How many times has someone at your dental sleep practice recently said, “we need to do content marketing!”
Guesses are, you’re not the only one who's been part of those conversations, and we’re willing to bet you feel a bit overwhelmed and confused as to what content you should create or heck where to even begin!
We’re going to do our best to clear the air a bit to clarify what content you can create and why it is essential for your practice or organization.
What is content marketing?
Let’s first define the term. Here is the formal definition according to the Content Marketing Institue,
“Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience -- and ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”
Delivering value through content is the key concept here.
Content can become one of your most powerful marketing tools when done right. If you provide information that educates your patients on making better decisions for their sleep-related breathing issues, they’re more likely to read more of your content and ultimately buy from you! It’s a beautiful thing when it happens, and it will work for you.
Just remember, well-thought-out content that sparks action and leads to positive results is the name of the game.
You’re probably still wondering what types of content you can create to educate your existing patients and entice new ones to buy from me. Let’s dive in.
Three Examples of Content Marketing
Let’s start with one of the most common pieces of content many folks are familiar with and probably interact with daily.
Blog posts are written articles that you post on a blog for your audience. These pieces of content can be in the form of videos, images, text, audio recordings, you name it. Variety is always great to keep in mind as you create posts as it keeps your readers interested. Mixing in different types of content will not only entice your audience to digest more content from you, but it makes it easier for your readers to connect with you and your practice. People like to see that you’re more than just words on digital paper. Mix it up, show your face, share a little bit about yourself, and welcome your digital family as if they were meeting you for coffee or drinks for the first time.
Here a few examples of different types of content you can create for your blog.
Posts are also great for sharing your industry knowledge with prospective patients. Educating them on sleep apnea topics will serve you and your practice well to build trust with your patients and credibility in your respective field. Inform your patients on important sleep apnea topics and the steps to address their sleep issues.
By sharing more informative posts, you also increase your chances of patients finding your practice on Google.
If you want to go down a rabbit hole on how content can best be leveraged to push your Google rank up, scope out this post.
Utilizing videos as part of your content strategy is considered a must in today’s digital marketing world. Videos provide a more interactive experience for prospective patients to learn about the importance of sleep apnea prevention and take action with your practice or organization. In fact, many patients prefer to learn via video than reading a written post. With videos, you not only can establish trust with your patients, but you can make it easier and even fun to consume important information about sleep-related breathing disorders.
From a marketing perspective, videos serve as a useful piece of content for two main reasons.
Videos are great for social sharing.
With many of the major social networks, like Facebook, encouraging videos to be shared on their platform, entertaining, informative videos have the potential to reach a large scale audience and drive more traffic to your site.
Not to mention, people prefer to engage with videos than any other piece of content!
By incorporating videos into your marketing strategy, you open up the door to more potential patients finding, engaging, and ultimately purchasing with your practice or business.
Videos make it easier (and fun) to educate your audience.
Are you the type of person who doesn’t prefer to write about sleep-related breathing disorders? Or maybe you don’t have the time to get all your thoughts down on paper?
No sweat, how about sitting down for one to five minutes to create a video? Pretty painless, right?
Video marketing can be your best ally in regularly creating new content for your patients with minimal legwork. Your schedule is packed to the brim, and allocating the time to write a blog post may not be feasible. However, with video, you can create a piece of content on the same topic for a third of the time than if you would have written a post.
Less time needed to share useful information is always a good thing.
Along with making it easier for you to create new content, videos make it easier for your patients to learn about the importance of sleep-related breathing disorders. With any healthcare topic, viewers can feel overwhelmed by the technical jargon and become disinterested in the subject altogether. To help prevent that, using videos to explain a complex topic is an effective way to keep your audience engaged with the material and your practice or organization. By leveraging video, you bring the concept to life and demonstrate the importance and real impacts of the topic, making it simpler and easier to become educated on sleep apnea and reach out to you to learn more or seek treatment.
Sharing the treatment success stories with the world is probably the most effective type of content marketing you could create to attract new business. In the world of healthcare, people who are searching for and evaluating doctors for their sleep apnea care want to see the type of results you and your practice or organization have produced. Case studies with your existing patients are an extremely effective way to not only lure new folks in the door, but it validates your treatment methods and experience in your respective field.
How do I get started with content marketing?
If you have little to no experience “doing marketing”, believe us when we say you’re not alone. Taking on the marketing responsibilities along with the day to day operations of your practice or organization can be overwhelming, but have no fear because we have the solution for you.
Our content marketing package is the #1 marketing solution for dental sleep practices and organizations that makes it easier than ever to create the content you need to generate more awareness and leads.
If you want to learn more about content marketing, and how it can add value to your practice, drop us a line.