How User-Generated Content (UGC) Can Help Grow Your Dental Practice

User-generated content (UGC) isn't just the latest advertising buzzword. It's a solid marketing strategy for your dental practice. Here's why.

What is User-Generated Content (UGC)?

User-generated or user-created content is simply any content created by fans or other unpaid contributors. This can include social media posts, images, videos, blogs, product or service reviews and more. When users promote a brand instead of the brand promoting itself, this is considered user-generated content. Make sure to always consider any privacy and patient confidentiality issues when working with UGC and look to a legal professional for advice.

Where to Find UGC

User-generated content can be found across the entirety of the Internet. Create space for consumers to easily generate content related to your brand and practice by staying active on your social media channels, posting to your blog regularly and enabling comments and more. 

Google reviews are arguably one of the most impactful types of UGC, and they can either help or harm you. You could consider encouraging regular patients to leave their Google review of your practice.

How to Use UGC to Grow Your Dental Practice

Today's consumers are wise to slick marketing gimmicks and will recognize authentic, meaningful online interactions. User-generated content can help you expand your patient base more effectively than traditional marketing content by helping your practice make those connections.

Build Practice Trust

It's easy for people to tune out the ads of brands that promote themselves, but it's much harder to ignore the stories of other satisfied consumers. Prospective patients who are considering booking an appointment with you want to hear about the real experiences of others, not overused, glossy marketing phrases. Stories about positive interactions at your practice from actual patients can help build trust in your practice.

Establish Credibility as a Leading Dental Provider In Your Area

Most people want to research a dentist online before they book an appointment. What are other people saying about the practice? How does this practice compare to others in the city? User-generated content can help you establish a reputation as a leading dental provider in your area. It's a modern-day word-of-mouth advertising strategy that tends to be more successful at drawing new patients into a dental practice than traditional online and offline marketing tactics.

Increase Online Engagement

Your dental practice can also use UGC to increase engagement with your audience online. Post thoughtful questions about dental hygiene or the myths of root canals and leave the floor open for your audience to post comments and discuss the topic with each other. Social media channel algorithms are more advanced now than ever and reward brands for real engagement: shares and comments carry more weight than likes when it comes to determining how brand posts appear in user news feeds. The more engagement your brand has on social media, the higher up your posts will display on user feeds, which has an indirect impact on search engine optimization and conversions.

Gain Insight Into Your Target Market

An important part of pursuing a successful dental practice marketing strategy is understanding your target market. What problems do they face? What motivates them? What do they consider before making a buying decision? All these factors are crucial when creating an overall advertising strategy, and user-generated content can help you gain insight into each. Read your users' comments on your social media posts. Listen to their praises and their complaints and consider both. Use this information to tailor your marketing strategy to deliver solutions to the needs of your core audience.

Thinking About Using UGC in Your Dental Marketing Strategy? It's Cost-Effective Too!

If your dental practice isn't using user-generated content as a significant part of your marketing strategy, you're missing out. Not only is it a great tool to help build brand trust and engage patients, it's also exceptionally cost-effective. User-generated content typically doesn't cost much, if anything, to produce. Encourage your patients to "check-in" at your practice on social media and post pictures of cosmetic dental work before and afters. You could also encourage them to share your posts with their friends and family.

Using UGC to boost your marketing strategy typically costs no more than what you're currently paying for social media management and may even reduce your costs if you utilize more user-generated content than you do original content. However, be aware that it's still important to have a good mix of UGC and traditionally branded content. Continue posting videos, blogs, and social content frequently to give users a space to interact with your brand; without your practice's original content, users don't have a place to engage and generate their own content.

Look for new ways to incorporate UGC in your marketing efforts and make sure you have good analytics set up. Review data in real-time to see what user-generated content performs the best and what doesn't get as much engagement, and tailor what you post to what your audience responds best to.

About Treloar & Heisel

Treloar & Heisel is a premier financial services provider to dental and medical professionals across the country. We assist thousands of clients from residency to practice and through retirement with a comprehensive suite of financial services, custom-tailored advice, and a strong national network focused on delivering the highest level of service.

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Treloar & Heisel, LLC. and its divisions do not offer legal or marketing advice. Please consult a professional concerning these topics.