We live in an age of information. Google has become our confidant, our 3.00A.M medical advisor and our trusted counsellor and guide.   But for business the key role these search engines play is that they generate opportunity. The internet allows us opportunity to reach out and connect with patients in ways we never thought possible.  This massive online world is an unavoidable tool in terms of marketing, visibility and branding. But the World Wide Web is also a train pushing information, most of it highly irrelevant, towards our customers at an alarming rate. So, how do you make sure your information reaches the right people at the right time to help them make the right decisions and choose your practice over others? Unfortunately, the current craze around SEO and keyword insertion, means businesses are more focused on content and less on value. And this is where they make the biggest mistake.  Hence, this week, we decode the secret to great content that will make the search engines happy and your patients happier. Here is everything you need to know.

Content Tip 1: Why is Content Important?

What do you do when you are looking for a good place to buy Lebanese food in your suburb? Or to book tickets? Or to look for accommodation out of town? You ask the ultimate resource of information – the internet. And while, the internet, or more specifically the search engines, may not have personally experienced the products and services that it recommends on its SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) it has sieved the information through complex algorithms to ensure the data is accurate and helpful.  As a practice owner, having value-adding content ensures that any internet user searching for a dentist in your area is directed to your doorstep. And that is exactly how and why content has become king in this Digital Age. 

Content Tip 2: You Need to Get Some Help

Did you open a clinic and hang a sign on the door and wait for patients to pour in? No you didn’t right! You had professional help – real estate agents – designers – fit out specialists. Just like not everyone can fix their teeth all on their own, you may not be good at writing targeted and consistent content in order to generate the right traffic to your website and your practice. The fact is, a professional from any business will provide technical information, which may be valuable, but it will not be interesting to read, hence, pretty ineffective in generating the right outcomes.  A professional content writer will be able to share all the technical aspects of your business in an interesting and engaging way, that will deliver your business’s voice without losing its integrity and uniqueness.

Content Tip 3: Share Stories that Connect

But for how long can you really talk about dental procedures in your content.? The internet is brimming with information on all dental procedures, technological advances in the industry and all the oral health precautions and care one needs to read. What you need instead is YOUR story out there. Why do you do what you do? What brought you to where you are today? Your story is unique and nobody can take that away from you. To create engaging and valuable content, you need to open up a little and let your potential patients – visitors to your website – take a sneak peak into what makes your practice so special. Share stories about the experiences your patients have with you and your team.  These stories could be as simple as a case study of a little kid who refused to sit in the chair. There are so many unique, day to day stories that could be turned into engaging and value adding content. 

Content Tip 4: Generate different Types of Content

There are different types of content for different types of needs and target audiences.  For instance, you will need to be straight forward and to the point when writing your mission statements or procedures or booking details. However, you will need a very relaxed and conversational tone when writing newsletters and blogs.  You will also need to seek assistance from an SEO expert to target the right keywords in order to generate the right traffic and to ‘fix up your content’ in order to please the search engine algorithms.

Content Tip 5: Structure of a Good Blog

Nobody wants to read a 1000 word document with no end in sight. Quality content relies as much on words as it does on visuals. Ideally, break the blog into different sections, add a lot of subheadings to make it easier to read. Not everyone would like to read an entire blog, subheadings make it easier to understand and make the content more visually appealing. 

Content Tip 6: Bring Personality to Your Content

When it comes to personalising content, it really can get difficult to understand how much is too much. In a nutshell, any and every information about yourself or your business that can add value to the relationship you are building your potential patient is the right information. So while your potential patient doesn’t know who used to fix your teeth as a kid, they would be interested in knowing how that person inspired you to pursue a career in dentistry.  Any transaction and relationship is based on trust. By opening up about yourself you allow patients to identify with you, and form a bond of trust with you. 

Content Tip 7: Have a Plan

You know why content is important, but you need to know why you are posting content and who you want to reach with a particular piece of content.  Any content without a plan is like playing tennis without a ball. You keep swinging your racket in hope that someday a ball will come and you can hit it. You need to have set targets that you wish to achieve with your content. Are you trying to introduce a new procedure or spread awareness about the importance of dental health or perhaps wanting to increase your patient base for a specific treatment. Having a plan helps generate targeted results. It also helps you to track the success of your content. You can then assess what is working and what is not. This will help refine your content and when and where you post it. As you refine your content the impact it will have in connecting with patients will grow. And your content will become a crucial patient funnel for your practice.  

P.S. Whenever you’re ready …. here are 4 ways I can help you grow your dental practice:

1. Grab a free chapter from my book “Retention – How to Plug the #1 Profit Leak in Your Dental Practice”

The book is the definitive guide to patient retention and how to use internal marketing to grow your practice – Click Here

2. Join the Savvy Dentist community and connect with dentists who are scaling their practice too

It’s our Facebook group where clever dentists learn to become commercially smart so that they have more patients, more profit and less stress. – Click Here

3. Attend a Practice Max Intensive live event

Our 2 day immersive events provide access to the latest entrepreneurial thinking and actionable strategies to drive your practice forward. You’ll leave with a game plan to take your results to the next level. If you’d like to join us, just send me a message with the word “Event and I’ll get you all the details!  – Click here

4. Work with me and my team privately

If you’d like to work directly with me and my team to take your profit from 6 figures to 7 figures …. just send me a message with the word “Private”… tell me a little about your practice and what you would like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here

How important is face to face patient support in times of text reminders, emails, online booking systems and chat bots? Well, extremely important. Actually, more important now than ever before! Dentistry requires close human contact; so that means trust is everything. Human interaction and connection helps to build trust. A potential patient and even those adored regular patients all connect with the front desk reception team before they connect with the dentist. Hence, that first impression is made when the patient walks in the door, or gets in touch with your business via email or phone. That interaction is extremely important. You need to invest your time and efforts to fix that first impression in order to run a successful and scalable practice. Here’s everything you need to know on how to go about it:

Tip 1: Be Welcoming and Smile

We all dread that grumpy receptionist at the front desk, the one that asks more questions than she answers, the one that makes the experience of going to a dentist all the more stressful and nerve-wrecking. That person costs the practice big dollars in lost opportunity and lost patients.  Everything about you and your team members, including the DA, the receptionist, and any other person that a patient will interact with needs to be welcoming, approachable and replicate the service you want your patients to receive.  You need to have a smile on your face, and be welcoming and compassionate. The fact is, you will get patients from all walks of life. There may be that person who has had a bad day at work, a person going through divorce, someone coming to the dentist for the first time because they couldn’t avoid it anymore or a kid who is scared of needles. The last thing they want to feel is unwelcome and uncomfortable. Be a willing helper,  be sensitive and compassionate before you are the person who books appointments or fixes their teeth. 

Top 2: Listen For What Is Being Asked Of You

Our minds are occupied with so much information that our attention spans are minimal. Hence, it has become quite difficult to remain focused in the present. Sure, you’d like to respond to emails and heed to patient’s queries all at the same time, but that makes you lose focus and a lot is lost in translation. It is imperative that you truly listen to what is being asked of you. So if a patient asks you if the doctor is nice, then they may be a little nervous and looking for some comfort or reassurance. Reassure them that they are in good hands. 

Top Tip 3: Hire People with the Right Skills so they own the job

Just like a dentist is not taught much about running a business, a nurse or dental assistant doesn’t know much about handling the front desk. Investing in the right skill set will render you the right returns. The chances are, saving money on a professional receptionist will cost you more in patients and referrals than it will save you. Having team members job sharing between reception and DA duties can be a disaster. Let me put it to you another way. People go into being a Receptionists and being a Dental Assistant for different reasons. They want to achieve the success that professional role offers them and that they have trained them for.  We want our team members to own their roles and responsibilities. It is very hard to fully own a role when you are not fully immersed in it.  

Top Tip 4: Dress Well

This is probably the last thing you’d see a dental practice focus on. What does it matter what you wear as long as you know how to answer the phone and handle the tools! It matters a lot because your appearance sets the tone for you. It creates that first impression without uttering a word. For starters, all team members should be in clean and crisp uniforms. A uniform shows the professionalism of a practice.  It gives the appearance of a practice that takes it work and responsibilities seriously. Just like you wouldn’t walk into a night club wearing sports gear or a cocktail party wearing pyjamas, you shouldn’t be walking into work looking shabby. It just makes you look uncaring and disinterested. 

Top Tip 5: Keep Your Team Happy

If you look after your team they will look after your patients! Humans are pretty intuitive. You could walk into a room and feel uneasy or uncomfortable without anyone having to say anything. This is because unhappy spaces give off negative vibes. By keeping your team members happy, you set the tone for your patients. Your team members will channel that love and respect to your patients.  The only way to keep the team happy is to stay in the loop with them. Conduct regular meetings, take them out for lunches, acknowledge and appreciate their hard work and always listen to what they have to say by respecting their input. All of this helps retain good employees which will positively reflect on your practice and your patients. 

Top Top 6: Keep your Patients Happy

Same goes for your patients. It costs much less to retain patients than it does to attract new ones. If your practice is able to retain patients in the long run, then you wouldn’t even have to invest much in marketing. A happy patient will be more likely to refer you to those in their sphere of influence. The happy experience begins and ends at the front desk. Your receptionist is the point of contact and the last first. You could also show appreciation for their loyalty in the form of little thoughtful notes, post-surgery phone calls or even a little gift sent out to their home or their inbox to show that you care. The patient is more than happy to rave about the dentist and his team that go the extra mile to make their patients feel special. 

The fact is, making the patient experience a great one isn’t just the responsibility of the practice owner or even the practice manager, this responsibility is shared by everyone the patient interacts with. The front desk, in particular, needs to make the patient feel welcomed and comfortable. A customer service means happy patients that would love to walk through those doors again and again, and perhaps even bring more people with them. So be sure that you don’t underestimate the importance and value the front desk brings to the practice. If you’d like to know more about our workshops on this topic, please visit savvydentist.com/front desk to see when we’d be visiting the city nearest to you. We’d love to see you there!

P.S. Whenever you’re ready …. here are 4 ways I can help you grow your dental practice:

1. Grab a free chapter from my book “Retention – How to Plug the #1 Profit Leak in Your Dental Practice”

The book is the definitive guide to patient retention and how to use internal marketing to grow your practice – Click Here

2. Join the Savvy Dentist community and connect with dentists who are scaling their practice too

It’s our Facebook group where clever dentists learn to become commercially smart so that they have more patients, more profit and less stress. – Click Here

3. Attend a Practice Max Intensive live event

Our 2 day immersive events provide access to the latest entrepreneurial thinking and actionable strategies to drive your practice forward. You’ll leave with a game plan to take your results to the next level. If you’d like to join us, just send me a message with the word “Event and I’ll get you all the details!  – Click here

4. Work with me and my team privately

If you’d like to work directly with me and my team to take your profit from 6 figures to 7 figures …. just send me a message with the word “Private”… tell me a little about your practice and what you would like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here

If you haven’t introduced your practice to the world of digital and social media marketing, then, you are definitely not living in 2020. In social media, the first name that comes to mind is Facebook. But did you know that Instagram is fast turning into the real king – giving your practice access to a broad range of potential patients unavailable elsewhere?  According to stats, Instagram is one of the fastest growing social media platforms. In Australia alone, there are around 9.5 million users. That’s about 40% of the local population! There are amazing features and applications on Instagram that allow for businesses to achieve massive follower growth, very quickly. Hence, if your dentistry services haven’t been featured on Instagram, you are missing out on the opportunity to connect with a huge chunk of potential patients.  Here are 7 Instagram Hacks that will make your business generate more leads than ever before.   

Hack 1: Expressive and Searchable Username

Did you know that other than the Hashtags, the only other way someone can search you on Insta is through username? This means that you can use this to your advantage by coming up with a username that is not your business name, but a keyword that people may use to search businesses like yours.  For example, if you have a dental service by the name of Happy Dentist, don’t just name your username that, also add the location, like Happy Dentist Canberra. What you can also do is use an emoji in between the name of the service and its location. These emoji also add relevance and interest in your username and people are more likely to find them through the search bar of Instagram. 

Hack 2: Gaining Attention with Bio Section

You might have noticed how boring and bland the bio section that is used by most people and particularly businesses. This is the reason that nobody reads it with interest and most definitely never remembers it. You go grab attention by creating a bio section that is in bullets that are designed to highlight key features and services of your practice. Make sure you write relevant info which makes clear direct points. Then put in a link to your dental practice site. 

Hack 3: Linking Intelligently with Linking Tree

Instead of using the app link tree, ask your website designer to create the same idea of link tree on your website, so that when people click on your website link, they are shown a box that is a kind of call to action, guiding them to all the places you need them to check out. They can visit your blog, gallery, price list, services and whatever other information you think is necessary for your patients to see. You can even add a video on the landing page, in which you welcome them, thank them and guide them on what they can do to find out more about you. 

Hack 4: Personalise your Brand and Content

It is important you don’t weaken the identification of your practice or brand by not remaining consistent. This does not refer to not posting regularly, but simply that you remain true to your brand. It includes the use of the same fonts, colours, pictures, styles and more. You have to ensure that everything is coordinated and related to each other every time you create a new post. This way, people will be able to recognise your posts and know who it is they are looking at and how to find you from the crowd. 

Hack 5: Creating Intentional and Brand Integrated Posts

It is important that all your posts, images, messages and stories be related to each other to make a consolidated whole. This is the brand image that you are trying to create for your audience. Only this is what will help them remember your product or services and want to come to you for their dental needs. Don’t post individually, but create a kind of pattern in all your posts that show the true picture of your brand. Try using Skid Social for your planning needs. 

Hack 6: Socialising on Social Media

It may seem that you as a business do not need to make friends, but you do. The more you interact with the right crowd, the more you will be remembered and people will come to you, and refer you to others. Comment and interact with other businesses and they will most definitely send clients your way. 

Hack 7: Custom Audience in Instagram Advertising

This is a feature that is available on both Facebook and Instagram, creating custom audience with ads. You can increase the potential of your business and outreach by opting for ads that will target the audience that have already visited your business page. This way they will see you more often in their Instafeed and are bound to think of your business when they have need of such services or products.  These 7 hacks are bound to improve your business venture through use of Instagram.

Here are the Bonus Hacks I promised you!

Want some more ways to get ahead of other dental practices on Instagram? Here are some bonus hacks for you.

• Telling a Tale through Instagram Story: There is simply nothing more hot selling, than the story section of Instagram. People absolutely love scrolling through their feed, and finding out what is happening where. Stories allow them to quickly find out what’s important, without having to read an entire post that may or may not be of relevance to them. Businesses can garner interest by elements of surprise woven in their stories. 
• Slider stickers help in increasing retention of target audience. You can use any from the six available to generate interest and make the audience come back for more. You can even create contests to make sure the customers are hooked. 
• In the stories you can’t directly add the link to your business website unless you have more than 10,000 followers. What you can do though is, add your username, and also add a click here sticker on the username. This way people will be led to your bio page and from there can access the website!

Just remember, the key to successful patient growth from Instagram is consistency. Unless you post relevant content consistently, you won’t be able to engage with potential patients, who can very well turn into loyal customers.  P.S. Whenever you’re ready …. here are 4 ways I can help you grow your dental practice:

1. Grab a free chapter from my book “Retention – How to Plug the #1 Profit Leak in Your Dental Practice”

The book is the definitive guide to patient retention and how to use internal marketing to grow your practice – Click Here

2. Join the Savvy Dentist community and connect with dentists who are scaling their practice too

It’s our Facebook group where clever dentists learn to become commercially smart so that they have more patients, more profit and less stress. – Click Here

3. Attend a Practice Max Intensive live event

Our 2 day immersive events provide access to the latest entrepreneurial thinking and actionable strategies to drive your practice forward. You’ll leave with a game plan to take your results to the next level. If you’d like to join us, just send me a message with the word “Event and I’ll get you all the details!  – Click here

4. Work with me and my team privately

If you’d like to work directly with me and my team to take your profit from 6 figures to 7 figures …. just send me a message with the word “Private”… tell me a little about your practice and what you would like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here  

If you have been a regular listener on my Savvy Dentist Podcast, you may know I have achieved the 200^th episode mark. This episode is all about what I learned from my guests in my 4 years of podcasting and how I have managed to build an audience and have them return over and over again. The strategies I use to get my audience back are the same strategies you can use to keep your dental patients coming back through your door.  We all want to connect with our patients in between visits. Your patient base is your audience. Anyone you are marketing to is your audience. So, delve into my 5 secret tips for building an audience. It doesn’t matter whether your building a podcast audience or a patient base – these secret tips will give you the edge and are rarely considered. 

1. Consistency is Key

There is essentially nothing more important in business than being consistent in what you do. If you follow a certain routine one day and decide to quit it the next, your colleagues and team will feel muddled about your strategy. Can they really rely on someone who is not sure about their own game? Why would patients they come to you if they can’t trust the fact that you are there for them in their time of need? Managing time so that a proper system is created for you proving reliable is what will set you apart. 

Same in the case of a podcast. You need to set up a time and date for your recordings. Build discipline and structure around your agenda. The podcast needs to be published weekly, so that the audience knows they have something to look forward to and they can depend on your presence. You will struggle at the newness of the task, but systemise and results will be apparent in a short period of time. Learn to create boundaries around your time. As Jim Ryan rightly said, “We all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret”. Opt for pain of discipline to avoid pain of regret. 

2. Communication Creates Connections

This is the digital age. Everything is present in the form of written word or pictures. It is fantastic as it allows for far reaching messages. But it has led to certain restrictions. Communication, real talk, one-on-one chats are fast becoming a thing of the past, and this is what is pushing people away from each other. When it comes to business relationships, they can only be strengthened with communication. An email is good, but it is not enough. You need to develop empathy and connection with your patient and your audiences – which includes your potential patients. 

What is even more important to understand is that communication is not just talking, it is the ability to connect. Making a connection means saying something relevant and that the audience may think about for a little while, or may jog a memory, or lead them to act on an idea or create interest or  desire. So, make sure you are sending messages that will be understood the way you intend them. Aim not to inform but to connect with your audience. This is why it is necessary to choose words with care, so that they generate not just an impact, but also lead to influence. Hence the reason why your communication needs to create a connection.

3. Keep Your Word!

This is something that you need to learn early on. If you have committed to something, then be sure to follow up on it. If you promise something in your marketing make sure you deliver it.  It is what develops trust and reliability among target audience and patients. When you keep your word, even when you aren’t absolutely sure about something, people who deal with you realise that your business is one they can depend on and is honourable, trustworthy.

4. Take the Plunge

There comes a point in time, where you just have to make the leap. You can’t continue to wait around and think this is not the right time, or I will begin when I have better equipment, or better ideas, or more money to invest in my marketing. If you feel that you can do something, even if it is simple, just get into it. Thinking of making a video that you think others can benefit from? Pick up your phone and make it. Want to start your own YouTube channel or podcast station? Get on your iPhone right now. Don’t worry about the quality of the video, or the lack of professionalism. There has to be a first time and this is yours! You never know when a video or audio may go viral.

5. Knowledge Leads to Impact

Many business people are under the impression that they know best. This is the beginning of their downfall. Knowledge is never perfect, nor complete. We are always in need of mind growth. And where can that come from? By connecting to people from various walks of life. You will be surprised by how much you learn when talking to different people who experience a life different to your own.  Every time you question someone, they will leave you with some thoughts and ideas that you may never have come across before. So, it’s simple. Get to know your patients so you can connect with them better. Ask about their family, their kids school, their careers, their hobbies and habits. 

This connection to others is what expands your thought process. You discover nuggets of information that you can use and lay out for others to ponder. Useful information, when gained, is always multiplied. And this is what your patients and audience will come to expect from you and will then anticipate each time they hear from you.  They will know that you are the source they can count on. You can share a patient’s story with other’s. You may have a patient that climbed mountains in Nepal, or won an Olympic medal, or speaks 5 languages, or runs a charity, or is a specialist in something interesting or unusual. These are all stories – it’s all knowledge – that when shared with other patients – others in your audience – can create connection and impact, interest and audience loyalty.

Try to action my 5 secret tips for strengthening and growing your audience. You will be surprised by how well they work out for you and help you acquire a regular and loyal following.  

P.S. Whenever you’re ready …. here are 4 ways I can help you grow your dental practice:

1. Grab a free chapter from my book “Retention – How to Plug the #1 Profit Leak in Your Dental Practice”

The book is the definitive guide to patient retention and how to use internal marketing to grow your practice – Click Here

2. Join the Savvy Dentist community and connect with dentists who are scaling their practice too

It’s our Facebook group where clever dentists learn to become commercially smart so that they have more patients, more profit and less stress. – Click Here

3. Attend a Practice Max Intensive live event

Our 2 day immersive events provide access to the latest entrepreneurial thinking and actionable strategies to drive your practice forward. You’ll leave with a game plan to take your results to the next level. If you’d like to join us, just send me a message with the word “Event and I’ll get you all the details!  – Click here

4. Work with me and my team privately

If you’d like to work directly with me and my team to take your profit from 6 figures to 7 figures …. just send me a message with the word “Private”… tell me a little about your practice and what you would like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here