Dietitians.net will be introducing some exciting new products in the coming new year. As the Internet is continually changing, digital marketers have to keep coming up with innovative ways to maintain their presence so potential clients browsing the web can find their business.

While the advertisers’ focus should be on providing the best possible patient care, the responsibility of attracting the new patients should lie in the hands of the marketing company. As new websites continue to launch online daily, and newspapers and phone books continue to phase out of the marketing picture, generating new business from the Internet is becoming more and more competitive.

Successfully marketing your practice online should focus on 2 areas:

1) A Practice Website - There really is no excuse not to have a website in today’s Internet market. In the past, one could argue that time constraints, high costs, and limited potential patient base were valid excuses not to have a practice website. Today, they are just that…..excuses. Internet providers have spread across the entire country in the past decade, and made accessing information online easier than ever. In addition, website companies are so competitive that you can purchase a quality website, or build your own site, for a very low one-time fee (usually followed by a low monthly hosting fee). The main point is that not having a practice website in today’s market gives your patients the impression that you are out of touch with them.

2) Search Engine Marketing/Directories - With all of the different websites that are available to list your services on (and others that list you without your knowledge), accurately tracking the source of new business from the Internet is nearly impossible. Less than 1% of patients will remember the exact website that referred them to you and your business, or even bother to provide that information when setting up an appointment…even if prompted the most common response is simply “found you on the Internet.” So, how can you make sure you are not wasting your money paying to advertise in an online directory?

Dietitians.net will be lauching a new Performance Marketing Model on January 1, 2010. The new model will allow registered dietitians to market their practice on our network of directory websites without the normal monthly or annual fees. The only charges that are incurred under the Performance Model are for proven business generated from your advertisement. Through the use of different tracking techniques, each registered dietitian that is a member of our RD network will be able to know EXACTLY what business came from their membership.

So, there will be no question as to whether your advertisement is generating business for you. You ONLY pay IF your ad generates new business for you. Wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have to pay for advertising that couldn’t provide proof that it is effective for your business? Well now you don’t have to…2010 is a new year, and Dietitians.net is providing a new way approach to marketing your practice.

Posted by Danny Rubino - Director of Operations - www.Dietitians.net

Hello RDs,

I have come across an issue over the last few months that I wanted to bring to your attention. As you may know by following our Twitter Account, or by visiting our SignUp Page, I randomly post real verified patient requests that are submitted through our website when people are unable to find a local registered dietitian. When they submit these requests it doesn’t mean that there is not an RD available to help them in their local area….it just means that those RDs have not joined our network yet.

So, our team here are Dietitians.net works to find a local dietitian for the patient by using a number of different resources that we have available to us. We have a variety of databases and websites that we use to locate RDs, one of them obviously being the American Dietetic Association’s Website, Eatright.org. While this site is a great source for information for both patients and RDs alike, the incredible amount of info on the site can make it a little intimidating for potential new patients to try and navigate to find their local dietitians.

The issue that I have come across several times in the last few weeks is that the RD that we are trying to contact to refer a patient to has incorrect information on their listing. Most of the time the contact phone number has been incorrect, at which point we attempt to contact the RD by using the email, but by the time (and this varies) the RD receives our email and responds to let us know that they are accepting new patients…the patient has usually moved on to another website and found help.

Some other issues I have found are incorrect links to websites, incorrect addresses, incorrect email addresses, languages spoken, etc. So, I just wanted to alert all of the RDs who are members of the ADA and encourage you all to visit the site, and make sure that your contact information is up to date.

Please comment on this post if you do come across an error on your listing, or if you have already had to update your info you can comment on what steps you took to accomplish this. 

Posted by: Danny Rubino - Director of Operations - www.Dietitians.net

Building a great website can be a very rewarding experience (even though it is usually very costly and time consuming), but it doesn’t amount to much if you don’t get anyone to come and visit it. While cool videos, awesome graphic design, and fast load times are great features of your website, all your hard work will be for nothing if you can’t build up visitor traffic. If you have created your own website or hired a company to build a site for you, you have probably heard people refer to ’search engine optimization’ or ‘SEO.’ SEO is a HUGE business and is everywhere on the Internet, and if your website isn’t “optimized” for search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, unfortunately you’re going to lose out to poorer websites with better SEO practices.

It doesn’t really seem fair that someone can create a basic website using some software program, or create a free blog in 5 minutes and have their site outrank your own in search engine results. But in today’s Internet, you have to take the necessary steps to market your website just like any other product or service. If you don’t choose to put in the extra effort to get your site ranked for certain keywords and phrases, you’re always going to be at the bottom of the search engine pile.

You have to understand that each day that your website appears below your competitor’s site (or doesn’t appear at all for that matter) is a day that your competitor gets all the business. It is not a myth that consumers rarely look past the first page of search results in the major search engines. If your site isn’t up at the top of those results, it might as well not exist.

So, if you decide to put in the time to build a professional website, don’t let up when it comes to promoting it. SEO should be a critical part of your website build, and overlooking would be like running a mail order business that doesn’t send out any mail.

When you become a member of Dietitians.net and our RD network, you will be working with professional Internet marketers who know how to get results….the search engine kind. Even if you choose to wait to build a website for your business, creating a profile and listing yourself in our national RD directory will provide you with exposure to new patients looking for your services.

Don’t Delay - Become a Member Today - Patients are looking for YOU!

Posted By: Danny Rubino - Director of Operations - www.Dietitians.net

I just got done reading an interesting article and wanted to share some of the information with all of the RDs who are thinking about how to spend their advertising budget.

The article started off with a story that I’m sure all of us can relate to about how the writer was looking for a phone number, so he turned to his trusty kitchen drawer. The drawer was packed, so he had to pull out all of the contents to find the little directory that had the number he was looking for inside of it. Then as he was stuffing everything back into the drawer he realized the source of the problem was the 4-inch thick yellow pages book that he hardly ever uses, but keeps in the drawer until the new edition arrives.

It has gotten to the point at my house that the book goes directly from my doorstep into my trash can. The reason is because if I need to look up a business I turn directly to my laptop and jump on Google or Yahoo and type in what I’m searching for.

He uses an example of law firms and how they spend a significant portion of their marketing budgets on the yellow pages. He then points out that when he went through the 2000+ page book that there were almost 100 pages of just ads for lawyers. This stands true for almost any business advertising their services this way. The alternative is that there are only a few listings, but there are so many sections dividing up the book that people may not know what heading to find your business under. Is it under “Health”? “Nutrition”? “Medical”? …etc.

People spend hundreds of dollars PER MONTH for some of the smaller Ad options with Yellow Pages, and they rarely see a return on their investment. We manage a number of other directory websites and we always ask our members why they continue to spend the money each year when they don’t see any return, and they almost always say the same thing….”because everyone else does it.”

Here are a few things to think about when you are trying to decide if becoming a member of Dietitians.net is a good option for you and your business:

1) Ease of Use - People always do what is easy. Think about how easy it is to access the Internet these days. People can access the Internet from home, work, library, or even cell phones. The majority of people who are looking for information online use search engines, so it makes sense for you to list your services where people are going to find them right? If a patient can go online and search for registered dietitians, and they find a directory full of only profiles of registered dietitians…then they don’t need to flip through hundreds of pages of ads to try and find you.

2) Costs $$$ - The main reason that it costs so much more to advertise with yellow pages or similar models is not because they work better. It is because they have alot more costs that they have to cover to run their business which trickle down to you - the advertiser. Print Costs, Mailing/Distribution Costs, Local Sales Rep Costs, etc. There are other limitations as well, such as flexibility of your ad. If you need to update your information they are not going to reprint and redistribute the phone book for you.

3) Differentiation - When you are marketing your services to new patients you should want yourself to stand out among your competitors. Listing yourself in a phone book or similar models does not give you that option…unless you want to spend ALOT more money for a larger Ad. Everyone is listed alphabetically which can be a huge disadvantage if your last name doesn’t start with A, B, or C. Listing yourself on www.Dietitians.net not only allows you to create a profile that has some ‘personality’ by adding a photo and details about your services, but the search function allows the patient to find real LOCAL dietitians as the results are displayed by proximity to the patient. Being the first RD to list in your area has its obvious advantages as you will be the only RD patients find within 25 miles (by default).

Are you thinking….Is this information true? If so, how can I get a presence for my business online? The answer is becoming a member of Dietitians.net and our network of RD websites. Here are a few things you need to do today to stand out from the crowd and grow your business:

- Look at your current marketing investment: What is it costing you per year and what business is coming directly from it? If the numbers are in your favor then keep doing it, but if the answer is “I’m not sure” or “I don’t know” then you need to try this. Even if you are 100% happy with your current marketing strategy you should become a member of our RD network and increase your online presence to stay ahead of the curve. For $149.99/year to list yourself on 4 highly ranked websites that target patients looking for your services…it shouldn’t be a tough decision.

- Get your own website: Being listed in our directories is a great source for exposure and patient referrals, but we also recommend having a website of your own to market directly to your patients. We can take care of this need for you as well. We offer affordable solutions to building and marketing a website for your business, and we walk you through the process from A to Z.

- Keep track of your traffic: You should frequently (once per month or per quarter) look at the number of visitors who find you listing or your website. WIth your listing on www.Dietitians.net you can login anytime to check the number of people who have viewed your profile. If you build you own website with us we can provide you with more detailed reports that include number of visitors, where they came from, what pages they visited, etc. This is a great way to make sure you are getting a value out of your membership and/or your website.

Search engines are the future…and the only question you should ask yourself is - Am I going to be a player or a spectator? If you follow us on Twitter you know that we randomly post real patient’s requests for local registered dietitians. If you don’t see any being posted from your area keep this in mind - We only post a handful of the leads we receive on a daily basis..and we post them entirely at random. The thing to keep in mind is that the patients only have the option to request an RD if we do not have one listed within 25 miles of their zip code, and less than 15% of the patients who do not find a local RD fill out the form and ask for our help. That means you are missing out on ALOT of patients and potential business.

Visit our Home Page and search your own zip code - If we do not have an RD listed yet…don’t hesitate to be the first!

Posted By: Danny Rubino - Director of Operations - www.Dietitians.net

Hello RDs,

First, we’d like to take the opportunity to thank all you for all of the great feedback we have been receiving about the new site. We are taking all of your recommendations into consideration as our main objective is to make our sites as informative and productive for not only the visiting patients, but also for our RD members.

We are writing this post to address a couple things that have been brought to our attention by more than a few RDs in response to our emails that we have sent out so far.

‘Dietitian Schools’ - We are aware of the current misrepresentation of this category and will be replacing the current listings with a number of universities that offer didactic programs and coordinated programs that lead up to earning the RD credential. Thank you all for being thorough while going through the site and pointing this out to us.

Registered Dietitians vs. Nutritionists - We are also aware of the differences in qualifications and requirements of earning an RD credential. We only market our products and services to registered dietitians who are members of the ADA. We will continue to focus our efforts on promoting the RD industry and connecting patients with our members. Thank you again for the numerous offers to write a post highlighting the differences.

We hope that you all continue to frequently visit the site, and continue to become new members of our RD network. We look forward to continuing to grow our network and work with our members to create the most cost-effective marketing solution available to the RD community.

Follow us on Twitter or visit the Sign Up page to keep up to date with site upgrades, welcoming new members, and randomly posted patient leads. You can also visit the About Us page of the site to view our archive of emails that we have sent out to our RD mailing list.