Dental email promotions
Why Your Dental Content Will Be “Loved” (or Maybe Not)
“I could never love you, because you’ll never love anyone but yourself.”
Ouch! That line from the classic film, Groundhog Day reveals an essential principle that explains why people will read and take-action on your dental content (or not).
Bill Murray’s character, Phil, is attempting to woo (to put it mildly) Rita (Andie MacDowell). But his daily do-over is falling short as does his go-for-broke attempt at declaring his love.
The missing element of most dental content
Attraction is tough. Thus, why many of my client conversations involve a discussion about tried-and-sometimes-failed marketing strategies.
- Direct mail that reads like a warmed-over sales pitch
- Email content that sells and promotes more than it informs or engages
- Website copy that’s more appropriate for a CE course
- Facebook ads that highlight in-house features more than solution-oriented benefits
Desperation can lead to desperate attempts to land the “sale.” It’s equivalent to Phil’s failed attempt at love or proposing marriage on the first date.
You know better…right? Yet, you still invest in what appears to be tried-and-true marketing efforts only to find yourself alone at the end of the bar…or err…business day!
What you need is “seduction!”
Wait…what?
Seduction pure and simple!
To clarify, seduction isn’t about manipulation. As concerns your dental content it’s about…
Knowing who you’re writing to and communicating to their needs.
No manipulation necessary. Instead it’s more of what Brian Clark refers to as a “courtship.”
”I’ve described content marketing as a story you tell over time. If that story places the prospect at the center of the story and delivers the right information at the right time, you have a courtship.” 1
The words “over time” are at the core of how best to use content to market your dental services. Keep in mind that it’s a journey…a courtship (not declaring your “love” on the first date).
Keep them informed (reading) and they’re more likely to take the next step (accept your “proposal”)
Empower their search for solutions
The abundance of information is overwhelming. It’s also “noisy.”
You’ll rise above the “noise” and “clutter” when you become the solution to your dental patients/clients.
- Show them how your services or products benefit their circumstance
- Listen to their questions, comments, and yes…even their negative reviews (improve rather than try to disprove)
- Leverage what you hear/discover into next-step content (e.g. Patient: “I’m embarrassed by my yellow teeth…nervous about an upcoming event…” Your Content: “How Teeth Whitening Can Give You the Confidence to Own-the-Room…” you get the picture)
Write for scanners rather than scourers
Most who consume digital (online) content scan. That’s why it’s vital that you create easily scannable content.
- Compelling, benefit-oriented headlines and sub-heads throughout
- Benefit-rich bullet points that summarize
- Actionable wording instead of industry-speak “fluff”
Writing because you like to hear the sound of your own voice is like having a conversation with yourself.
Worse…no one’s listening (reading).
Remember, if the narrative isn’t about them there’s basically only one other it could be about…hmmm…
Our not-so-loved-Phil would tell you that’s a scenario that’s best not repeated!
- https://www.copyblogger.com/seductive-content/ ↩
How “Irritating” is Your Dental Content? And is That a Good Thing?
Years ago, I heard author/consultant, Jim Collins (Built to Last, Good to Great), speak. During his talk he said something I will always remember.
Your dental marketing influence on new patients or new clients rises and falls. It will achieve greater consistency when you create and use content according to what I remember Collins saying.
He made this statement about the sharing of ideas and principles – “I want what I share today to be like an irritating grain of sand stuck in the folds of your brain…”
Not to say that you want to “irritate” new or potential patients/clients into action. But the principle applies.
Content irritation?
The goal of your dental marketing content isn’t to irritate in the purest sense of that word. It’s more a matter of sustained front-of-mind presence.
Your potential patients/clients seek their information differently these days. It’s short of reflexive to reach for a smart phone or tablet device and “Google” the answer to their “burning” question.
What shows up in the search queue is vital to your ongoing ability to reach and compel them. More often than not a link to an article will pop-up in their search results.
Are you there?
I’m talking “there” in the sense of having a consistent presence via content that’s useful and relevant to their search. They’re looking for you, a dentist, or you as a dental industry professional and their “pain-point” is the motivation for seeking your services.
Or your new patient is sitting in your operatory following the exam, x-ray, and teeth cleaning as result of your latest promotion. Treatment is necessary.
A treatment plan is being presented. They have a decision to make.
Are they prepped and equipped with the information to make the decision?
Information flows
Your target audience makes decisions based on the compelling quality of the information presented to them. It would make sense that the more, compelling, informative, useful, and available information…the better, right?
Content creates a river effect. It flows towards expectant and otherwise seeking-to-be-informed people, not unlike yourself.
You’re reading this blog for much the same reason. A need or desire for the information prompted you to click a link and read it.
Or it was shared with you via a respected colleague, friend, or social media connection (always appreciated, by the way).
Welcome to the new era of content community.
How to Use Consistent Content to Inform and Compel New Patients or New Clients to Take Action on Your Services
Use the echo-effect.
Become a voice that “echoes” in the consciousness of your patients/clients. This happens when you show up consistently on their “radar” via compelling content.
You have limited hours of operation, marketing dollars to invest, and time to maximize your connections. Content works for you around-the-clock, so to speak.
Create “echo-points!”
- Create and send emails to your patient/client list. Link to relevant blog posts, articles, and/or social media channels. Limit how much you email promotions compared with the amount of “content-echo” you distribute to your list. A will timed email with a link to a relevant content channel could tip a new or current patient/client to take the next step.
- Use voice-mail (if you must rely on phone contact) more strategically. Craft the message (content) you leave with unavailable patients/clients to include a call to action. Avoid saying “call us back,” etc. Give them a reason to feel they’re missing out on something if they don’t return your call.
- Make audio/visual content available for after-hours “echoes.” Use short podcasts, YouTube videos, Periscope, Instagram, GIFs, SnapChat, etc.
Construct a go-to archive of valuable information.
Your online presence (via a website) should resemble a library more than a digital brochure. Archived content (blog posts, articles, videos, podcasts, etc.) set you up as an authority.
- Catalog your posts and articles by category. This improves eye-scan impact and ease of access.
- Use your content platform as reference point for patient/client questions – “What’s your email address? I’ll forward you a link to a blog post/article/podcast that will answer your question…” This gives you an opportunity to “echo.”
Release your collective influence.
This follows the previous tip. Your content becomes a second voice of influence beyond yours and that of your team.
Again, having content to share increases your authority and influence. Plus, not all of your team members (you included) are rock-stars at closing the “deal.” (treatment plans, etc.).
And content relieves all that “salesy-speak” that’s so easy to use when trying to close treatment or a sale.
Content gives you permission to keep promoting – even when you aren’t present…or as a reference point when you are.
Front-of-mind consistency is the strength of your dental content. It’s the type of “irritation” you shouldn’t mind having.
Why Consistent Content Creation is a Supremely Healthy Dental Marketing Strategy
My wife and I have done this annually for the past three years. There’s a multi-layered benefit to it and the same is true of the commitment you can choose for creating and publishing content to promote your dental services.
We begin each year in January with a 21 day “fast.” Before you picture us in a meditative pose becoming emaciated by the day as we deny ourselves basic nourishment – that’s not the deal.
Basically, a “fast” can apply to denying yourself anything from food to technology for a designated period of time. Ours fundamentally involves eliminating “junk food” (all that sugar loaded goodness we overindulge in) and eating a cleaner, high-protein and vegetable intense diet.
Our core motivation and benefit is spiritual – denying ourselves cleanses the soul and sharpens our faith. The sub-plot benefits, if you would, include a system-cleanse (body health) and establishing new, healthier habits (diet, self-control, mindset, etc.).
Core benefits
There’s a primary reason for promoting your dental services – to provide solutions or deliver relief from “pain” (physical or emotional). There are more, sure, but this is a core reminder of why you do what you do.
Now, what’s your core marketing strategy?
It’s common to default to direct mail, launching a website, upgrading your website with graphics and other “flash,” purchasing Facebook or Google ads. And there’s nothing essentially wrong with any of those.
But can we talk “denial” for a moment?
Any one of those denies what is becoming a fundamental reality about how your patients or clients are compelled to do “business” with you.
A direct mailer can add to your production schedule (if the timing is right for what you’re promoting). Your new or newly redesigned website can improve your online curb-appeal (if your website is visited). And your Facebook or Google ad dollars invested can increase your online click-throughs and again, increase your bottom-line profits (again, if the timing or appeal of your promotion is spot-on as they scroll).
The core issue that an ever increasing crowd are beginning to understand (Are you one of them?)
Content is king…IF!
If I appear biased via this blog – you’re right…I am!
Perhaps it’s because I’m an information junkie. Or maybe it’s because I have an insatiable curiosity for new knowledge and problem solving information.
Yes to those reasons and many others. But it’s more about the fact that I know and understand that one thing ultimately compels people to respond to what you promote, provide, sell, or distribute.
It’s trust!
So…what does trust have to do with “content (being) king?”
Before I continue building my case for the “content is king…IF” idea, I must say that it’s about framework or context.
Content reigns supreme in today’s marketing when it’s intentional, strategic, and useful. You will need a framework to achieve long-term, beneficial results from it.
Blog posts, email series’, social media posts, newsletter articles, podcasts, etc are all part of a bigger picture, according to Sonia Simone.
Consider this a foundational piece of a framework I’m preparing to lay down over the next few weeks on this blog. My goal is to help you establish a new way of thinking about your dental marketing strategy and to encourage you to “fast” from all those go-to, default, knee-jerk, we-gotta-increase-our-production-so-call-the-printer-for-a-new-direct-mail-flyer type of reactions that are all too typical of some dental marketing campaigns.
Build trust outside-the-box…
…And use content to do it.
Rarely does anyone, if ever, feel a bond of trust with a service business because of flyer received in the mail. Sure, the eye-catching graphics or cleverly worded copy might open the door to a relationship but the appeal can be lost quicker than it’s gained in most instances.
Instead, consider what would happen if, over time, a relevant, useful piece of content was published and easily viewed via a smartphone or tablet. If the content solves a problem or answers a question relevant to your target reader, what begins to happen?
Trust rises.
You have a better opportunity for instilling trust through a problem-solving, question-answering blog post or podcast than you do through a random, numbing piece of paper that’s included in the daily mail. Front of mind can begin with a flashy mailer but trust is sustained over time via usefulness.
And usefulness translates BEST via easy to read and easy to consume content.
I’ll crown content “king” for now with that thought. Stay tuned…
Are There “Gaps” in Your Dental Website That Expose You to Failure?
The recent winter weather did some damage to our property. It’s not significant but some minor repairs are in order.
Timing isn’t always on your side when the weather is involved. But the timing is always right to evaluate your current dental website and close some of the gaps that make your marketing vulnerable to failure.
A gap is precisely what I have in my fence as result of the strong winter winds that blew through my region recently. As I early mentioned, the damage isn’t significant by comparison but my suburban property feels exposed now that I lost two sections of privacy fencing.
Close the gaps
I write a significant amount of webpage copy for dental practices, dental consultants, and dental industry businesses. There’s a gap these days between those that are riding the wave of content marketing strategy (one that I do not believe will go away anytime soon) and those that are either satisfied with their online (website) presence or assume that having one up-and-done is enough.
The gap is widening. If you’re on the side of the fence that values consistent, useful content published via a blog, newsletter, podcast, online course, ebooks, email series’, etc you’re positioned to take your “world” by storm.
On the other hand, if you’re resisting or uninformed about the value of content to stimulate your dental marketing, brace yourself for a storm of frustration. You could find yourself wondering why your dental website visitors arrive but don’t stay…or more important – don’t schedule.
It’s time to close the gaps. You shouldn’t feel exposed to frustration or worse waste your valuable dental marketing dollars over the next 12 months on a website that’s basically a digital brochure.
Exposing Your Dental Website “Gaps” and the Strategic “Repairs” You Can Make to Increase Your Value to Patients or Clients
Assess the “damage”
Your patients/clients visit your website for one, primary reason – to access information about your services. Their response hinges on what they discover in the first few seconds of arriving there.
“Gap”: Thinking it’s necessary to differentiate yourself with flashy web page banners or spotlighting your brand image/logo. You can damage your online influence if you’re solely relying on “creative, visual elements” to compel your site visitor to schedule or contract with you.
Damage assessment solution: Build credibility and potential for repeat site visits by providing simple, understandable answers to the questions your patients/clients are asking.
- Fill-the-gap with blog posts/articles published a minimum of two times per month, a downloadable podcast, a consistently published Q&A-like newsletter, or an easy to access and read ebook.
- Spend your available annual marketing dollars on those strategies that provide useful, valuable information your visitors are seeking.
Clear the “debris”
No doubt, dentistry is a technical industry. Healthcare relies on skilled expertise to diagnose and treat effectively.
“Gap”: Thinking it’s essential to thoroughly explain the technical details of your dental services, treatment, and procedures so your patients/clients will want to schedule/use your services. In essence, believing that the more they know, the more likely they are to view you as an expert and schedule.
There’s a better way…
Clean-up solution: Your authority/expertise is recognized more by your ability to speak your site visitors language. Leave the industry-speak to your communication with colleagues, at conventions, or your local study-club.
- Eliminate “jargon,” “fluff-content,” over explained services/procedures, high word count descriptions, and unnecessary credential data.
- Create a compelling connection with your site visitor through every-day language via conversationally written web page copy, blog posts, articles, newsletters, etc. (to keep the language conversational and every-day it’s a good idea for someone to write it other than you…no offense).
Restore the “solution”
Clarity rules. And simplicity shouldn’t imply poor quality or design.
“Gap”: Thinking that a graphically intense, creatively unique, high word count website will build trust with your audience.
Repair solution: Creative design, more words, and indulgent graphics can make your website more difficult to navigate, to understand, and unclear about what visitors should do next. Ditch the mindset that says, “(Our) website must compete on a creative level with every other dental industry site in our area/region….”
Your patients/clients will visit, stay, return, and schedule your services for one fundamental reason – you provide clear, compelling answers to their questions or solutions to their problems. Clarity and simplicity trump creative.
- Stand out creatively through informative and consistent content. Distribute your creative-vibe via your social media channels (Facebook page, Instagram, YouTube, etc.).
- Be an authoritative resource and you’ll compel trust…and action. And speaking of action – restore your web pages to include a clear call-to-action (e.g. “Contact us to schedule…,” “Click here for more information…,” etc.).
These simple repairs will close the “gaps” in your website and your digital marketing strategy. It’s best to create good exposure for your authority and expertise than to be exposed via ineffective web page content.
4 Strategies to Raise Your Dental Marketing Expectations for a Successful New Year
It wasn’t at all what he expected. And the outcome he experienced reminds me that setting your expectations accurately and appropriately can create new beginnings in your dental marketing.
Our grandson recently asked to “chase” his distasteful medicine with a “spoonful” of sugar. I agreed, casually grabbed a spoon from the drawer, dipped into the container, and delivered his request to a smiling face.
His reaction was priceless. He jumped up from the sofa, sputtering, spewing, and reported his distaste for what was served up saying, “That’s CREAMER!”
In my defense, I do not use sugar in my coffee. That said, I’m accustomed to only spooning a dash of creamer into my morning brew.
I instinctively reached for the creamer thinking it to be sugar. We laughed, as did our grandson after he cleansed his palate with the aforementioned requested sugar treat.
Meeting expectations
You should trust that you’ll receive what you expect. That’s often not the case.
Your audience comes to your dental practice or dental service business with a load of expectations. These days what’s expected has shifted a bit due to how information about your services is consumed.
And speaking of information…
Now’s a perfect time to review and hit refresh on informational content that can help you set your dental marketing expectation for the coming months. And being intentional with your expectations can improve your approach to those nagging New Year’s resolutions you feel compelled to make but fail to fulfill.
Consider this post a dental marketing reboot of some common themes from the past few months of posts.
How to Raise Your Dental Marketing Expectations and Experience a Compelling Amount of Success This Year
Renew your thinking about dental SEO
As I’ve written here before, I do not consider myself to be an SEO expert or specialist. I know enough to be “dangerous” in a sense.
And maybe that’s my point. Too much SEO thinking can blind you on your path to online success.
Here’s the deal (and this much I do know) – SEO isn’t about “gaming” or “baiting” your online presence. True SEO creates search expectations around the delivery of useful, informative, valuable content.
This is SEO, of course. But it’s not the SEO you’re perhaps conditioned to believe you must have on your website or else…
Think SEO but…think about it differently!
- Create content around solutions (answers) to the problems (questions) your online visitors are experiencing (asking).
- Make your website content savvy and the SEO will satisfy your online dental marketing expectations.
Check out more related insight here.
Revise your dental website
A website is only the beginning. It’s not a one-and-done dental marketing strategy.
Think of your website as a platform with access to multiple content channels. Those channels are where your dental “consumers” should be able to easily navigate information that (once again) provides solutions (answers) to their problems (questions).
- Lead with your blog/article page. Lose the mindset that you must have high word count, information-heavy, dental-speak fluff on your service/procedure pages (people read what informs them…not what you think they need to know about x, y, or z dental procedure – that’s your world…not theirs).
- Give your website visitors easy to access, readable, visual, audible content. Think blog, YouTube, and Podcast instead of a Wikipedia-like dental procedure glossary. Instead of a tired-does-anybody-read-it-anyway FAQ page chunk those frequently asked questions into compelling blog posts.
Check out more related insight here.
Re-purpose your content
Having a blog/article page that you consistently publish to gives you options. The more blog/article content you have the greater your ability to re-purpose the content.
Remember…
Some website visitors are readers. Some are visually oriented. Some are listeners.
- (For your “readers”) Re-purpose your written content (blog posts, articles, etc.) into e-books, a call-to-action email series, a newsletter, a tip-sheet, etc.
- (For your “viewers”) Re-purpose your written content into a YouTube video (a vlog), a Periscope, a Slide-Share, an Infographic, or other visual content like a GIF, Meme, etc you can post on your social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter).
- (For your “listeners”) Re-purpose your written content into a podcast or downloadable MP3.
Check out more related insight here.
Re-orient your marketing mindset (think content)
How?
Rinse and repeat the first three points…because content rules!
I raise my expectations that you’ll continue returning here for more dental marketing perspective weekly throughout the year. Thanks for being part of this community…it’s appreciated!
Happy New Year!
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.
3 Strategies for Re-Purposing Your Dental Content That’s “Collecting Dust”
Our recent garage reorganization gave my wife and I some minimalist “air.” Ultimately, it was more of a redistribution.
There’s redistribution-value in your dental marketing content, dental website copy, online engagement, and other promotions you may have tucked away. Your archives and current content sources have life left in them…if you know where to look and how to revive their usefulness.
My wife finds it especially “cleansing” to box up items and give them away. It’s our way of re-purposing resources for the benefit of someone else.
Vintage is still cool
The lure of vintage anything – clothing, jewelry, etc. – is basically about resourcefulness. It’s a trendy attempt at redistribution or re-purposing what was once everyday.
Your dental marketing promotions are no different. Each are full of themes, big ideas, features, and benefits you can easily re-purpose for a fresh return on investment (ROI).
That’s part of the “magic” of today’s content marketing strategies. Dental website services and procedures pages, older blog posts, previous newsletter editions, articles, email marketing promotions each contain seeds for new content.
How to Re-purpose and Re-distribute Dental Content That’s “Collecting Dust”
1-Scan your online reviews, survey data, and patient/client comments for back-story content.
What your patients/clients tell you about your services reveals more than a virtual “high-five.” Look for questions, emotional-buying motives, pains, problems you solved, solutions your delivered.
- List emerging topics, themes, and ideas for how your can re-distribute the content.
- Create blog posts, newsletter articles, case studies, themed email series’, and themed landing pages.
2-Re-package blog and article content for a new or different “audience.”
Your patients/clients each consume content differently. And they access it in a variety of ways.
- Reach your “audience” according to their preferences. Implement some content experiments and track your responses. Try visual content via YouTube, Pinterest, or Instagram. Or re-purpose visual content into readable content via your blog or newsletter articles.
- Look for themes and ideas within your content channels. Your main website platform copy can be sub-divided into topics of interest. Scan your Services/Procedures pages for topics.
3-Audit your website platform for readability and call-to-action outcomes.
Many dental websites could use complete rewrite. Why?
Perhaps the content is outdated, is overly technical, isn’t mobile responsive (i.e. it isn’t easily read on a smartphone or tablet), is too wordy and full of feature oriented fluff and industry-speak.
Simple upgrades can revive a poor performing, uninformative website.
- Re-purpose service and procedure copy themes into blog posts or articles. The place to be more informative and technical (with reader in mind) is on a blog/article page instead of giving them everything on your main/internal service pages.
- Remove flashy banners, overused images, and “cute” headlines. Tell your reader something valuable. Create benefit-focused page headlines and sub-heads. Use benefit-oriented bullet-points on pages to improve readability (readers scan web pages they read blog/article content – keep this in mind).
- Compel your site visitors to take a specific action on each page. “Contact us…,” “Schedule your next…,” “Request…,” “Call us…,” etc are call-to-action words. Tell your reader what to do, tell them again, and…you guessed it…tell them yet again. Eliminate passive, permissive wording and replace it with a specific action to be taken.
You have more value in your existing content than you may realize. It’s time to re-distribute it.