Business Owners – Where Do You Need Help Online?

Blend Local Search Marketing CEO, Perry Stevens and Operations Manager Giovanni Greenard were recently invited to be guest on an upcoming webinar for 150 leading orthodontists.

A short survey was sent out to the members via Survey Monkey and 30 people responded. The answers were particularly interesting in getting to know the audience, find out where they needed help online and deliver a benefit driven webinar.

Below the overview are the 5 questions Blend asked and the interesting replies from the SMB’s.

Business Owners – Where Do You Need Help Online?

Businesses seem to have different answers when it comes to what they think that they need to work on in terms of small business marketing. This uncertainty is mirrored by the various ways that businesses choose to try to improve their digital reputation, but information taken from 30 leading US orthodontists begs to differ. It states that business owners know exactly what they want.

The orthodontists that responded considered small business SEO and directory listings with reviews as the two things that they should seek more help with than blogging, video marketing and social media management combined.

Website Audits

The importance of websites in marketing for SMB’s was highlighted by the way that 80-percent of the surveyed orthodontists thought that their website would benefit from a comprehensive audit of their website. Only six out of the 30 respondents thought that their website was suitable as it was.

The interesting point comes when these business owners were asked about their website’s layout. 13 responded that their website was both responsive and mobile friendly, 5 said that it wasn’t, and an honest 12 said that they didn’t know. That means 40-percent of these small business owners had no clue if their website was friendly to one of their most valuable audiences.

Expert Orthodontists

The one piece of help that these orthodontists were sure about is that they liked the idea of being marketed as a “rock star” orthodontist to convert more visitors into patients. All but one of the 30 respondents wanted help with positioning and incorporating image marketing into their digital marketing campaign, which means that status and they recognize appearance as important to running a successful business.

One interesting thing to note is that, despite their answers to the previous questions given to them, one-third of these orthodontists thought that they didn’t need the online reputation management. This means that, despite the fact that SEO, social media marketing, directory listings and image appearance all deal with online reputation management, 33-percent of the surveyed orthodontists believed that these things had nothing to do with one another.

The Big Picture

This leads to the conclusion that while small business owners might be clued in to advantages of what certain digital marketing techniques can do for them, they don’t understand the big picture. The one thing that these answers do confirm is how valuable these business owners perceive certain services as being, despite the fact that they each have their place in the right situation. By only covering one or two aspects of digital marketing, they may be receiving online marketing that leaves some of their potential customers in the dark.

Need help marketing your business online, positioning your self as a ‘rock star’ or would benefit from a website audit? Contact us here today.

We will soon be launching an exclusive membership site for dentist and orthodontists who want to learn how to SEO and market their business online. Members will be able to follow over-the-shoulder style videos and discover actionable strategies that will work today and make their website rock in local search.

Contact us here with ‘BLBS Membership Express‘ in the subject line and you will be formally invited to the members site when we open the doors.

 Business Owners – Where Do You Need Help Online?