7 Oct 2015  •  Practice Management  •  3min read By  • Laura Hodgin

The Importance of Speaking the Language of the Receiver

https://vimeo.com/135350938
Have you ever been in a situation where you don’t understand what someone is trying to communicate to you? Like the above video shows, not everybody speaks the same language…

There are times in your dental practice where you need to produce promotional literature to both promote treatments and encourage patients to take it up. This means that when you’re writing the content for marketing material, you should take a moment to stop, reflect and ask yourself, would your existing patients and potential new ones understand what you are trying to communicate?

Dentistry holds a lot of technical jargon, as I’ve discovered working closely with dental practices over the years. Orthodontic, endodontic and periodontic, to name a few. Although you would use these terms on a daily basis, do you think your patients truly understand what they mean?

Take a look at the below extract, and ask yourself, would a patient understand the treatment being described?

Dr John Doe BDS MSc MRD RCS (Lon) is an accredited specialist of dental implantology. Using a cylindrical post, made of titanium he will anchor this into a pre-drilled socket in your jaw bone, to support a crown, bridge or denture in place. The goal of the treatment is to achieve close contact between the outer surface of the implant and the surrounding tissue making it osseointegrated.

If your patients don’t understand what you’re saying, it’s very unlikely they will take up the treatment with you. Your patients don’t necessarily want to know the technical aspects of these treatments, but how it will affect and benefit them, spoken in a language they grasp and understand. This will increase their awareness of the treatment and is more likely going to persuade them to go ahead with the procedure.

For example:

Would you like to smile and eat with confidence?

If the answer is yes, then dental implants could be the solution for you. A dental implant is a small titanium screw that is placed in the jaw bone to replace a missing tooth root

How dental implants could benefit you:

• They can help you to eat and speak with confidence by filling missing
gaps in your smile.
• They present a long-term solution that offers stability and reliability
• You no longer have the hassle of loose fitting dentures
• They can offer you a better quality of life and have a natural appearance, meaning you can maintain your smile.

This shows how by using simple, benefit driven messaging you’ll appeal more to your patient’s emotions as they can more easily relate to the problem that the treatment can solve. So, the next time you’re writing text about a treatment you offer, put yourself in your patients’ shoes. Are you speaking in a language they will understand?

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