Just like I mentioned in my last blog, everyone is online right now: you, your patients, your potential patients. If you send out an email blast, it will probably hit File 13 faster than you can say, “Six feet, please!”
Research shows that local search is going nuts right now. Rankings are all over the place. Traffic is poor. No one knows up from down, especially when it comes to spending money (at the dentist or otherwise).
What can you do besides continue to search for your next Netflix binge? You can write. You can still influence, inform, or uplift patients and potential patients in your community.
Here are three things to consider:
- Social media is where people live right now.
- Later, life in your office will resume. This unprecedented, strange period of distancing will end. You will still be a dentist once our new norm emerges.
- Your opinion matters. How you feel about dentistry is important, to more than just you. Your community needs to know what’s in your head, so share it.
- Share inspirational posts on social media – both to your personal and business pages.
- Write blogs and articles now, to use later when you’re busy caring for patients.
What’s the difference?
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third-party sites, like local newspaper and magazine websites
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social media sites, particularly LinkedIn, but also on Facebook
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paid media ad buys, as advertorials in print or online
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your site (and shared on your social media pages)
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a colleague’s or local business’ website, as a guest post
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your e-newsletter or print newsletter (recycled as an article)
Keep in mind that if you write for a print publication, you’ll be limited by space. Articles and blogs published online can be as long or short as you like. For best SEO practice, an article or blog should be at least 550 words, with 1200 words being more preferred for most topics and keywords.
What should you write about?
I could give you a list of ideas to get you started, but the best way to determine what you should write is to consider your passions. What about dentistry most excites you?
- the people – patients, experts, your staff
- the technology
- the procedures
- the expert opinions
- controversial topics
- the clinical details
- healthy lifestyles
- the science behind anything
Throw keywords and SEO out the window. Ditch punctuation and structure, if it’s not your thing. Just write what’s in your mind, and probably your heart. A professional dental copywriter, which I have on hand at Identiwrite, can optimize your content, add links, write meta descriptions, select images, edit, revise, and publish on your behalf.
Getting YOUR UNIQUE IDEAS on paper (or a digital file) will immensely help your marketing team!
As a dental writer, the most challenging aspect of my work is pulling ideas, opinions, and examples or stories from a dentist. These are the things that contribute to personalizing a blog or article — an entire marketing strategy. They’re the fuel necessary for uniqueness. These things set you apart.
Whether you’re a great writer and want to publish what you write immediately or you need the help of a professional dental writer, I can’t urge you strongly enough to take a little time right now, while your office is closed, to focus on writing.
Getting Started
If a topic or title isn’t enough to get you started, take a page from the creative writing teacher’s handbook.
Compose a:
- Letter to your mother about a case you really enjoyed.
- Letter to a patient, explaining the philosophies and facts behind your proposed treatment plan.
- Letter to an old, long-passed professor, mentor, or teacher explaining how a new technology has revolutionized an aspect of care.
- A how-to brochure about avoiding tooth decay or keeping teeth white and healthy. A how-to article on any topic.
- An emergency guide to dental injuries for athletes. A guide to anything.
- A quiz on how to decide whether to get implants, veneers, or Invisalign. A quiz of any kind.
