In today’s digital age, content marketing has become one of the most successful ways to promote your business. Savvy business owners know this in a challenging competitive environment such as dentistry.
As such, they use this technique to promote their dental services and build a robust online presence.
Before diving into the art of content marketing for dentists and the pitfalls to avoid, let’s assume that you want to promote your dental business but know little about marketing.
What is content marketing?
In a nutshell, content marketing involves formulating and sharing quality, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience.
Content can be anything from timely blog posts to regular newsletters, downloadable guides, and even social media posts, and they should work in harmony to drive traffic to your website.
When carried out correctly, content marketing allows you to establish expertise, build trust and position yourself as the go-to dentist in your area. The result is greater footfall and an increased bottom line.
Now you know what content marketing is, let’s look at some tips on the right way to construct great content that captures your target audience.
Tip #1 – Know your target demographic
Before creating targeted content, it’s essential to know who your target audience is.
If you know your audience demographic, interests and pain points, creating content that resonates with them becomes easier.
A detailed understanding of your target audience can help you improve your website search ranking. Once you know what piques the interest of your readers, it allows you to carry out more in-depth keyword research, and you can use this as a basis to create relevant content.
So how do you define your target demographic?
Several online tools can help you with your research. The first is Google Analytics.
If you have this installed on your website, and you most definitely should, it allows you to find out information about your visitors, such as age, gender and where they reside.
Other ways involve looking at your patient data. What age group makes up the majority of your clientele?
Is it families with young children, or do you have more senior patients?
What dental problems or issues do they have?
Once you know this, creating content targeted to their specific needs becomes easier.
Tip #2 – Make your content educational
Educational content should be your top priority when marketing for dentists. That doesn’t mean it has to be boring. Content can still be fun and interesting. But remember, your patients are typically looking for information to better help them care for their oral health. So try to create content that addresses those needs.
Content can include stuff like:
- Dental hygiene tips
- Detailed information on specific dental procedures
- The latest oral health news, etc.
By writing educational content, you are, in effect, positioning yourself as a helpful authority and someone a potential patient can trust. As you probably know, in dentistry, building trust is essential.
If you need some ideas, here’s a helpful post I wrote back in 2016 entitled 27 dental blogging ideas for self-blogging dentists
Tip #3 – Make use of visuals
Here’s the thing, people devour content in different ways. Some (like me) prefer to read content, while others are more visual learners. If the stats are to be believed, most people are visual learners, and there are a whole bunch of psychological reasons why that is.
I’ll attach a post about that here if you want to know more. It does make for interesting reading.
Consider using various mediums like infographics, images and videos to make content appear more engaging.
Also, how about utilising images and videos to showcase your practice and your team? Additionally, infographics can help simplify complex information and make it fun.
Ideally, you don’t want to alienate your audience, so aim to make your content diverse.
Tip #4 – Be consistent
Consistency is vital when it comes to content marketing for dentists. Listen to any marketer, and they’ll give you a million and one reasons why consistent content matters. In fact, I’ve written a post myself on this very subject.
The great thing about content is that it’s a cost-effective way of marketing that levels up the playing field for small businesses while giving you a commanding online presence.
The more content you pump out, the more visible your dental business becomes.
But that’s not all:
When you start to gain content subscribers (and you will), it’s even more important to be consistent.
Why?
Because people are creatures of habit, and if they like to read your content, they want to receive it regularly, so don’t disappoint.
There’s nothing more off-putting than receiving a great bit of content one week, only to wait several weeks before the next piece drops into their inbox.
Consistency matters!
To help, create a content calendar and stick to it. Publishing regular content keeps audiences engaged.
If you aren’t sure how to create a content calendar, don’t worry; I’ve covered a blogging plan and how to create one in detail. I’ll attach the link here.
Tip #5 – Avoid making false claims
As a dentist, you know only too well the financial consequences of making false advertising claims. You have an ethical obligation to provide accurate and truthful information. Therefore a good understanding of the regulations laid down by the ADA, GDC or AHPRA is crucial.
Take care using statements around ‘expertise’ or ‘pricing’; instead, focus more on providing valuable information using different types of content to build trust with your audience.
So, now we’ve looked at the top tips of content marketing for dentists, let’s examine some pitfalls you should definitely avoid.
Pitfalls of Content Marketing For Dentists
Pitfall #1 – Writing for an 8th-grade level
One of the most popular myths in content writing is that you need to dumb down your content so that everyone can read it.
This is not true.
You don’t need to write for an 8th-grade class if your target audience is working parents or business owners like you. You only need to do that if your intended audience is, in fact, an 8-th grade class.
Instead, understand the levels of expertise of your audience and write with this in mind. Remember, your key aim is to educate. Explaining technical processes in easy-to-understand terms makes your content far easier to engage with and relate to.
So let’s say you want to talk about the technical aspects of how implants reach stability in the mouth. It’s no good talking about osseointegration unless you explain what it is.
So, you could say something like:
“Once the implant is inserted into the jaw, a natural process known as osseointegration occurs over time. This is where surrounding bone tissue fuses with the implant to form a stable platform to support a dental crown or bridge”.
So while you’re not dumbing any content down to 8th-grade levels, you are breaking it down and explaining it to your target audience. Therein lies the difference.
Pitfall #2 – Ignoring SEO
While you should write content for an audience first and foremost, you must also consider SEO.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is crucial for getting your content to appear in the search engines. So you should be looking to base content around relevant keywords your target audience uses. This is ‘Content Marketing For Dentists 101!’
It’s inappropriate to go into the specifics of dental SEO in this post – well, I could, but it would make for a mightily long read and take this content off-topic. That isn’t what I want.
So Instead, I’ve found a great guide explaining everything you need to know. I’ll link to it here.
The bottom line is that great content takes time to produce, so it would be a waste of time if no one picks up what you’re laying down. So always, always write with one eye on search intent.
Pitfall #3 – Not having a current on-site blog
Consider your website as your online storefront – one that’s open for business 24/7. What a dental website should never be is something you create and forget. A neglected website can hurt your practice’s online presence, so it needs to be updated regularly.
One of the best ways to update your content is by writing blogs.
Regular blogging is easy, yet I’d say that around 75% of all dental websites I see don’t have an up-to-date blog.
Regular on-site blogging serves several purposes.
Firstly, It adds fresh content to your site. Every time you add content, it’s another page linking back to your site and, therefore, another chance for potential patients to find you.
Secondly, Google shows a preference for sites that are regularly updated. As such, provided they contain highly relevant, quality content, Google will rank them higher than a website with no fresh content or showing apparent neglect.
Thirdly, ranking in the organic search results costs nothing, unlike paid advertising methods, so it’s a form of free advertising.
Essentially, on-site blogging should be a priority when considering content marketing for dentists. Dental blogging gives you a solid base to grow your dental practice in a highly competitive market while projecting your brand image to your desired target audience.
In conclusion
Content marketing for dentists doesn’t have to be complex, but it does take a certain amount of planning. Once initiated, it’s a powerful tool for dentists looking to build their online presence and engage with their intended audience.
By following these tips and avoiding the pitfalls, you can use them to develop a commanding marketing strategy that brings new patients and increases your bottom line.
If you are interested in increasing your content marketing capability or you want to make a start, I can help you plan, strategise and write your content.
Contact me today; I’d love to hear from you.