Why Content Marketing Works Better For Dentists Than Ads, Experts Weigh In

As a dental professional, I'm sure you already know that marketing is hard.

It's not like you're selling waffles, which many households might buy every single week - you're selling dental care, which no one even thinks about until they're in need of it. So how do you get their attention, at just the right time, when they're looking for a dentist? I asked the experts, and they told me that we need to think of marketing a little differently.

Axe The Ads, Content Is Cooler

If you didn't already know that there's such a thing as a dental marketing specialist, then I can guess two things, automatically. You've never heard of Ibex Media, and your marketing probably needs a little work...

It's not your fault, last time I checked, advertising wasn't a key concept in dental school, and honestly I'm okay with that. In a way, advertising is just like getting my teeth checked, because it's way too important to leave it to an amateur, though for totally different reasons.

While I'm not worried that a bunch of ads could mess up my health, poorly managed marketing can be disastrous for your dental practice. Aside from wasting a lot of money, over-advertising can even the opposite of the effect you want, and scare away your customers. That's why I always recommend content creation instead.

Why Ads Fail & Content Creation Works

Marketing is big business, so don't take my word for it that content creation is better, let me explain the why, and you can decide for yourself.

Let's start with why traditional ads just don't work well for dentists, I can explain it really quickly with an example. Let's say that you're selling waffles, your customers can hear an ad any time, and they could stock up on waffles after at the grocery store.. but you can't stock up on dental care.

Instead, you need to rely on your ads, website, or content coming up in the search engine, when potential customers are already actively seeking a dentist. Content is great at making that happen, because it's what people are actually looking for.

When your clients need braces, do you think they look up the nearest dentist and call them right away? This isn't the 1990s. They're going to Google search for "how much do adult braces cost," or "how long do clear aligners take for adults," and they're going to read a blog, or listen to a podcast with the answers they're looking for.

Once they have all the facts, then they might look for and call a local dentist... but what if you could catch their attention earlier than that? Instead of finding random blogs about adult braces, or podcasts about toothaches, or even videos about root canals - why not make sure that informative content comes directly from your practice, with links back to your website?

That's what content creation is all about.

It's Like Advertising, But It Works

The best part about content creation, hands down, is that it never needs a "Sponsored Ad" banner. Those banners are like giant signs that say "Don't Click Me."

Honestly, the research backs it up. Year after year, even Google admits that their "Sponsored Ads" get 10x fewer clicks than the top organic links. So why would you want to advertise in the spot that's more expensive, offers only temporary benefits, and gets 10x fewer clicks?

Besides, if you work with an expert content creation team, they can handle everything. All you have to do is make a few suggestions for locations, topics, and services to focus on. They handle the rest, and you can review or edit every single piece before it gets posted online.

They'll take care of making blogs, podcasts, videos, slideshows, infographics, all the types of media that people actually click on - and each one will discuss the topic at length, and include directions back to your website.

Rank Higher, Long-Term, On Automatic

One of the biggest advantages of content creation is that the benefits don't expire - but they do stack.

Every time new content about your brand is uploaded, the algorithms see that your practice is interesting, trustworthy, and relevant, so it ranks you higher. As you keep adding new content, your ranking keeps going up, and you can start to rank for more keywords, locations, and services.

Depending on the team you work with, you should ask about getting regularly updated reports that show you at a glance how you rank for all the locations and keywords that count.

The best part is, this is marketing that you can see in action yourself, and you can direct where it's aimed without doing any of the work yourself. To prove your progress, all you need to do is search for some of those keywords, and look for your content at the top.

Of all the ways to rank at the top - content creation is the only strategy that offers consistent results, without "Sponsored Ad" banners.