What Are Reverse Testimonials, and How to Get Them
In this blog post, Dental Marketing Guy Justin Morgan shows how online patient reviews (especially "reverse testimonials"), SEO, and ad revenue all work in lockstep and help your practice acquire more patients.
Online patient reviews are a vital part of your practice's dental marketing strategy. They are a credible, convenient way for an existing patient to recommend your practice.
They also keep your practice more visible online so that future patients ultimately find you. And when done just right, online patient reviews can increase your ad revenue.
Why a Fresh Stream of Online Patient Reviews Matters
Google has said that content is the lifeblood of its business. Content enables Google’s algorithms to determine the keywords that doctors are most relevant to, which requires a constant stream of fresh, keyword-rich content.
Few types of content fill that need as much as online patient reviews.
By keeping a steady flow of online patient reviews that include keywords, such as "dental implants" — along with the city of your practice — you can enable Google to crawl such patient-generated content.
This helps Google understand what these doctors are all about, which benefits your practice by making your reviews more visible to practice-searching patients and converting them into your practice's new patients.
Double the Benefits with Specialty Services Reviews
Online patient reviews help build the relevance and credibility of your unpaid, or organic, listings on Google, but that's not the sole benefit: online patient reviews about specialty services can actually reduce the ads/pay-per-click costs.
By providing certain specialty services, such as dental implants of Invisalign, doctors can gain reviews that are featured in the paid Google listings.
By encouraging the patients to create reviews for their specialty services, dentists can gain an edge. They're showcasing the social proof directly on the paid Google Ads.
The same can be done in the organic listings, as well!
Dentists can gain more reviews about specific services by sheer volume. However, long online patient reviews with lots of detail tend to garner the most SEO bang for the buck, especially one type in particular.
Reverse Testimonial: The Best (and Most Underused) Type of Online Patient Reviews
The most effective format of all the online patient reviews is a "reverse testimonial."
This type of testimonial starts with the problem the patient faced when selecting a doctor, and it is more of a patient journey or story.
The reverse testimonial talks about what the practice excels at, while also addressing a pain point that prospective patients may have on their minds. It then quickly walks readers through why the practice they chose can best solve this problem.
The Three Benefits of Reverse Testimonials
Reverse testimonials help practices in three ways.
1. Cultivates Credibility
First, by starting with the problem, it allows the prospective patient to find the reviewer relatable.
By starting with their apprehension about going to the doctor, the review is more real and empathetic. This gives the reviewer (as well as the doctor) more credibility and trustworthiness.
2. Boosts SEO Efforts
Second, unlike brief, traditional online patient reviews that only rave about a doctor, a reverse testimonial review goes into much more depth.
As such, they tend to include many more keywords in the content of the review. This helps the SEO rankings and enables a prospective patient to find the review by using different keywords.
3. Reflects Your "Black Swan"
Third, these patients give doctors the opportunity to find what I call the "black swan." The black swan is something that makes dentists truly unique or special.
You would never guess which things the patients mention until doctors ask them for a reverse testimonial. Seemingly innocuous things such as fresh coffee, complimentary parking, or just the way they’re greeted over the phone.
The reasons why a patient chooses one office over all the others a city are truly astounding.
How to Ask for Reverse Testimonials from Patients
Here are the six questions your practice can use to ask for a reverse testimonial:
- What was the obstacle that would have prevented the patient from choosing us?
- What did the patient discover as a result of choosing us?
- Would the patient recommend us to others doctors they know? If so, why?
- What specific feature did the patient like most about the experience here?
- What are three other benefits the patient found at our office?
- Is there anything that you as a patient would like to add?
The long-term SEO benefits and marketing insights doctors gain from reverse testimonials are worth the effort! Obtain a reverse testimonial at the height of a patient’s happiness with their services, and reap the rewards.
Justin Morgan is the founder of the Dental Marketing Guy. He helps practices attract more patients by providing SEO for dentists and dental professionals.
Learn more about how RevenueWell improves case acceptance and creates more close-knit relationships between dentists and their patients.
