dental content
The “Lingering Effect” and How It Turns “Lookers” Into “Buyers” Using Your Dental Content
I’m not a real estate expert. I own a house and know a few real estate agents, that’s as close as I get.
I’ve observed something about the real estate process lately. And it has some value to the process of creating dental marketing copy and content.
The house across the street from ours is on the market. The “FOR SALE” sign went up a few days after the last occupants moved out and the flow of lookers has been steady.
There are the “Slow Drive-by’s”. They’re the ones checking the area, the property appearance, and other points of interest on their house-hunting list.
There are the “Ubers” as I call them (those who arrive chauffeured by a Realtor). These folks have taken their house hunt a step further by making this one of several stops on the “let-me-show-you-some-options-in-your-price-range” tour.
And then there are the “Lingerers” – those who arrive with a Realtor and linger on site. These individuals form an emotional attachment to the property, they begin to picture their evenings on the patio, meals being prepared in the kitchen, dinners around the dining table, what their furniture will look like throughout, etc.
The difference between the “Slow Drive-by’s”, the “Ubers,” and the “Lingerers” – an emotional connection.
The effectiveness of your dental content marketing strategy depends on your ability to (over time) create the “lingering effect.”
How to Increase the Time Your Audience Invests Consuming Your Dental Content
1-Create something worth “checking out”
The “slow drive-by’s” simply checking out property might not ultimately buy. But they’re willing to invest their time and fuel to see what’s available.
Your dental marketing copy and content ultimately has one goal. It’s availability is to build a relationship.
The operative word is “build.”
Your patients and clients are accustomed to consuming massive amounts of content. Sure, not all of it (or probably not much at all) has anything to do with dentistry.
The only way you’ll be worth a “drive-by” is if you answer their questions or provide solutions to their problems.
Make sure your dental copy and content is valuable as a problem-solution/question-answer resource.
2-Create a sense of partnership
Realtors no doubt prefer to “chauffeur” their clients on their house hunting tour. Why?
They can “control” the relationship. They drive, they provide the list, and they can then provide the necessary information throughout the buyer-journey.
Become a “chauffeur” of sorts through your dental copy and content. You KNOW what your patients and clients do not KNOW.
You must also know the unique connection of your services to their individual emotional and physical desires. This requires listening and leveraging what you hear into content that meets them where they are.
“Drive” them step by step to a decision. Not all at once though…
Remember effective content marketing is a journey toward a deeper relationship that ultimately results in them investing in your services or expertise.
A blog post, podcast, social media content, email, or direct mail create a relational thread that eventually compels trusted buy-in.
3-Create a lingering connection
Realtors must love those who linger on a property. This tells them that an emotional connection is being made.
The longer your readers stay on your website, follow the links within your blog posts, follow your social media channels, and click the links on your emails the greater opportunity you have to create a lingering connection with them.
Keep them in-the-house as often as possible and as long as possible.
Content that delivers value causes your reader to begin including you in their “story.”
In real estate a “SOLD” sign says the process worked. Your dental content marketing is a process too.
“SOLD” is the result of moving “drive-by’s” to “partners” to “lingerers” and ultimately “buyers.”
How to Meet Your Audience Eye-to-Eye in Your Dental Marketing Content
Sometimes the strain is too much. In my case it was the strain I consistently felt in my neck.
A practical Christmas gift solved that problem. And it prompted me to think about a principle that can keep your dental content and dental marketing from being well…a pain-the-neck.
I’m at my desk for the majority of each work day. My stand-up desk, though efficient and good for my overall health, even so created ongoing tension in my neck and shoulders.
Looking down at my MacBook Pro all day left me sore at day’s end.
I browsed for a more ergonomic solution. And viola!
The Rain mStand.
This gorgeous piece of aluminum looks sweet on my desk top. More important, it provides the lift I need to bring my MacBook Pro to eye-level.
Mom hooked me up with one for Christmas. I’m stoked about it.
Everything’s at eye-level now. Neck-strain gone!
Got me to thinking about marketing-strain.
What’s that you ask?
Consider it any promotion, copy, or piece of content that fails to meet your reader, client, patient, or customer at eye-level.
Eye-to-eye or “die!”
Might seem extreme. But in a world of “hey-look-at-us-and-how-great-we-are” marketing it removes the pain.
Marketing that’s so feature heavy and bloated with industry-speak that it weighs your core message down isn’t compelling.
There’s a better way.
How to Create Dental Marketing Copy and Dental Marketing Content That Meets People at Eye-Level
1-Get personal
Your dental marketing strategy has one purpose, ultimately. It’s to consistently meet your patient/client at their personal “pain-points.”
To clarify, not all patients/clients are at a pain threshold all the time. Much of the time they’re simply looking for a solution to a problem.
This demands that you personalize your strategies.
Speak to each as an individual rather than a collective group. For example, use the word “you.”
This trains you to think in terms of a single person. You’ll naturally write, promote, market as if you’re speaking to them alone.
More important, they’ll feel it too.
2-Stop “selling”
Might seem strange to hear that said in a discussion of marketing. True, “selling” is the outcome of your dental marketing.
Though you perhaps don’t like to think of what you do as “selling” it’s the reality of marketing.
But…
It’s important to understand that the concept of “selling” is much different than the approach that feels and sounds “salesy.” Before you dismiss this point as a matter of semantics, think about it.
“People (you included) don’t like the idea of being sold.”
It’s more a matter of connecting their personal desires, emotions, problems to a solution. That connection is where the real value of “selling” takes place.
You create a “fan” over time by how you engage them with your solutions. If you sound, write, promote like a 15 second tv commercial you’ll do nothing more than numb your market.
Tap into your patient’s/client’s emotional buying motives. It’s reflected in a classic marketing formula according to Theodore “Ted” Levitt:
“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.”
And that, my friends, leads to a third and final idea…
3-Solve problems
The “drill” (according to Levitt) isn’t the ultimate, desired solution. The “hole” is!
In our feature-intensive marketing language it’s easy to forget the problem-solution-benefit equation. That is, how your services/products are described or packaged isn’t as valuable to your patient/client as the solution-benefit it provides.
Know your “audience” and you’ll speak to their pain. Listen to chair side conversations, consultant feedback, online reviews, search data, social media data and conversations, etc.
Mine conversations for problems that your unique services/products can solve. Create content that highlights how the problem/pain is solved.
Your dental marketing value will increase within your niche when you give your patients/clients consistent reason to trust your expertise.
Get eye-level. Your pain and theirs will disappear.
3 Simple Techniques for Maintaining a Steady Stream of Ideas for Your Dental Blog
It’s simple erosion yet the rest of my yard looks great! The lack of lush, green grass in a small portion of my backyard provides a useful principle for how to maintain a steady flow of content on your dental blog.
I’m no lawn expert but I’m aware that grass has difficulty growing once soil erosion sets in. The erosion began a few years ago. Our labrador, Mandy, got it started with her routine “wallow” beneath the shade of our tree.
Overtime the erosion created a washed-out place. Lack of guttering to catch the water and the shade of our now massive maple tree are the main causes now.
Perhaps the biggest problem you face with your dental blog
Informative, search-relevant topic ideas are what sustain your dental blog and most content streams. Without a steady flow of ideas your content strategy will suffer.
You’ll be irrelevant to your growing audience of readers. And you’ll risk losing them because you have nothing that compels them to increase their time on your page.
There’s another fundamental issue. It’s like my guttering problem.
I can stop the erosion if I have a place to catch the water. Like that, ideas must be collected or your dental blog will erode.
A limitless source of ideas
It’s a common problem. It’s also a reason you’ll be tempted to give up on your blog.
You want and need a source of ideas.
Think of ideas like “seeds.”
You plant them in an easy to access place (more on that in a moment). You water them and one day they “green-up” into something useful to your readers.
As a dental professional this all begins with your patients or clients. They are your limitless source of ideas.
Would you allow your patients or clients to write your blog?
However you feel about your current and potential patients/clients, they are your audience. What if you made them part of your content team?
I’m not implying that you should give them access to your WordPress password, allow them to log into your blog, and start writing.
Rather, I’m recommending the you allow them to write your blog from the idea side.
You have a wealth of blog topic ideas within the sound of their voice.
Are you listening?
And listening in this instance has more to do with what’s not being said as much as what IS being said.
Questions are the key. Ask and you shall receive.
How your dental blog can give you expert status
1-“Savor” the questions you’re asked or that you hear
You’re accustomed to dispensing services. Your information comes at a premium.
Most often it’s distributed face to face, chair-side, or another way that requires your physical presence. Nothing wrong with that but it lacks scalability.
These days making your information stream available and easy to access increases your value to patients/clients. They (like you) will search for what they want to know and somewhat expect a quick, useful answer – one that compels action.
This requires having your “radar” fine-tuned.
Are you picking up on the signals that your audience is sending?
They’re consistently informing you through their questions about their problems. Become efficient at “saving” the data you receive in the form of patient/client questions.
Avoid dismissing them as simple inquiries.
Do a deeper dive beneath the surface and listen for motives, fears, and other emotions that could be prompting their question(s).
Next…
2-“Seed” the information you obtain into potential content
I said “potential.” The reason: not all questions “grow” into an evergreen blog post or other content form.
But most will!
Have a place to greenhouse those “seeds.” I use and highly recommend Evernote.
Wherever you plant your content “seeds” for future harvest – Evernote, a paper notebook, Google Doc file, etc., – don’t edit them…yet. Let them take root as other related questions will come along and one day a useful piece of content will emerge.
3-Share the information in an easily accessible format.
Most questions you’re asked can be “seeded” into sub-topics. For example, I blog regularly for an implant specialist.
To date I’ve written over 70 blog posts for him. Ninety-eight percent are related to questions about dental implants.
There’s no way to do this unless you sub-topic that content “seed” (dental implant questions). This is among the main reasons I encourage you to not put all your webpage “energy” into lengthy “Services” pages.
You compel more interest (traffic) via an informative blog page where you’ve “chunked” a broader topic (like dental implants, etc.) into sub-topics that answer your audience’s questions.
Ultimately, it’s about compelling interest in your services. A compelled reader who has easy access to informative, useful content is more likely to take the next step.
And that’s good for “business.” Agreed?
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.