Erin Balsa

Content Marketing Consultant and Writer 

I build and execute content marketing strategies for sales-led B2B SaaS startups that sell complex, enterprise-ready solutions.

Erin enjoys B2B content marketing, keeping the Halloween spirit alive year-round, and talking about herself in the third person. 

No but really ... 

I've been working in content since 2011 when I landed my first job as an editor. Since then, I've worn a bunch of hats like:

- Content marketing agency leader
- Inc. 5000 B2B SaaS marketing director
- Freelance content strategist, writer, and editor

Over the years, I've written for a bunch of brands you probably know including:

- HubSpot
- Drift
- G2
- Intuit
- And a Fortune 100 that shall not be named

These days, I help marketing teams at B2B SaaS companies (Series A-C) survey a representative sample of their ICP and write a 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 original research report that positions their brand as a credible authority — to secure press mentions and close enterprise deals.

If you're ready to publish research that builds trust instead of skepticism, let's chat. And if you just want to connect with a fellow marketing nerd who decorates for Halloween in July, I'm here for that too.

Hausofbold.com

Content Marketing Consultant

I build and execute content marketing strategies for sales-led B2B SaaS startups that sell complex, enterprise-ready solutions. 

Unlike some strategists and agencies, I don't hand you a content strategy and say, "Best of luck!" I ensure your success by helping across four buckets:

▶ People 
▶ Process 
▶ Strategy
▶ Execution 

Learn more and read client testimonials at: hausofbold.com

Anyone else feeling like a bear coming out of hibernation today?

After taking extended time off for the holidays, I'm simply not ready for the onslaught of peppy "Behold my 25 top New Year's resolutions!" posts.

I want less of that and more of this:

- I need a nap but also a marketing strategy. 
- Slowly remembering how to be a professional human.
- Desperately searching for things to say at the start of the Zoom call.
- Pretending to remember what we decided before the break.
- Trying to inspire others while feeling like a potato. 
- Eh, that can probably wait until Wednesday. 

Here's to giving yourself (and others) some grace. 🥂

I help B2B marketers create original research reports

An influencer once posted about how to publish an original research study in a week. 

When I asked a technical question about data analysis, it was clear we weren't talking about the same kind of "research."

I could end the story here because IYKYK. 

But for those of you newer to publishing survey-based research reports, I'll add a pinch of color.

*𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘵 𝘉𝘢𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘫𝘪*

You can NOT publish a 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚 study in a week. 

Even if you collect enough quality responses in two business days — and even if you use AI to analyze the data and surface trends — that leaves you only THREE business days to do everything else:

Report strategy
Survey design
Soft launch
Data cleansing
Human review of AI output
Outline building 
Outline review
Copywriting
Editing
Revisions
Graphic design
Proofreading
More revisions
Autoresponder creation and testing
Nurture campaign creation and testing
Rev ops
Sales enablement
PR
Launch day prep
etc. etc.

Shoot, I spend an entire day writing survey questions!

So yeah, it's possible to publish 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 in a week. But there will be trade-offs, like:

- Potential inclusion of AI hallucinations 
- Rushed survey design that produces obvious, shallow insights
- Limited analysis (no time for meaningful cross tabs or synthesis)
- Weak narrative cohesion that undermines thought leadership
- A report that screams "we built dis 4 leads!"

If your goal is credibility, increased trust, and research that actually shapes the conversation in your space, one week simply won't cut it.

I help B2B marketers create survey-based research reports 📈 Next available report kickoff date → April 6

Turns out the rumors are true. 







Washing machines really DO eat socks. 

I’m enjoying a typical morning of juggling work and home responsibilities. 

Today, the appliance repair guy is here fixing our front load washing machine, which has been leaking due to a rip in the door gasket. 

As the guy was fishing around inside the recesses of the machine, he pulled out a freaking sock. 

45 years old and I’m still learning something new almost every day. 🤭

The most difficult part of transitioning from a retainer-based biz to a project-based biz?

Scheduling 

Survey-based research reports are complex projects with lots of moving pieces. 

And even though I’ve developed — and refined — my report project management template over the past 8 years, scheduling multiple overlapping timebound reports has been surprisingly challenging. 

That said … 

Back in my agency days, I used to manage writer resources for 15+ full-time writers to the 30-MINUTE UNIT! 

Imagine your agency has 350 clients.  Each client gets different types and amounts of content. In order to maximize profits, you need to assign each writer as much work as they can humanly handle — and keep their assignment log full at all times, in spite of frequent delays on the client side. And now imagine that one 30-minute unit is equal to 200 words of “standard content,” 150 words of “premium content,” 100 words of “responsive content,” 1 page of an e-book, a 250-word “gold infographic,” a 500-word “silver infographic,” a 300-word video script (and so on and so forth). 

It was nuts. 🥜 

But that’s the kind of workload I managed — by hand, inside various spreadsheets, long before ChatGPT — for 3.5 years. 

So yeah, scheduling multiple report projects for myself is tricky, but I got this.

No alternative text description for this image

🎬 Behind the scenes of making a Navattic research report 🎬 l

Multiple marketing leaders have told me they love Navattic's reports, so Natalie Marcotullio and I figured it would be cool to show you how Navattic "makes the sausage."

I'll be sharing bits of our 30-minute Q&A across a few different posts.

Erin: When did the idea for your "State of the Interactive Demo Report" first come about?

Natalie: The first report was published in 2023, which means the idea came about in 2022. We kept getting questions from customers and prospects asking for data. When you sell to marketers, they really love data — so it was a no brainer! Let's build a resource that succinctly answers all these questions that we can share whenever someone asks a question.

Erin: What questions were your customers and prospects asking?

Natalie: Customers ask questions like, "How long should I make my demo?" and "What kind of language should I use?" Prospects usually want help making their case internally. So with the benchmarks in hand, they can say to their leadership: "Demos convert at a higher rate than other assets we use," or "If we invest in this, here's what we can expect."

Erin: What was the primary question you were trying to answer when you created your first report?

Natalie: What do top-performing interactive demos have in common? 

Erin: How has that primary question evolved, if at all?

Natalie: In the 2026 report, we're still trying to answer what top-performing interactive demos have in common ... but we're getting more granular. People don't just want to hear how their demo compares against ALL the demos built on Navattic — they want to measure performance within their industry or for their company size. Also, we now have lots more features, and people have specific questions about those. For example, "That extra CTA banner that's always across the demo — is that commonly used in the top 1% of demos?"

👉 Navattic's 2026 State of the Interactive Product Demo 2026 report drops next week. 

Want to be the first to see it?

Get early access here: https://lnkd.in/edZ_e7aJ

Meanwhile in Boston ... 

Just sitting here playing the "Should I try to get some work done even though there are five children in the next room?" game. 

Considering it took me 15 minutes to hear myself think long enough to write this three-word post, I’ll see myself out.

Your research report launched ... and nobody seemed to care. 

What do you do?

Welp, your first instinct might be to stick your head in the sand in shame. Totally understandable. But just know that this is fairly common.

(I recently spoke with a former colleague who spent MONTHS and THOUSANDS on a survey-based research report that didn't do a damn thing for the business.)

Fortunately this is a solvable problem — if you're willing to run a project post-mortem. Here's a simple plan of attack plus the kinds of questions that reveal what went wrong:

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗼𝗻𝗲 - 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗱. 

𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘱 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘸 𝘪𝘵?
𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘱 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥?
𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘱 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵?

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝘁𝘄𝗼 - 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰.

𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘤 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘐𝘊𝘗 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵?
𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘤 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨?
𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘤 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘢 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘩 𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘴?

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 - 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗱𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆.

𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦?
𝘞𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵? 
𝘐𝘧 𝘢 𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴, 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮?

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿 - 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴. 

𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸?
𝘋𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘺 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘦?
𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘢 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘢 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴?

And if you'd like an outside opinion on where things broke down, I'm always here to help!

The 2026 State of the Interactive Product Demo report just dropped! 👀 

Navattic analyzed the top 1%, 10% and 25% of demos built on their platform to uncover what actually works.

They found that top 1% interactive demos do 7 specific things:

1) They keep it short (5-13 steps).

2) They offer choices. 

Demos that give people options (explore different product lines, personas, or use cases) have a 57% completion rate vs. single-flow demos, which have a 35% completion rate.

3) They get Step One right.

On step one, 29% use "you/your" language, 24% add visual beacons to indicate where users should look, and 15% give explicit instructions. 

4) They use multiple CTAs inside the demo.

Believe it or not, they use 4-5 CTAs per demo on average! Most CTAs are actionable (Try for free, Book a demo, Get started).

5) They deploy interactive demos all over the dang place.

50% of top performers have demos in multiple places:

- Product pages: 62% (up from 19% last year)
- Homepage: 48% (up from 8%)
- Demo centers: 45%

6) They tend to be ungated. 

7) They use HTML/CSS web capture. Web captures refer to HTML/CSS cloning of the front end of your product. This means the demo looks and feels real and you can edit the product data for personalization. 

👉 Download the full report for more helpful insights — like interactive demo performance and adoption by industry! 

Link in the comments.

And keep an eye out for more posts from my "Behind the scenes of making a Navattic research report" interview with Natalie Marcotullio!

Chart from Navattic's State of the Interactive Product Demo report

Yesterday I was a bear coming out of a cave. Today I'm a marketer talking about research reports.

More specifically, how brands do it wrong.

Mistake no. 1: Sloppy methodology.

You may have heard the phrase "Garbage in, garbage out."

If you build your report on a foundation of garbage data, you wind up publishing a garbage report that spreads misinformation.

And that's likely at odds with what you're trying to accomplish as a brand. 

Got 30 seconds? Watch the clip.
Got 30 minutes? Watch the full video. 

Thanks Justin Vajko for inviting me on your podcast!

What's the ROI of a research report?

As I told Justin Vajko, while there's nuance, you should generally see two outcomes:

1) In the short-term, press mentions.

There are three things you gotta get right here. 

- Your research has a newsworthy angle.
- Your report is built on high-quality data.
- You let the market know about your study.

If you get those things right, you should see press hits right away. As an example, one of my clients got a write up in an industry publication with 2.6 million daily readers on day one of their report going live.

2) In the longer-term, deal impact.

It generally takes a couple of months to see deals you can confidently attribute to the report, which is why I check in with my clients at the 3-month mark.

At the time of this recording, the same client had just told me that their report had already influenced a few enterprise deals and a few renewals.

Enterprise deals are big, and they take time. 

If the report was that one thing that helped buyers think, "This brand gets it. They seem credible," then I've done my job. 

👉 Liked this clip? Check out the full interview where I explain my approach: Believable Research.  

I'll drop the link in the comments as per usual.

My face when I see someone make sweeping claims about an industry based on their survey of 50 people.

(jk jk — I’m not here to judge, I’m here to help.)

If your survey sample was itsy bitsy teeny weeny, don't present your findings using words like:

everyone
no one
all

That's like walking into a room where all 50 people are wearing Nike sneakers and declaring, "Everyone wears Nike sneakers!" 

No. 

Everyone in that ROOM wears Nike sneakers.

There’s nothing wrong with surveying a small group and sharing what you found. It's a great way to spark interesting conversations on social. 

Just don't frame your findings as universal truths.

Instead, use language like:

"Of the 50 senior leaders we surveyed ... "
"The majority of respondents said ... "
"1 in 3 surveyed BDRs ... "

That way you come across as credible instead of just another vendor who stretches the truth to push their narrative and sell shit.

Imagine waking up to a flood of new patient leads. Qualified leads won over by your expertise, ready to bring you revenue.

They're not just tire-kickers or bargain shoppers. These are qualified leads who your expertise has already won over. 

Is this a pipe dream? Nope, it isn't. 

Actually, you have an advantage that those big players don't.

The opportunity to build a laser-focused content strategy from a fully SEO-optimized website that speaks directly to your ideal patients.

Sure, you won't see thousands of shares or viral posts lighting up your social feeds.

But you’ll see something far more valuable: a steady stream of patients walking through your door, instead of having to chase them down.

Because let’s be real, the only metric that really matters is how many patients are coming through your door. Shares & likes don’t pay the bills.

But here’s the rub. Right now, you're caught in a frustrating catch-22.

If you’re like most dental practice owners, you have no idea how your patients find their way to your door.

So, you send out postcard mailers, run some ads, or do a TV/Radio commercial spot.

And not getting the results you hoped you would. But why?

Because your patients are looking for you in the one place you haven’t invested-the web. 

Particularly, your website that’s made for your patients and showcases your services.

But you don’t know anything about SEO or keywords. And you don’t have time to learn. 

Between seeing patients, managing your team, & keeping up with the latest dental advancements, the idea of sitting down to write a 1,500-word article feels like a luxury you can't afford.

You're a dental professional, not a content creator or SEO specialist. Yet, your website needs to be authoritative & high-converting to draw patients to your practice.

But what if there was a way to break free from this cycle?

Introducing The Dental Practice Patient Accelerator™.

It's not just a service; it's a complete solution designed to elevate your practice's online presence & inbound patient acquisition. 

Here's what you get:

🔷 Diagnostic Website Audit
🔷 Custom Content Strategy Blueprint
🔷 SEO/GEO-Optimized Content Creation

The result?

✅ 150% increase in organic traffic and local leads within 6 months
✅ Prominent placement in the local Maps Pack
✅ Medically accurate, SEO/GEO-optimized content that resonates with patients

Let me handle content creation while you focus on exceptional patient care. 

DM "PRACTICE" to learn more & accelerate your revenue growth.

Nicole Kolesar

I just spent the last year doing something nobody else has done.

I analyzed 2,000 dental practice Google Business Profiles across all 50 states.

Every. Single. One.

I looked at five critical metrics:

👉🏽 Profile completeness
👉🏽 Patient reviews
👉🏽 Review management
👉🏽 Visual content
👉🏽 Engagement metrics

Want to know what I found?

95% of dental practices are leaving six figures on the table. And they have no idea it's happening.

The reality is that your Google Business Profile is the most valuable piece of digital real estate you own. When someone searches "dentist near me" or "dental implants [city]," your GBP is the first thing they see.

Not your website. 

Not your ads. 

Your GBP.

But most practices treat it like an afterthought.

They set it up once in 2018. Added a few photos. Maybe responded to some reviews. 

Then forgot about it. Just like the holidays.

Meanwhile, your competitors (or worse, corporate chains) are optimizing their GBPs weekly and stealing your patients.

If your GBP isn't fully optimized, you're losing:

❌ 15-25 calls per month
❌ 6-10 new patients per month
❌ $864k - $1.44M per year in lifetime value

And that's being conservative.

This week, I'm sharing the results of my research.

Not generic advice. Not theory. Actual data from 2,000 real dental practices.

You'll see:

✔️ Which states have the best (and worst) GBP performance
✔️ The exact elements the top 1% have that you're missing
✔️ The mistakes 78% of practices are making right now
✔️ The simple fixes that move the needle immediately

If you're a dentist who feels invisible online, this series will show you exactly why and how to fix it.

Tomorrow: The profile completeness crisis (and why 87% of dental GBPs fail this basic test).

When's the last time you actually updated your Google Business Profile?

#LocalSEO #GoogleBusinessProfile #DentalMarketing #Practiwrite

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Content Strategist, SEO Content Writer, Author

When you run Google Ads, you get an ad.

When you run Local Service Ads, you get the Google Guaranteed badge.

That badge carries more weight than most practices realize.

Here’s why.

🔷 Trust changes behavior.

Google Ads show a small “Sponsored” label. Patients understand you paid to appear. Skepticism is baked in.

Local Service Ads sit at the very top of the page with a green checkmark and a Google Guaranteed badge. Patients see verification, background checks, and Google’s name attached to your practice.

Trust forms instantly.

I surveyed 500 dental patients who used Google to find a dentist and asked them:

"Would you be more likely to call a practice with the Google Guaranteed badge?"

78% said yes
14% said it doesn’t matter
8% said no

Nearly 8 out of 10 patients are more likely to contact you purely because of that badge.

What does Google Guaranteed actually require for you to earn it?

Business owner background checks
Active licenses
Insurance coverage
Minimum review rating, typically 4.0+

Patients may not know every detail, but they understand one thing clearly. Google vetted this practice.

Compare that to Google Ads, where anyone with a credit card can show up.

🔷 Where do LSAs appear?

When someone searches “dentist near me,” the order usually looks like this:

✔️ Local Service Ads with Google Guaranteed
✔️ Map pack
✔️ Traditional Google Ads
✔️ Organic results

LSAs show up before everything else.

I tracked practices running both LSAs and Google Ads at the same time.

Google Ads:

👉🏽 CTR: 4.2%
👉🏽 Call rate from clicks: 9.6%

Local Service Ads:

👉🏽 Call or message rate: 18.7%
👉🏽 No website click required

Nearly double the response rate.

The guarantee itself?

If a customer is unhappy, Google may refund them up to the job value, capped per claim.

That badge represents more than visibility. It signals accountability.

Google is effectively saying they trust this business enough to put money behind it.

Here's a client comparison for you: 

Practice A used Google Ads only:

$3,200 monthly spend
114 clicks
11 calls
4 new patients

Practice B switched to LSAs:

$2,400 monthly spend
32 leads
21 new patients

Practice B also saw:

47% higher case acceptance
23% higher average case value

Trust changes how patients decide.

This is a competitive barrier.

Not every practice qualifies. Poor reviews, licensing issues, background check failures, or missing insurance disqualify you.

That creates a real moat for practices who qualify and run LSAs well.

Google Ads feel like marketing.

Google Guaranteed feels like a recommendation.

One earns attention. The other earns confidence.

Tomorrow: how to screen LSA leads so you stop paying for tire kickers and save $800+ per month.

If you had to choose between running Google Ads or having the Google Guaranteed badge, which would you choose and why?

#GoogleGuaranteed #LocalServiceAds #DentalMarketing #TrustFactor #Practiwrite

Dentists, I'm about to show you something your marketing agency will never put in a proposal.

Here's what they charge you every month: 

🔷 Social media management: $2,500 
🔷 Blog content creation: $1,800
🔷 Generic SEO: $2,000

Total: $6,300/month

Here's what it actually costs them to deliver:

🔷 Social media: One junior designer servicing 40 clients at $4,000/month salary = $100 per client. 

Margin: 96%

🔷 Blog content: Contract writer at $0.12/word, 4 posts monthly = $480. Margin: 73%

Generic SEO: Automated reports + 2 hours of meta description changes quarterly = $150/month. 

Margin: 92%

Total cost to service you: $730/month.
Total revenue from you: $6,300/month. 
Their profit margin: 88%

You're not a client. You're a subscription.

And like every subscription service, the goal isn't solving your problem quickly. It's keeping you subscribed as long as possible.

That's why they sell you "brand awareness" (unmeasurable, indefinite timeline, 94% margin) instead of Google Business Profile optimization (measurable results in 60 days, 35% margin, you might leave when it works).

I analyzed 2,000 dental practice Google Business Profiles across all 50 states. 

You know what I found?

🔷 89% of agency websites prominently feature social media management. 
🔷 34% even mention Google Business Profile optimization.

They're selling you what's profitable for them, not what's profitable for you.

Your ideal client for them? 

Pays $6,000/month, stays 18-24 months, doesn't track cost-per-patient, focuses on "long-term growth" = $144,000 lifetime value.

Their nightmare client? Demands ROI from day one, tracks calls to campaigns, leaves after 6 months when they're ranking locally = $36,000 lifetime value.

Guess which business model they built?

The agency isn't failing to get you results. 

The agency is succeeding at its actual business model, which is maximizing your lifetime subscription value.

Here's my question for you, if you're a dentist who's struggling to get better patients: 

If your agency can't show you the direct line from their work to booked patients, what exactly are you paying for?

#betterdentalpatients #dentistsdeservebetter #Practiwrite

Let's do the math your dental marketing agency is hoping you never do.

🔷 Optimized Google Business Profile (what the top 10% of practices have): 

✔️ 1,000 monthly views 
✔️ 320 call attempts (32% conversion) 
✔️ 210 answered calls (66% answer rate)
✔️ 105 booked appointments (50% booking rate) 
✔️ $2,400 average case value
✔️ Monthly production: $252,000

🔷Neglected GBP (what I found in 61% of practices): 

✔️ 200 monthly views 
✔️ 40 call attempts (20% conversion) 
✔️ 26 answered calls (65% answer rate) 
✔️ 13 booked appointments (50% booking rate) 
✔️ $2,400 average case value
✔️ Monthly production: $31,200

The gap: $220,800 per month. $2,649,600 per year.

That's not a typo. That's what an incomplete, neglected Google Business Profile costs a fee-for-service practice annually.

You're not losing pennies. You're losing the revenue equivalent of hiring four additional associates.

And you're paying an agency $3,500-$5,000/month to tell you your engagement rate is up.

But it gets worse.

The average dental practice misses 32 phone calls per day, according to the American Dental Association. 

Not because your front desk is incompetent (hopefully they're not).

Because they're already helping someone when call 33 comes in.

Monthly breakdown: 

✔️ 850 incoming calls 
✔️ 215 actually answered (25%) 
✔️ 635 go to voicemail 
✔️ 443 never get returned (70%)

443 potential patients called you and got silence.

At $2,400 average case value, that's $530,400 in monthly production ringing through to dead air.

Layer that on top of the incomplete GBP problem. You're not generating enough calls. 

And the calls you do generate? You're missing 75% of them.

This is the double-bleed most practices don't see:

Weak GBP = fewer calls coming in
No call system = most calls going unanswered

Your competitors with complete GBPs, active posting schedules, and call tracking systems are picking up patients you're losing at both ends.

You've already paid for the marketing to generate those calls. 

The patient wanted to book with you. 

Your profile convinced them to dial. 

They had their credit card ready.

Then....Riiiiing. Riiiiiiing. Riiiiiing.....Voicemail.

They call the next practice. Who picks up. Who books them. 

Who just captured $2,400 in production you paid to generate, but failed to answer.

Here's what I want to know dentists: If you're bleeding $220K monthly from an incomplete GBP and another $530K from missed calls, what exactly is that $42K annual social media retainer accomplishing?


#DentalPracticeGrowth #GoogleBusinessProfile #PracticeProfitability #Practiwrite

60% of all "dentist near me" searches happen on mobile.

But 78% of the dental GBPs I analyzed are completely broken on mobile.

Here's what I found:

🔷 Problem #1: Phone numbers that don't click-to-call (64% of profiles)

Someone finds your GBP on their phone. They want to call you.

But your phone number isn't clickable. So they have to:

❌ Memorize the number
❌ Exit Google
❌ Open their phone app
❌ Manually dial

You just lost them.

The top 1%? Click-to-call is automatic. 

One tap. Done.

🔷 Problem #2: Photos that don't load (71% of profiles)

Most practices upload massive images (5MB+) to their GBP.

On desktop? They look fine.

On mobile? They take 8-10 seconds to load.

After 3 seconds, 53% of mobile users bounce.

The top 1% optimize every image to under 200KB. Fast load times. Lower bounce rates.

🔷 Problem #3: No mobile-specific posts (89% of profiles)

Google lets you post updates to your GBP (like social media). Most practices don't post at all.

But even the few that do? They write long-form posts designed for desktop (or a blog).

On mobile, they're unreadable.

The top 1% create short, punchy posts optimized for mobile screens:

✔️ 50-75 words max
✔️ One clear message
✔️ Strong call-to-action
✔️ Eye-catching image

🔷Problem #4: Booking links that break on mobile (73% of profiles)

Some practices DO add booking links to their GBP. But the links go to desktop-only scheduling systems.

On mobile? The page doesn't load. Or the form is unusable.

The patient gives up and calls someone else.

The top 1% use mobile-responsive booking systems. Patients can book in 30 seconds from their phone.

🔷 Problem #5: Buried information (82% of profiles)

On desktop, your GBP shows all your info above the fold.

On mobile? Only the essentials show up.

Most practices bury critical info in the "See more" section. The top 1% prioritize mobile display:

✔️ Hours clearly visible
✔️ Phone number prominent
✔️ Services listed first
✔️ Primary photo optimized for small screens

🔷 The mobile performance gap:

I tested load times and usability on actual mobile devices (iPhone and Android).

The Top 1% of GBPs?

✔️ Load time: Under 2 seconds
✔️ Click-to-call: One tap
✔️ Booking: 30 seconds
✔️ Photos: Instant load

The Bottom 78% of GBPs?

❌ Load time: 6-10 seconds
❌ Click-to-call: Manual dial required
❌ Booking: Broken or difficult
❌ Photos: Slow or don't load

The cost:

If 60% of your traffic is mobile and 78% of mobile visitors bounce due to poor experience, you're losing 47% of all potential patients before they even see your content.

That's 20-25 calls per month.

And $1.44M - $1.8M per year in lost lifetime value.

All because your GBP isn't optimized for mobile.

Tomorrow: The photo mistake costing you 40% of clicks (and why 85% of practices get visual content completely wrong).

Have you tested your GBP on a mobile device in the last 30 days?

#MobileOptimization #LocalSEO #GoogleBusinessProfile #Practiwrite

I'm going to say something that will make every web designer I've ever worked with want to fight me:

Your dental website is not your primary digital asset. 

Your Google Business Profile is.

That $15,000 website with the parallax scrolling and the "meet the team" video? It's a glorified brochure patients see AFTER they've decided you're worth considering.

Your GBP? That's the storefront. That's where the decision gets made.

Let me prove it with numbers:

🔷 Average dental practice website: 800-1,200 visits/month 
🔷 Average GBP impressions (same practice): 4,800-7,200/month

Your GBP gets seen 6x more than your homepage. And these aren't passive impressions. 

These are people actively searching for a dentist. 

Right now. 

In your area. 

With intent to book.

Here's the patient journey everyone pretends doesn't exist:

👉🏽 7:23 AM: Sarah searches "dentist near me" 
👉🏽 7:23:08 AM: Google shows the map pack. Three results. Not ten. Three. 
👉🏽 7:23:15 AM: She scans photos. 

Your competitor has fresh images from last month. 

You have stock photos from 2021. 

👉🏽 7:23:22 AM: Hours. She needs morning appointments. Your profile says "hours might differ." 

Your competitor lists exact hours, including Tuesday/Thursday early slots. 

👉🏽 7:23:30 AM: She taps their number. She books for 9:15 AM.

Total time from search to booked appointment: 67 seconds.

She never visited your Instagram. 

Never watched your "Why Choose Us" video. 

Never read your blog about the history of dental implants. 

Never clicked through to your website.

She made a $2,400 decision in 67 seconds based entirely on a Google Business Profile.

Your competitor's. Not yours.

In my analysis of 2,000 dental practices, top-performing GBPs generate 7.3x more patient inquiries from the same search volume. 

Not 7.3% more. 7.3 TIMES more.

Same market. Same services. Different execution.

The entire hierarchy you've been sold (website first, then SEO, then maybe GBP if there's budget) is completely backwards.

It's optimizing for 1995, not 2026.

So here's my question for you, dental practice owner: If patients are making decisions in your GBP before they ever see your website, why are you spending 80% of your marketing budget on the asset they never reach?

#yourgooglebusinesprofileismoney #betterdentalpatients #Practiwrite

I compared the top 10% of dental practice Google Business Profiles against the bottom 50%.

Same markets. 

Similar services. 

Comparable review counts.

The difference wasn't budget. It was execution.

🔷 The top 10% practices: 

✔️ Post to GBP 2-3x per week 
✔️ Update photos weekly (minimum 4 new images/month) 
✔️ Respond to every review within 24 hours 
✔️ Complete, current service menus 
✔️ 15+ answered questions in Q&A section 
✔️ Special hours updated 2 weeks in advance
🔷 Bottom 50% practices: 

❌ Post monthly (maybe) 
❌ Last photo: 4-6 months ago 
❌ Respond to reviews occasionally 
❌ Service menu incomplete or generic 
❌ Q&A: 2 questions or empty 
❌ Hours: "might differ"

🔷 The performance gap?

Top 10%: 

👉🏽 Monthly views: 1,847 
👉🏽 Click-to-call rate: 37% 
👉🏽 Direction requests: 284/month 
👉🏽 Website clicks: 421/month

Bottom 50%: 

👉🏽 Monthly views: 253 
👉🏽 Click-to-call rate: 19% 
👉🏽 Direction requests: 31/month 
👉🏽 Website clicks: 48/month

Top performers generate 7.3x more patient inquiries from the same search volume.

Here's what specific actions produce. Photos updated weekly vs quarterly: 

+87% website clicks 
+62% direction requests
+34% call volume

Why? Fresh photos signal active management. 

Patients scanning three profiles unconsciously filter for recency. Your competitor's photo from last week beats your photo from April. 

Every time.

Posts 2x/week vs monthly: 

+156% direction requests
+73% profile views
+41% click-to-call rate

Why? Google rewards frequent updates. 

A post from 3 days ago looks actively managed. A post from 6 weeks ago looks abandoned.

Q&A with 15+ answers vs empty: 

+34% website clicks
+28% more calls

Why? Patients ask the same 10-15 questions everywhere. When answers are visible, you've removed friction between "interested" and "calling."

Review response within 24 hours vs 7+ days: 

+44% more reviews generated
+23% higher star rating over 6 months

Why? Responsive management signals you care. It creates a public record of how you handle problems. 

Patients aren't scared of negative reviews. They're scared of unanswered negative reviews.

The practices booking 41 patients/month vs 11 patients/month aren't doing anything magical. 

They're just executing the fundamentals consistently.

My question: If the gap between top and bottom performers is just consistent execution of basic tactics, what's stopping you from being in the top 10%?

#DentalMarketing #GBPOptimization #PracticeGrowthStrategy #Practiwrite

Out of 2,000 dental practice Google Business Profiles I analyzed, only 260 were complete.

That's 13%!

The other 87% are missing critical elements that Google uses to rank profiles and patients use to make decisions.

Here are the 5 elements most practices are missing:

🔷 #1: Services Section (73% incomplete)

Google gives you the ability to list individual services: cleanings, crowns, implants, Invisalign, etc.

Most practices skip it entirely.

Big mistake.

When someone searches "dental implants near me," Google prioritizes practices that have "dental implants" listed as a service.

No service listed = invisible for that search.

🔷 #2: Products Section (89% empty)

Most dentists don't even know this exists. The Products section lets you showcase:

✔️ Before/after photos
✔️ Treatment descriptions
✔️ Pricing ranges (optional)

Practices with completed product sections get 35% more profile engagement.

🔷 #3: Q&A Section (94% empty)

Google lets you add Q&A to your profile. You write BOTH the questions and answers.

This is free keyword real estate.

👍🏾 "Do you offer emergency dental services?"
👍🏾 "Do you accept [Insurance Plan]?"
👍🏾 "Do you offer sedation dentistry?"

Most practices have zero Q&A entries. Zero.

🔷 #4: Booking Link (68% missing)

Google lets patients book appointments directly from your GBP.

Most practices don't set this up. So patients have to:

❌ Click to your website
❌ Find the contact page
❌ Fill out a form or call

That's 3 friction points where they bounce. One-click booking removes all of that.

🔷 #5: Accurate Attributes (81% incomplete)

Google has dozens of attributes you can select like 

✔️ "Wheelchair accessible"
✔️ "Accepts new patients"
✔️ "Offers online appointments"

These show up in search filters. If you haven't selected them, you're invisible when patients filter results.

The impact?

Complete profiles rank 4-6 positions higher than incomplete profiles.

That's the difference between 30 calls per month and 8 calls per month.

The fix is simple. Go to your GBP. Click through every section. Fill in everything.

It takes 2 hours. The ROI is massive.

Tomorrow: The review crisis that's tanking your rankings (and why 91% of practices are failing at review management).

Which of these 5 elements is your GBP missing right now?

#GoogleBusinessProfile #LocalSEO #DentalPracticeGrowth #Practiwrite

After analyzing 2,000 dental practice Google Business Profiles, only 20 landed in the top 1%.

They are not the biggest practices.
They are not in the wealthiest cities.
Many are solo doctors in small towns.

Yet they dominate local search.

Here is what they do differently.

🔷 1. They treat GBP like a patient generation system

Most profiles sit untouched for years.

Top practices post weekly, add photos monthly, respond to reviews daily, and optimize constantly.

🔷 2. They run systems, not reminders

✔️ Automated post visit review requests
✔️ Focused asks from high value cases
✔️ Reactivation campaigns
✔️ Clear monthly review goals

🔷 3. They study competitor GBPs

Photos, reviews, services, posts.

Then they outwork and outpublish them.

🔷 4. They optimize for mobile first

✔️ Fast loading photos
✔️ Click to call tested on real phones
✔️ Mobile friendly booking links
✔️ Posts designed for small screens

🔷 5. They let data drive decisions

✔️ Weekly GBP insights reviews
✔️ Search query tracking
✔️ Photo views vs competitors
✔️ Post and CTA testing

🔷 6. They use Q&A to rank

15 to 20 keyword rich questions covering insurance, emergencies, financing, and services.

Written by the practice. Built to convert.

🔷 7. They sell outcomes, not procedures

✔️ Before and after photos
✔️ Named patient testimonials
✔️ Clear transformation focused service descriptions

The gap is massive

Bottom 99% average?

✔️ 42 reviews
✔️ 12 photos
✔️ Ranked #8–15
✔️ 6–10 calls per month

Top 1% average?

✔️ 150+ reviews
✔️ 65+ photos
✔️ Ranked #1–3
✔️ 35–50 calls per month

Same markets. Five times the results.

The investment?

✔️ 2–4 hours per month
✔️ $0–500 if outsourced
✔️ 50–100x ROI

Most practices will ignore this and stay invisible.

The top 1% will keep winning.

Next week (Tuesday to be exact) I will be publishing my results from this 2,000 practice analysis.

Want early access? Comment or DM.

If you could implement one thing this week, what would it be?

#GoogleBusinessProfile #LocalSEO #DentalMarketing #DataDriven #Practiwrite

I just analyzed the advertising spend of 150 dental practices.

The average practice is spending $3,200/month on Google Ads.

Wanna know what they're getting for that investment?

11 new patient calls per month. That's $291 per call.

And here's the brutal part (as if that wasn't brutal enough): Only 40% of those calls convert to appointments.

So you're actually paying $727 per new patient.

Meanwhile, I have clients spending $1,800/month on Local Service Ads getting 28 qualified leads.

That's $64 per lead. And 65% convert to appointments.

Cost per new patient? $99.

👉🏽 Same budget. 
👉🏽 Different strategy. 
👉🏽 7x better results.

This week, I'm breaking down why Google Ads are killing dental practice profitability and why Local Service Ads are the biggest opportunity you're ignoring.

Here's what you need to understand:

Google Ads charge you per CLICK. Doesn't matter if they call. Doesn't matter if they're qualified. Doesn't matter if they convert.

You pay $15-40 every time someone clicks your ad.

Tire-kickers? You pay. 

Competitors checking your pricing? You pay. 

People who click by accident? You pay.

Local Service Ads charge you per LEAD. Only when someone actually contacts you. Only when they're genuinely interested.

No call = No charge.

This is the math that should trigger you 👇🏼

$3,200/month Google Ads budget:

🔷 Average CPC: $28
🔷 Clicks per month: 114
🔷 Calls from clicks: 11 (9.6% conversion)
🔷 Cost per call: $291
🔷 New patients (40% convert): 4-5
🔷 Cost per patient: $640-800

$1,800/month LSA budget:

🔷 Pay per lead, not click
🔷 Leads per month: 28
🔷 Cost per lead: $64
🔷 New patients (65% convert): 18-19
🔷 Cost per patient: $95-100

You're paying 6-8x more per patient with Google Ads.

This week, I'm showing you 

👉🏽 Why Google Ads are a cash furnace for dental practices
👉🏽 The LSA advantage nobody's talking about
👉🏽 How to screen leads and stop paying for junk
👉🏽 Real client results (the numbers will shock you)
👉🏽 Your LSA setup roadmap

If you're spending $2,000+ per month on Google Ads and wondering why your ROI is garbage, this series will change everything.

Tomorrow: The "Google Guaranteed" badge (and why it's worth $50,000+ per year in trust and conversions).

How much are you currently spending on Google Ads per month, and do you actually know your cost per new patient?

#LocalServiceAds #GoogleAds #DentalMarketing #ROI #Practiwrite

Let me show you real numbers from real practices.

These are not hypotheticals.

🔷 Case study #1: Solo practitioner, Cleveland suburban market

Before (Google Ads only):

Spend: $2,800/month
New patients: 3
Cost per patient: $933
Avg patient LTV: $3,200
ROI: 3.4:1

After (LSAs only):

Spend: $1,600/month
New patients: 14
Cost per patient: $114
Avg patient LTV: $12,800
ROI: 112:1

Results:

43% less spend
4.5x more patients
8x lower cost per patient

🔷 Case study #2: Multi-doctor practice, major metro

Before (Google Ads + underused LSAs):

Total spend: $5,000/month
Total new patients: 9
Cost per patient: $555

After (LSAs only, high-value services):

Spend: $3,200/month
New patients: 26
Cost per patient: $123
Services: implants, veneers, Invisalign

Results:

36% lower spend
189% more patients
78% lower cost per patient
Avg case value jumped from $2,100 to $6,800

🔷 Case study #3: Fee-for-service practice, competitive market

Before (Google Ads):

Spend: $3,600/month
New patients: 5
Cost per patient: $720

After (LSAs + Google Guaranteed):

Spend: $2,400/month
New patients: 19
Cost per patient: $126

Results:

33% less spend
Nearly 4x more patients
Far less price resistance

The pattern I've seen across every practice?

Switching from Google Ads to LSAs produced:

✔️ 60–85% lower cost per patient
✔️ Higher conversion rates
✔️ Better lead quality
✔️ Higher average case values
✔️ 10–40x ROI improvement

Why is the gap so large?

Pay per lead vs pay per click.

Clicks don't equal conversations. LSAs deliver actual contacts.

Google Guaranteed trust verification increases confidence and conversion.

🔷 Lead screening

Unqualified LSA leads can be disputed and not paid for.

🔷 Visibility

LSAs sit at the very top of the page, above ads and maps.

🔷 Service targeting

LSAs allow focus on high-value procedures only.

Cost comparison to reach 20 patients?

Google Ads:

❌ $12,500 spend
❌ $625 per patient

LSAs:

✔️ $2,250 spend
✔️ $112 per patient

Over 5x more efficient.

Time investment?

Google Ads:

Ongoing optimization
10–15 hours per month

LSAs:

Respond to leads
Mark invalid leads
Adjust weekly budget
2–3 hours per month

The truth?

Google Ads can work for dental practices with large budgets, advanced management, and high volume capacity (i.e., corporate chains, multi-location practices).

LSAs work better for most practices because they are simpler, cheaper, and produce stronger ROI faster.

Tomorrow: A complete LSA setup roadmap you can launch in 7 days.

If your practice cut cost per patient by 60–85%, what would that change for your growth?

#LocalServiceAds #GoogleAds #DentalMarketing #ROI #CaseStudy #Practiwrite

Dentists, let me show you what happens when you stop funding agency theater and start optimizing the assets patients actually see.

The Practice: Multi-doctor fee-for-service practice. Suburban market. 11 years in business.

March 2025. The Problem: 

❌ Marketing spend: $4,200/month 
❌ New patients: 9-12/month 
❌ Cost per patient: $350-467 
❌ New patient production: $28,000-34,000/month 
❌ GBP posting: every 4-6 weeks 
❌ Last photo upload: 7 months prior 
❌ Review response rate: 22% 
❌ Average response time: 11 days

Owner's words: "We're spending money. Getting some patients. But it feels like we're leaving money on the table and I can't figure out where."

What I Changed (60 days):

🔷 Week 1-2: Uploaded 47 new photos, completed service menu with all 34 offerings, rewrote description, verified all contact info

🔷 Week 3-4: Established 3x weekly posting (Mon/Wed/Fri), seeded Q&A with 18 pre-answered questions

🔷 Week 5-8: Implemented automated review requests (48 hours post-appointment), 24-hour response SLA for all reviews

🔷 Week 9-12: A/B tested post formats, adjusted based on engagement data

The Results (60 days post-implementation):

👉🏽 Profile performance: 

Monthly views: 253 → 1,644 (+549%) 
Click-to-call: 48 → 412 (+758%) 
Direction requests: 31 → 267 (+761%) 
Website clicks: 62 → 389 (+527%)

👉🏽 New patient metrics: 

New patients/month: 11 → 41 (+273%) 
Cost per patient: $382 → $103 (-73%) 
Marketing spend: $4,200 → $2,800/month (-33%) 
Monthly new patient production: $31,000 → $97,000 (+213%)

👉🏽 Additional outcomes: 

Reviews: 67 → 134 in 90 days 
Star rating: 4.3 → 4.7 
Phone answer rate: 28% → 71% 

👉🏽 Front desk feedback: "Calls sound more qualified; they already know our services."

Owner's words at 90 days: "We cut our social media budget completely. Redirected half to GBP management and call handling. Pocketed the other half. 
We're booking more patients than we've ever booked. I'm adding a fourth operatory."

👉🏽 Annual impact: 

Previous: 120 new patients $360,000 production 
Current: 492 new patients, $1,164,000 production 
Net increase: $804,000 in new patient production 
Marketing spend reduction: $16,800 annually 
Total swing: $820,800

From neglected profile to primary acquisition engine in 60 days.

Same market. 

Same competition. 

Same services. 

Different execution.

So here's what I'm wondering: If one practice can add $804K in annual production by optimizing their GBP instead of paying for social media management, what's your current agency actually delivering for their $42K annual retainer?

#FeeForServiceDentistry #GoogleBusinessProfile #PatientAcquisition #Practiwrite

Here's what my research revealed about GBP dental practice reviews:

Average number of Google reviews: 42

What you actually need to compete: 100+

Only 9% of the 2,000 practices I analyzed had 100+ reviews.

But here's what killed me:

91% of practices aren't responding to reviews! 🤯

They have 30, 40, 50 reviews. They've responded to maybe 5-8 of them. 

The rest? Ignored.

Google tracks this. It's called "response rate."

And it's a direct ranking factor.

Practices with 90%+ response rates rank 2-3 positions higher than practices with low response rates.

That's 15-20 more calls per month. That's $864k - $1.15M per year in patient lifetime value.

All because you didn't take 3 minutes to respond to a review.

But it gets worse: Generic responses

Of the 9% of practices that DO respond, most use copy-paste responses:

"Thanks for the review!" "We appreciate your feedback!"

Yawn.

That's it. No personalization. No keywords. No value.

What great review responses look like:

❌ Bad: "Thanks for the review!"
✔️ Good: "Thank you for trusting us with your dental implant procedure, Jennifer! We're thrilled you're happy with the results. If you need anything, we're always here."

See the difference?

👉🏽 Uses the patient's name
👉🏽 Mentions specific service (keywords!)
👉🏽 Builds relationship

🔷 What about negative reviews?

62% of practices with negative reviews never responded to them.

They just... ignored them.

And now every potential patient sees that 2-star review with no response and thinks: "They don't care." Or, "It must be true."

How to respond to negative reviews?

👉🏽 Acknowledge the issue
👉🏽 Apologize (even if you don't think it's your fault)
👉🏽 Offer to resolve offline
👉🏽 Keep it professional

Example: "We're sorry to hear about your experience, John. This isn't the level of care we strive for. Please call our office manager at [number] so we can make this right."

🔷 What about review generation?

Most practices ask for reviews randomly. 

After cleanings. 

When they remember to.

The top 1% have SOPs in place like

👉🏽 Automated email 5 days after appointment
👉🏽 Focus on high-value procedures (implants, cosmetics)
👉🏽 Direct link to Google review page

Target: 10-15 new reviews per month

My findings?

Practices with 100+ reviews AND 90%+ response rates rank in the top 3 maps pack positions 78% of the time.

Practices with under 50 reviews and low response rates rank outside the top 10.

The math is brutal.

Tomorrow: Why 78% of dental practices are invisible on mobile (and losing 40% of potential patients because of it).

What's your current Google review response rate? Be honest?

#GoogleReviews #LocalSEO #ReputationManagement #Practiwrite

Out of 2,000 dental GBPs analyzed, here's what I found about photos:

Average number of photos: 12

What the top 1% have: 50+

But quantity isn't the only problem. It's what KIND of photos practices are using.

🔷 Mistake #1: Stock photos (68% of practices)

Your GBP has 8 photos. Six of them are generic stock images of

❌ A dentist in a mask (not YOUR dentist)
❌ A smiling patient (not YOUR patient)
❌ A dental chair (could literally be anywhere)

Patients can spot stock photos instantly. And they don't trust practices that use them.

The top 1%? Zero stock photos. Every image is real, from their actual practice.

🔷 Mistake #2: Exterior-only photos (54% of practices)

Your GBP shows the outside of your building. That's it.

Patients can't see

👉🏽 Your waiting room
👉🏽 Your treatment rooms
👉🏽 Your equipment
👉🏽 Your team

They have no idea what to expect. So they click on a competitor who shows everything.

The top 1% have comprehensive photo galleries with

✔️ 8-10 exterior shots (building, parking, entrance)
✔️ 15-20 interior shots (every room)
✔️ 10-15 team photos
✔️ 10+ before/after shots (with consent)

🔷 Mistake #3: No team photos (76% of practices)

Patients want to see faces before they call.

❓What does the dentist look like?
❓Who's at the front desk?
❓Who's the hygienist?

Practices with team photos get 35% more profile views than practices without them.

The top 1%? Every team member has a professional headshot. Plus candid "day in the life" photos.

🔷 Mistake #4: No before/after photos (82% of practices doing cosmetic work)

If you do veneers, implants, or Invisalign and you're NOT showing before/after photos on your GBP, you're leaving money on the table.

These photos sell your services before patients ever call.

The top 1% have dedicated before/after galleries:

✔️ 10-15 cases minimum
✔️ Professional photography
✔️ Multiple angles
✔️ Clear transformations

🔷 Mistake #5: Outdated photos (71% of practices)

Your photos are from 2015. The furniture is different now. Half your staff has changed. But those old photos are still live on your GBP.

Patients show up and think: "This doesn't look like the photos..."

Trust broken. Conversion killed.

The top 1% update photos monthly.

New team members? Add their photos immediately.

Office renovation? Update all interior shots.

New equipment? Show it off.

Seasonal changes? Rotate photos.
GBPs with 50+ high-quality photos see 

👉🏽 89% more views
👉🏽 56% higher website clicks
👉🏽 And 43% more calls. 

Profiles with under 15 stock photos get buried. 

Quality matters. 

Blurry photos hurt. Professional images convert. 

Top practices invest $500–$1,000 once for 50–60 categorized photos and see 100x+ ROI within a year.

Tomorrow: The engagement metrics the top 1% track (and why 94% of practices have no idea these even exist).

How many photos does your GBP have right now & when's the last time you added new ones?

#VisualContent #GoogleBusinessProfile #DentalMarketing #Practiwrite

94% of dental practices do not know these metrics exist.

Google tracks them and uses them to rank your GBP.

They are engagement metrics, including

👉🏽 Profile views
👉🏽 Search queries
👉🏽 Click through rates
👉🏽 Direction requests
👉🏽 Calls
👉🏽 Website and booking clicks
👉🏽 Photo views

The top 1% review this data weekly and optimize around it. The other 94% never open GBP Insights.

Here is what separates them.

🔷 1. Search queries

GBP shows the exact searches triggering your profile.

Top practices spot high volume terms they are not converting on and build services, posts, and Q&A around them. Rankings and calls follow.

🔷 2. Discovery vs direct searches

Discovery means new patients find you. Direct means people already know you.

Top performers aim for 60 to 70% discovery.

If direct searches dominate, growth is capped.

🔷 3. Photo views vs competitors

Google shows how often your photos are viewed compared to competitors.

If others are winning, you have a visual problem. Top practices respond by adding better photos immediately.

🔷 4. Direction requests

This signals real intent. Drops here mean your profile stopped motivating action.

Top practices track this month over month.

🔷 5. Website clicks vs calls

High clicks with low calls point to a weak website. High calls mean your GBP is doing its job.

Top practices optimize based on the ratio.

🔷 6. Peak activity times

Google tells you when people engage most.

Top practices post, staff phones, and run promos during peak hours.

The weekly routine of the top 1%?

✔️ Review insights
✔️ Check search queries
✔️ Compare photo views
✔️ Track calls and directions
✔️ Add photos, posts, Q&A, and respond to reviews

The result?

Consistent growth in visibility, calls, and new patients.

Everyone else stays flat.

Tomorrow: State by state GBP performance and the patterns no one is talking about.

Do you even know where to find your GBP insights?

#GBPMetrics #LocalSEO #DataDriven #Practiwrite

Here’s the dirty secret about Google Ads.

You pay for every click. Always.

The person searching “free dental work near me”? You pay.

A competitor checking your pricing? You pay.

Someone who clicked by accident? You pay.

Clicks cost money whether the person is qualified or not.

Local Service Ads work differently.

With LSAs, you only pay when someone actually contacts you. Even better, you get to decide whether that lead counts before you’re charged.

That single difference changes everything.

A patient sees your Local Service Ad. They call or message you directly. Google sends you the lead.

You contact the patient.

You mark the lead as valid or invalid. You're only charged for valid leads.

What counts as an invalid lead?

Wrong service requested
Outside your service area
Spam or solicitation
Duplicate lead
Not a potential customer

Mark it correctly and Google doesn't charge you.

Real example:

A practice receives this message: “Do you offer free dental work for low-income families?”

They are fee-for-service only.

They call back, politely explain they are not a fit, then mark the lead as “invalid – wrong service requested.”

Cost to the practice: $0.

If that same person clicked a Google Ad, the practice would have paid $30+ with no refund and no appeal.

Well-managed LSA campaigns average 8 to 12 percent invalid leads.

Poorly managed campaigns see 25 to 35 percent invalid leads because no one screens or marks them correctly.

Client case study:

A practice paid for every LSA lead without screening.

Invalid lead rate: 31 percent.

I implemented the screening protocol.

Month one:

28 total leads
9 marked invalid
19 charged leads

Monthly cost dropped from $1,890 to $1,216.

Savings: $674 in one month. Annual savings: $8,088.

Bonus benefit?

The LSA algorithm rewards:

Fast response times
High booking rates
Positive LSA reviews

Better screening improves your metrics, improves rankings, and lowers your cost per lead.

The real comparison?

Google Ads offer zero screening.

Click happens. You pay. End of story.

Local Service Ads give you control.

Bad lead? No charge.

Great lead? Worth every dollar.

That control is why LSA's cost per patient is often 6 to 8 times lower than Google Ads.

Tomorrow: LSA budget strategy by practice size and why most offices overspend or underspend.

Have you ever paid for a Google Ads click that had no chance of becoming a patient? How much has that added up to?

#LocalServiceAds #LeadQuality #DentalMarketing #ROI #Practiwrite

Most dental practices get LSA budgets wrong.

They either set it too low and disappear behind competitors, or set it too high and pay for leads they can't handle.

LSA budgets should be based on reality, not guesswork.

So how do you budget LSAs the right way?

Your LSA budget should be driven by:

✔️ Local competition
✔️ Practice capacity
✔️ Patient lifetime value
✔️ Target ROI

Not a number pulled from a Facebook group.

🔷Tier 1: Solo dentist or small practice (1–2 dentists)

Goal: 8–12 new patients per month
Budget: $800–$1,200

Typical math:

✔️ Lead cost: $60–$80
✔️ 12–18 leads per month
✔️ 60–70% conversion
✔️ 8–12 new patients

Enough volume to grow without overwhelming your schedule.

🔷 Tier 2: Mid-size practice (3–5 dentists)

Goal: 20–30 new patients per month
Budget: $1,800–$2,500

Why this works:

✔️ More chair capacity
✔️ 30–40 leads per month
✔️ 65–75% conversion
✔️ 20–30 new patients

You can absorb volume without bottlenecks.

🔷 Tier 3: Large or multi-location practice (6+ dentists)

Goal: 40+ new patients per month
Budget: $3,500–$5,000

At this level:

✔️ 55–75 leads per month
✔️ 70–80% conversion
✔️ 40–60 new patients

LSAs become a primary growth channel.

🔷 Competition changes everything

In smaller markets:

5–10 competitors
$45–$65 per lead
$1,000 = 15–20 leads

In major metros:

30+ competitors
$80–$120 per lead
$1,000 = 8–12 leads

Same budget. Very different outcomes.

Your ROI cutoff

Stop increasing spend when ROI drops below 3:1. The target is 5:1 or higher.

Example:

✔️ Spend: $2,000
✔️ New patients: 22
✔️ First visit value: $450


First-year ROI: ~5:1

Lifetime ROI is dramatically higher.

🔷 Weekly budget control

LSAs run weekly. Top practices adjust weekly based on:

👉🏽 Schedule availability
👉🏽 Seasonality
👉🏽 Competitive pressure

Slow week? Increase spend.

Fully booked? Pull it back.

Holiday week? Pause.

Biggest mistakes I see?

❌ Copying competitor budgets
❌ Setting and forgetting spend
❌ Treating LSAs like Google Ads

LSAs have an optimal spend range. Spending past it often just raises cost per lead.

Where do you start?

New to LSAs? Start at $1,000/month for 60 days.

Track:

✔️ Lead volume
✔️ Conversion rate
✔️ Cost per patient

Then adjust based on capacity and ROI.

Tomorrow: Which services actually belong on LSAs, and why “general dentistry” quietly wastes money.

Do you know your true ROI by channel right now?

#DentalMarketing #LocalServiceAds #LSA #ROI #Practiwrite

Here’s a mistake I see all the time.

Dental practices run LSAs for “general dentistry” or “teeth cleaning.”

Then they wonder why leads cost $95 and only a third convert.

Low-value services on LSAs drain budgets. Here’s what to advertise, and what to cut.

Services to avoid on LSAs:

❌ Teeth cleaning
❌ General dentistry
❌ Routine checkups
❌ New patient exams

Why these fail?

👉🏽 Highly price-sensitive searches
👉🏽 PPO-driven patients
👉🏽 Low lifetime value ($800–$1,500)
👉🏽 Extreme competition

You end up paying $60–$90 per lead for patients worth about $1,200 over several years. The math never works.

Services that perform on LSAs

✔️ Dental implants
✔️ Cosmetic dentistry
✔️ Invisalign / orthodontics
✔️ Emergency dentistry
✔️ Wisdom teeth removal
✔️ Root canals
✔️ Veneers
✔️ Full mouth reconstruction

Why do these win?

🎯 High intent searches
🎯 Patients ready to invest
🎯 Strong fee-for-service fit
🎯 High lifetime value ($18K–$35K)
🎯 Lower competition

Paying $80–$120 per lead for a $25,000+ patient makes sense.

Real comparison:

Practice A: “Teeth Cleaning”

👉🏽 Budget: $1,500
👉🏽 Leads: 18
👉🏽 Conversion: 38% (7 patients)
👉🏽 Avg LTV: $1,100
👉🏽 Total LTV: $7,700
👉🏽 ROI: 5.1:1

Practice B: “Dental Implants”

👉🏽 Budget: $1,500
👉🏽 Leads: 14
👉🏽 Conversion: 64% (9 patients)
👉🏽 Avg LTV: $22,000
👉🏽 Total LTV: $198,000
👉🏽 ROI: 132:1

Same spend. Completely different outcome.

Intent explains everything.

“Teeth cleaning near me” signals maintenance and price shopping.
“Dental implants near me” signals urgency and commitment.

Urgency drives conversion and case value.

Competition reality:

Everyone advertises cleanings, including:

30+ local practices
Corporate chains
Loss-leader offers

Implants are different. Often, only 8–12 practices compete, and patients care far more about expertise than price.

The right service mix? Don't advertise everything.

Recommended focus:

70% budget: implants, cosmetic dentistry, Invisalign
30% budget: emergency, root canals, wisdom teeth

Never:

❌ General dentistry
❌ Cleanings
❌ Routine exams

Be selective inside your LSA dashboard.

Your lead will quality shift. One client switch:

Before:

👎🏾 22 leads
👎🏾 42% conversion
👎🏾 $1,850 avg value

After:

👍🏾 16 leads
👍🏾 68% conversion
👍🏾 $8,400 avg value

Fewer leads. Better patients. More revenue.

The one exception: emergency dentistry

Emergency searches convert at 70–80%. Often cash pay.

Frequently leads to higher value treatment.

If your practice can handle emergencies, advertise it.

Tomorrow: Real client numbers from switching Google Ads to LSAs.

What services are you advertising right now, and do you know which ones actually produce profitable patients?

#LocalServiceAds #DentalMarketing #ROI #ServiceStrategy #Practiwrite

Alright dentists, you’re sold on LSAs.

Now here’s how to launch them in 7 days.

🔷 Day 1: Eligibility + account setup

You qualify if you have:

✔️ Active dental license
✔️ Business insurance
✔️ Good standing with the state board
✔️ Verified Google Business Profile
✔️ 4.0+ Google rating

Set up your LSA account at https://lnkd.in/gwjhCmUe. Enter business info, service area, and contact details.

Time: 30–45 minutes.

🔷 Day 2: Background check

Google requires owner verification. Upload:

✔️ Government ID
✔️ Professional license
✔️ Insurance certificates

Google verifies license status and insurance. Timeline: 3–5 business days.

🔷 Day 3: Service selection

Choose high-value services only:

✔️ Dental implants
✔️ Cosmetic dentistry
✔️ Invisalign
✔️ Emergency dentistry
✔️ Veneers

Avoid:

✔️ General dentistry
✔️ Cleanings
✔️ Routine exams

Write a strong business description focused on experience, specialization, and outcomes.

Time: 1–2 hours.

🔷 Day 4: Budget + service area

Weekly budget starting points:

✔️ Solo or small practice: $200–300
✔️ Mid-size practice: $450–625
✔️ Large practice: $875–1,250

Define a tight service area. Focus on profitable zip codes and realistic drive times.

Confirm business hours match your GBP.

Time: 30 minutes.

🔷 Day 5: Profile optimization

Upload 15–20 photos:

✔️ Providers
✔️ Office and treatment rooms
✔️ Team
✔️ Before and after cases

Add FAQs:

✔️ Insurance
✔️ Payment options
✔️ Financing
✔️Emergency visits

Time: 1–2 hours.

🔷 Day 6: Launch + response setup

Activate LSAs once verification clears. Enable:

✔️ Email alerts
✔️ Text alerts
✔️ Mobile app access

Prepare scripts for fast responses.

Goal: reply within 15 minutes.

🔷 Day 7: Monitor + refine

Review early leads:

✔️ Lead quality
✔️ Response speed
✔️ Conversion

Mark invalid leads correctly:

✔️ Wrong service
✔️ Outside service area
✔️ Spam or duplicates

Track metrics:

✔️ Leads
✔️ Cost per lead
✔️ Cost per patient
✔️ ROI

Ongoing management (2–3 hours/month)

Weekly:

✔️ Review lead quality
✔️ Adjust budget if needed

Monthly:

✔️ Calculate ROI
✔️ Optimize services
✔️ Review and respond to LSA reviews

Common launch mistakes

✔️ Budget too low
✔️ Advertising general dentistry
✔️ Slow response times
✔️ Not disputing bad leads
✔️ Weak descriptions
✔️ No photos

🔷 30-day benchmark

With a $1,000–$1,500 budget:

✔️ 12–20 leads
✔️ 60–70% conversion
✔️ $65–95 cost per lead
✔️ $95–140 cost per patient

If results fall short, audit response time, services, and screening.

Final thoughts:

LSAs are not magic. They're just a better system.

Top placement. Built-in trust. Pay-per-lead economics. Consistently stronger ROI.

If you’re spending $2,000+ on Google Ads and struggling, LSAs should be your primary acquisition channel.

#LSA #lowerpayperlead #Practiwrite

Let me tell you about two dental practices in the same market.

Practice A: 

✔️ 2,400 Instagram followers 
✔️ Daily stories and reels 
✔️ Beautifully branded content 
✔️ $2,500/month social media management 
✔️ Engagement rate: 4.2% 
✔️ New patients from social last year: 7

Practice B: 

✔️ 180 Instagram followers 
✔️ Posts maybe monthly 
✔️ Zero social media budget 
✔️ Optimized Google Business Profile 
✔️ Posts 3x/week to GBP 
✔️ New patients from GBP last year: 387

Practice A spent $30,000 on social media to generate 7 patients ($4,285 per patient).

Practice B spent $0 on social and generated 387 patients from their free GBP ($0 per patient from that channel).

But here's what nobody talks about:

Practice A's agency celebrates their "47% increase in engagement" and "record follower growth."

Practice B tracks which marketing channels actually book chairs.

One is measuring activity. One is measuring revenue.

I'm not anti-social-media. Social has its place for brand reinforcement and community building.

But for patient acquisition? For healthcare decisions?

Patients don't make $2,400 healthcare decisions while scrolling Instagram at 11 PM.

They make them on Google at 7 AM when their tooth hurts and they need someone who's open, available, and looks legitimate.

Your social media might get you awareness. 

Your GBP gets you appointments.

In my GBP analysis of 2,000 dental practices, I learned that agencies push: 

👉🏽 Social media management: 89% feature it prominently 
👉🏽 Website redesigns: 76% 
👉🏽 Blog content: 71%

What actually drives new patients? 

Google Business Profile optimization: 34% mention it 
Local Service Ads: 28% 
Call tracking: 19%

See the disconnect?

They're selling you what's profitable for them (high margin, long retainers, unmeasurable results).

Not what's profitable for you (measurable ROI, direct attribution to booked patients, results in weeks, not quarters).

Here's the test: Open your marketing agency's last monthly report.

Can you draw a direct line from their work to actual booked patients? Or are they reporting impressions, reach, engagement, and other metrics that don't pay your rent?

If it's the latter, you're funding their subscription model, not building your patient base.

My question: If you can't directly tie your marketing spend to booked patients, how do you know it's working?

#FeeForServiceDentistry #GoogleBusinessProfile #PatientAcquisition #Practiwrite

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The Battle

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Likes

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