Marketing to dentists
The Use-it-or-Lose-It Factor That Attracts People to Your Dental Marketing
We have two young adult daughters. The youngest (in her early twenties) was involved in a car accident that totaled her newly purchased vehicle.
Yeah. I know! Bummer.
The frustration she’s experienced reaching an acceptable insurance settlement is proof that having one thing matters.
Leverage.
And leverage is an essential reason why you must be in a position of authority in your dental marketing.
Two fortunate things about my daughter’s accident. One, she wasn’t injured. Two, it wasn’t her fault.
But the no-fault issue isn’t without loads of hassle. Of course, I’ve been the supportive Dad (why wouldn’t I).
My unfortunate experience with auto accidents gives me a certain amount of leverage. I can use it on her behalf to get what she deserves from the at fault’s insurance provider.
Leverage is essential to getting what you want, what you need, or what you’re entitled to.
You have more authority than you’re leveraging as a dental professional.
- You’re educated.
- You have solutions to people’s problems and pain.
- You deliver a valuable and useful service.
The magic of leveraged authority
In a previous post, you discovered how to leverage your expertise via your Platform Content (PC). Revisit the post to understand how your dental website has essential cause and effect value.
It’s time to amp-up your website (PC). And your Authority Content (AC) is the energy you need.
Gone are the days when a mere website is all you need. Sure, it’s a start.
Search engines (e.g. Google) recognizes that you have one. But if you want to vault to a higher ranking as a dental provider you must…I repeat, MUST prove that you’re a useful resource worthy of people’s search.
There’s more to being useful online as a dental professional than common Services and Procedures web pages packed with dental keywords.
PC + AC = “Leverage”: How to leverage your authority into an ongoing stream of profitable relationships.
- Keep your blog updated with fresh, informative content. Answer the questions your patients, clients, or readers are asking via your blog content.
- Tap into patient’s or client’s questions with responsive, relevant, quick & easy surveys. Develop your own surveys/questions instead of using standardized approaches.
- Avoid “bait-and-switch” tactics when surveying and promoting your content on your website and through social media channels. Do it just-because and be up front about your reason(s).
- Re-purpose your blog content into a downloadable e-book. Offer the e-book (free) on your website or via a designated landing page. Share the download link every opportunity you get and you’ll develop a reputation of being a go-to resource.
- Start a podcast. It’s a fresh way to spotlight your “authority.” Check out these resources:
Pat Flynn’s How to Start a Podcast Tutorial
Rainmaker.fm – The Showrunner podcast
And who knows…
You might create a passive income stream out of your content development. And who couldn’t use that kind of financial and career leverage?
Stay tuned. In an upcoming post you’ll get the final content piece that increases your influence.
The First (of 3) Snooze-You-Lose Strategies That Eliminate Panic and Propel Your Dental Marketing
If you’ve ever attended a family reunion you understand. I’ll explain.
At the core, it’s the same principle that connects your dental marketing to the big-picture strategy.
My dad made a statement at our most recent family reunion. I can’t get it out of my mind.
It answers the question, “Why am I here?” And I’m not talking some existential, meaning of life idea.
The essence of his statement to our gathering of nephews, nieces, cousins, spouses, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren defines what it means to be family.
We were circling up prior to our reunion meal. My dad (the current family patriarch) pointed to the displayed, vintage portraits of my grandmother and grandfather.
Then, tearfully gesturing to our gathering, said, “They caused all this…”
Cause and effect
Everything starts somewhere. Before a tree, family or otherwise, extends its branches, there’s a simple seed (the cause).
And your dental marketing impact (the effect) is no different.
What seeds are you planting? And going a step further, do you have a strategy that’s easy to implement?
Reacting isn’t a strategy
You’re accustomed to it. For example, as a dental provider, you react to the pain a patient presents with.
Your education, training, and experience teaches you to diagnose the situation and prescribe a treatment plan. I realize it’s a bit more complicated than that, but you get the imagery.
Reaction can grip you too when there’s a need to market your services.
- New patient scheduling is down
- Recare has stalled
- Web search analytics are showing downward traffic trends
And the dentist down the street is your community’s new rock star with their state-of-the-art…cutting-edge this or that (and if they use “state-of-the-art” or “cutting edge” to describe whatever in their latest postcard mailer or on their newly designed website, you should stop worrying…because no one cares…seriously, nothing says boring, “numbing,” marketing copy than those two phrases…but I digress).
Meanwhile, back to your challenge at hand…
Your marketing dilemma is a different cause for reaction than you’re typically educated, trained, and experienced to handle. You know when a tooth has erupted and what to do to fix it.
Now your marketing presents with pain. What to do?
A road paved with “good intentions” that leads you nowhere
Well intentioned dental professionals do what they know best to do when marketing challenges arise. Right?
You leave a Post-it® note on the desk of your office manager or designated front-office team member that reads, “See me about an email blast…” (or something related to a panic-driven “marketing” blitz).
Is that the best you can do?
Your dental marketing deserves better than a random, reactively conceived, out-of-their-depth (with all due respect reference to the person tasked) email blast. You’re panicked. I get it.
Take a deep breath.
Better…?
Now let’s assess the problem and nail down a more effective solution to your ongoing marketing dilemma.
You WILL be in panic mode again. That is, unless you readjust your perspective and realign your approach.
The first (of 3) marketing content resources you’ll ever need to build your dental practice or dental industry business (and stop burdening an already focused and busy business assistant).
1-Your Platform Content (PC)
Consider your website your office’s front door. Before a new patient or anyone else walks through the door of your dental practice they’ve probably invested a portion of their time hanging around in your digital “lobby.”
This assumes you have a website. If you don’t…well…we need to talk (and we should have that conversation, like, NOW).
Having a website is only the beginning. These days there’s more to an established, effective, useful, search friendly online presence than a mere website.
Home page-check! About us page-check! Services pages-check! Contact us page-check! Social media buttons-check!
I’ll even go so far to say Blog-check! You’d be surprised (perhaps) how few can check that one off the list these days.
And if you do have a blog page, how fresh and/or recent and useful is your content?
More on that later.
How to make your dental website a solid, home-base platform
Consider it the “cause” of your intended “effect” (to borrow from my earlier family reunion story).
If you want to avoid reactionary, panic-stricken marketing make certain your website platform is solid.
- Visit your website as if you’re searching for a dental provider. How informative is it? Do you know where to go next from page to page? Does it communicate relevant, benefit focused information (rather than “hey, look how great, equipped, educated, etc we are…”)? Are there clear calls to action page to page? Does the content ultimately lead to scheduling an appointment or consultation?
- Clean up your language. Make sure your entire site is “you” (reader/patient/client) focused. It should read as if you’re having a personal conversation with the person reading your content.
- Stop talking so much. Reduce your page word count if necessary. You should be able to inform and compel a response with 250 to 500 words per page on average.
- Keep it real. Evaluate your page header images. If your images look cookie-cutter, your site can appear that way.
You want to avoid having the reader feel like, “oh, I’ve been here before…just another dental website…” Imagine them feeling instead that your practice story, culture, and voice is different than most…and unique to yours.
Your dental marketing starts somewhere. And your website platform is the most strategic place to begin if you want to solve the panic mode problem in your marketing.
Process and act on this for now. Stay tuned…there’s more to come in an upcoming post.
2 Actions That Will Protect Your Dental Website from Being Left-Out-in-the-Rain
My first thought was, “On a holiday at 6:30 p.m.?” But when I saw him standing there, in the rain, at the edge of my front porch, another thought occurred to me.
His chosen approach has much to do with how you reach your audience via your dental website.
My soggy, evening visitor was going door to door selling the opportunity to “…have a few minutes of my time…” He wanted to talk about my home security system.
A number of thoughts raced through my mind in the brief moments I felt sorry for him standing there, on my doorstep, rain-soaked from walking door to door in my suburban neighborhood.
One thought dominated them all.
“There has to be a better way…!”
I’ve always admired door to door sales dedication. Seriously, it takes a level of perseverance (or desperation) to do it (I can relate having done my fair share of it a few years ago for a variety of reasons).
I peddled everything from products to ideas. And I gained much from the experience that serves me to this day.
That said, technology has vastly improved the “sales” relationship. Say what you will about the grass-roots, guerrilla marketing, bootstrapping diligence of the committed few who knock it out door to door.
There IS a better way. And how you’re attempting to reach your audience via your website could be the door-to-door equivalent of my soggy, holiday, dinner hour salesman.
“You had ONE job…”
Your dental website has one fundamental purpose. And depending on your specific niche it could be patient related or product/service related.
That ONE job? Compel action from your reader.
Let’s define action. And let’s bottom-line it, shall we?
For the dental practice, most often your website’s sole purpose is compelling a new patient, current patient, or referral patient to schedule an appointment. I’m not going to argue the sub-categories of appropriate purposes. Let’s keep it simple.
For the dental industry service or product business, the common driving purpose is compelling a new client, current client, or referral client to order products and services from you. Again, corollary purposes aside, let’s stick with the basics.
What gets the job done?
My soggy door to door sales-guy gets points for effort. But more important, and he knows this, it’s a numbers game.
Every “No” gets him closer to a “Yes.” It’s common sales motivation.
Is this true when it comes to your website? Does every visitor who searches for dental services, arrives on your site, and leaves with a “No” get you closer to a “Yes?”
And if that’s true do you have the time to measure it? (Understanding, of course, that you can deep dive into your site analytics and get a boat-load of relevant answers to that question.)
I choose to deal in the realm of what increases the likelihood that they’ll not only STAY but RETURN again and again.
In this instance, it’s about relevant, useful information.
And speaking of a deeper dive, allow me to clarify what “information” I’m NOT talking about.
There’s more to useful, dental website information than standard, overly technical explanations of crowns, fillings, dental hygiene, implants, etc. And there’s way more than talking about your latest, state-of-the-art, high-tech equipment. You know, the equipment you’ve just completed hours of training or CE credit for the qualification to use it on patients who you assume are laying awake at night longing for the opportunity to sit in your op-room chair to experience it.
I overstate my case. But that’s the door-to-door equivalent on many dental websites when delivering information.
“Hand that dude a towel…” (so he can dry off and throw it in).
It’s time to renew your website, the kind of information you share, and how you share it.
As I earlier observed following my dinner time sales intrusion – “There has to be a better way…”
Do this…
1-Build your authority by being a reservoir of useful information.
These days information translates into trusted expertise. Notice I added the word “trusted.”
I don’t have to tell you that a search for “dentist” in your city/region will return pages of apparent expertise. Most are trustworthy and treat their scheduled patients appropriately – you included.
How and where you rank in that search determines whether they’ll give you the opportunity to show your trustworthy treatment approach. You can pay for that ranking via Google Ads, etc. hoping they’ll discover you to be everything they’re searching for in a dental provider…and then some.
Or…
You can show up consistently as result of useful information about the treatment, service, or procedure that they’re interested in.
- Blog content, podcasts, video, and social media content relevant to your reader’s questions, problems, and concerns spotlight your authority in today’s digital media world.
- Build a list of topics from the questions your patients and people you consult with are asking.
- Create useful, easy-to-access content.
- Make the content available on your website’s blog/article page, via a podcast button (linking to a downloadable audio file or an iTunes channel), or a link to your dental practice’s YouTube channel.
2-Be consistently available with answers to the questions patients/clients are asking.
There’s more to answering questions than filtering a select few through your website’s FAQ page.
- Make your web page’s sidebar a billboard for where site visitors can get answers to their questions.
- Create compelling content titles that capture their attention (make them scream, “Read me!”) in the “Recent Posts/Articles” section.
- Show your interest in patients by making your content about them and their questions…not you and your latest technological advance, credentials, etc.
Trust translates via being attentive. Your attentiveness shows up in being useful via quality content.
Don’t get left-out-in-the-rain on your dental website. Persevere, sure.
But be certain that your diligence is, above all, useful to those you’re seeking to compel.
How to Create Irresistible Dental Marketing that People Respond to Again and Again
The hummingbirds are back. How do I know this?
It’s the same reason people will choose your dental services without you feeling the need to hype up your marketing strategies.
Hummingbird market research (not sure if this is legit…but stick with me) says they return to my region in mid-April. And the experts are usually spot on.
But there’s another reason.
I hung my trusty feeder and filled it with an irresistible resource.
Hummingbirds find me because they seek out the bright, flower-like feeder that contains the sweet, delicious, sugar-water (nectar) I provide just outside my kitchen window. These fascinating creatures flit back and forth for the satisfying energy source countless times from April to October each year.
I just gave you 3 big ideas with my hummingbird observations. Did you catch ‘em?
1-Stop feeling the need to “hype-up” your marketing strategies.
Why do you do this?
Frankly, why does anyone do this?
My perspective? It has to do with the age-old, in-your-face marketing approaches we’re accustomed to.
Most of us were raised on TV and radio advertising that uses over-the-top techniques to get your attention (and they still do). And this was in the hopes that you’d remember them when it came time for a buying decision.
Each morning, my wife and I have the local news on our bedroom TV while we’re dressing and preparing for our day. And every morning, much to her frustration, I make critical, tongue in cheek comments about the advertising spots that run.
Many, if not most are local auto dealerships. Their repetitious, ear-worm inducing, hyper voice over specialists make me want to reach through the screen and shout, “Enough already!”
You get my point, right?!
Be careful that the ear-worm effect doesn’t infect your next dental promotion. Screaming at people to schedule, call, “Like” (Facebook ads, contests, etc), etc risks the same as those obnoxious ad pitches – changing the channel.
The downside (for you) – changing the channel translates to changing dental providers.
And if you’re marketing to dental providers (as many readers here do), be careful you don’t risk the same. I’ve watched your mailers being routinely tossed in the trash by the designated mail “screener” when I worked in a dental practice.
No one’s opening your mailer…because you’re not speaking their language. Or you’re using techniques that are a straight-up turn-off.
It’s the equivalent principle of me placing something less appealing in my hummingbird feeder. A couple of drags off that and those lil’ birds are off to sweeter fields.
It’s more attractive (effective) to create a conversation around your service, products, offers than it is to randomly shove it in their face. Because that’s-how-it’s-always-been-done isn’t a strategy, it’s a path to marketing extinction.
- Build a relationship by providing no-strings-attached (free) content via a consistent blog presence on your website.
- Send email that informs or delivers value (see our latest blog post, etc) instead of promoting something or asking readers to schedule.
- Watch your language – or rather your tone – in each communication or content piece your deliver (ditch the salesy, pitchy tone).
2-Listening IS your market research.
Your patients or clients are asking tons of questions. And many of their questions aren’t obvious…unless you’re listening between the lines and in the margins.
Keep your ear to the ground. What are your patients or clients telling you?
Deep dive into your online reviews or post-treatment/post-sales surveys. Locate the truths below the surface (even the ones tough to hear).
Like Jack Nicholson’s character said to Tom Cruise’s in A Few Good Men – “You can’t handle the truth!”
But you also can’t handle not learning from it and improving your service and marketing strategies.
And speaking of market research.
- Survey your patients/clients with a purpose. Avoid routine, meaningless, corporate-ized, canned survey documents.
- Brainstorm some strategic questions that help you understand what your patients or clients are thinking. Then…respond with like-minded content and marketing strategies.
3-Be the expert they’re listening to.
No one really likes to brag about themselves. Unless you’re a card carrying narcissistic, pompous individual (unfortunate for us all, some are).
The better approach – become brag-able. Translation: become a recognizable expert or authority.
You (yes, YOU) provide a unique, branded approach to whatever your specialty is. Perhaps you’re thinking, “But, there are 100’s of dentists in my city or region…!”
So what?
Here’s my question – are they recognized as a go-to provider, not just in treatment…but also with valuable information about that treatment?
Or…the science behind the treatment?
Or…the latest research (explained in street-level terms)?
Or…with clear, non-technical answers to the questions people are asking about the treatment (remember the earlier point on “listening”)?
These days, people want finger-tip access to information about what’s important to them in the moment. Will you be there…with answers?
- If your website doesn’t have a blog or article page – start one…NOW!
- Make your blog a virtual library of relevant, useful information specific to your expertise, services, etc.
- Build a tribe of loyal readers and sharers by promoting your content to your patient or client list via email updates.
And if you’ve delayed starting a blog because you’re concerned about time or have a fear of writing…
- Hire a content curator and/or a copywriter to research and ghost-write your content on a consistent schedule.
It’s your time to stand out as an expert by taking a few intentional steps. Create the content, share the content, and the results will show.
Let’s review…
Stop the hype. Listen as research. Highlight your expertise.
People, like hummingbirds, migrate to where they find what they need.
3 Dental Email Marketing Strategies to End Inbox Overwhelm
Creative Commons
“Email is where keystrokes go to die.”
Wait! Don’t send email to the bottom of your dental marketing strategies.
But before you send another email it would help to understand the value of your efforts.
James Clear wrote about Microsoft employee and productivity expert, Scott Hanselman’s jolting perspective.
“Email is where keystrokes go to die. You have a finite number of keystrokes left in your hands before you die.”
It makes sense that you should value your energy. Yet what if you evaluated each word you type?
- Would it change what you wrote in your most recent email message to your list?
- Could you use those same keystrokes to create a message or blog post that will help your readers rather than potentially repel them with another in-office special?
A simple fly-over of your own email inbox will quickly remind you of how overwhelming content can become. It’s no surprise that you wonder –
“How do I get the most return from the emails I send to my practice, house, or business list?”
That’s a good question. And there’s a one word tweak I’d offer to shift your perspective slightly.
This slight shift in perspective could be the difference in the effectiveness of your email marketing strategies. It’s all about valuing your ability to influence people for the good you want to deliver.
After all, you’re a professional. Whether you provide dental services that transform someone’s health and appearance or you provide products and services that enable dental professionals to accomplish those goals – you have something to offer.
So…here’s the shift in focus I earlier mentioned…ready?
Every marketing strategy you use (email included)
is about the “give”rather than the “get.”
It’s a valid question to ask – “How do I get the most return…”
I’m in business just like you are. I have a finite amount of time (and keystrokes) to share my expertise with the world. So getting the job done is alright by me.
These days – and here’s the deal – it’s to your advantage to give something to get something. Patients, buyers, shoppers, clients (whoever we’re talking about) are over the whole in-your-face, hyped-up sales approaches.
Make Your Keystrokes Matter by Ending Email Marketing Overwhelm
1-Email is only as effective as your intention.
Amazing thing about your senses. Especially your sense of smell.
Isn’t it interesting how you can sniff someone’s intentions. This happens with marketing all the time.
A subject line can reveal a lot about the sender’s desired result. There’s been much debate about whether you should veil your intentions or cut to the chase.
The answer depends on your relationship with your recipient(s).
For example, if you’re accustomed to a bottom-line sales message, it won’t surprise you when a subject line introduces a can’t-miss offer. If you’ve purchased from them before and you’ve benefited from their product or service it’s no issue to you.
But if you’re not on that level yet…well…you feel the turn-off. Am I right?
Think about the email communications you’re sending.
Are they worded as if the reader is a satisfied user, patient, client, customer that you’ve established a trusted relationship with?
Or…
Are they filled with numbing, pitchy content that makes the reader feel like a list number minus any real connection with you?
Check your intentions at-the-cursor. Value the relationship you have with the reader first, and in many instances, long before you value their dollars.
2-Email is engaging when it connects emotionally first and economically last.
People put their money where their heart is. That’s not a trite take-off on a common idea.
This is one of the fundamental rules of selling –
“People buy things for emotional not rational reasons.”
These days it’s more about engaging than selling. I know…I know you’re tired of hearing about engagement.
Engagement this. Engagement that. I get it.
But don’t dismiss this trendy word before you realize its intrinsic worth to your email marketing.
If you want to connect with people, get their attention. And once you have it, respect it.
Don’t dumb-down or numb-down your connection with overkill on promotional hype.
Give your readers something that sticks with them from the first keystrokes you make.
- Tell a story in the first paragraph (the lead).
- Connect the story to their problem (the body copy).
- Reveal the solution via your service/product story to their problem (the close).
And don’t forget the all-important element…
- Compel them to open and read (engage with) your email content by crafting a short, catchy (not too cute or hypey), benefit-focused subject line.
3-Email energizes your reader when it does two things:
When it’s useful – avoid short-changing or duping your reader list. Give them something they can use every time you email them.
If you’re promoting a service or product connect that to a problem they have. Make your service/product the useful benefit to solve a common problem even if they don’t schedule an appointment or purchase the product/service.
Share links to other relevant content via colleagues’ or industry leader’s blog, YouTube channel, Podcasts, etc.
Give bonus paybacks just for reading your email – add them to an exclusive group for your next promotion (before the general public), allow them priority access to a specific treatment, service, or product feature.
When it enhances communication – remember, connect before you ask for something.
Take time (via an email or two…or three) before you invite them to do something. This reveals that you value them more than what they do for you.
Ask relevant questions to understand how you can help them via your services, products, etc.
Create new email content around answers to those questions (talk about maximizing the value of your “keystrokes”).
Ask before you tell or offer. Communication works better that way.
Make your words matter – every single keystroke.
3D Dental Copywriting That Compels People to Choose Your Services
Saying something is good, great, state-of-the-art, etc. makes a point. But if you want your dental copywriting and dental marketing content to have “punch” you must go deeper.
I occasionally watch a local news program during lunch. It’s one of those noontime programs that features entertaining, informative special segments during the hour long broadcast.
The host anchor made a comment during an episode’s cooking segment that I’ve laughed about many times since. The segment featured the use of beer in a particular recipe for a meat based pie.
The guest cook discussed the various ingredients and in particular the use of beer for added flavor. The host anchor responded off-the-cuff and enthusiastically – “I don’t drink beer…but I sure do like it in my pie!”
I don’t know why the anchor’s statement made me laugh. But after doing so, it made me think.
Products and services have multiple benefits.
Beer, for example, is a refreshing, enjoyable beverage. Even so, many don’t prefer drinking it…but they will add it to a recipe.
That said, the dominant benefit that’s used to market beer is what? It’s not people sitting around, partying, pouring beer into a kettle on a stove top.
There are dominant benefits and there are dimensional benefits.
Copywriting master, Clayton Makepeace says there are “3 deadly blunders” made in marketing copy and content.
- Mistaking features for benefits.
- Mistaking processes for benefits.
- Missing different types of benefits.
His solution: “Drill down to the real, bottom-line rubber-meets-the-road benefits your product (or service) provides.”
Someone “drilled down” and discovered (perhaps while sipping an ice-cold, refreshing brew) that beer adds flavor to a favorite recipe. Beer as a refreshing, relax-with-my-friends beverage is a dominant benefit. Beer as a flavor-enhancing ingredient in your main course is a dimensional benefit.
3D your products and services to add compelling power to your dental marketing copy and content.
Comprehensively inventory your product/service features.
List every objective fact your product/service has. What’s unique, special, compelling, interesting, etc. about the dental service you’re promoting right now?
List everything you can think of.
- What’s its purpose? What does the service do for your patient/client?
- What are its physical characteristics? How will a patient/client experience it visually, by sound, taste, etc.?
- How long does it last? What will the experience be like? When will results be seen? How does it compare?
- What’s been said about it? How have others experienced it? How is it guaranteed?
- What choices are offered? Size? Color? Flavor? Is it customizable?
- How is it priced? Is it dividable by cost per year, month, week, or day?
“Attach a ‘Why’ to each feature”
Feature: Digital x-rays are the latest, state-of-the-art technology. Why: Faster image views means less time in the operatory.
Feature: A TV in every exam room. Why: More comfortable for the patient and time passes quickly during the appointment.
The “Why” forces you to think about benefits. People are sold by benefits not features.
Transform features into benefits.
Force the all-important question before you promote your product/service. And the question is: “What’s in it for me?”
Features must connect. Your patients or clients must experience (via your copy/content) how the service directly improves their life.
What fear does it help them overcome? How does it save them time and money? What have others experienced by using it?
“Dimensionalize each benefit.”
Feature: A TV in every exam room.
Why: More comfortable for the patient and time passes quickly during the appointment.
Benefit: Your appointment is over before you realize it.
Dimensionalized benefit: Great for fidgety kids. The time zips by. In fact, just last week little Jimmy asked if he could stay longer at the office!
Get “emotional” by connecting each dimensionalized benefit with a dominant resident emotion.
Think about how your patient/client will FEEL personally after they’ve enjoyed each benefit your service/product provides.
And there’s another emotional perspective people have too.
How will your patient/client feel as others see them enjoying your services’/product’s practical benefits? That’s an even deeper question.
There’s more to your services and products than meets the eye. Go deeper and tap into the compelling reasons people will buy-in.
Question: Why is it easier to focus on features than diving deeper into benefits? How is dimensionalizing your benefits useful to you? Comment.
4 Words That Can Transform Your Dental Marketing Copy
Benefits sell! That’s core to effective copywriting and the power language you need to promote your dental services.
The Sunday edition of my local newspaper featured two ads that got my attention. How they got my attention is what’s important to this post (realize henceforth – I’m more critical than the average reader).
First, it WASN’T the somewhat eye-candy graphics or the positioning on the page (two big deals to most newsprint advertisers). Second, it WASN’T the headline – at least in the way you might be thinking.
The ad’s colors and placement did draw my eye to it. But it was the headline that bothered me.
The ad writer did the common, believed effective, ad naseum, amateur, I-have-a-gazillion-ads-to-write-today-so-I’ll-take-the-easy-way, feature-first headline approach. And perhaps wrapped it up by asking the design department to throw in some cool colors and bold fonts so people notice.
I confess – I read the ad. Was I compelled?
That’s the question your copy must answer – is it compelling?
And copywriting that compels doesn’t lead with features (everyone does that) it leads with benefits.
This brings to mind a recent meeting I was in. Our dental hygiene team was discussing how to promote oral cancer screenings to our patients. Even though the service is undeniably beneficial and has a relatively low cost point (beyond insurance coverage) some patients aren’t compelled.
No doubt it’s a beneficial procedure. But how do you get to the compelling core benefits without dumbing-it-down with feature heavy content and graphics (what I’ve called “est-syndrome” in previous posts.).
Here are 4 words to keep front-of-mind when mining the benefits of your dental products and services.
1) Urgency (Think-if they don’t get this now the world as they know it will end)
Act now! Limited time offer! You must do better than that.
Give your reader a hot-seat reason to jump NOW to get your product or service.
How can you tell the story in the most compelling way? That’s the question.
Urgency isn’t just about prompting a decision. Urgency is about removing the gap as quickly as possible between decision and action.
2) Usefulness (Think – this is so practical…I must show them)
Not all products and services are ultimately useful. So it makes sense that the promotional copy lacks it too.
Do the hard work required to find a product’s or service’s usefulness that’s not obvious. The ultimate task of your copywriting is painting a picture of practical action.
Who’s using the product/service? What’s happened to them? When did they first discover it’s effectiveness? Where are they looking to use it next?
3) Uniqueness (Think – no one has the “angle” we do. And that “angle” is…)
Being unique is overrated. Especially when it’s confused with creative.
How creative your copy is doesn’t necessarily mean it’s unique. You must find a way to tell the story in a way no one’s told it yet.
This may or may not be the most creative. A unique message is about captivating a person’s buying emotion in a way no one has before so the buying decision keeps repeating itself.
4) Ultra-specific (Think – then think again…and again until it’s crystal clear)
The problem with many marketing messages is just that – they contain more than one message. The key to specificity (love that word) is funneling all the possible ideas into one, compelling message.
Too many messages in a single promotion confuses. Compelling copy is about clarity.
It’s the difference in a laser and a light-bulb. One illuminates, the other penetrates.
Certainly, the end result you desire is more than merely illuminating your “market.” Why not penetrate it?
I’ll admit I’m more critical of marketing copy than the average reader. But I know good copywriting when I see it.
And usually it’s because I’m reaching for my wallet.