Dental Content Marketing: Engaging Patients and Driving Growth

Most dental practices are similar. The same treatments, the same equipment, and the same information on pamphlets. Dental clinics are a dime a dozen. From the perspective of a patient, "there's one on almost every corner".

Hence, the only way you can distinguish yourself from others is the way you market yourself. Plus, the best way to attract patients is to give them value before they give you money. Therefore, your best bet is content marketing.‍

What is content marketing? And why is it important?

Content marketing is a popular marketing strategy that focuses on providing high value to its audience. It involves developing and sharing relevant data in various forms, such as articles, podcasts, educational memes, videos, etc. Who do you send it to? All current and potential clients.

Content marketing makes it easier to attract new customers and retain old ones by establishing expertise. By sending relevant information to your clients, you are showing them you care. Brands shape the perception an audience has about them through content marketing. They do it by setting themselves up as a partner instead of a company.

By doing so, they are humanizing themselves. Therefore, the customers think of the brand as a valuable source of information and guidance. Almost like a friend. Plus, it promotes your brand awareness and keeps your brand at the forefront of their thoughts.

So, when it comes time to buy, they buy from you.High-performing companies use content marketing because it helps them with the “high” in their performance. With content marketing, they can attract their target customers.

The resultant high customer volume means higher revenue numbers. And higher revenue numbers consequently lead to growth. Ultimately, that is the goal of any business, including dental practices.‍

How does content marketing work?

Similar to marketing strategy, your content marketing strategy should be developed around the sales funnel. Therefore, the content you use will be different for each stage in the funnel. You will connect better with your audience if you craft the content specifically for them.

Additionally, content creation becomes easier when you know who your audience is and where they are in the sales funnel. There are three stages in the sales funnel: awareness, consideration, and conversion. Each stage will use different content and marketing strategies.‍

Awareness

The customers in the awareness stage are just finding your practice. This is the stage where you build a relationship. Therefore, do not sell anything yet. Instead, focus on educational content.

Try to ease your audience’s pain points and challenges by providing information on it. Hence, create and deliver how-to, guides, and dental advice.

Set yourself as an expert in the field and promote brand recognition. ‍

Consideration

The content in the consideration stage is a balance of giving and taking. Half of it involves providing value through information, and the other half is a delicately crafted sales pitch.

Your focus is still on educating your audience, but the bottom line is telling them what you can help with. Tactfully mention your offerings and services in your content.

Conversion

At this stage, you have earned the right to be as sale-sy as you want. So, sell your services and let your audiences know what you do and how you do it. Your focus should still be on providing value to your customers. The volume of your audience will trickle down through the stages (hence the sales “funnel”) to a fraction of what they were in the awareness stages. However, this segment of the audience is close to converting into paying customers.

How does content marketing apply to dental practices?

Helps you reach your ideal audience

Before any sort of business begins setting up, they develop their ideal customer persona. A persona is a representation of your target demographic. By creating a customer persona, you are defining what an ideal client is for you.

Within content marketing, you are creating content that will attract the patient you are looking for. For instance, you are a wisdom tooth removal specialist. In your blog, you provide tips and hacks for wisdom tooth removal treatments. Since wisdom teeth are removed in the late teens and early 20s. Your target audience is anyone between the ages of 17 to 27.

It also happens to be an expensive procedure. Therefore, you narrow down your demographic to mid to high-income level people. So, someone similar will happen upon your blog and book an appointment. This is content marketing at work.

Content marketing ties into SEO

It is not enough to have a website anymore. Your online presence extends to blogs and social media, too. When you publish a blog, you select a title, the content you want to add, and the keywords that go along with it. Your blog establishes your expertise in the field. The content provides value to your audiences. The keywords or key phrases impact your ranking. Therefore, you should use SEO best practices.

The highest you rank, the better web traffic you generate.

Additionally, it makes your content easily searchable by prospective clients.Your website is where your clients can look up information and book appointments. However, your blog is where they will find advice and guidance. Your blog is asking for their money, whereas your blog is providing value. Moreover, you can direct your customers to your website from your blog.

It is excellent fodder for social media posts

Many businesses create social media posts from their content marketing by repurposing materials. Repurposing content is the easiest way to create posts. You do not have to spend a lot of time brainstorming ideas and developing captions.

For instance, you wrote a blog on braces for children. You included all the possible questions parents could have. What are dental braces? Why can a child need braces? Related treatments and procedures, along with pain management and aftercare. You also added statistics on how many children need dental braces and what happens if they do not get braces.You can segment this content into individual social media posts by repurposing the blog. One part involves the what and why. Another for how and when. Plus, another post for the stats.

There you have three social media posts and the content ready for it.