Thursday, December 18, 2014

The Importance of Being Mobile

After extensive testing, Google officially launched the mobile-friendly label in the mobile search results last month. Google has added a text label under the URL in the search results to let people know that a particular site is mobile-friendly and can be viewed without any problems on their devices.

seo1Why is this important?


Viewing a website that is not optimized for mobile devices can be very problematic for mobile searchers. The graphics and fonts do not scale as they should, the navigation is clumsy and often does not work, and much of the information on the website is virtually inaccessible.

There are also compatibility issues, especially if a website utilizes Adobe Flash technology. If a website cannot be viewed properly on a mobile device, people will simply not bother with it and move on to one that does–possibly your competitor.

According to searchenginejournal.com, in 2014, 25% of online searches were done from a mobile device. That number is set to increase next year to almost one in every three searches. And since more than 60% of mobile searches result in phone calls to a local business, having a mobile-friendly website is more important than ever. In fact, 57% of users won’t recommend companies with poor mobile sites.

Here at Solutions by Design, we have seen a steady increase of mobile traffic to many of our clients’ sites. Our SEO clients average approximately 30% to 35% in mobile traffic, while a handful of those see 45% to 50% each month. However, those clients who don’t have mobile-friendly sites have below-average web traffic, and their numbers keep falling.

Mobile usage is rapidly on the rise and now is the time to address the friendliness of your website. It’s almost a certainty that your competition already has.

How Social Media Contest Can Help Boost Engagement

Are you looking for a way to increase patient engagement online? Maybe it’s time to try a patient contest.


 

7-Key-Things-Every-Great-Facebook-Contest-Needs


 

Social media contests are easy and fun way to engage patients. Creating a contest is a marketing tools used to increase followers and give back to your loyal patients. Before liking your Facebook page or following you people want to know how liking your page or following other social media accounts will benefit them. Contests are fun ways to build customer relationships, improve online engagement and strengthen lead generation. If your Facebook page LIKES don’t reflect the majority of your patients there’s a problem, but no worries a contest can help.

Benefits of Contests:

  • Boost page LIKES

  • Boost engagement

  • Reach new users (including friends of fans and those seeking you)

  • Create an affinity for your practice


How to Create a Success Contest


Create contest idea and select a prize:
Contest ideas can range anywhere from guessing games to raffles. Get together with your team and come up with a creative idea that reflects the personality of your practice. You must also select the prize the winner(s) will receive.

Decide how to promote:
Decide what channels you are going to use to promote your contest. Will it be strictly social media or in-office as well ? It is important to focus on channels where your target audience is present or the channel you want to drive traffic to.

Create promotion material:
How are you patients going to know about the contest? Staff word of mouth isn’t enough. In-office flyers, online post and even video announcements are great ideas.

Promote, Promote, Promote! :
During the duration of your contest you must focus on promoting constantly using promotion materials to engage your audience.

Here’s a great example:


10402469_10153382074738275_6274510155807192696_n     Graphic created by Solutions by Design


Dr. Mark Lenz’s offices in Racine and Waterford Wisconsin has gotten his patients to participate in numerous contests, offering prizes such as Rewards Hub points, gift cards and other fun prizes his patients enjoy. With these contests Dr. Lenz has seen a very noticeable spike in Facebook (Lenz Orthodontics) LIKES and online engagement. For the holidays Dr. Lenz is currently running an “Elfie Selfie” contest that is being promoted in-office, on Facebook and Instagram.

No time to create your own contest? We have a solution for you. Social media contest are included in our social media packages. We plan, design, execute and manage your contest from start to finish. For more information regarding our social media packages contact us today!

Montage December News

Recently, Account Manager Nikki Schoettler spent a week in the beautiful Napa Valley area taking meetings with wineries interested in Montage. During this trip Nikki was able to visit over 30 different wineries and showcased Montage. Montage, the ultimate tasting room interactive display board, is garnering a lot of interest in the Wine capital. The functionality and interface design has received rave reviews. “Once people learn how Montage works and how it is different from a POS system they get really excited,” Nikki said.

Montage Winery

We are getting feedback from many wineries expressing that they have been on the search for a product like to take their business into a digital direction. Montage is coming into the market at the right time to position us in the forefront of winery technology advancements. We have also met with home building companies and restaurants to show how great of a fit Montage is for their organization. We are thrilled to bring Montage to other markets in 2015.

Orthodontic Montage Users

For our Orthodontic Montage users we haven’t forgotten about you all. We are currently working on updating the video sequence feature in Montage II. In the video section of your Montage layout you have the ability to set-up your videos to play in a looping sequence while the board is unattended. With this fix we are working on you will have full control over your video sequence. You will be able to choose which videos can loop and in which order. This will allow you to further customize the experience your patients have with your Montage board.

Montage2

Future Updates: We are working on a feature that will allow treatment, problem and multimedia video animations to display captions. This new feature will allow patients to read what is going on in the video when the sound is not enabled. This feature will be included in the next Montage update.

Bug Fixes: No current bug fixes.

Note: Jean Noble is now our east coast Sales Director. She is currently available for in office visit for practices throughout the Eastern region of the US.

bLink December News

We will be rolling out new updates to our bLink product in the near future, including the big update bLink 2.0. The rewrite of bLink Pro, bLink 2.0, with all new features sure to excite staff and patients alike. Along with bLink 2.0, the bLink mobile application is on its way. The bLink app is almost complete and is slated for a 2015 release.

bLink App provides the following features to your patient's mobile device:
• Appointment Reminders Notification
• Financial Transaction Notifications
• Patient Education Notifications

blinkapp

This is a unique marketing opportunity for your practice. You can communicate with your patients faster and more efficiently with a branded bLink APP from Solutions by Design. Your patients can download your Practice APP for FREE from your website to their phone to receive notifications as desired.

The App is a free download for your patients. Your patients simply enter the required information, including their mobile phone number, at your website. A link to the App store will be sent to their email address. It is that easy. Once they activate the App, they will begin to receive appointment reminders, payment notifications and patient education videos as desired.

E-toonsetoon-showcase


As we get closer and closer to the release of bLink E-toons we get more excited about this fun product we have to offer you. We know your patients will love the animations just as much as we do. “I am having a great time working on these animations,” said John Rios, Solutions by Design Graphic Designer. “It’s fun and challenging making E-toons engaging yet educational at the same time.” In addition to our stock animations we will be offering practice specific animation customization. How cool would it be for patients to see your practice in animated form? Learn more about E-toons by visiting solutionsbydesign.com/e-toons.phpelastics-showcase

bLink FAQ:

Q: How do I access the bLink Doctor Portal?

A: To access you bLink Doctor Portal, you will need your ANDI username and password combination. If you do not have an ANDI username and password, have someone who does log into www.andisolutions.com page and create a user for you. Once this is done, ANDI will email you your password to the email you set as your Username. From here I advise you get the password and login to ANDI and view your user in the “Users” tab then change the password to something more memorable. Once you have the username and password go to my.orthoblink.com and sign in.

Bug Fixes: We want to remind OrthoTrac users that you have the ability to leave notes in the billing area of your patient’s treatment charts. These financial notes can either be marked as public or private. Please be advised that we have a created a filter that makes sure that patients cannot see your private ones within their bLink accounts. We would like to thank Joe Kennedy of Wentz Orthodontics for making us aware of this feature.

Note: Jean Noble is now our east coast Sales Director. She is currently available for in office visit for practices throughout the Eastern region of the US.

ScreenPlay December News

Reminder, all Premium and VIP users you must renew your ScreenPlay service by 12/31/2014. If you have not renewed your services please contact us today.

When ScreenPlay Pro 10 is released in 2015VIP users are eligible for a free upgrade. You can expect 52 new thru-view videos to be available. Thru-view animations allow patients to get a better view of the treatment process. With through-view animations you can see the affect each treatment option has on not only the teeth, but the entire face. The mini videos within ScreenPlay will be getting an updated look as well. We are replacing all 2D imagery with more dynamic 3D graphics and upgrading all mini video images with new, current images.

In addition to upgrading our current videos we also will be DynaFlex SmartJet appliance animations.

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The SmartJet is super-efficient, super-comfortable and very simple to manage. All mechanisms are built for comfort and convenience. Click here to learn more about the DynaFlex SmartJet.

For the first time in Solutions by Design history we participated in Cyber Monday. We are glad to announce the 8 hour super sale on ScreenPlay Pro was a success. New users were able to get ScreenPlay at a $2,997.00 discount, the largest discount ever on ScreenPlay. Connect with us on social media (Facebook, Twitter) to be notified about all future special offers.

success
Future Updates: ScreenPlay 10.0 is scheduled to be released in the early first quarter of 2015.

Bug Fixes: There are no current bug fixes.

Note: Jean Noble is now our east coast Sales Director. She is currently available for in office visit for practices throughout the Eastern region of the US.