A Beginner's Guide to Dental Content Marketing

Content marketing, sometimes referred to as inbound marketing, is when a business offers helpful content to attract potential customers. When you offer engaging, problem-solving content, this motivates potential patients to trust and “like” your brand. Then, when they decide to choose a dentist or switch dentists, they will think of you first.

What types of marketing content are there?
Marketing content may be written or created as:

• Blog posts
• Newsletters
• An email series
• Social media posts
• Videos
• Smartphone apps
• Webinars
• Events

The ultimate goal is to encourage potential patients to “like” and create a relationship with your brand.

Defining your target market
You may consider your potential patients to be everyone who lives in your city, but also consider these questions:

• Do you have a dental specialty?
• What is the age of most of your patients?
• Is your practice near a retirement community? If so, do you serve mostly seniors?
• Is your practice near a college or university? If so, do you serve mainly young adults?
• Consider the age and interests of your potential patients when defining your target market.

How should I offer content to attract new patients?
Blogging is one of the easiest ways to get started. A blog is a section of your website dedicated to providing engaging and helpful information to your target audience. An active blog will also boost your web traffic and encourage potential patients to visit your website.

Contact your web designer or ISP to have blog capabilities integrated into your website.

Brainstorming blog post topics
After your blog platform is set up, the next step is to brainstorm topics for blog posts. Remember to be a problem-solver. Here are a few ways to come up with blog topics:

Research local and national dental blogs to see what topics they write about. There's a good chance your patients are interested in the same content.

Search Google to discover what questions people have about dental care. Are there any trending or frequently mentioned topics?

What questions does your dental staff answer the most? What questions do you answer often? Could these questions be answered in a blog post or a series of posts?

Look through consumer health magazines for more topic ideas. Summer vacation is a time when people think about whitening their teeth. Is there an article about teeth whitening in the latest issue of Health magazine?

Writing a blog post
Now that you've decided on a topic, it's time to write the content. Here are a few tips:

It's best to limit the number of words to between 700 and 1,000 words. If your first post is shorter than 700 words, that's fine. Be sure to address a question or solve a problem your patients care about.

Break up the text into short paragraphs – four sentences at the most. This will make it easier to read. Adding subheadings will make the post easier to read, as well.

Write an engaging headline. Effective headlines address an answer to a question, or how to solve a problem. The reader wants to know what they will learn by reading the post.

Read the finished content to check for clarity, correct grammar and spelling. Ask one of the staff to read the post and check for the same. An extra pair of eyes is always a good idea.

Proofread the content one final time before uploading it to the blog.

Add a few colorful images for visual interest. Free, no-attribution-required images can be found at Pixabay and search.creativecommons.org.

Feature the published post on Facebook, Instagram or another social media channels for additional exposure.

Focusing on clear, helpful content that answers questions and engages readers will help you attract new patients to your dental practice.