 4: Web Marketing For Cosmetic Plastic Surgeons Isn’t Important…

It's my own damn fault...I got the writing team thinking about the relationship between eye tracking studies and Google's recent infatuation with shorter pages that happen to have keywords in the areas most users look first when "scanning" a page. It seems we just can't get away from the topic. But in the next post, copywriter Mike Roe takes a stab explaining how to satisfy both search engines and scanners...

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Web Marketing For Cosmetic Plastic Surgeons Isn’t Important…
It’s imperative. In fact, studies show that 80% of computer owners use search engines to find physicians and research procedures. And studies suggest that once they’ve found your medical Web site, you have but a few moments to prove to them they’ve come to the right place, to show them what they’re looking for – “show” rather than “tell” being the key word here.

How Can You Show Them Your Page Is Worthy of Being Read?By writing it in such a way that ensures it isn’t. Wait. What? Studies conducted by Jakob Nielsen (“The Guru of Web Page Usability”) and Kara Pernice Coyne – both of the Nielsen Norman Group – bear out that Web readers are in reality “scanners.” They scan pages, often tabbing back-and-forth between your page and your competitor’s. What are they looking for? Answers. What do they ignore? Details (at least in the beginning).

So, how can you help them to find the answers – “the main points” – they’re scanning for? Mr. Nielsen and Ms. Coyne recommend bulleting items, as well as...

• offering straightforward page titles
• increasing white space
• front-loading keywords
• making headlines simple and direct
• guiding the scanner with subheads, and
• bolding or linking from information-bearing words

For Effective Web Marketing, Cosmetic Plastic Surgeons Should Keep In Mind...
Less copy is more – by decreasing the time it takes for the scanner to “read” your page, you actually increase both comprehension and retention. So, try to keep your search engine optimized copy between 250 and 300 words, like this blog.

For more information about how people use the Web, check out Steve Krug’s book, “Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability.”

FROM THE RANKS PART 3: Death by Jargon

Our lead copywriter Cathy has a few words for people with big brains who write their Web sites without thought of their audience.

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Picture this. You’re roaming the Web one evening after a light day of patient consults. You decide to look for some extra help getting your brand new PDA to synch up properly with your old computer. You’re getting close; you think you may have found the right site…eureka! Here’s your advice:

Microsoft Windows Installer can be used to install signed driver packages that are associated with applications in a Windows Installer installation package.

You heave a big sigh and abandon that quest in favor of checking out the classes your college student daughter has signed up for this term. You locate her university’s Web site and here’s the scoop:

This symposium aims to provide ethnographic and anthropological substance to the political philosophy of publicization. We hope to elucidate the ethnographic forms that the new public forums (Helga Nowotny et. al. call them agora) are taking in our anthropological contemporary.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” you say. “Wait just a minute. I know where you’re going with this. I’m smarter about medical Web marketing than you think. My site’s nothing like that.”

Is that right? You’re sure?

Just as doctors aren’t usually skilled in geek-speak or university blather, most prospective plastic surgery patients aren’t experts in medical terminology. Think how they may react to gobbledegook like these gems from real Web sites:

There is no blind dissection of the space for the implant. The fold below the breast (inframammary fold) as well as the medial aspect of the pocket (the cleavage area) is precisely created.

Dr. X prefers the small 3 mm,triple lumen Mercedes cannulas to 1 atmosphere of vacuum suction pressure.

External Ultrasound Assist is a method of preparing tissue for surgery by infusing fluid followed by high frequency ultrasound using a special device
designed especially for this procedure.

Not only will most searchers fail to understand what these passages are trying to say, the average patient does not want to be talked to this way. They are real people seeking understanding, support and expertise in their pursuit of self improvement—they want to connect with a physician, not receive a lecture.

An early study of the behavior of Web site visitors revealed that over 75% of them look at text first (rather than photos or other graphics). What will happen when their eyes land on “1 atmosphere of vacuum suction pressure?”

Sure you don’t want to take another look at your Web site?

Together We Are

Friday afternoon is still with me. Two days later I still can't let it go. I've been reluctant to blog about it, mostly because all of my thoughts come out as, well...corny and cliche.

You see we're hiring...and right off the bat you should know that our hiring process is a bit out of the ordinary. Everyone who gets hired must complete a complicated skills assessment to win a chance to interview. The interview is a conducted panel of our senior staff; four on one. The office is open format, meaning everyone can hear, so it's more like 15 on one.

On Thursday we thought we had found the perfect candidate...but something wasn't sitting right. We scheduled a second interview, bringing in different members from our team to sit on the panel. The young lady in the hot seat was smart, skilled, and a prime contender...but the new questions from the new panel revealed that the fit just wasn't right.

The debate was intense, but the post-interview discussion grew from the panel, to the panel and senior staff, to the panel, senior staff and pretty much everyone else.

I was certain this young lady would master the job, make our clients happy, I even denied my feelings that something about her personality might abrade the rest of the team.

But, when I set my ego aside, and trusted my team, listened to my team, I heard reflected back at me the truth about the candidate. Her ambition and approach to conflict were certain to pit her against the production staff in short order.

It was a moment for me, a moment when I realized that sometimes I manage best by getting out of the way. I think it may have been a moment of for my team, a moment when they realized I trust them implicitly. It was golden. We had invested a ton of time and energy in the wrong candidate, but I think we walked away feeling successful, and closer.

Like the candidate, I have a history of trying too hard to always have thins my way. It seems that together we are smarter, better, and more successful.