Does your dental blogging suck? Let’s face it, it’s one thing hastily writing a blog post and throwing it up on your site simply because it’s better to get something up there than nothing at all. However, it’s another thing to write a meaningful or insightful blog post that people actually want to read.
So why is this important?
Because if people read your post and find it useful, helpful, entertaining, or relevant, then they’re far more likely to share it with others. This is one way to drive traffic (read as potential dental patients) to your site.
If you’re struggling to get those all-important eyes on your written content, you’ll need to avoid these 7 signs that your dental blogging seriously sucks.
Dental Blogging – 7 Mistakes to Avoid
1. It just isn’t relevant
As a freelance dental blog writer, I know that relevancy is one of the most powerful blogging tools that I have at my disposal. It’s no good for example blogging about yesterday’s news because it’s… well… yesterday’s news. Instead, I try to make sure that everything is relevant to my specific target audience, which in this case is dentists who either want to start a blog or need help with blogging. They’re looking to find out quick tips and hints, and I’m (hopefully) providing them with the answers.
As an experienced dentist with your finger on the pulse, you’ll already know the most relevant, up-to-date questions your patients are asking. As a result, why not give them the answers in the form of a well-constructed blog post?
2. Your dental blogging isn’t meaningful
As well as being relevant your blogs need to be meaningful. The more meaningful you are, the better-received your blog post is going to be.
So how do you do this?
By getting into the psyche of your target audience. Here’s a scenario –
Imagine I’m a long-term denture wearer who’s absolutely fed up with their dentures. They’re continually causing pain as they rub on the gum and in addition, they stop me from socialising with friends and family for fear of embarrassing denture slippage. I scan the internet to try and find a solution and I come across a great blog post entitled ‘Everything You Need To Know About Hassle Free Dentures with Ultra Suction Denture Stabilisation.’ Guess what? It just happens to be a blog that you’ve written. Straight away, not only is it relevant, but it’s also meaningful to me because you’re helping me with a problem.
By tapping into the psyche of what your potential patients really want and writing a well-written post based around this, it’s a truly powerful thing.
3. It isn’t written for the reader
“What are you going on about?” I hear you say “I’m writing it to be read, so of course it’s written for the reader.” The fact is that people don’t read the internet as they do a book. Instead, they tend to scan. If you don’t believe me, then try and read a blog that consists of a great wall of text and little else. I promise you’ll be out of there quicker than you can say ‘osseointegration’.
The fact of the matter is that the easier your blog post is to read, the better chance there is of someone actually reading it. With this in mind, here are some things that you can do to make your dental blogging exploits easier on the eye.
- Split paragraphs down into easily-digestible, bite-sized chunks
- Adopt the KISS approach (Keep It Stupidly Simple) – You may have eaten a dictionary for breakfast, but why say discombobulate, when you can say confuse? (I’ve been wanting to get that word into a blog post for ages and now I have -Yey!)
- Add pictures – Look to accompany blogs with relevant pictures. It really helps to enhance the post and makes it easier on the eye. and finally,
- Don’t forget to include relevant sub-headings designed to draw the eye down the page.
4. It isn’t shareable
We talked about the whole point of a blog post being that it needs to be shared. Remember, that’s how you drive traffic to your site. So don’t forget to include sharing icons on your post that allow people to do exactly this. They help you to get your post shared on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Stumble Upon, and Pinterest, all with the click of a mouse.
5. It’s poorly written
Of course, you can always outsource your dental blogging needs to a third party and many dentists do, otherwise I wouldn’t have a job. However, bear in mind that when it comes to writers for hire, you kind of get what you pay for. Here’s a short story.
“When I first started out I wasn’t a dental writer. Instead, I was more of a generalist writer. Because I was inexperienced and not charging very much, I quickly became swamped with work.
Very soon I realised I had to try and get my life back, so after clearing it with my clients, I had the (not so) great idea of outsourcing some of this work to a third party. Eventually when work did come back, it was strewn with errors and almost illegible. I ended up spending even more time on top of the work that I was already doing, rewriting the content that I had asked them to do in the first place- Nightmare!”
I soon realised both quickly and painfully that you kind of get what you pay for. Yes, even when it comes to hiring a freelance writer.
With this in mind, you’ll need to make sure that all your posts are both high-quality and read well. No silly grammatical errors or spelling mistakes otherwise your readers just won’t take you seriously.
6. It’s just plain boring
Just because dentistry is a highly technical subject that doesn’t mean that it has to be all high-brow and dare I say it…boring. Instead look to make it patient-friendly but more importantly, try and inject a little bit of you into it.
The bottom line is that people relate to people, so if your dental blogging reads like it’s come from a text book, then people won’t be interested in what you have to say, no matter how important the message you’re trying to get across. Conversely, by making it personable and chatty, just like you’re talking to a friend on the phone, it will resonate more with your target audience.
7. It isn’t original
Look, when it comes to dental blogging, there’s a lot of content out there. As more and more content is added to the blogosphere, regurgitating the same old content that you (and inevitably your readers) have come across millions of times before can damage your efforts. Instead, there’s nothing wrong with taking seeds of ideas but instead, look to re-purpose them and turn them into something completely unique and original. It’s this kind of content that rules, especially if you want to make sure that the time you set aside for dental blogging isn’t wasted.
Dental Blogging – Avoid The Above Signs At Your Peril
So there you have it. Hopefully, after reading this you can spot and avoid the 7 signs that your dental blogging sucks and correct them before it’s too late.
Alternatively, if you don’t have the expertise or the time to start a dental blog but acknowledge the fact that you really need to (and believe me you should), then contact Dental Writers on +34 605 45 73 42 or check out our website at www.dentalwriters.com. We look forward to helping you successfully grow your dental business and get more patients through your door in 2016.
