dental services promotions
3 Dental Marketing Strategies That Increase Your Influence Without Wasting Your Budget on Cold-Contact Approaches
I recently received a cold-contact via my website. It prompted my thinking about prospecting, attaining new dental patients or clients, and what works and what doesn’t.
First, they get an “A” for effort. In fact, it confirms what should be common for anyone building a practice or business of any kind – some action is better than no action.
What about measured action?
By “measured action” I’m referring to the process of thinking strategically about your steps to patient/client attainment. Strategy matters.
But too much of a measured, strategic approach can equal no action. Over-thinking strangles progress and momentum.
Think. Strategize. Act!
It’s preferable to find a sweet-spot for your dental marketing strategy. What delivers consistent results?
That’s a tough question to answer. And it’s more difficult to answer if you’re not open to new (albiet relevant) approaches for making a dental patient/client connection.
There was a key thing missing from my earlier mentioned cold-contact’s effort. We had no current or ongoing conversation.
I do not know anything about them…their business…their track-record…their reputation…their circle of influence (this is huge to me). It begs another question: how would any of these issues have been solved?
Glad you asked.
Marketing (dental included) rises and falls on consistent, authentic “conversation.”
How to Create Effective Conversations and Build Your Influence Without Wasting Your Marketing Strategy (and Dollars) on Cold-Contact Methods
1-Stop trying to make a creative splash
Author and consultant, Jim Collins, is known for his challenge to give more attention to your “stop-doing list” than to your “to-do” list. I agree.
Item one on your “stop” list is this – quit trying so hard. The default action when marketing or re-branding your services is to think creativity, color, and colossal.
There’s more to having influence than new, bright, and bold initiatives.
- Adopt a problem-solution mindset. Dive into your patient’s and client’s “pain-points.” Grasp what keeps them awake-at-night, the big-3 problems they’re currently facing, what they don’t know or understand about the benefits of your services, etc. Now…put pen to paper about how you can solve those problems!
- Adapt your content to provide answers to questions and solutions to problems. If all you deliver is promotions, deals, and sales your audience will grow numb to you. Again, create useful, valuable content around the solutions you can provide for their problems. Be an advocate more than an advertiser.
- Attach a listening “device” to everything you do and every service you provide. Simple surveys, “How’d we do…?-questions, or focus-groups of select patients/clients are simple sources of data you can use to expand your valuable influence.
2-De-trendify engagement
Good words and ideas get lost when they become trendy. This applies to the term “engagement.”
I’ve avoided using the term because it has become sooo trendy. But there’s too much to lose if you toss it aside.
The gold essence of engagement is making a connection.
Does your dental marketing suffer from too much effort and not enough engagement?
- Talk to your audience instead of promoting to them. Measure the ratio of useful content (the kind that answers questions and solve problems) to promotional pushes. Give more than you ask for.
- Engage with your dental patients/clients around the solutions they seek rather than the latest deal-of-the-month promotion. Consumers are smart. They’re on to you and they can smell a promotion from a mile away. What if you gained influence over time via trusted, consistently delivered content on your blog/article web page, a newsletter, or emails with links to your content?
3-Be yourself
Your marketing language reveals much about your character as a business. If you rely on hype or salesy promotions you set yourself up as having to conquer a prospect.
Rather, be a normal, conversational, inviting presence.
- Use the everyday language of your patients/clients. Write conversationally. Speak to your audience as you would to a friend. Keep it one-to-one in tone.
- Avoid tech-speak, insider-terms, or worn-out marketing fluff (e.g. “state-of-the-art,” “cutting-edge,” and any word that ends in “-est” – best, greatest, latest…).
Sure, any patient/client development action is better than none. Give more measurable attention to building the relationship so that when you do show up it feels less…well…”cold.”
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.
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.