A dental call to action is a great way of getting prospective patients to do what you want them to do because, usually, it can feel like banging your head against a brick wall.
People regularly ignore the need for dental checkups. In fact, figures show that as many as 50% of us are quite happy to cancel our appointments without even thinking twice.
What’s more, people fail to sign up for your newsletters, and some don’t even have the common courtesy to stick around and read your blog post all the way to the end…
All of this poses a consistent issue for most dental practices. After all, what use is any of your marketing efforts if patients put off actually getting in touch or booking in for treatments?
So the question we find many dentists want the answer to is… “How on earth can you encourage your users to act?”
Well, it seems that patients need a constant, firm push in the right direction. That’s where a persuasive dental call to action comes in. What’s that, I hear you ask?
A ‘call-to-action’ (often abbreviated as CTA) is either a line of text or an image in your content that pushes your viewers to take action, as the term quite literally suggests.
So what type of action?
Well, it can be anything; that’s up to you. However, a few common CTA’s include
- Signing up for a practice newsletter
- Downloading a free treatment guide or eBook or
- Simply just prompting patients to pick up the phone and arrange a consultation with you
A dental call to action can be placed anywhere, on your website, social media, and blog posts, even emails.
Still a bit confused?
Here are a few simple examples of CTA’s you probably see every day without realising:
- Get in touch with us today on 00112233
- Email us now at info@calltoactionsaregreat.com
- Click here to find out more
- Complete our feedback form
- Subscribe to our newsletter
- Follow us on Facebook or Twitter
- Sign up/register today
Basically, these punchy words help maximise the effects of marketing efforts. It’s true that readers have very short attention spans and are more than happy to move on without taking any action unless you remind them to. So sometimes it pays to be a little bossy!
A quick word of warning…
Filling your content with loads of big bold words saying ‘CLICK HERE’ and flashing buttons shouting ‘CONTACT US’ used to work in years gone by. However, now, users are way savvier. Instead, it’s more likely to send your prospective patients running for the hills; besides, you don’t really want to come across as desperate, right?
So now you get the gist of it, how hard can it be?
Well, effective CTAs are actually more involved than you might realise. It’s not as straightforward as sticking a ‘Click here’ button or throwing the words ‘call us’ into your blog posts. Believe me, there are a number of elements you’ll need to consider first if you want your dental call to action to be truly effective at motivating your patients.
So to help, I’ve put together a dental call to action checklist: Let’s dive straight in…
- Grab attention
For potential patients to click on your CTA, they first need to notice it. So make sure it’s eye-catching. Using a contrasting colour is an effective way to get people’s attention. For instance, if your dental site is mainly muted greys and blues, a vibrant red or green call to action would stand out nicely. Of course, it’s no good relying solely on a bright colour because some viewers will be colour-blind. So it’s also a good idea to make sure that your CTA is large enough (225px width by 45px in height works well) and keep the space around it free so it’s clear to see and not lost amongst the rest of your content.
- Use motivational words
A good call to action taps into a reader’s emotions and stirs them into taking action. To do this, your CTA copy needs to be concise and free of dental jargon . After all, let’s face it, no one is going to be drawn to a button that says ‘click here to book your next subgingival scaling’
Another good tip is to always start with a verb. Doing words such as ‘join’, ‘start’, ‘click’ and ‘discover’ are good examples of how to begin your CTA. If you don’t use them, then there’s no prompt for your readers to actually ‘do’ anything.
- Provide value
For someone to feel compelled to action, they have to feel the need to do something first, right?
Well, this is no different… Before you ask people to respond, try and first identify their problem, then use your dental call to action as an offer to solve that problem. Here’s a good example…
‘Fed up with loose and uncomfortable dentures? Find out if dental implants are the solution for you with our free treatment guide.’ Then add a button underneath to click that says ‘download my free guide.’
This way, you’ve used a dental call to action to reach out to your patients with an offer to potentially solve a problem. It’s valuable to them, and on top of that, they know exactly what they’re signing up for – a FREE guide that helps them to determine their best options. What’s not to love?
- Make it personal
Did you know that personalised CTA’s are 42% more effective at converting patients than generic ones are? Using the words ‘you’ and ‘your’ changes the tone of your dental call to action and makes it more conversational, as if you’re speaking directly to them. In other words, when it comes to writing the best calls to action, make it personal!
- Specific landing pages
So, you’ve followed the steps above, and a user does respond to your CTA. Now what?
Well, it’s best that your potential patients be taken straight to a dedicated landing page for that particular offer. Why?
The answer is simple, to avoid distraction. Any distractions might stop your newbie from finishing the process you’ve just worked so hard to get them to do. So ideally, create specific landing pages with your dental call to action in mind, which make it clear to patients what the next step is, what it involves, and how to get in touch.
So if you feel that you’re getting a large amount of traffic to your website but not many actual enquiries, then it might be time to start throwing in a dental call to action to make the most of your content.
Now for my CTA…
If you’re looking to stand out from your competition and position yourself as the ‘go-to‘ dentist in your area, your written content needs to stand out too. This is where we can help. Get in touch with the Dental Writers Team at +34 605 45 73 42 and let us show you how.
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