Digital marketing
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.
4 Strategies to Recover from Communication Failure in Your Dental Marketing Content
I’m close to certain that the following line is from the classic movie, Cool Hand Luke. Right or wrong it reveals something about the nature of being accurate and understood in your dental marketing content.
The line: “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”
I could create the (assumed accurate) movie scenario that featured the line but…if I’m wrong that would be weird and completely send my opening story crashing to the ground. So, I’ll assume I know what I’m talking about and continue communicating something of value in this post.
That’s the thing about communication. Sometimes you enter into a conversation – one to one or with a crowd – and you think you know what you’re talking about.
Then someone steps up and says, “No, you’re not correct…!” Or more often, “I’m right…listen to me.”
Either way, communication in that moment has the potential to stall. And when that happens “…failure to communicate…” is in full-swing.
What to do?
Communication is tricky business today. There are more channels than ever.
In fact, I’m of the shared opinion that social media communication has had a groundbreaking impact on how we interact with our words. For example, what’s implied in a text message, a tweet, or Facebook post is often misunderstood.
The reason – the face-to-face element is missing. Perhaps this is fueling the current surge in live, interactive video content such as Periscope or Blab.
Your dental marketing conversations can have equal confusion. Or more than likely what’s implied misses the intended target as result of “failing” to communicate in a way that delivers your message in a compelling way.
4 Strategies to Recover from Communication Failure in Your Dental Marketing Content
1-Be urgent.
Your services, products, or resources meet a need. At least they should or you’re in for other challenges.
Realize that just because your patients or clients know they need what you produce is no guarantee that they will. It’s vital that you stay front of mind (more on how to do this in a moment).
You must give your audience a real, street-level, where-they-live reason to want (desire) your product or service today, now, right away!
If you provide dental services, a high percentage of your production relies on pain as a “reason” for your dental patient to schedule. Pain creates urgency, no doubt.
But pain is only one “reason.” It does drive production but only for those experiencing it and who choose to act on it.
- Inventory your services, products, or resources. What deeper needs do they meet? Who needs them, when, and why?
- Explore your recent reviews, consultations, contact form requests, etc. What themes do you see? Are there seasonal trends, etc., that prompted someone to request your services, schedule, etc.?
- Engage the wants and desires you hear/see. Create “urgency” through special offers, promotions, testimonials. Use “urgent” language to communicate them – “now,” “what happens if you wait…,” “too late,” “schedule/order/etc no later than…” – you get the picture.
2-Be useful.
No one has time for fluff or irrelevant content. Communicate something of value to your audience.
- Deliver value through every dental marketing channel you use. This includes your email promotions, your website content, your blog posts/articles, your newsletters, your special offers, etc.
- Reevaluate everything by asking – Is this useful? Does it deliver value?
- Be courageous enough to revise it or…trash it if it fails to communicate usefully.
3- Be unique.
This does not mean be overly creative for the mere sake of being creative. Placing a bizarre, new, flashy header on your website isn’t the essence of being unique.
Uniqueness is about solutions. Even further, being unique is offering something that’s different in some way than every other solution currently available.
- Think (because marketing requires much thinking) about your products, services, or resources as a solution more than a commodity. What problem(s) are solved when someone schedules, uses, etc.?
- Ask your audience what problems they’re facing. Use simple surveys for post-treatment, product orders, service usage, etc.
- Create and deliver content around the problem and how your service, product, or resource is THE unique solution.
Remember, your uniqueness is the result of asking the right questions to discover the most pressing problem then delivering the most unique, compelling solution.
4-Be ultra-specific.
Being specific isn’t enough. Why?
There’s too much marketing “noise” these days vying for your market’s attention. Being ultra-specific is rising above the “noise” by consistently delivering value through benefits.
Stop being vague at all costs!
- Eliminate fluff wording in your promotions. Words like, “we would like to…,” “we’re pleased to announce…,” “Introducing…” are only the beginning. Why pick on these commonly used phrases? They numb your reader because it sounds like every other promotion they read.
- Cut-to-the-chase. Tell your reader what you want them to do (specifically). Call them to action throughout your promotion and especially at the close.
- Compel with specific benefits. Avoid being feature heavy in your dental marketing content. “Latest,” “greatest,” “state-of-the-art,” are too vague. Go deeper and inform your reader about the specific benefit(s) they will receive.
“Failure to communicate…” is one failure you can’t afford to make in your dental marketing. Rise above the “noise” with clear, compelling solutions.
Where “More” is Better When Evaluating Your Dental Website Content
Who says, “More is better?” Perhaps the best discussion of “more” is…WHERE it’s better.
I hear this often, “We need MORE content on our dental website home page…on our services pages…” More. More. More.
Enough?
Again, the real issue is where to apply a “more-is-better” strategy. And there’s a strategic point of evaluation that’s often missed.
In a recent post I shared some insight regarding today’s new reality about SEO. Bottom-line: online searches these days return more links to articles/blog posts than they do actual websites.
So, wouldn’t it make sense for you to invest more dental marketing energy (and dollars) creating useful, informative article content than you would in higher word counts on standard toolbar pages (i.e., Home, About, Services/Procedures pages)?
That’s a good question. And it’s only provocative if you still aren’t sold on the strategy that – being useful online via your blog/article content is your MORE important than overly indulgent core web page content.
3 ways to apply a more-is-better strategy where it matters the most.
1-Deliver value through your online dental content
I’ll indulge your quest for “more” throughout your dental website on ONE condition. That you provide value!
What is valuable content?
Valuable content focuses on benefits more than it does features.
Don’t misunderstand. Features are important but not when they’re overused or without a compelling benefit attached.
Your dental service benefits connect with your patient’s or client’s emotional desires. Your dental service features appeal to your patient’s or client’s logic.
Both are necessary in your dental marketing content. But…
Remember to “sell” or “promote” first with benefits then help them rationalize their decision with an emphasis on features.
This takes some strategic thought. And I’ll go on record again by saying it must involve more than throwing “state-of-the-art” or “cutting-edge” ahead of your newest or greatest technology, etc.
2-Write dental content that’s readable.
Not all content will be read. But it’s certain that the time someone spends with your content will increase or decrease based on its readability.
Readable content ditches the tech-speak that’s only understood by industry insiders. Understand, your patients or clients are more than likely not up to speed on the jargon that so easily flows off your tongue at an industry trade show or event.
Readable content sounds and reads like you talk. Apply the bar stool-principle – would you say what you’re about to say in the form you’re about to say it if you were sitting on a bar stool, having a conversation with a friend, colleague, or family member?
Readable content assumes that the reader isn’t up to speed. Thus, it’s job-one of your content to help them understand what it is you want them to do.
Readable content is action oriented. Your content must include – at several points within – a clear, compelling call-to-action (i.e. tell them what to do…tell them again…and tell them again…)
3-Design your dental content to be searchable.
By design I recommend you invest more time, energy, and dollars into your blog/article pages. Why?
Again, this is where more online searches land these days.
- Listen to your patient/client questions or reviews and write content that answers their questions or insights.
- Create a content editorial calendar of topics based on what you hear your patients or clients talking about or asking about.
- Consistently publish content that helps your patients and clients. I recommend a minimum of two times per month on your blog/article page…but weekly is MORE effective.
More IS better. But make sure it’s delivered in the most strategically effective location on your dental website.