Writing A Dental Blog Post

So you are starting to write a dental blog. Good job! Writing a blog, especially on your own website, can give your site a big boost and help you to get new patients in your office. But as you sit down at your laptop, you may be thinking “what should I be writing?” Many people have asked us why would someone look at my blog over the other thousands of blogs online? What do I write that helps my websites and potential patients? Today, I am going to give you 5 tips to writing better blog posts and how they can actually bring in new patients.

Be informative

You may notice that your patients often ask the same question upon the completion of dental services, particularly when they now have something new in their mouth, such as a bridge, crown, or implant. Help out these patients by giving them information they can actually use. Many new patients don’t know what questions to ask, may be embarrassed, or may think of a question after the appointment and are reluctant to call. When a patient has a specific question, they often go online to get advice and tips. If your blog can answer these questions effectively and thoroughly, you are more likely to rank for those terms and get traffic to your site. While not each of these means that you get a new patient, but answering questions is a great way to build trust and establish a good relationship with potential patients.

Be local focused

Although your website gets less traffic than large nation-wide websites, your blog has a major advantage over these larger outlets: you are part of the community that matters the most to you. You talk with a lot of people every day in the community, and you can get a sense of what people are interested in or what they are thinking about. Use this to your advantage! You can write a blog post about a local event or community activity that is coming up. You can sponsor an event and write a blog post that helps to promote it. If you are holding your own event, such as an open house or a special promotion, your blog is a great way to get the word started with the specific and details. Doing all of these things will help you to provide links to partners in your area, get links from local businesses and potential clients, and earn your site a lot of credibility in your city.

Entertain and delight

While your blog should definitely include information, there is a risk of becoming dull and repetitive. Spice your blog up a little bit! If you had a funny story about someone on your staff, or something that happened to you on the job, let people know and enjoy a good laugh. If your office supports a local team, write a short post with some pictures of your staff in their jerseys during the playoffs.

Videos and other visual content often are the fastest way to generate emotions. From laughter to tears and everything in between, a photo or video can say a lot without taking too much time to read. It also helps people to associate your brand with something that they have enjoyed.

Let someone else write, occasionally

While this may seem counter-intuitive, guest blogging is a common event and adds some variety to the content your users are used to seeing. As a dental office, you may have specialists that you work with in other areas, such as endodontics, orthodontics, or an oral & maxillofacial surgeon. Ask them to write something for your blog that is relevant and informative. For example, you may have an orthodontist that performs a large amount of Invisalign work. You may have them write a piece about Invisialign, what they do, how they are different than traditional braces, and when you may use one over the other.

Doing this type of guest blogging is a win-win scenario. You get new content on your site that you didn’t have to write or pay for, and the writer can put a few links to his website in the article, as well as getting some extra exposure to a new audience.

Think of your blog as a great employee

If your blog is doing all of these things, your blog can become a powerful tool that actively brings new patients to your practice. Like a great employee, your blog will inform potential and current patients about dental care and treatments. It can let them know how the doctor is experienced in providing great treatment. It can give information about upcoming events, deals and promotions. It can refer to other related areas and rely on the expertise of other doctors to make sure it is giving your viewers the best information possible. And if it can do all of this, while making people smile and happy to be there, you have one great employee.