Dental website platform

minimalist dental website

How a Minimalist Approach to Your Dental Website Compels a Response

So, my wife cleaned out her closet recently. It prompted my thinking about your dental website.

There’s a significant mindset shift contained in her closet reorganization that can help you streamline your dental website.

Comparisons reveal a lot. Compare my wife’s newly reorganized closet to mine…and…well let’s not!

You get the picture.

Compare your dental website to others. Some pale by comparison while others create a compelling reason to do a reorganization.

Renew or regret

A healthy comparison of your current website with others in your industry is helpful. Be careful not to overthink it (more on that in a moment).

The idea is to compare by first-impressions. For example, I can feel drawn into a website and compelled to explore their content or the opposite.

More isn’t always better (by comparison)

These days, you’ll notice a more minimal approach to standard, main page content (e.g. Home page, About Us, Dental Services/Procedures, etc.). And you’ll see more substance on a blog/article page, social media feeds, etc.

Content “numbing” happens more than you’d like to admit. This means when your readers see a been-there-done-that, feature-heavy Home page or Services pages they’re more likely to dial-out and move on.

I’m not a design expert. But I am intuitive enough to know what numbs and what engages.

Intuition is key

It’s vital to your dental website that you be intuitive. Think like a “reader” or “site visitor.”

Avoid thinking like a dental professional. That’s not to say ignore your expertise or service value.

It simply implies that you should put yourself in the mindset of a person looking for an answer to their question or a solution to their problem. This approach must trump the all-to-common “hey-look-at-our-latest-greatest-state-of-the-art-technology-that-we’re-proud-to-announce” approach.

Provide solutions more than you salivate (gross, I know…)

How to Take a Minimalist Approach to Your Dental Website That Compels a Response

1-Create content that’s readable and relevant

By readable I’m not talking about language and grammar (entirely, though don’t discount them). Readability has more to do with voice, flow, and clarity.

  • Write like you talk. Keep the “voice” conversational in tone. Why? It builds a relationship of trust faster than over-the-heads, impressive language.
  • Create a story-like thread of thought. Think of “flow” as ease of use. Avoid overcomplicating your message with “fluff-wording” that numbs or sounds like every other industry website you visit. Keep it real, in other words.
  • Be clear, above all. Most copy/content online or offline suffers from too many themes. Narrow your page message down to one, clear, compelling BIG IDEA. Ask yourself – “what is the ONE idea we want the reader to know?” Write to that solely and clearly.

2-Review and renew your services pages

Remember as a dental professional that you’re not writing to industry colleagues. It’s more engaging to your reader/site visitor for you to avoid industry-speak.

Words like periodontics, endodontics, orthodontics, prosthodontics, etc., sound impressive and translate well during a CE course or convention conversations. But in the day to day your readers are thinking gums, root canals, braces, and dentures – use words they can relate to.

  • Inventory your service pages. Look for industry language. Replace it with a “street” word.
  • Get out of your own head as a dental professional. Outsource your website revisions to a skilled web copywriter who knows the dental industry.

3-Repurpose and revise your webpage content

All those pages that are feature-heavy or full of industry-speak…don’t trash them yet! These can be repurposed into benefit oriented, solution-providing content on a blog/article page or a published newsletter.

  • Adopt a new mindset about your content. Begin to think about it as a platform and not a stand-alone, one time and done set of webpages.
  • Deep dive into your current website. Or ask a trained-eye to do a site audit for you.

You once invested time and dollars to create the content on your webpages. Now’s the time to re-invest some fresh perspective (and perhaps a few more dollars) to renew dated or data-heavy content.

Themes, benefits, new ideas, etc., live between the lines of your current web copy, blog posts, and newsletter archives. Breathe new life into them through some repurposing.

Reorganize and reduce the “fluff” in your digital (web) “closet.” It can give you valuable breathing room to improve your dental marketing content.

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add content value

Two Strategies That Will Keep People Reading Your Dental Content

There’s a reason this adult coloring book trend is catching on. The deeper vibe you can gain from it also applies to how you position yourself in the minds of those who consume your dental marketing content.

A friend and colleague has joined the tribe of adult coloring book publishers. Hers goes beyond the simple act of coloring the stress relieving pages.

Her “Thoughtful Colouring” approach includes the refreshing aspect of coloring designs. It adds a corresponding page with an inspirational quote and blank space to process it however you choose (while you’re coloring).

Cool! I agree.

It’s that small addition to the trend that I believe offers a principle you must consider in the content you curate and create.

You increase your authority with your patients/clients when you implant value in your content.

Words, especially the common, fluff your reader is accustomed to can become numbing and an eventual turn-off.

Your content audience has too much info-noise coming at them minute by minute. It’s your task as content creator and publisher to capture their focus.

This is the precise reason I encourage dental providers to step away from a standard, brochure-like website design. Refresh your design (and with it your authority) by adding an information platform to your site (e.g a blog/article page, a newsletter portal, etc).

Your content gains traction when you list dental implants among your services. It increases in value when that page links to an archived blog post/article that answers a common question about “dental implants.”

In fact, in today’s search rankings, you might discover that the article page ranks higher than your keyword intense services/procedures page. The reason: search engines like Google place a higher priority on your value-providing intention via a blog post than on standard webpage content.

How to Add Some “Color” to Your Dental Content Marketing Strategy

Inspire your reader

How inspiring can dental content be? Appeal to your reader’s curiosity and hunger for solutions to their dental problem and your inspiration-factor increases.

You inspire by compelling your reader through the solutions you offer.

General site content promotes your services. Consistent, fresh content inspires your reader with answers to their questions and solutions to their problems.

You become a source of inspiration to your patients/clients when they get that you’re listening to them. The best proof of listening is to mirror their “pain,” “problem,” or “concern” through relevant content.

  • Listen to every patient/client conversation with content in mind.
  • Ask information-gathering questions: “How can I help you with…,” “What’s your biggest fear about…,” etc.

Simple, right? Inspiration shouldn’t be complicated.

Next…

Import secondary value

Think deeper benefits related to what you provide.

You deliver a primary value as a dental professional or a dental marketing professional. Respectively, you help, heal, or you promote in a way that leads to a buying decision.

Your secondary value to your patients or clients is vital too. This happens when you move from an “I’ll-call-when-I-need-you” relationship to a “Go-to-source-of-useful-shareable-information” relationship.

Secondary value rises as you become a consistent “well” of practical (not technical) information.

  • Invest the time and marketing dollars in a consistent well-spring of content. Again, focus on the needs, wants, desires, questions, and problems of your patients/clients.
  • Create a front-of-mind expectation. The more consistently you appear on their “radar” via a blog post, article, newsletter, social media link, etc the more influence you’ll earn.

Influence has value. Give your patients and/or clients something to value alongside the primary services you provide.

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