Productivity

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!

A Social Media Calendar Makes Dental Marketing a Breeze!

by Dr. Jessica Emery | Oct 15, 2018 | How To's, Productivity, Social Media

If you want to grow your dental practice, social media is a great (and generally free) way to do it. However, with more social media platforms than ever before, it can be overwhelming to know where to spend your precious energy. That’s why we strongly suggest creating a social media calendar.

What is a social media calendar? It’s simply a document that helps you organize your strategy and plan for special occasions so you can coordinate your posts. This document can be “old school” paper and pen or it can be digital. It just needs to be easy to understand, update, and share with the people who are helping you manage your social feeds.

A good social media calendar will help you accomplish three specific goals:

Keeps You Organized

Social media can often get placed on the back burner when things get busy, but you don’t want to forget about it! I don’t know about you, but calendars help keep us accountable. By having everything laid out on one calendar or spreadsheet, it makes the tasks seem more manageable. If things get really busy, you can even use an automatic posting service to do the posting for you!

Keeps You Consistent

By planning everything out on a calendar in advance, you’re more likely to post consistently on all your profiles. Because everything is organized and ready, it makes it easy to post regularly. With social media, consistency is everything. If you’re posting consistently, you will stay in front of your audience even attract new followers. Remember, those followers can turn into customers!

Saves You Time

Setting aside some time to organize your entire social media calendar can save you time in the long run. It may take a little bit to get it up and running, but it will leave you feeling prepared and less stressed when it comes time to start posting. Now you’ll no longer try to frantically throw together social posts at the last minute!

Also, if you’re not the only one working on your business’ social media, a calendar can be a great way to share ideas and work with your colleagues. We all get stuck in a rut from time to time. If your calendar is available for others to work on, you can have some assistance with ideas, which will free you up to do the other things that are on your to do list!

These TED Talks Will Inspire Your Dental Marketing

by Dr. Jessica Emery | Oct 8, 2018 | Dental Soiree, Productivity, Social Media

Marketing a dental practice is not easy. It’s not like you’re running a candy shop or an amusement park. Some people are afraid of the dentist, and for those that aren’t, it’s still not the first place they choose to visit. However, we know that in order to be profitable, we have to get people excited about coming to the dentist — and not just any dentist! We have to make our own dental practice seem the most fun, the most comfortable, and the friendliest place they could choose. That’s where good dental marketing comes in.

If you’re feeling stuck or need a little inspiration when it comes to your dental marketing strategy, check out these TED Talks:

The Little Risks You Can Take to Increase Your Luck

In this TED Talk, educator Tina Seelig shares three (easy) ways we can increase our luck in business. She says, “luck is rarely a lightning strike, isolated and dramatic — it’s much more like the wind, blowing constantly. Catching more of it is easy but not obvious.”

Growing your dental practice is all about taking calculated risks and not all risks are created equal. This talk may change the entire way you look at your professional career.

The Happy Secret to Better Work

Are you happy? It’s kind of a loaded question, but Shawn Achor presents his argument in this TED Talk that being truly happy leads us to do better, more productive work. He says, “75% of your job successes are predicted by your optimism levels, your social support, and your ability to see stress as a challenge instead of as a threat.”

So, can positive psychology help you grow your dental practice? According to Shawn, absolutely it can! Added bonus? He’s surprisingly funny for a researcher 😉

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

This TED Talk by Angela Lee Duckworth is one of the most popular of all time, and it’s not surprising once you sit down and watch it. In her speech, she talks about why IQ isn’t the only thing separating those of us who are successful and those of us who tend to struggle.

Grit is the key factor when it comes to defining who is the most successful. What is grit? It’s passion and perseverance for long-term goals. When it comes to marketing, this is important because some things take a long time and a lot of consistency before you see results. Do you have what it takes to see your goals through even when it takes a long time?

Good dental marketing comes down to sharing thoughts, ideas, and knowledge. Everything you put out into the world should have the goal of connecting with your current and future patients; you want them to see you as someone they can trust and turn to for help. Have these talks inspired you? If you have questions about marketing your practice, please feel free to contact the Dental Soiree team!