A dental sleep medicine expert shares how maintaining an active blog has connected him with patients and increased his credibility, plus offers insights on how to choose post topics.
As a dentist, did you know that blogging can make all the difference with your practice? Yes, it really can! When you think of a blog you might think of the latest gossip column or sports digest, but blogs can cover an array of topics across all areas–from businesses to personal use. It is our nonstop goal to maintain a full practice and a practice full of patients who are invested in improving their health with your dental expertise. Let’s talk about how you can get there with blogging.
Improved Web Presence
One of the main factors that contribute to your improved online presence is the creation and use of a blog. Utilizing a blog to update your dental practice website regularly is important for your potential and established patients to find you, and just as important for them to relate to you.
Blogging increases the chances your business will be found. But how does that happen? It happens because each new blog post you and your team writes creates a new indexable page. Not to mention, well-written and informative blog posts attract inbound links, giving your website a higher rank on search engines–this is where SEO improves.
Increased Credibility
Not only will you gain better visibility, but you can also gain increased credibility. If you consistently write content that is creative, helpful, and relevant to your readers, you will start to be known as a “thought leader.” In other words, you will be someone who is viewed as an authority in their field, which helps you to earn trust as you work to convert blog readers into patients.
The availability of a blog helps you to create a trustworthy reputation with your patients. The more you update your blog and include important dental information, the more your patients will begin to trust you and go to you for all of their dental information needs. Active blogging helps you to establish yourself and your practice as an expert in your field—whether it is general dentistry, dental sleep medicine, or other topics of interest.
Prospective and established patients want to feel connected to you as their provider and to your entire practice. The more connected they feel, the more inclined they are to seek your advice. By blogging, you continue to serve your patients’ dental care needs outside of the office–your care doesn’t stop when the patient leaves your office.
Guidelines for Choosing Blog Post Topics
The best part about blogging is that your topics are limitless. So, what does this mean? This means you can write about just about anything that relates to you, your practice, dental topics, important events, etc. Be sure to choose what people want to hear. An easy way to determine good topic choices is to think of questions that your patients commonly ask. You can utilize your blog as a way to answer each of these questions–your patients can visit your blog for answers to their questions.
You might also want to search for other blogs in your industry, as well as popular blog posts to get other blog ideas. Viewing what other blogs are posting can help give you a good idea of what your industry likes to talk about and read. Additionally, in the past your blog and press releases were separate areas. However, blogs can now often be a better choice than a press release. By utilizing your blog for not only educational information, but to announce new procedures, upcoming events, and other newsworthy topics, you can complete a well-rounded blog that reaches your patients.
Blogging might feel forced at first, but over time you may begin to look forward to blogging and may even leave yourself notes as you think of new topics to share with your patients. Blogging is fun and can significantly improve your web presence and credibility, so start now! You will find that the rewards of blogging are worth that extra effort.
I have found that my success of getting new patients has been through active blogging. With an active and up-to-date blog, your patients will know that you are an expert in dental sleep medicine or other areas of dentistry. While I understand how you may not have enough time due to your busy schedule, I personally utilize a freelance blogger, Sara Berg. Through her efforts and help, I have been able to maintain an active, engaging blog for my patients and other dentists.
I highly encourage you to do the same in order to maintain an educational blog for your practice!
Patel
Mayoor Patel, DDS, MS, is the owner of Atlanta’s Craniofacial Pain and Dental Sleep Center of Georgia. Patel’s expertise in craniofacial pain, TMD, and dental sleep medicine, in addition to the opening of his dental laboratory—MAP-LAB—allows him to successfully help other dentists improve their dental offices. View his blog at www.atlantatmjfacepain.com/blog.html. Contact Patel via his website.
