Welcome to By Size Dental Marketing. Today, we
have my co -founder, Andre, and my co -host,
Ian. I want to talk about Storio and what that
means for us. So many agencies are out there
selling SEO, and SEO is a big deal. It always
has been. Since the mid-'90s, people have been
trying to game Google. And we've, through the
years, developed our flavor of that. And today
we want to talk about it and bring it to the
world. So, Andre, as the author of Storio and
the idea generator on these things, lay the groundwork
of how we ended up here. Thanks, Eric. You know,
I think before you can get to Storio, Storio
is sort of a new word that we coined within the
agency. You have to go back in time to how we
have approached marketing for the last several
years, what we think is happening in the industry
that landed us here. One of the things that we
talk about regularly is when someone is talking
about advertising, there's really two sides of
that equation to make advertising work. You have
the tactics or the mechanisms, perhaps is a better
word for it, to deliver. some messaging. So the
tactics here would be, whether it's Google Ads
or Facebook Ads or Mailer, those are really a
way to get a set of words, a video or image in
front of that prospective customer. So tactics
is something that the industry as a whole pays
a lot of attention to because... You're thinking
about the technical side of marketing, the optimizations,
the targeting, lookalike audiences, all of those
things go into that bucket. The second bucket
is something that we think people don't talk
about enough, which is the messaging. In other
words, you spend all of this time and money and
energy into getting in front of this ideal patient,
perhaps. But we don't spend a lot of time thinking
about what are we going to say when we are in
front of them. So in our agency, we really put
a lot of emphasis over the last several years
on talking to people and connecting to them and
putting ourselves in the mindset of what they
might be experiencing when they land on one of
our clients' websites. And so that focus on messaging
is something that started really high level.
that we wanted to apply, not just to the website,
but to the paid campaigns, the video content
we created. And the emphasis at some point came
down to SEO. And with SEO, and you're thinking
about the tactics, it was this almost scary emotion
of, do we prioritize the messaging? Meaning the
words that we want on the first page of the website,
the first section of the homepage of the website.
What are you giving up if you do that? And traditional
SEO would say you have to have dentist and city
so that Google can make you high once someone.
And surrounding areas. Are you referring, when
you say traditional SEO, are you talking about
all the battles that you and I had when I originally
started at this agency? Yeah. That's all I think
about. And those are, you know, those are growing
things. And I think that's what everybody knows.
I mean, people have been spinning glass. 10 years,
like Eric said earlier, trying to figure out
what does Google want? And yes, at some point,
having Dennis near you in the URL and then Dennis
near you on the homepage was what would have
worked. But that has changed. And I think that
conversation within our agency, within our content
departments, within our SEO department, as well
as SEO, when our team started saying, you know
what, let's not focus on the ranking number as
the only thing. Let's focus on the story. And
that's when they coined the term story. Because
we're putting more emphasis on the story and
that patient journey and the emotional connection
above just the metrics that a random tool may
be tracking. So that's the journey, how we got
here. And for me, there's three. important points
to the story of journey. The first one is it
is crazy to think that Google with all their
algorithms, all the intelligence they have, all
the data and metadata they have about a practice
needs to know that it's in Burleson. Like my
address is in Burleson. I, of course I'm in Burleson.
I have so many things at radio where I'm at putting
dentist in Burleson is not particularly, it,
it can't be affected. The second one is. And
Google has proven time and time again that as
soon as everyone is doing something, they pivot
the algorithm because as soon as the system begins
to get gamed, it's no longer a viable system.
So they've changed the algorithm. And the third
is we've taken over so many accounts that invested
heavily in SEO. We've spent a ton of time doing
classic SEO. ultra high ranking on SEMrush and
new patients coming in the door because what
we only understood recently and the industry's
been coming around is when SEMrush or these tools
give you that report, it's their interpretation
of what they think Google wants, but it's their
interpretation of it. It's not actually built
in any grounded science when you get down to
a niche. And that gets complex when you have
enough data like we do across several hundred
practices and not only their website performance,
but also their empirical business performance
as well. So I think those two things help lead
us to the timing of the introduction of Storio.
I would also add there, Eric, that the industry
forced us in a big way, AI specifically, and
as you said now, as Google would pivot to, to
becoming something that comprehends rather than
something that is just reading a line of code
and that's where before if you looked at as andre
was saying now if it's um dentist in Burleson
or dentist in Mansfield or pediatric dentist
Mansfield, these type of keywords, it was a bit
more basic algorithm running. And that's why
when the two of you had started this company
over a decade ago now, if you put those keywords
in and you worked at that and you did it in a
good way, you would be rewarded. But now with
the climb of, do you want to challenge that?
I'm going to say, the reason I laugh at that
is, SEO has been – I think this has been riding
on the wall for a long time. But I don't know
that it was particularly effective even then.
But it would get – my point is it could rank
you in some way. It would get you somewhere more
so than it does today. It would improve a report
that made it look like you were having an effective
campaign. Yes. So you're saying – but as you
were saying, then a new patience and those things
would not – would not follow to some extent okay
so i guess what i'll say then is let's stay on
the train of the actual technology behind google
has improved up until today especially with the
introduction of what gemini and chat gpt coming
into the mix all of these things of the story
that the team is telling does become way more
important because Andre, you and I had that conversation
where search is becoming more and more refined.
We spoke about that earlier today. And as search
becomes more refined, it's not just anymore about
dentists in this place. It is becoming about
what message does this homepage actually convey?
Who are they trying to target? What are the services
that are important? And that is where I see SEO
going in the story that you're telling and an
algorithm that's becoming increasingly smarter
in how it wants to serve results to its customers.
I think where I see it now is even if we put
aside whether having Dennis in the city and the
hero has ever worked or never worked or there
is or not, even if you put that aside, you still
have the problem of one way or the other, at
some point through a marketing journey, a patient
is going to land on that website, whether it's
through an ad campaign, through organic ranking.
a local event, and then you've met some people,
they saw a business card, it doesn't matter.
They're going to come to the website. And the
bigger problem for me is that if the website
was built with the intention of pleasing search
engine, perhaps pleasing SEMrush or SERanking
or Ahrefs or whatever the tool, you're giving
up, in some instances, the... The life of the
practice, the emotional connection, and the reason
why someone would choose you. So even if you
got a thousand people on your site, if they don't
learn anything about you, if they don't understand
why you're different, you might not get that
phone call, right? As where, yes, maybe in some
instances, having the story -led content that's
about your core values and being really specific
about what is it that you will do to take care
of your patients. What I mean is, I just say
treat it like family. Let's say it's exactly
what they can expect when they come to the practice.
What we believe will happen is even if you've
got fewer people to the site, the people that
do land there are, one, are more likely to convert.
And by convert, I mean pick up the phone and
call because they're too connected to you. And
they're more likely to come in with a higher
degree of trust because they know what you're
all about. They know what to expect. And if they
don't vibe with you, if what you're saying is
not what they want, maybe they won't convert,
but that's okay. The majority of our clients
are higher -end, nicer practices. They're trying
to do bigger cases. They're oftentimes fee -for
-service, and they're looking for quality patients.
And quality patients need a story to connect
to in order to justify going out of network or
spending several... thousands of dollars with
you before they have had the opportunity to meet
you. So what is all boils down is that as well.
It's not just about whether or not it ranks.
It's about does it do the job that the website
ultimately has to do? And not just the website,
your advertising and the content that you create.
It has to connect with people. And I think for
too long, as an industry, we've tried to connect
with Google instead. And I think... As the platforms
themselves are changing, it's going to become
a great divider, if you will, of marketers out
there and practices out there between the people
who continue to do it the old -fashioned way
and the people who start thinking about the future,
which is building for the patients. And this
becomes even more important when you look ahead
and you think, how easy is it to generate thousands
of pages of content? It's a query on Gemini or
ChatGPT. So if everyone can create content that
is, air quotes, SEO ready, what does Gemini or
all the other large language models were trained
on, on what is SEO ready? It's having Denison
City and placating to the search engine, right?
And so if you are trying to set yourself up for
the future, you have to be unique. You have to
be connecting with your customer. And putting
that as the most important thing. And yes, maybe
in the short term, some reports look less good
than they used to. But at the end of the day,
your job as a marketer and what you're looking
for as a doctor isn't for numbers to look good
on the report. It's to have cheeks and seats.
And it'd be people that value who you are and
why you do what you do. Because that's when you
connect in self -treatment. How do you get to
that content, Andre? I mean, it's theoretically,
right? Take us from theory to practice of, okay,
I buy in. I understand if I cater to everyone,
I'm catering to no one. So I'm going to try to
build my content for my audience. How do I hone
down my word choice? How do I hone down what
is on my homepage and about us pages, given those
are the two most visited pages we have? I think
there's a couple of different paths, Eric. I
think there are some practices that are really
clear about who their patients are and who they're
trying to serve. In those cases, maybe it's,
I am here specifically to treat people with anxiety.
That's my ideal patient. And so then all of the
content should be tying always back to, I do
this thing because I know that it will lower
your anxiety. So for example, maybe you have
some comfort menu items around, you know, weighted
blankets let's say a lot of people have those
and they're nice and people say you know we have
a comfort menu but you have to go that extra
step and say i have this because a lot of our
patients when they they feel you know office
can be cold having a security having the weight
gives you a sense of comfort so we took that
extra step because our practice is about anxiety
this is how we do the anesthesia we do buffer
anesthesia because we know that the injections
a lot of the reason why the people have So this
is a step we take towards that. When it comes
to billing, we know that a lot of people have
anxiety around getting a surprise bill and putting
financial stress on their family. So for that
reason, we have this payment plan option. We
have a membership plan. We will look at the bill
together with you before you leave. And we're
going to stand by whatever number we said. And
if things turn out to be different later, we're
going to honor it because we did this approval
thing beforehand. So you can have peace that
it's going to be right. What am I doing with
my words here? I'm focusing on my why and I'm
being very descriptive about the things that
I'm doing, how they tie back to my why. So that's
option one. You have a singular focus and that's
what you're doing. I think option two, which
sometimes practices want to serve a variety of
different patients and it's not this singular
focus. I think in those cases, the easiest way
to start It's by looking inside of who you are
and your core values and how you run your team
and what you want the patient experience to be.
And being, again, very descriptive about this
is what you can expect at your first visit and
during the next appointment and the next appointment
and afterwards so that you're painting a very
clear picture that's different than I have a
great team and we provide excellent care because
that's what everybody else is saying. It's not
specific enough. I think the name of the game,
Eric, is going to be how specific can you be
about who you are and what you do? Because no
large language model is going to be able to create
that for you or for anyone else. And that's not
to say that we shouldn't be leveraging those
tools to help us ideate and create content and
do all that. But it's a difference between asking
the tool to do it for you versus leveraging it.
to maybe giving you a baseline idea of what you
want to create and coming in behind it and adding
on that flavor that's unique to you and no one
else. And the other advice that I give regularly
is when I'm talking about what makes you special
or what you do that you need, don't anchor to
what your peers do. Because maybe in relationship
to those peers, you will feel like it's not special
because all of them do it. All of them spend
time with their patients. But if you think about
the average person has had two, maybe three dentists
in their lifetime, maybe one of them was a DSO,
maybe one of them was a low -quality office,
something that's different than your experience.
So talk about, anchor them to this is what we
do and how it's different than maybe what you've
experienced before, Mr. and Mrs. Patience, so
that they have the reference point. When I say...
We don't rush our appointments and we run them
on time. If we told you it's going to be one
o 'clock, you can bet your last dollar that it's
going to be one o 'clock. I'm already signaling
to you that some people may not do that. Because
if I'm bragging about it, it's not a given. Otherwise,
I wouldn't be highlighting it. So being specific
is really important there. And again, putting
yourself in the mindset of who is this person
that I'm connecting with? what they might be
experiencing when they get here, and try to address
those concerns so that they feel heard and seen
and that you understand what they're going through
when they land on your site. What do you tell
someone who's done it, I mean, for years the
other way, or they've just had an SEO company
doing their marketing, or they go to their website
and their website doesn't reflect them? How do
you get them from this ideation phase to go through
the journey you did? Is it, you know, I need
to build a new site? Do I need to go take down
all my, you know, do I need to wipe out my social
media posts and file new? How do I tactically
get from here to there? I think the first step,
Eric, is do you have faith? Do you even believe
in this idea? Do you believe when you look around
and the businesses that you interact with, all
of us have had the experience of landing on the
site that you know for sure. was not built for
another human being to consume because of how
it's structured, the word, the choices and all
that. The reason why I think faith isn't the
number one thing is because you won't allow yourself
to take this next step without that faith. And
what I mean is the moment that people that don't
have faith, even clients sometimes that don't
have faith in this yet, the moment that they
see the usual tools that they usually use change
their ranking. they immediately panic and they
go back to comfort, right? So just like anything
else in life, you can't grab on to the new thing
without letting go of the old thing. So first
you got to look in the mirror and decide how
much do you believe in this? How much are you
willing to live in the future versus in the past?
How much are you willing to delay instant gratification
for this future benefit, right? I think that's
number one. I think number two comes next is
partnership. meaning no marketing agency, ourselves
included, is going to be able to represent you
without you. So that means spending time with
your company or yourself if you're doing it on
your own, thinking about what do you want. If
you had the largest megaphone in the world, what
would you want everyone in that area that's your
ideal patient to know? There's a book. I think
it's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
They do this exercise where if you want to live
a good life, one of the things that you can do
is close your eyes, really focus, and pretend
that it's your funeral. And you're there in spirit,
or however you want to call it. You're flying
on the wall, and you're watching your eulogy.
And you go through the exercise of what would
you want your spouse to say about who you are?
What would you want your coworkers to say about
who you are? What would you want your children
to say about how you were as a parent? You go
through the exercise and you really try to get
deep into what would make you really proud of
how you lived. Because whatever those answers
are, those are the things that are really important
to you. And then once you know that, you have
to now start living in a way that contributes
to that eulogy. And anytime you're making decisions
that are out of alignment with that eulogy, you
need to check yourself and think, wait, that's
not who I want to be. I think there's a parallel
of what you can do with your marketing and your
practice in thinking, what would you like everyone
as your best patients to say about you and who
you are and how you do dentistry? And your anxious
patients and your full mouth rehab patients,
your emergency patients. And then whatever those
answers are. And I mean, it takes work, Eric.
It takes introspection to get into that level
of detail. But whatever those answers are, that's
the starting point for what needs to be in your
advertising, what needs to be in your website,
but more importantly, how you actually need to
practice. At the end of the day, this has to
come from a place of this is truly who you are,
because if it's not, it's going to show when
the patients come to the door and the experience
that they thought they were going to have doesn't
match what they have. But it takes work and it
takes commitment. But I think if you put the
work in defining who you are and then sharing
that with your marketing agency, helping them
craft a message, and you have the leap of faith,
I think you can get to this promised land that
I'm talking about. I liked everything that you
said in being true to yourself and when you have
the megaphone and not trying to catch every fish,
but the fish that matter to you and the practice
and the type of patient that you want. Now, one
mistake we often see, Eric, on that, though,
is that practices then just talk about themselves.
They go in there and they say, okay, what is
the message we want to put out there? And then
when you read a website, you realize, but all
that this website is doing is saying how great
the practice is and how great the technology
is and that you're going to feel at home and
just like family. Here at Pain Free, we did StoryBrand.
It's basically a framework. It's a book that
we did in our book club of you as the dental
practice or the dentist and us as the marketers
when we work on marketing, we're actually just
the guide. We need to remember that the patient
is the hero in the story. And in that copy, you
need to figure out what are you doing to convince
this person. that you are the right option not
by talking about yourself all the time and how
great you are but what is the actual value proposition
in the in the anxiety example that you said don't
yes have the comfort menu say but what does that
actually mean for that patient when they come
in to your office and that's something that eric
if you say now what dentists that know nothing
that don't know i encourage dentists take a second
go look at your website and if Whatever marketing
company you're using, all they're doing is saying
how this is the base and we're the base and feel
at home and all these generic terms. Then that's
a good starting point for you to start thinking
about how do I want to tell my story. I think
that's where I understood about intentionality
and getting a partner because I don't know that
I know how to talk about myself. A, it's not
something most people are naturally inclined
to be excited about. And I know we all like,
what's the phrase? Our names are our favorite
thing to hear. And I think it's true. It's also
hard to talk about yourself publicly. And I swear
you're going to need help to craft the, I have
the latest technology, that phrase into, we have
a cone beam. So when we place implants, we can.
you know, absolutely work around nerves. We can
pivot the, you know, we can point to the bone
and get the right angle. And what we're doing
by doing that, we're accelerating healing to
improve the, you know, the success rate of this
implant. So if you just ask me what makes me
different, I would struggle to articulate. the
why without like under saying a lot of work.
And that is where the framework of, of that,
that, you know, an agency can provide you would
be so beneficial because otherwise you just see,
you know, you, you, you basically do an evolved
version of, you know, I'm over here and I'm open,
you know, the worst sign to see on a restaurant
is now open, you know, you know, or, or open
for business. Anytime you see that, that's not
a good sign to see. And, you know, we have the
latest technology is an easy phrase to say, but
it doesn't actually have any meaning because
I'm not going over there for the technology.
I'm going there because the connection with the
dentist. Like you always say, no one has ever
selected a practice purely on the fact that.
hey, I can't wait to see this new piece of technology
that they have in this practice. I cannot wait
to see your new cone beam. I'm so excited. Let's
pretend for a moment that someone really did
care about that. Because again, everybody is
different. There's always going to be someone
else who's also got a cone beam. So a cone beam
for a cone beam, they can choose anywhere. I
think the doctrine says, look, I know. that making
doing some of these procedures like all on four
is really scary and it's expensive and you certainly
wouldn't want to pay for that twice you certainly
wouldn't want to take money from your family
and your savings and your kids college fund whatever
the case may be to invest in this thing and be
disappointed at the end so because of that we
invest in this technology because it greatly
reduces chances of failure And that's really
important to me because I know how much you pour
into getting this done. And we know X, Y, Z.
It's showing that I understand what the patient
is feeling in that moment. And I'm tying my technology,
I'm tying my operations, I'm tying my approach
to address this person that I really understand
and I care about. And yes, not everyone is going
to care about that. There are some population
who does not care whatsoever how you're getting
this implant done. They just want another tooth
in the place where it's missing, and they want
to know how long until I can eat. And that's
okay. There is a dentist out there that's going
to match that desire. And your goal is to find
the people who value what you value. And so the
reason I'm sharing this also is because I don't
want it to come across as unless you're this
really noble person and you have these really
big aspirations that you can't be successful.
That's not it. If your thing is, I want to be
the cheapest person in town, no matter what.
Walmart gives money back, rollback, price guarantee,
whatever it is, right? Lowest price guarantee,
right? Like they have a very successful business
model, but no one is walking into Walmart expecting
to get Nordstrom quality. But to them, that value,
the lowest price guarantee is the most important
thing. And there are some patients who are going
to have a similar feeling of, Something else
is the most important thing. And all the things
we've been talking about in terms of example
are not. In which case, embrace that. If that's
who you are, just be really clear so that you
connect with those people. But the patient who
really values, you know, the experience and the
emotion and all the things we're talking about,
when they see lowest price guarantee, they are
likely not going to connect with that. And again,
that is okay. Our job is not to connect with
everyone. is to connect with the people who want
what we have to offer. And so, you know, I think
that's an important takeaway. Whatever it is
that you are, whatever it is that's important
to you, or you believe that's the thing that's
important to the patient that you want to attract,
that needs to be unequivocally the focal point
and nothing else. We talked about how Surio started
with the SEO team as we were having this debate
around the website content. But as it's grown
as a movement inside our agency, It's permeated
throughout our department. So how do we bring
this to the people? What is next on it for us?
I'd love to talk more about how does this play
a role in the paid campaigns, whether it be Google
or meta campaigns? How does it play a role in
overall website development design and all the
other parts of our agency, and more importantly,
what doctors and what practices need to be successful?
Next up, we have Shimmer and with the SEO team
is going to come talk to us about how they've
changed their processes. And when they look at
the sites, how they're going to do it. And then,
you know, from there, we're going to talk to
Jake and Aaron and on the paid media side and
get into the, you know, some of the folks on
the client service side, even how we're talking
to clients about it. Because it has implications
in... how we engage clients because, you know,
you are going to have some classic signs of old
school SEO, maybe not look as if they're plugged
into those, it is going to look different. Now,
you know, we're going to of course watch analytics
and other things on, on the overall site health,
but yeah, we very much want to get the department
heads of, you know, our agency in and talking
about how they've adapted it. All the way down
to how the client service team were talking to
accounts in the shift. Because you nailed it
earlier when you were talking about, I can go
out to Gemini today and say, write me a page
on implants. Here's my current website. And it'll
write it. It's not going to have my approach.
It's not going to have my warmth. Even if you
said add my warmth to it, even that phrase is
a complex phrase. So to me, this movement is
really around a pivotal shift in if I can't articulate
the why and I can't articulate what it means
to the patient. I do need to take it and put
a keen eye on what am I even talking about then?
Because I should be talking about the things
that are important to me and that I want to radiate
out. And that feels challenging, but go read
your top reviews. And even, you know, you gave
several examples of how to get started. But if
you think you're like everyone else and that's
what's holding you back, which is. It feels like
the most likely case is, but I'm just a dentist,
is, well, go read your reviews because that's
not what your best reviews say. So it is, as
it permeates our culture and becomes something
we do, you know, we're going to, this is the
first in a series that we're going to do on this
topic. So if you're an existing client and you're
listening to this. You can follow us along because
we're going to walk you through how your marketing
is going to be changing over the next several
months. This is a movement that we started slowly.
If you are a client, you might not have felt
direct impact of all this in all the different
ways quite yet. But this would be a great way
to learn along with us. And if you are not a
client and you are doing your own marketing or
you have a marketing agency that's working with
you, I think this could also be super helpful.
if you buy into this concept of differentiation
by being authentic to who you are, to follow
along so you can see, today you got the big picture
overview, but over the next several weeks, you're
going to see how it shows up in each of the different
parts of the marketing landscape. So you can
take some nuggets and start implementing it and
see if it works for you. And we'd love to hear
back if... you start trying so many things and
you're having success or you're not having the
success you thought you were going to have, it
would be fantastic to chat and see how things
are going for you. It's a good place to wrap
it up, Phil. That was your bite of dental marketing.
We'll be back.