A recent conversation with a dental professional gave me a key insight. Here it is…

There’s a big disconnect about the wording of effective dental content.

Our back-and-forth discussion via email prompted my thinking about the clinical vs. conversational tone of dental copy in general. His respectable clinical expertise was somewhat toe-to-toe with my copy and content writing expertise.

I believe there’s a win-win to be achieved. But…the ultimate “win” is for those who consume the practice’s content…or at least it should be.

It’s not about you!

Your top challenge as a dental professional (specifically with your marketing copy and content) is taking the focus off YOU! It’s easy to throw down words touting your latest…greatest…state-of-the-art…cutting edge (shall I continue) innovation or procedure. Add to that the often used technical verbiage that’s more appropriate for clinical journals and colleague conversations.

For this discussion let’s say that dental marketing copy and content has two sole purposes:

1. To inform and educate. This is perhaps where my recent conversation ran off the rails. It’s a mistaken notion that informative must equate to industry jargon.

Which leads to the second purpose…

2. To compel a specific action – schedule, call, contact, click, reply, etc… This assumes that the dental-services-seeking public are interested in what eliminates their pain, improves their appearance and health, or both.

Dental content is about the reader (patient). It’s their “story” that matters.

So, who are you talking to?

This question must guide every piece of content you publish. It’s where I begin when I’m writing copy and content of any scope.

It’s essential that you create a copy/content “environment” where the reader is the focus. It’s THEIR problem that requires a solution or THEIR question that needs answering.

The result of your sensitivity to them and their problems and questions is where you make connections. And when your copy/content is the vehicle that delivers you could earn a patient or client for life.

Who’s talking?

Apparently tons of people are willing to talk about businesses that make an impression on them. Forester Research confirms that approximately 500 billion word-of-mouth impressions are created daily via social media.

Social interaction is making a difference on the economy. The big question: is it positively impacting yours?

Get this…McKinsey and Company, a management consulting firm, reveal that an estimated two-thirds of the US economy is fueled by word-of-mouth. fn

Let that sink in…

• 500 billion conversational impressions
• Two thirds of the US economy influenced by conversations

The “talk-is-cheap” mantra might best be repackaged as talk-has-extreme-value! Today’s “water-cooler” gatherings are vastly different than a decade ago…and enhancing those connections is helped by the tone of your copy and content.

How a conversational mindset can have a longterm…viral impact on your patient or client relationships

1. “Talk” (write) about what matters…to your reader. It’s essential that you listen and then leverage what you hear into solution oriented content. Make sure your expertise (and the language you use about it) isn’t the focus as much as how it solves their problems and/or answers their burning question(s) of the moment.
2. Use words that resonate and those that compel your reader. Again, avoid fancy, heady, intellectual, jargon-y sounding language. Find and use relevant synonyms that create culturally appropriate images in your reader’s mind.

Word-of-mouth impressions are powerful because they’re everyday and conversationally driven. Writing like you (and your patients and/or clients) talk keeps the conversation going…and that leads to longterm, healthy relationships.