“Less is more” is a phrase first noted by the poet Robert Browning in 1855, but it is an ideology that is difficult to achieve in today’s world with our easy access to an overabundance of products and services. The same can be said for your practice’s digital presence. With so many ways to raise your profile online, it’s hard to know when enough is enough. Now is a great time of year to take a page out of Marie Kondo’s book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.” In it, Kondo proposes getting rid of things you don’t need and only keeping those that are truly meaningful. Here are some ways to declutter your digital marketing so that what remains will better resonate with your audience.

Website

Let’s start with your website. My company notices that most practices want to pack their sites with as much information as possible, thinking it will be helpful to patients. While I can appreciate the desire to present all the facts about your office and services, our experience has shown that online users don’t want to spend time consuming lengthy paragraphs of content. Consider these questions and how they relate to your website:

• Is your website — specifically your homepage — too wordy and too much information to digest? Break up your homepage with short paragraphs and graphics. It’s easier for readers to scan for the information they need. Your patients visit your website for specific information — make it easy for them to find it. Whether it’s your office hours or a service they are interested in, avoid cluttering your site to the point where readers can’t access particulars quickly.

• Does it offer benefit statements? Remember, your patients aren’t looking to be experts in dentistry. Avoid using technical jargon, and focus on how your services will help them.

• Does the content hit on the pain points of your target audience? Patients can identify with symptoms and dental issues. Make sure to include these so they know you are the one who can solve their dental problems.

Social Media Platforms

Practices often ask my company if they should be on all of the major social media platforms — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. We always have two recommendations:

• Where is your target audience? Your practice should focus on the social media platform(s) most used by your target audience. If you are an orthodontic practice, you probably have a larger audience of young people, which makes Instagram a good choice. Also, given Instagram’s focus on photos, it’s a great platform to showcase before and after photos of your patients. On the other hand, if you are targeting a more affluent, older demographic, then Facebook is more suitable. Facebook and LinkedIn are ideal for reaching professionals — think doctors, lawyers and business people.

• More is not always better. Trying to be active on all the major platforms could actually hurt more than help. Each platform is unique, and if you are posting the same text, images and links across them all, you are not speaking to the specific audience of each platform. You are generalizing your practice rather than providing information that is helpful to your target audience. Again, less is more here. Practically speaking, most practices can’t generate enough content to keep up with every single platform in a way that is meaningful. Choose one or two platforms, and put all your efforts there so you can do a great job reaching your intended audience.

Social Media Content

What you post is more important than how many times you post. Your efforts will be wasted if you are just checking a box and posting seven times a week without a precise plan or message. Quality over quantity counts here. Post less, but offer more impactful content. Using candid photos of your team, doctors and practices rather than stock photos will catch the eye of your audience. Share real stories, before and after images, and news updates about your team and practice. Consumers connect with people, not facts. These kinds of posts will have more of an impact than just sharing an article from a third party.

Paid Ads

Paid advertising can help your practice be seen by a wider audience, but are you trying to market all your services through ads? This might be another case where you can get caught up in trying to be everything to everyone. You can apply “less is more” here, too.

If you’re running ads for cleanings, implants, fillings, teeth whitening, etc., you end up commoditizing your services. When this happens, you are competing on price rather than the quality of your service. You might get a volume of interest, but we have found that the calls you receive may not necessarily be the right fit for your practice. People might ask questions but never schedule an appointment, schedule an appointment but never show up, or come in for a cleaning but move on to another practice that’s offering a special in six months. 

Instead, target your ads to specific services, such as Invisalign^® or implants. Make sure your Google ads are configured with phrases that people use when searching for these services, such as “dental implants <your city>,” “Invisalign,” “clear braces” or “clear aligners.” Also, make sure your ad mentions the specific service and directs to a landing page on your website that only talks about the service, its benefits and how you solve the specific problem they have. If you are running a Facebook ad, again, make sure the image or video as well as the copy is specific to that service and directs to a targeted landing page.

The key to “less is more” is delivering only information that your target audience will benefit from. This in turn makes it easier for them to see and choose you among the hundreds of messages they are bombarded with every day.

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Jackie Ulasewich Cullen is co-founder of My Dental Agency, a marketing company specializing in dental practice. To comment on this article, email impact@agd.org.