Establishing Your Practice as a Thought Leader: The Power of Informative Content in Dental Marketing

Written by Ryan Torresan, Chief Marketing Officer, Frontline Dental Implant Specialists

As a dentist or oral surgeon, you are busy doing what you do best. Whether you plan on running your practice for the next 20 years or looking to sell, it’s crucial to create a strong marketing strategy to attract patients, showcase the value of your expertise and, if you are looking to sell – attract buyers. Strategy and content are often overlooked, so let’s discuss why they are essential. And more importantly, let’s look at effective approaches to establishing yourself as a dental thought leader through informative and educational content.

In the rest of this article, we will discuss the benefits of content marketing, what to avoid, how to create valuable content that builds trust and credibility with your audience, and how to identify vendors that can truly move the needle. All tips and guidance that you can actually apply at your practice.

The Power of Informative Content

Informative content plays a vital role in shaping your practice’s reputation and attracting the attention of potential patients and partners. By sharing valuable information through blog posts, articles, videos, or podcasts, you position yourself as an authority in the field you compete in, like full-arch dental implants, general dentistry, orthodontics, etc. Here’s why it’s crucial:

Building Trust and Credibility: Informative content demonstrates your knowledge, expertise, and commitment to patient education. It instills confidence in potential patients and partners, assuring them that your practice is trustworthy and reliable.
Addressing Common Patient Concerns: Create content that addresses common questions, fears, and misconceptions related to your area of expertise. By offering valuable insights, you alleviate patient concerns and position yourself as a reliable source of information. A great place to find out what your patients are concerned about is by reading comments on your social media and online reviews and listening to customer service calls. This is a gold mine for possible content creation.
Explain the Process: Break down the complex process of full-arch dental implants into easily understandable steps. Use visual aids, infographics, or videos to simplify explanations and help patients grasp the procedure more effectively.
Emotional Connection via Patient Stories: Share success stories and testimonials of patients who have undergone full-arch dental implant treatments. Personal narratives create an emotional connection with potential patients, fostering trust and empathy. The trick is to tell the story in a way that emotionally connects with others and to do it differently than other practices. This is where a good video vendor can make an impact.

Avoiding Pitfalls

While content marketing can be powerful, there are some common pitfalls to avoid:

Lack of Relevance: Ensure your content aligns with the interests and concerns of your target audience. Irrelevant or generic content fails to engage and may harm your credibility. A big mistake many practices make is producing too much content about their office teams and posting the same generic “dental’ content every practice in town does. A tip here for making sure content is relevant is to see what your patients are discussing on your social media and ask yourself what they are discussing around the dinner table at home.
- For example, if you are doing expensive procedures, you can guarantee they are discussing payment plans around the dinner table or getting second and third opinions from other providers. So draft relevant content on these topics.
Poor Quality Content: Don’t compromise on the quality of your content. Grammatical errors, outdated information, or poorly shot videos can undermine your reputation and deter potential patients and potential buyers of your practice.

Choosing a Content Vendor

Selecting the right content vendor is crucial for creating impactful and engaging content. Consider the following factors when choosing a vendor:

Portfolio and Showreel: Review the video vendor’s portfolio and showreel to assess the quality of their previous work. Look for videos that align with your vision and expectations, even outside your industry. Pay attention to the production value, storytelling ability, visual aesthetics, and overall professionalism. Bottom line, we all know good content when we see it – you know, cause you will be engaged or rewatch it. If their videos grab you that way, it is a good sign.
Speak with a Client: Request to speak with a client or two. Contact previous clients to inquire about their experience working with the vendor. Ask about the vendor’s ability to meet deadlines, communication skills, and overall satisfaction with the final deliverables.
Content Strategy: A good vendor will work with you to develop a content strategy aligned with your practice’s goals. They should want to do an “intake” process with you to understand your target audience and goals and create a plan to address those concerns effectively.
Collaboration and Communication: Effective collaboration is critical to content creation. Ensure the vendor is responsive, open to feedback, and willing to work closely with you to create content that reflects your practice’s values and expertise. Test them by sending emails asking questions during the interview process, and see how quickly they respond. If it takes them a couple of days or a week, you can bet that is the best you will get, it will likely be worse after you sign the contract.
Cost and Value: While cost should not be the sole determining factor, consider the vendor’s pricing structure and whether it aligns with your budget and the value they offer. Compare quotes from multiple vendors to ensure a fair price for the quality of work you expect. Don’t be surprised if quotes vary drastically. I have found if you go with the cheapest option, you get what you pay for, and if you go with the highest, it doesn’t mean it will be better. Reasonable is the name of the game; vendor needs to make money, and it needs to fit your budget while making a positive impact on your business.
Research and Reputation: Conduct online research about the vendor. Look for reviews, ratings, and feedback from previous clients or industry professionals. Explore their website and social media presence to gauge their professionalism, consistency, and overall reputation.

In the competitive landscape of dental marketing, creating informative and educational content can set your practice apart. There are tons of competition in dental. By avoiding common pitfalls, choosing the right content vendor, and focusing on patient concerns, the process, emotional connections, and valuable information, you can establish your practice as a thought leader, build trust, and attract potential patients and buyers.

Embrace content marketing as a powerful tool to showcase your expertise and leave a lasting impression on your audience. Marketing is all about getting you to stand out from your competition so that patient will decide to move forward with you, your content needs to resonate to make that happen.

If this article piqued your interest, Frontline Dental Implant Specialists will share more in monthly articles and on our monthly ‘Podcast Frontline Full Access’ powered by Group Dentistry Now. Ryan Torresan, Chief Marketing Officer, Frontline Dental Implant Specialists rtorresan@frontlinedis.com.

Ryan Torresan is considered one of the leading marketing minds in dental and healthcare on what’s next in marketing, relevance, marketing that actually impacts DSOs and can be measured. With more than 10 years of DSO experience, Ryan is a marketing executive who steered a very successful career to reach the executive level at two of the largest dental support organizations (DSOs) in the US. During his tenures, he earned promotions and awards after tremendous success in the digital marketing and social media space. He is also known to have transformed event, CRM and content marketing into lead generation. Repositioned brands, navigated crisis public relations and drive incremental sales through office designs. He played a crucial role on executive teams that sold the DSOs to private equity firms. Ryan aligns marketing to overall business success – he impacts ROI.

The Power of Informative Content

Avoiding Pitfalls

Choosing a Content Vendor

Other articles by Ryan: