Dental Business
The Power of Noticing and How to Use It to Simplify Your Dental Marketing
What she saw on a billboard during a cross-country trip resonated with her. And that word (resonate) is what will separate success from failure in your dental marketing.
Tara Gentile shared her billboard observation in a recent podcast I listened to. Specifically, it was a billboard promoting the interstate location of a Shell gas station that captured her attention.
The headline, she admitted, cut through all the marketing noise observed on countless other billboard promotions along the roadside. This one contained two words in addition to the company logo and the corresponding roadside exit number.
Ready…? Here goes…
“Clean restrooms”
That was it! It occurred to her that what’s on the mind of a road weary traveler isn’t the mass of messages screaming for attention from billboard after billboard.
What a weary traveler wants, desires, and needs is a clean place to stop when necessary. Simple as that.
The emotional, desire oriented pathway from your marketing message to a patient or client relationship is paved with more than good intentions. These days, your approaching message matters.
Approach precedes landing
Gentile also observed the billboard messages that were “lost” on her and probably other travelers. Direct messages from churches calling readers to “Repent,” other companies demanding that you buy, try, call, purchase, don’t live without, etc their particular product or service fail miserably on “approach.”
There must be a better way.
I encourage you to listen to Tara Gentile’s podcast interview here .
I’ll share a few front-of-mind take-aways in this post (and perhaps a few more in the weeks ahead).
The Power of Noticing that Simplifies Your Dental Marketing Approach
Watch
This isn’t about trends. It IS about the specific things your patients/clients are interested in.
Service providers are accustomed to marketing according to the hammer-nail analogy. When you’re a hammer you see everything as a nail.
Practically speaking, there’s more to your connection than serving up what you assume everyone is waiting around to need.
Need typically drives want or desire. And when you’re present in the gap when need arises you’ll make a profitable connection a higher percentage of the time.
For example, online dental marketing often relies solely on positioning via keywords – the SEO Superstars! Your challenge via online dental marketing is to show up in a simple, useful, value-driven way that reveals you’ve noticed their current need(s).
- Tune into how your patients/clients see themselves. Words and comments leave clues.
- Turn their words into images. Build “stories” (word pictures) around their needs, wants, and desires illustrated through their comments in post-op consultations, post-treatment follow-up, buyer-personas, post-purchase reviews, etc.
Observe
This is a higher altitude level of “watching.” Your powers of observation provide a sharper understanding about what your patients/clients desire when you make strategic observations.
Observation gets you closer to intuition. When marketing lacks intuition it becomes “noise.”
Listen
This is where conversations occur. Listening puts you in the proximity of hearing what’s being said.
Your ability to listen and act on what you hear will separate you from the mass of other marketers who rely solely on shock-and-awe (the creative fluff or in-your-face approaches that’s typical of so much marketing these days).
To listen you must quiet yourself. It’s next to impossible to listen when you’re talking.
- Listen intuitively. Avoid making assumptions about what your patients or clients need. Get to know them through intentional surveys, deciphering their chair side questions, etc.
- Listen between-the-lines. What is not being said, but is still very real to your audience?
You lose nothing, really, by taking a more simple approach to your dental marketing message. Though you stand to gain more marketing-weary-travelers if you’ll deliver what resonates with them.
3 Dental Marketing Strategies That Increase Your Influence Without Wasting Your Budget on Cold-Contact Approaches
I recently received a cold-contact via my website. It prompted my thinking about prospecting, attaining new dental patients or clients, and what works and what doesn’t.
First, they get an “A” for effort. In fact, it confirms what should be common for anyone building a practice or business of any kind – some action is better than no action.
What about measured action?
By “measured action” I’m referring to the process of thinking strategically about your steps to patient/client attainment. Strategy matters.
But too much of a measured, strategic approach can equal no action. Over-thinking strangles progress and momentum.
Think. Strategize. Act!
It’s preferable to find a sweet-spot for your dental marketing strategy. What delivers consistent results?
That’s a tough question to answer. And it’s more difficult to answer if you’re not open to new (albiet relevant) approaches for making a dental patient/client connection.
There was a key thing missing from my earlier mentioned cold-contact’s effort. We had no current or ongoing conversation.
I do not know anything about them…their business…their track-record…their reputation…their circle of influence (this is huge to me). It begs another question: how would any of these issues have been solved?
Glad you asked.
Marketing (dental included) rises and falls on consistent, authentic “conversation.”
How to Create Effective Conversations and Build Your Influence Without Wasting Your Marketing Strategy (and Dollars) on Cold-Contact Methods
1-Stop trying to make a creative splash
Author and consultant, Jim Collins, is known for his challenge to give more attention to your “stop-doing list” than to your “to-do” list. I agree.
Item one on your “stop” list is this – quit trying so hard. The default action when marketing or re-branding your services is to think creativity, color, and colossal.
There’s more to having influence than new, bright, and bold initiatives.
- Adopt a problem-solution mindset. Dive into your patient’s and client’s “pain-points.” Grasp what keeps them awake-at-night, the big-3 problems they’re currently facing, what they don’t know or understand about the benefits of your services, etc. Now…put pen to paper about how you can solve those problems!
- Adapt your content to provide answers to questions and solutions to problems. If all you deliver is promotions, deals, and sales your audience will grow numb to you. Again, create useful, valuable content around the solutions you can provide for their problems. Be an advocate more than an advertiser.
- Attach a listening “device” to everything you do and every service you provide. Simple surveys, “How’d we do…?-questions, or focus-groups of select patients/clients are simple sources of data you can use to expand your valuable influence.
2-De-trendify engagement
Good words and ideas get lost when they become trendy. This applies to the term “engagement.”
I’ve avoided using the term because it has become sooo trendy. But there’s too much to lose if you toss it aside.
The gold essence of engagement is making a connection.
Does your dental marketing suffer from too much effort and not enough engagement?
- Talk to your audience instead of promoting to them. Measure the ratio of useful content (the kind that answers questions and solve problems) to promotional pushes. Give more than you ask for.
- Engage with your dental patients/clients around the solutions they seek rather than the latest deal-of-the-month promotion. Consumers are smart. They’re on to you and they can smell a promotion from a mile away. What if you gained influence over time via trusted, consistently delivered content on your blog/article web page, a newsletter, or emails with links to your content?
3-Be yourself
Your marketing language reveals much about your character as a business. If you rely on hype or salesy promotions you set yourself up as having to conquer a prospect.
Rather, be a normal, conversational, inviting presence.
- Use the everyday language of your patients/clients. Write conversationally. Speak to your audience as you would to a friend. Keep it one-to-one in tone.
- Avoid tech-speak, insider-terms, or worn-out marketing fluff (e.g. “state-of-the-art,” “cutting-edge,” and any word that ends in “-est” – best, greatest, latest…).
Sure, any patient/client development action is better than none. Give more measurable attention to building the relationship so that when you do show up it feels less…well…”cold.”
How to Narrow Your Dental Marketing Message to One, Perfectly Clear Idea
“Let me make one thing perfectly clear…” How often is that said and the outcome couldn’t be further from the truth.
Clear and compelling communication is essential in today’s “noisy” marketing arena. Your dental marketing will benefit from a principle nestled within that often repeated, opening phrase.
Truthfully, when someone says “Let me make one thing perfectly clear…,” settle in to be “fire-hosed” with information. Why?
It’s not easy (or common) to narrow your marketing message down to one clear idea.
A current dental practice client has also secured the services of a branding agency. I initially wondered about the value of such for dental practice.
But…after a phone consultation prior to beginning my copywriting and content work with them, I soon saw the value of their branding strategy.
If there’s any value in today’s love-affair with “branding” it’s this – clarity!
Branding is in essence about “…making one thing perfectly clear…” And there in lies a principle that can significantly impact the effectiveness of your dental marketing content.
How to Narrow Your Dental Marketing Strategy to One, Perfectly Clear Idea (and Build Your Influence Around It)
Search for common themes
The client I earlier mentioned has found a common theme and they’re flavoring everything with it. Bottom-line: Get clear about who you are, what you deliver, and why your patients or clients are compelled to do business with you…repeatedly.
Being all-things-to-all-people is noble. But in business it can diminish your message and create sameness.
- Listen to what your patients and clients are telling you. Channel-surf their social media comments on your Facebook page or other social channels you’re present on. Dial into their review and survey comments.
- List emerging themes like “comfortable…,” “gentle…,” “on-time…,” “trustworthy…,” “delivered what was promised…,” etc.
- Highlight those thematic words and create “buyer personas” to create your content around. What you mirror back to them via your blog posts, newsletter articles, email promotions, etc will often return to you in loyalty and referrals.
Weave emotional threads into your marketing promotions
You capture and maintain interest with emotion more than you do with what’s rational or technical. It’s why today’s social marketing language is referred to as “engagement.”
Create dental marketing promotions that tap into your audience’s emotions. It’s easy to pepper your content with technical jargon or industry speak because you think that creates professional appeal. What it does is create a communication gap.
On the other hand, emotion attracts people and compels a response.
People get that you’re a doctor or specialist. That’s a given.
Remember the Three Fundamental Rules of Selling:
1. People do not like to be sold.
2. People buy things for emotional, not rational reasons.
3. Once sold, people need to justify their emotional decisions with logic. (Source: AWAI, American Writers & Artists Inc.)
What your patients/clients want to know is do you have a solution for their problem. Monetary investment typically follows emotional investment.
Communicate transferable value
Solutions to problems provide two important things. One, it proves you’re listening. And two, it transfers value.
- Deliver value via every dental marketing channel you use. Transform your dental website into a platform for value-driven content. Do more than explain your dental services, create content that reveals Problem-Solution scenarios your reader, listener, viewer can relate to.
- Deploy value-centric surveys and data gathering strategies to determine what your audience wants from you and your services/products. This is the ultimate path to branding – listening, learning, and leveraging your discoveries for the benefit of your patients or clients.
If one thing is perfectly clear it’s that branding your dental marketing has more to do with your audience than it does your creative logo, framed mission statement, or “cute” tagline.
The Power of One Word That Increases the Emotional Response to Your Dental Marketing Content
I underestimated how much a simple, handwritten note could encourage someone my grandson’s age. It’s the same power that intentional, personal content has over generic, every-person content that’s common in marketing, including dental marketing.
The note to our six year-old grandson arrived in a hand addressed envelope. It was from one of his children’s ministry leaders at our local church.
The message was simple. It affirmed his consistent presence there weekly, acknowledged his growing leadership, and offered some encouragement to his ongoing spiritual growth.
When I read the note to him, his face immediately revealed the power of personal words. His response – “Read it again, Gpa…,” something he asked me to do not once, but two more times before tucking it back into the envelope with a smile.
“You” trumps “We” (and other generic, impersonal content).
Here’s what I know from experience. Had the note been a computer generated, typewritten “Hey, <FIRSTNAME>…” form letter I don’t believe it would have made the impact it did on our grandson.
Sure, there’s a time and place for template reply mail. But I must admit, in this highly engaged, data-driven world we live (and market) in, that brand of content is received with increasing feelings of, “Oh, another form-letter…” [tossed in trashcan alongside other junk mail].
Communicating with a specific person in a way that’s impersonal, collective (just one of the crowd) fails to make the necessary, emotional connection that compels a profitable response to your content.
When your website copy, marketing promotions, email marketing series’ – you name it – speaks to more than “One” person it misses it’s intended goal.
You are hard-wired to respond emotionally when communication is aimed directly at you…personally! If you even smell that the message is mass produced, I get it, you’re out and on to something else.
How many life-changing products and services are lost on generic blasts that feel as if it’s intended for anyone who happens to pick it up? That all changes when it feels like the words are for “your-eyes-and-ears-only.”
How to Use the Power of “You” to Increase the Emotional Response to Your Dental Marketing Content Online or Offline
Make it “personal.”
Picture yourself having a conversation with one person. When you write content, speak into a microphone on a podcast, or look into a camera for a YouTube, Periscope, or Blab broadcast imagine there’s one person in front of you.
Eye-to-eye toned conversation will reach out from your words and make an emotional connection. And that’s the kind of connection that compels your reader/listener/viewer to take action as result of your content.
- Read everything about your “audience” until a clear, individual persona comes into focus.
- Believe that what you are sharing via your content will change that one person’s life in some way.
- Think like that one person and talk to yourself as if you are them, hearing what you’re communicating. How does it sound? Would you do what you are asking them to do? Etc.
Talk don’t tell.
The power of “You” focused communication is it’s conversational voice or tone. Are you motivated as much by technical, overly-hyped verbiage as you are by clear, down-to-earth, let’s have a chat themed conversation? I think not.
- Write like you talk. Simply and clearly speak to your reader, listener, or viewer as if you are one-on-one…face-to-face over a cup of coffee.
- Speak “with” not “at” or “to” your reader. They can sense if you’re not personally interested in THEM the moment you act like you’re trying to impress or “sell.”
Get intimate.
Think of intimacy as being up-close-and-personal. I’m not saying be a “close-talker” (if you’re a Seinfeld fan you’ll remember that classic episode).
I’m referring to the shift from generic, crowd-centered, mass-marketed marketing hype to assuring your reader/listener/viewer that you’re into THEM. Their needs, wants, desires, emotional-drivers, pain-points, etc.
- Find your intimate voice. This starts with using the word “You” as much as possible throughout every piece of content you create.
- Be so “You” intentional that your reader/listener/viewer considers you their new “best-friend.” Intimacy doesn’t have to be weird or touchy-feely. It’s a connection.
- Put yourself in their “shoes.” This includes admitting your understanding of their needs, wants, and desires as you admit your “weakness” when appropriate. See their battles and stand in the fray with them.
That note my grandson received… It’s prominently posted on the wall of his bedroom.
The same emotional response applies to the person consuming your content. Keep it personal.
2 Strategic “Pushes” That Build Sustainable Momentum via Your Dental Website
I use an iPhone 6 Plus for a variety of reasons. And I bring this up not to debate iOS over Android.
My love for smartphone technology illustrates a dental marketing sub-strategy that can save you time, financial investment, and create a more sustainable return on investment (ROI).
I, like you perhaps, embrace smartphone technology (whatever your preferred “flavor” of device) for a simple reason. It’s more productive having one-touch access to the apps that enable me to sustain my life and my growing business.
How sustainable is your dental marketing?
Judging from the consulting and web copywriting I do, your website has ceased to be a thoroughly one-push, sustainable asset. Don’t get me wrong, you need a web platform if you have any hope of building your dental practice or dental industry service business.
There’s a deeper issue. And it has to do with (in principle) what I prefer about smartphone technlogy and my chosen apps.
Jim Collins further illustrates my point with a principle from his book, Good to Great.
“Picture a huge, heavy flywheel – a massive metal disk mounted horizontally on an axle, about 30 feet in diameter, 2 feet thick, and weighting about 5,000 pounds. Now imagine your task is to get the flywheel rotating on the axle as fast and long as possible.
Pushing with great effort, you get the flywheel to inch forward, moving almost imperceptibly at first. You keep pushing and, after two or three hours of persistent effort, you get the flywheel to complete one entire turn.
You keep pushing, and the flywheel begins to move a bit faster, and with continued great effort, you move it around a second rotation. You keep pushing in a consistent direction. Three turns…four…five…six…the flywheel builds up speed…
…Then, at some point – breakthrough! The momentum of the thing kicks in in your favor, hurling the flywheel forward, turn after turn…whoosh!…its own heavy weight working for you.” (p.164)
Your dental website is your initial “push.” It gets the wheels-turning, so to speak.
But…
It’s far from a be-all-to-end-all…“We’ve-got-a-website-whew-now-let’s-wait-for-the-phone-to-ring-with-new-patients…new business” brand of ROI! Far from it.
It’s a start. And a good one, especially if you’ve populated your webpages with compelling, benefit focused, call-to-action copy.
Remember Collins said that your “breakthrough” comes when “…The momentum of the thing kicks in in your favor, hurling the flywheel forward, turn after turn…whoosh!…its own heavy weight working for you.”
Two “Pushes” That Build Sustainable Momentum on Your Dental Website Platform
1-Accessible digital content
Accessibility is huge for me. Thus my iPhone “addiction.”
It’s beneficial (for me and perhaps you) to have access wherever I am to my preferred sources of information beyond the basic ability to make a phone call or send a text message.
Most of your patients and clients have the same affinity for easy-access too.
Few, if any, wait to arrive at their home or office to pull up your dental practice or dental business website on their laptop or desktop computing device. Like you, they “tap” their handheld device (smartphone or tablet) in the moment, wherever they are.
The big question – are you accessible? Of further importance will they clearly find a solution to why they’re searching in the first place?
- Reduce the word-fluff on your web pages. This engages your on-the-go types who want a cut-the-chase amount of information to help them decide to schedule with you or purchase from you.
- Go with a less-is-best mindset on your website. Let’s not debate page word count. Better to review your web pages from the viewpoint of a handheld smart device using, busy, waiting-in-line, immediate access oriented site searcher who wants the essence of what you can do for them rather than a CE course level explanation.
2-Anticipatory solutions for problems
Get in the mind and emotions of your patients or clients. When you do you’ll discover layer upon layer of questions, desires, goals, etc.
Questions are a gold-mine for content topics. Your blog posts, newsletter articles, email promotions and other marketing strategies are the perfect place to answer what’s being asked with the unique solutions you provide.
- Develop a strong, gut-level bias for the questions or problems that drive your “audience” to seek solutions.
- Tap into your online reviews and unpack what they’re praising or criticizing. Create content that answers their comments.
- Train your front-office team, chairside assistants, dental hygienists, or field reps to ask questions that uncover the solutions your patients or clients seek.
Your initial and ongoing “pushes” create momentum. Access and available solutions make you a valued resource to your dental patients and clients.
How to Discover New and Compelling Benefits to Promote Your Dental Services
Being unique for the sake of…well…being unique isn’t a strategy. But there is something about a deep-dive into what makes your services and products “unique” that CAN impact your dental marketing success.
Brian Clark shared a post on Copyblogger that I must credit for “seeding” my thoughts on this one.
“In the 1920’s, Schlitz beer went from fifth in the market to a tie for first. All because a sharp copywriter named Claude Hopkins highlighted their water purification process in an advertisement.
Never mind that all beer companies used the same process. No one had told that story before.” [Read more of Brian’s post]
I’m frequently asked by clients and colleagues, “How can you write fresh content about the same ole’ services over and over again.” Their question reveals what they perceive about the dental niche and what’s somewhat accurate (i.e. how much can you write about dental implants, crowns, etc.?).
That question, perception, and Clark’s content lead to a solution and a strategy that can energize your dental marketing content.
A story that’s not been told
Your services and products are in competition. It’s not so much a competitive process that involves whether one is better than another.
The competitive advantage of your products and services has more to do with the benefit-solution outcome. It’s common in most print and online (digital) marketing promotions to highlight the features of a particular product/service.
Why?
It’s easy to throw the terms “greatest,” “state-of-the-art,” “latest,” “cutting-edge,” etc on top of a few specific technical descriptions and garnish it with a smiling-face image or three…and viola!…send it off to your assistant to post on your website. Then wait for your phone to ring off the desk with inquiries, appointments, or purchases.
What’s missing is the “story that’s not been told.” In essence this is what’s known as your “unique selling proposition” (USP).
It’s as simple an addition to your marketing content as Hopkins highlighting Schlitz’s water purification process.
How to Deep-Dive Into Your Services and Products to Discover a New “Story” That Will Deliver Compelling Solutions
List and lead with benefits.
Always be thinking, “What problem does this solve…what solution does this provide…how is this (?) different than any other approach to solving X problem?”
- Dimensional-ize every benefit you list by going even further beneath the surface. For example, teeth whitening does more than brighten your teeth up to eight shades (benefit). Teeth whitening gives you the confidence to walk into your next class reunion like you’ve just been crowned homecoming king or queen (deeper, dimensional-ized benefit).
- Find the deeper levels of solutions and benefits that tap directly into the emotions of your patients, clients, or leads.
Appeal to logic with features.
This the proper use of all those features you’re so quick to talk about. Only use them after you’ve uncovered every benefit-solution you can think of that your product/service provides.
The “story” plot thickens when you get their pulse racing with benefits (”Teeth whitening…confidence…homecoming king or queen…!, etc.”). Then you help them rationalize their decision to schedule, purchase, etc with features (”The newest…no-after-taste…teeth whitening product on the market…available in our comfortable, whitening salon…at our new dental facility…”).
Content marketing works. It’s an effective strategy that promotes your dental services and products with a fresh, new “story” that’s unique…and compelling.
Your Simple Strategy for Becoming a Memorable Dental Industry Authority
I attended a memorial service for a family member of a long time neighbor. What I encountered has been my experience many times over about leaving a legacy.
It also brought to mind a principle that can turn your dental marketing content into something memorable rather than something forgettable.
A son of the deceased offered a touching moment during his eulogy. Now in his 50’s (I assume), he recalled a moment with his dad when he was five years old.
Age five! It’s not unusual that your best memories are those simple moments that revolve around a lesson learned or practical, loving words related.
And it’s equally true that your dental marketing content, promotions, emails, whatever strategy you choose are most memorable when they do one thing.
Answer a question
Content marketing – in any niche’ – is really that simple. It’s as uncomplicated as listening to your audience – their questions, their problems, the deeper issues they face and writing useful answers to them.
A bias for helping
Marketing can easily digress into an attempt to impress. You can be lured into the latest online trend or be tempted to talk…talk…talk about all the nuances and technical eye-candy associated with your products, services, and procedures.
That’s common. But…it’s as forgettable as a laugh inducing, Super Bowl commercial that’s creative and entertaining but fails to connect you with the product and leaves you asking, “Now what was it they were promoting?”
What connects gets remembered
This is why it’s vital that you know the intrinsic value of your dental content. I’m frequently asked a couple of questions about dental industry websites.
1-“Do we really need blog posts/articles on our website?” 2-“How frequently should we publish blog/article content?”
Those questions reveal a need AND a strategy. And I’ll take a strategic approach to answering them because in essence that’s what I seek to do here on my blog each week – answer common questions (expressed or implied) with useful answers.
Your Simple Strategy for Becoming a Memorable Dental Industry Authority Whatever Your Specialty Is
1-Intentionally invest your best marketing energy (and dollars) in publishing useful information.
The simple answer to question 1 – “Do we really need blog posts/articles on our website?” – is “YES!” If for no other reason, it reveals you’re listening.
And that’s the essence of content marketing. To listen is to have no other alternative but to be useful..helpful.
As a dental professional you do not have the practical opportunity to be face-to-face for as long as it would be necessary to answer your patient or client questions. Timing is an issue as well.
Your clients and patients often do not have questions during the hours you’re available in-office or on-site. But they will search for them via their mobile devices, smartphones, tablets, and other available technology that gives them online access.
My question for you: “Will you show up in their search results?” And if you do, will they find the memorable answer(s) they’re searching for? (I’ll cover this in greater detail in future posts. Stay tuned.)
- Set up “listening outposts” throughout your dental practice or dental service business. Your dental assistants, dental hygienists, front-desk business team, customer-service reps, field consultants, managers, etc are your “ears.” Ask them to keep a running list of the relevant questions they’re asked by patients or clients. Review your list regularly.
- Hire a copywriter/content strategist to create blog/article content around simple, non-technical answers to those questions. Why hire? Because you’ll delay what you do not have the time (or expertise) to do. Content marketing is as strategic an endeavor as it is simple. There’s an art to writing an SEO optimized, practical, informative, readable, and actionable post or article.
2-Apply a publishing frequency that’s driven by your desire to establish yourself as the go-to authority.
The answer to question 2 – “How frequently should we publish blog/article content?” – is not as much about saturation as it is about being compelled to deliver valuable information.
If you’re listening…really listening to your “audience” you will always have something of importance to share. Now it’s more a question of strategic opportunity.
- Publish/post your blog/article content at a minimum every other week and at a maximum every week. Consistency plus informative value is the-new-black. Gone are the days of content mills that write a paragraph or two packed with dental keywords on a topic that is written about for the sole purpose of baiting the search engines. It’s essential that you create and deliver content that has substance. And your substance comes from “listening” to your audience.
- Monitor your published content via online tracking tools and good-old-fashioned conversation. I’ll cover the practical side of online search tools in another post. For starters, lurk around in your web hosts built-in tracking systems. Ask your IT team or an up to date, tech-savvy colleague about the best apps or software that will give you a window on your content “love.”
Really, it’s all about the “love.” Love for your audience, for your expertise, and the memorable value you consistently deliver via your content.