Productivity

How to Make Instagram Story Templates in Planoly

by Dr. Jessica Emery | Oct 21, 2019 | How To's, instagram, Productivity, Social Media

Instagram Stories don’t look like they’re going anywhere soon, that’s for sure! They’ve already taken a huge bite out of Snapchat’s numbers by offering what they do… but better (in our opinion, at least). In fact, we’ve fully made the switch from Snapchat to Instagram Stories and we’ve seen some serious growth in the last few months when it comes to our story viewers.

Flipping the camera around and talking to your audience is still the best way to use Instagram Stories, but creating branded graphics to promote your practice, upcoming events, specials, and new services is also a great strategy. In a previous blog post, we taught you how to use Canva to create Instagram Story templates. In this blog post, we’re going to show you how you can also do it inside of our favorite scheduling platform: Planoly!

What is Planoly?

Planoly is a visual planner for Instagram. That means, you can see what your grid will look like once your content posts to your feed. You can rearrange your posts within Planoly to get the exact look and feel you want for your feed, and then you can add your captions and hashtags right inside of the app.

Planoly will also automatically post the content for you! This is perfect for busy dentists who sometimes don’t have a few extra minutes to log into Instagram and post content. We love to sit down once a month and plan out all of our content at once. Then, we don’t have to think about it at all. We’re posting consistent content without having to be tied to our phones. That’s a HUGE win!

Making Instagram Story Templates

Another cool feature that Planoly offers its users is StoriesEdit, which offers the ability to design and schedule Instagram Stories! This feature is integrated right in the Planoly app; you can use it on your mobile device or on the web-based app.

Here’s how it works:

First, choose an Instagram Story template from the StoriesEdit library. These can be customized, but all the design work has already been done for you!

Once you’ve selected your favorite design, you can customize it by tapping on the Add (+) icon to add images, text, shapes, and a custom background color.

When you tap on the Text (T) icon, you’ll find all your text editing tools. You can choose your font, font style, alignment, spacing, height, and color options. Make sure you set it up to match your existing brand as much as possible to keep everything cohesive!

The Shape tool allows you to add borders, footers, and other shapes to your stories. You can change the size and color of your shape, and choose whether you want the shapes to be filled in.

All colors, including the background color, can be customized. They have a bunch of pre-set colors that they’ve determined will look good with the specific template, but you can also use the dropper icon to get an exact color match to your brand (far left option on mobile only).

Follow these steps to create a standalone post, or make a series of coordinating stories that you can post in order to tell a longer story!

Posting Your Story

Once you’re happy with your Instagram Story templates, save them by tapping the download icon on the top right corner of your template. You can choose to save your template to your phone, send to Planoly, or share to Instagram.

If you want to post it right away, go ahead and share to Instagram. If you want to schedule it to post in the future, you can save it to your phone (if you want to post it manually yourself) or send to Planoly. If you do this, you can choose the date and time you want it to post and let the app handle everything for you.

If you’re using the desktop app, you’ll see the download and share options on the bottom left of the screen.

In our opinion, any tool that helps you create more beautiful content while spending less time managing it throughout the day is a HUGE win! We absolutely love Planoly, and while it does take a little bit of time to fully understand, it can be a game-changer for your practice. If you have any questions, let us know! We’re always happy to help!

Motivational Monday: Five Quotes to Inspire Your Week

by Dr. Jessica Emery | Mar 17, 2019 | Productivity

Most people find it Mondays to be the toughest part of the week. It’s so hard to get back in the swing of things after a long, restful weekend. I personally love Mondays. There’s always smiles to transform and ideas to get excited about.

Do you need a little help getting started today? No worries! We want to share five of our favorite quotes with you; hopefully they will turn your unmotivated Monday into a motivational Monday. These are the words that get me super excited to start my week and do BIG things!

“Perspective matters.”

This is a quote by Simon Sinek that I saw recently after a trip to my favorite place in America… Florida! It resonated with me because I had been so stressed before that trip, but after sitting on the beach for a few days, things looked (and felt) different. Sometimes you need a little perspective to sort out ideas or move away from stress. It can seem counter-intuitive to stop working on something when there’s so much to do, but I’ve learned that whitespace is absolutely necessary to grow.

“Hustle, but with heart.”

I don’t know who originally came up with this quote, but it really speaks to me, and it’s perfect for Motivational Monday. We can get so focused on our goals, it can be easy to forget the bigger picture. The “why” behind what we do. It’s so important to check in with your heart as you do your work. Does your task list align with what fuels your passion? Staying in touch with your values will help motivate you when you don’t feel motivated by the task itself.

“Leap and the net will appear.”

John Burroughs was a wise man, and this quote is one I live my life by. You can analyze and weigh out every decision until you’re blue in the face, but ultimately, you’re going to have to take a leap. You got into this business to do big things, and as awesome as it would be to be able to just write “do big things” in your planner, it doesn’t work like that. You’re gonna have to leap and have a little faith. Your net will appear and you will be SO glad you pushed yourself to go there.

“You don’t get what you don’t ask for.”

This quote by the OG #girlboss Sophia Amoruso is super motivating to me. You have to put your dreams into the universe. Whether you talk about it with your friends, family, and co-workers, write it down, or create a vision board, the first step to making a big goal a reality is speaking it. Once you put it out there, take a leap! Your net will appear 😉

“Stop stopping yourself.”

This is another one that I just happened to see and I don’t know who originally said it, but boy does it speak to me. As dentists, I think we can get in our own way a lot because we think, “that dream is too big/different/risky/bold. I should stay in my lane and just focus on doing what I do.” That kind of thinking will truly limit your impact on the world! Stop stopping yourself and instead, see what kinds of amazing things you can do!

Do you have any “Motivational Monday” quotes that you love? If you’re anything like me, you’ve got them hanging up at your desk, on your coffee mugs, and all over your Instagram feed. Share a few of your favorites with me in the comments! Let’s inspire each other to accomplish big things this week!

Building Your Dental Marketing Content Calendar

by Dr. Jessica Emery | Jan 28, 2019 | How To's, instagram, Productivity

Did you buy yourself a new planner for 2019? There’s nothing like the possibilities that hide in those clean pages, the year just waiting for you to take it by storm. If you’re a person who is naturally drawn to organization, you’d probably really love using a dental marketing content calendar to plan out your social media content for the year!

It might seem like a big task to plan everything out in advance, but you don’t have to do the whole year… you can just take it one month at a time. You’ll be amazed at how much more intentional you can be with your marketing. This almost always translates to better results and a more strategic approach. It helps you use social media as a tool rather than just a place you hurriedly upload photos and updates to.

What is a Dental Marketing Content Calendar?

You’re probably wondering what exactly we mean by a dental marketing content calendar. There are no hard and fast rules about what this has to be. It can be any kind of calendar, planner, or even a spreadsheet that you use to plan out your social media content.

First, you’ll want to decide how often you want to post. A lot of dental practices find the most success by posting daily, but if that’s overwhelming for you to start with, consider posting three times a week (maybe Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).

Next, take a look at upcoming holidays and special events. Plan content around those things first. Then, think about services you want to highlight. Then, fill in the gaps with educational content, behind the scenes photos, or just some fun, lighthearted posts that will make people want to follow your feed.

Creating the Content

Once you have everything planned out for the month, you’ll need to actually create the content. You’ll need eye-catching imagery and some great copy to go with it. This is by far the most time-consuming part, and you’ll want to do your best to stay on top of the social media trends that come and go so you can see the biggest return on your efforts. We have some super fun courses that specifically made for dentists over at The Soiree Suite. They will help you get all the information you need quickly so you can start rocking your social media!

Also, if you need help with imagery, you might want to check out Soiree Stock. This is our styled stock photography membership site that is loaded with gorgeous images that are ideal for dental practices. All you have to do is download the images you like, write a caption to go with them, and post. We have seasonal and holiday-themed images, dental images, and a whole bunch of other categories that will make setting up your dental marketing content calendar a breeze!

Staying On Track

Probably the most difficult part of all of this will be staying on track. As a dentist myself, I know how busy life can get and if we’re honest, social media is probably the first thing to get tossed to the side — especially if you’re also raising a family and have a busy schedule outside the office!

The dental marketing content calendar will help you streamline your work, but using tools like Planoly or Later to upload content ahead of time and schedule it in advance is a great way to be more hands off with your marketing. Your content will still stream when you want it to, but you won’t have to be there hitting the “post” button every single time.

We also think it’s ideal to sit down once a month and batch out all your work for the next month. It might take a few hours, but then you don’t have to think about your social media content again for a whole month! Batch working is honestly the most efficient way to work, and we believe social media is important enough to dedicate a few hours per month to.

No Time? You Can Outsource!

Does this all seem impossible? If your schedule simply doesn’t allow for regular social media updates, you can absolutely outsource it! If you decide to go this route, we encourage you to choose someone who understands the dental industry. This will be a major advantage when it comes to turning followers into patients.

The Dental Soiree team is experienced when it comes to getting you a gorgeous and effective social media presence that perfectly fits your brand and personality. We have several packages based on the services you need help with the most! You can contact us by filling out this short form and we will be in contact with you shortly to discuss details and answer your questions!

Outsourcing Your Social Media Management in 2019

by Dr. Jessica Emery | Jan 21, 2019 | Productivity, Social Media

We’re a few weeks into the new year… how are those goals coming along? Are you still holding strong or did life already get in the way of your ambitious dreams for the new year? For those of you who had goals of really knocking your social media numbers out of the park in 2019, you might be finding that it takes a little more time and effort than you have available. That’s why outsourcing your social media management makes SO much sense!

So often, we shy away from the idea of outsourcing aspects of our business. We think we can just handle it ourselves or train a (often already stretched-too-thin) team member to handle the task. Maybe it works well for a week or two, but then other things come up and soon, the task is forgotten.

If your goal is to find more patients through your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram channels, we urge you to consider the benefits of outsourcing your social media management!

What to Expect When You Outsource

Sometimes, people are concerned that when they hire someone to handle their social media management, they’re relinquishing all control over the content and the look of their feed. Not the case! The right team will work collaboratively with you, but not in a way that is overly complicated or a drain on your already limited time.

There is an onboarding period that usually lasts a few weeks where you’ll be working more closely with the social media management team. You’ll get a chance to see the content they’ve created and give your feedback. They may work with you to do some custom photography that will be a part of your social strategy. They’ll also need access to all of your brand assets like logos, color codes, and other graphical elements you’d like included in your social media feeds.

After the onboarding period, your role will be much more “hands off” and you’ll mainly focus on overseeing the feeds and providing feedback and guidance as necessary.

Determining Success

Another common concern when it comes to outsourcing social media management is whether the investment will pay off. How will you determine success? What kind of ROI can you expect to see? These are all great questions to ask your potential social media team. Most companies have a set process for delivering analytics and outlining social media success, but the more specific you are about what you expect to see and how you want the information delivered, the better.

Of course, you’ll want to be realistic about your expectations. You aren’t going to be able to increase your followers by tens of thousands without spending a little money on advertising (most likely) and there’s always going to be an ebb and flow to your growth. Even if you lose a few followers or your engagement drops a little bit in the short term, looking at the long-term analytics will show a steadier pattern. If that shows growth, your team is doing something right!

The Soiree Squad is Here to Help!

If you think outsourcing your social media management is the best way you can meet your goals, the Soiree Squad is here to help! In addition to our #famous creative branding photoshoots, we also offer social media management for dental professions who want to grow bigger in 2019! If you’re interested in learning more about this service, you can fill out our contact form and someone will be in touch with you shortly!

The Harsh Truth About Building an Online Presence

by Dr. Jessica Emery | Oct 29, 2018 | How To's, Productivity, Social Media

If you run a busy dental practice, you probably know that building an online presence is very important for your practice to succeed. However, you probably also know that doing that is far easier said than done. There’s tons of effort, strategy, and planning that go into having a strong presence online, and even after you “achieve” your goals, the work is not over. You have to consistently put in effort to maintain your rankings and follower count.

Which brings us to the harsh truth about building an online presence that we’re going to focus on in this blog post:

Online marketing success often does not come quickly or easily.

Why are we telling you this? Because first of all, we believe it’s important to be honest. A lot of the people reading this blog are dentists. They are not marketing professionals. They likely do not know the inner workings of the various social media platforms. Many people just starting out on social media think that they just need to post content every once in a while and the followers will come. However, it isn’t that easy.

Building an online presence is about more than posting photos on Instagram once in a while or posting a reminder to your Facebook followers to book an appointment at your practice.

Unfortunately, there are complicated algorithms at play that all but ensure only a tiny portion of your fans are seeing your posts. Hashtags are great, but just like fashion, trends change all the time and the hashtag list you’re still using from last year is probably outdated and ineffective at this point.

So how do you succeed online?

Consistent effort and strategy.

If you don’t post consistent content on social media (and your blog) and have a strategy in place for doing so, building an online presence is going to be a very tough uphill battle.

The only way to “beat” the algorithms is to share enough content that your followers will see it, whether it’s yesterday’s post, today’s post or tomorrow’s post… because they probably won’t see all three unless they’re already highly engaged with your page.

However you can’t share any old photo or post and call it a day. Your content needs to be strategic. You must have a consistent voice and brand, as well as consistent photo styles in order to build a feed that people will want to follow. Constantly changing up your style online is a sure fire way to confuse your followers.

On top of that, mixing up your messaging is crucial. If you post salesy sounding posts like “book an appointment” and “come see us for this service” all the time, people are going to get sick of it and guess what? They’ll unfollow. Instead, you have to build a strategy where you mix up call to action posts, informative posts, fun, more lighthearted posts, behind the scenes photos, etc. Take your followers on a ride instead of boring them or selling to them all the time.

If you need content that will make building an online presence a breeze? We can help with that! We specialize in show-stopping content that disrupts the norm on social media. Would you rather be “just another dental practice” or would you rather be the practice that gets people EXCITED about dental care? We can help get you there!

Three of the Most Useful Email Templates for Dentists

by Dr. Jessica Emery | Oct 22, 2018 | How To's, Productivity

When it comes to online marketing, emails often are an afterthought. Sure they’re not as fun as Snapchat or as robust as a landing page or even most blog posts, but they do have a lot of value. However, sitting down to write emails to each of your clients one-by-one is unrealistic. That’s why having a good stash of email templates for dentists is a game-changer.

Email templates allow you to quickly hit the “send” button without spending too much time customizing your message each time. Just save these templates in a place where you can easily copy and paste, and then all you have to do is fill in the placeholders with the relevant information!

Email Template #1 – Cleaning Reminder

The most basic email you can send is the six month cleaning reminder. You might already have a system that automatically emails patients in your system when it’s approaching six months since their last cleaning. If so, that’s great! If not, create a template that your office staff can use to email patients their reminder. Bonus points if you make this email a little more fun and playful than the usual boring reminder email they’re used to getting!

Email Template #2 – Treatment Plan Reminder

Similar to the cleaning reminder, this email template is a great tool to encourage patients to come in and start their treatment plan. This is perfect for patients that have come in and discussed services such as crowns, implants, Invisalign, etc.

A lot of times, our patients will put off these services because they’re not looking forward to the appointment, so a little nudge can be really effective at getting them to book that appointment. Include a button right in the email to your online scheduler, or if you don’t have that, make sure your phone number is front and center so it’s super easy for them.

Email Template #3 – End of Year Benefits Reminder

This is our absolute favorite email template for dentists. Many of our patients end the year with some unused health benefits and we all know, if you don’t use ‘em, you lose ‘em. Send your patients a reminder email a few months before the end of the year to remind them to make the most of their benefits. Remind them of your services or any specials you have going on and encourage them to call for an appointment. This can be a great way to fill up your calendar and keep your patients happy!

Email templates for dentists can be a game-changer, not only for getting patients through your doors, but also for your marketing budget! It costs almost nothing to send an email, and if you have these templates saved and available for your staff, it takes very little time to execute.

Be sure to watch our Instagram page because we’ll be doing an email challenge in the coming weeks and it will be a great way for you to get acquainted (or re-acquainted) with the incredible power of email marketing!