As an intern at McCarl Dental Group, a student would be able to select from a wide range of projects. Someone interested in technology would be able to assist with development of an email communication system using MacPractice Dental software and Google. A business or marketing major could help refine our tracking system and establish a plan for the overall marketing program with a budget proposal helping define resource allocation for marketing projects. The balance of traditional and cutting edge marketing concepts is fascinating and a student interested in social media marketing could have hands on experience in helping develop and evaluate these programs while comparing them to results from our traditional print ad campaign.
McCarl Dental Group is a third Generation Dental practice serving over 10,000 patients with offices in Greenbelt and Millersville Maryland. We have a wonderful history of quality dental care and the highest professional standards. Drs. Clayton and Jay McCarl are fellows in the Academy of General Dentistry and Dr. Clayton McCarl serves on the Dean’s faculty teaching ethics to dental students at the University of Maryland Dental School. Several members of the McCarl Dental
staff provide volunteer dental services at the Stanton Center Dental Clinic in Annapolis, Maryland.
IF INTERESTED, APPLY via UMBCworks under intern position - 9238457
If you do not have a resume approved to search for intern positions via the Shriver Center, visit http://shrivercenter.umbc.edu/student_howdoigetstarted.html
Here is a summary of a few of the ongoing projects at our dental office.
McCarl Dental Group Marketing Initiatives:
Traditional print ad campaign – We are working with Borcz:Dixon Advertising Agency
in Crofton, MD and have developed two new ads that are strikingly different than traditional dental ads. We are experiencing excellent results from our first ad which was first published in a local newspaper in December. The second ad was published last week and we are in the process of developing a third ad.
Our new website launched on December 8, 2009 - www.mccarldental.com. One of the unique features of our website is that we have fun photographs of actual patients. We are in the process of adding more photos and will hold quarterly or semi-annual photo sessions to keep the photos fresh. We are working with
Borcz:Dixon to evaluate the effectiveness of the website design monthly using Google Analytics to assess search engine optimization (SEO). We are establishing website conversion goals by analyzing page visits and number of visitors who complete contact forms. We are also tracking new patients who bring website coupons to the dental office. Our blog is used to update and add relevant content and is optimizing well. We are in the process of refining our blog writing to
maximize optimization.
To supplement SEO, we have embraced social media including a Facebook business page, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Social Bookmarking, forum posting and a blog. We are able to evaluate SEO instantly with geo targeted blog posts with regard to
Google searches related to specific locations and dental procedures we are trying to optimize. We have more than 300 fans on our facebook page and more patients are finding us daily. We have not tapped into the marketing opportunities through Facebook other than SEO. We would like to direct more patients to our business page and sponsor contests with prizes for our Facebook fans. We are also finessing our Google local business and Google Maps profile to assist with
optimization.
We use MacPractice dental practice management software and are upgrading our systems so that we can incorporate digital radiography and appointment reminders and confirmation. We are experiencing basic challenges managing our MacPractice database. Our Greenbelt office is so busy it is difficult for staff to have time to request email addresses from patients and enter them into the database. We are also having technical difficulties converting our MacPractice patient list from an .xls file to a .csv file so that we can import the contacts to a Gmail contact list. We also hope to implement quarterly patient email newsletters and are not sure whether we will use Google groups or a Gmail distribution list.