Where I recently hiked is not for the directionally challenged. And I quickly discovered something about maps that has helped me find my way more than once.

The same could be said of your current location on the dental marketing grid. Marketing your dental services has value relative to what you know and understand about the new marketing landscape.

Hiking or driving, I can typically find my way around. Once I’ve learned the lay-of-the-land I can move about with few, if any, navigational problems.

And I’ve discovered something about maps. They’re most valuable when you know where you are relative to where you began (e.g. my recent hiking experience) and, of course, where you’re going.

“If you don’t know where you’re going…

You probably think I’ll finish the sentence by saying, “…you’ll probably end up someplace else…,” right? And you’d be partially correct.

The bigger challenge related to your dental marketing strategy is – “If you don’t know where you’re going, you…aren’t listening to your dental patients or dental clients.”

This might seem a bit presumptuous or harsh. But the truth is, you might be making too many assumptions and not enough asks.

Asked and answered is the-new-black

It’s easy to assume that your dental website is all you need. Set-it-and-forget-it seems to be the common strategy I find in my consultations these days.

Here’s the deal:

A dental website is a platform not a stand-alone marketing strategy.

The true value of your dental website is how you leverage it with useful information by listening to your “audience.” Not all information is necessary or useful – know the difference.

Evaluate the information you’re sharing on your website. Your “Home,” “About Us,” and “Services” pages are not the most effective place to provide value to your readers.

Why? These are quick-scan, credibility enhancing pages.

Most of your site visitors are quick to click away from them unless you’re doing something fresh and different with a strategic portion of the content (I’ll talk about that in a moment).

Think like your site visitors

It’s easy for educated professionals and providers to believe that website visitors/readers are as enamored with your latest-and-greatest whatever as you are. They (like you, perhaps) can sniff hype, fluff, and feature-focused web content that does nothing more than enjoy the sound of it’s own voice.

Ask yourself why someone is visiting your website. Why would you visit and stick around to read content on your website if you were them?

How easy is it to find an answer to a common dental question (e.g. mouth pain, cosmetic dental treatment, straight teeth, etc.)?

On a map or compass “north” is a common reference point. As my recent hiking experience revealed, “true-north” has value if I knew where I started and where I needed to arrive when my hike was finished.

True-North: What it pays to know about your dental website content that will help you answer more questions and guide readers to the solutions they’re looking for.

1-Design your dental website to be a digital marketing platform.

These days two things will be obvious about your website. It’s either a digital (electronic) brochure or it’s a digital media platform (content delivery system).

People scan and toss brochures. On the other hand, people read, digest, search, bookmark, tag, share, revisit, and bottom-line, give you their trust as result of useful, valuable content delivered via an informative website (platform).

The choice is yours!

Create informative dental blog posts that answer the questions you’re hearing from your patient’s/client’s comments via reviews, post-appointment surveys, chair side consults, etc.

2-Make your dental blog/article page the front-door of your dental website platform.

Replace bloated, fluff Home, About Us, Services/Procedures page content with brief (250-400 words), crisp, benefit-focused, call-to-action content that links to your blog/article page (for starters).

3-Allow your dental marketing to evolve and revolve around content that informs and educates more than content that hypes and promotes.

There’s only so much you can say about “Improving Your Smile…” and all the overused, numbing dental marketing-speak that’s saturating today’s mailboxes and in-boxes. Enough, already!

Dig for more emotional-gold in your patient or client’s questions and comments. Ask them to explain “attractive smile.” What does that mean to them – more dates, greater confidence at work, feeling beautiful on their wedding day, etc?

Write content that taps into emotion. Inform with benefits more than you highlight your practice amenities or business success (Hint: if you use state-of-the-art, cutting edge or some other overused, numbing phrase to promote it).

Landmarks matter whether you’re hiking or marketing dental services. You’ll reach your desired destination if you follow the right reference points on an updated map.