8 Content Marketing Tips for Dentists
Content marketing is one of the most effective strategies for building trust and authority and getting targeted traffic to your website. Blogs, videos, social media posts, podcasts, and other content help you position yourself as an industry expert and provide Google with relevant keywords for which you can rank.
However, content marketing is a rapidly evolving field. What was effective five years ago isn't necessarily going to work today. The following are some of the most powerful blogging strategies that will help you build your dental practice’s online presence in 2022 and beyond.
1. Connect with a Targeted Audience
As dental practices proliferate and compete for patients, it's essential to target your local area with precision. Look for ways to differentiate your practice from others in your area. Cover topics, products, and solutions that others aren't addressing. For example, if your Los Angeles practice offers oral surgery, seed your site with “oral surgery Los Angeles” and other similar keywords to advertise this relatively rare specialty. Use tools such as Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends to find popular topics. It's also helpful to look at lists of dental books on Amazon to see what’s selling.
2. Have a Clear Purpose
Digital marketing is more competitive than ever. In order to compete, you need to be focused and on-target with your messages. Your content will have more impact if you have a strategy and a clear sense of what you want to accomplish. For dentists, this means moving from vague, general goals like “find more patients for my practice” to more targeted goals like “rank on the front page for endodontists in my area.”
Before you create online content (or hire someone to create it for you), identify your goal. Include a call to action such as a link to a service page, an opt-in form, or an offer for a free trial. You always want to provide clear guidance that directs visitors to the next stage of your sales funnel.
3. Repurpose Content
It's always a challenge to come up with great new content for your blog, YouTube channel, podcast, or social media pages. While you do have to consistently create (or outsource) new content, you can make your task a little easier by updating and repurposing old content, which includes anything you've published in the past, such as articles and videos. In some cases, you can make old material relevant by updating links and statistics, and including references to new developments. If you've already published these on your blog, keep the same URL in order to retain any backlinks the post has gotten.
Another powerful repurposing tactic is to combine short posts into longer ones. There's ample evidence that long-form content of at least 2,000 words performs better than shorter content. One way to reap the benefits of longer content without spending hours writing it is to piece together existing shorter pieces. Combining four 500-word posts or two 1,000-word posts is an alternative to creating a new 2,000-word post. If you're doing this with older posts, keep the above tip in mind and make any needed updates.
4. Develop a Unique Style
Dentists usually have plenty of competition, especially in big cities like New York and LA where the market is saturated. If you haven't analyzed the competition recently, do a quick search and see how other practices in your area are managing their online presence. If there's little difference between their approach and yours, potential patients have no special reason to seek out your content. That's why it's so important to have a style and voice that sets you apart. That way, even though most dentists offer substantially similar services, you can build your own audience.
Identifying a USP (unique selling proposition) helps you address the right audience. Do you provide the highest quality, most affordable, latest, or quirkiest products? Your USP should inform your style and the topics you cover in your blog posts. Make sure you're speaking your audience's language. You can look at big brands for guidance in how they target their messages to specific audiences. Apple, for example, caters to higher-end tech-savvy customers who like user-friendly and cutting-edge features. Walmart appeals to customers who want a huge selection at bargain prices. Amazon's target market is people who want the ultimate convenience. Always address your particular audience.
5. Become an Expert (or Even More of One)
Expertise is one of the best ways to stand apart from other dentists. When people look for a dentist, they are reassured by individuals who have been practicing for a long time and who have a proven track record of good work.
• Keep up with the latest developments in your field, whether that’s general dentistry or subspecialities like orthodontics or dental implants. This is good for every area of your practice and it also gives you topics for blog posts. Set Google Alerts for relevant keywords so you stay current with new publications and news articles.
• Read, watch, listen. Read books and industry journals. Watch videos, lectures, and seminars. Listen to relevant podcasts.
• Attend events. Both live and virtual events such as lectures, seminars, and conferences are useful for staying informed as well as networking.
6. Answer Questions and Solve Problems
If you answer timely questions and solve pressing problems, you'll never have to worry about attracting an audience.
• Ask your patients what they need. Conduct polls and surveys. Invite patients to fill out feedback cards or emails.
• Check out Q&A sites such as Quora, Answers and Yahoo! Answers. People frequently ask questions about dentistry on these sites. Create blog posts answering specific dental concerns.
• Join online forums and groups. Discussion forums, Facebook groups, and Reddit (find relevant subReddits) are all helpful sources to identify what people want to know about dentistry.
• Browse Amazon's Bestseller lists. Popular dentistry books provide a clue to what topics your potential patients are interested in.
• Use online tools and services. Moz is a good source for finding out what keywords people are searching for. You can get a lot out of the free version, but if you want greater searching power, upgrade. A similar tool for finding popular content is Content Explorer by Ahrefs.
7. Incorporate Interesting Visuals
The internet is getting more and more visually oriented. Images don't only make your blog posts more compelling, they make your content more memorable. According to the popular book Brain Rules by John Medina, people who hear information only recall 10% of it three days later. If an image accompanies the information, however, they recall 65%.
Text and visuals don’t need to compete. Instead, combine the two to create multifaceted content that reaches people on several levels. Photos, infographics, and videos can all enhance a text post. You can subscribe to paid image services such as iStock or use free ones such as Pixabay and Unsplash. Be careful about using images with restrictions as you don't want to face accusations of copyright violation. There are many places to find royalty-free images online. Embedding a relevant YouTube video is another way to make your post more visually interesting.
When using images, keep in mind that they should be relevant to your topic. A beautiful sunset or cute puppy photo may be nice to look at, but it won't really enhance a post about the necessity of regular dental checkups. Avoid stock photos and generic-looking images. If you really want to give your blog a distinctive look, publish your own photos, or have custom images created. You can use tools such as Canva for this, or outsource it to designers.
8. Find Partners
In some cases, it's helpful to reach out to experts in your industry, or other content creators, to form strategic alliances. Guest blogging is nothing new, but it's still a viable way to get great content without writing it yourself. Many bloggers are glad to let you use their content in exchange for a link back to their site.
Developing relationships with influencers can help you build a larger following. Find people your audience respects, and approach them with your products and services. While influencer marketing is often associated with social media (e.g. getting an influencer to endorse you on TikTok or Instagram), it can also be incorporated into your blogging strategy. If someone with a large following can genuinely endorse your products or services, they might link to your blog from their own blog, social media account, or YouTube channel.
Another tactic is to interview experts. For a blog, you don't necessarily have to interview the person in real-time. You can correspond via email and they can send you the answers. If you interview people on other media such as webinars or podcasts, you can transcribe the interviews and turn them into blog posts.
Content Marketing is as Relevant as Ever
Content marketing is a powerful technique for generating website traffic and building your dental practice. It lets you create an ever-growing library of content on your website for both readers and search engines. It shows the world that you're committed to your business and that you're aware of the latest developments in the dental industry. Creating engaging content requires consistency and a certain amount of discipline, but it's well worth the effort. The above guidelines will help you turn your website and other digital properties into brand-building, traffic-generating tools for your practice.
Isaac is the CEO of Proactive SEO Solutions, a digital marketing company in Long Beach, CA. He has helped hundreds of dental practices increase their organic leads via SEO, revenue minded Google Ads and dynamic web design since 2003.
References
brainrules.net/vision
techradar.com/best/free-stock-photos
moz.com
ahrefs.com/content-explorer