Often, patients are nervous about visiting the dentist, either due to previous trauma or general anxiety. It’s something they fit into their diary once or twice a year so it never really becomes a comfortable space for many. That’s where marketing can really help, especially through the power of social media. We can help new and existing patients to engage more with your practice by portraying the personality of the business and the team members who work there.

Why do we do this? It’s all about making your space familiar, inviting and welcoming before the patient has even arrived. This helps to alleviate stress and concern about visiting the practice and having dental treatment.

While on social media we can use a mixture of clinical, professional and amateur photography – sometimes the best moments are captured on your phone! – when it comes to your marketing literature and website, your images need to be extremely high quality. The difference is down to customer expectation. We all accept lower quality imagery on our social media feeds because this is a more relaxed space, but when it comes to professional material it needs to be slick. This is where you want to shine as clinical professionals and excellent photography, and videography where suitable, will put you ahead of the competition.

Picture this…

Think about from your own viewpoint. If you were looking for a cosmetic surgeon you would narrow it down to a few options based on skills, accreditation, qualifications and specialisms. You’d look at patient reviews and testimonials, as well as social media for before and after images. You’d also head to the website and if this looks tired with terrible photography it immediately brings your opinion down. A website that showed off a beautiful clinical with well-presented staff is far more enticing, we all want that luxurious service. The crux of the matter is this, low-quality imagery portrays a low-quality service – it’s off putting!

Invest in the best

When I am working with new clients who want to refresh their website, or build a new one from scratch, I always recommend investing in a good photographer. In many cases, you can book them for a full day to capture a wide variety of content for you, including the necessary team headshots, clinic photography, and even videos of your team explaining various treatments or specific cases with happy (and consenting) patients. Not only will this give you the imagery required for your website and any subsequent patient literature, you will end up with a bank of great content that can be used on social media to keep that lively and fresh.

Great photography is a fantastic investment and if you think this is something you need, we can help! At HI Marketing, we can recommend some excellent photographers and videographers who will help your practice shine. Just get in touch on 07805506477, or drop us an email at hayley@hayleyironsmarketing.co.uk.

In a world where we are surrounded by so much choice, for many people the decision comes down to the people behind the brand. If we feel some sort of affiliation with their ethos or like the personality and vibe they are giving off, this can often seal the deal.

What does this mean for your social media?

You know that you are competing with lots of other people out there offering a similar service to you. You can no longer rely on locality because these days people are prepared to travel for the right service. You need to dig deep and show off what sets you apart.

And what is that? It’s your personality and your passion for what you do. Show people how much you love your job, how well your team get on and really give your social media channels some personality. People want to see who works in your business, who they will be dealing with and sometimes, they’ll use one of you posts as an ice breaker to start a conversation with you.

Ideas for creating passionate posts:

• Share your plans for the future – Doing some renovations? Share the process. People love to come on your journey with you and they’ll appreciate the investment you’re making in the service you provide
• Show your learning – If you’re attending a course or doing some team training, share some snippets. Explain why learning is so important, why you love it and what it means for your customers
• Solve problems – Ask people what they want from your service and put steps in place to provide it. If there’s a need in your area, fill it!

So next time you’re stuck for what to post, look around you. Or think about why you started this in the first place and share it. That’s what sets you apart so flaunt it!

While you may have that perfect person in mind to carry out your social media marketing, it is important to understand that having a stand-out personal account is very different to having a successful business one. However, with the right training and guidance, I believe that you can really take your practice to the next level through social media.

Create a strategy

I recently stumbled across a quote that sparked a thought process…

‘Ideas are worthless. Execution is everything’

While I don’t fully agree that ideas are worthless (we wouldn’t get very far without them), I do believe that without correct planning we cannot execute anything very well. So, while you might be brimming with ideas for your social media accounts, its not just a case of putting posts on, crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. You need a strategy and a plan to be able to put everything in place; otherwise you might very well be wasting your time.

Maximum impact

That’s why, for those dental practices who are not in a position to outsource their marketing, or who would prefer to keep everything in-house, I am now offering social media training for your team members. This will be dedicated to your practice and its unique needs and will be carried out as a one-to-one or small group session.

We will cover the difference between personal and business accounts, how to remain on brand across all of your accounts, and how to plan your social media strategy for maximum impact.

If this sounds like something your practice could benefit from, give me a call on 07805 506477, or drop me an email at hayley@hayleyironsmarketing.co.uk – I can’t wait to work with you!

As a side note, I should explain here that ‘brand’ and ‘branding’ are two separate terms… Your brand is your business by definition, and your branding is what you use to portray that, such as logos and colour palettes. If we created an analogy to compare it we could take a person; their ‘brand’ would be their personality, ethics, values, and goals, while their ‘branding’ would be the clothes they wear, the car they drive and the house they live in. Branding is the projection of the brand.

Where to begin?

Bearing all of that in mind, I think we can agree that your brand is pretty vital to your business, so it is important to spend some time thinking about this, but where to begin? I great place to start is by creating both a vision and a mission statement as these will help you to define your brand and clearly communicate what you stand for. If you’re already an established business, there’s no harm carrying out this exercise too, because it may highlight that you have veered away from your original brand ethos, which is something that can often happen due to a change in customer demand, for example.

Think about what you want your brand to mean and what you want your customers to believe about it, compare this to what your brand actually means and what your customers really feel about it. If these line up, great stuff! If not, it could be time to reassess your brand and whether it needs a realigning to make it work for both now and the future.

As you can see, there’s a lot of ‘thinking work’ that goes on behind the scenes to ensure that you are communicating what you stand for in order to reach your long-term goals. At HI Marketing we can point you in the right direction by helping you to understand what you want your brand to mean to both you and your customers, and then creating a unique marketing communications plan to ensure that the correct message is being portrayed.

If you’d like some advice on how to define your brand, as well as help putting together a strategic marketing strategy, just give me a call at HI Marketing on 07805506477, or drop me an email at hayley@hayleyironsmarketing.co.uk.