Proven direct mail dental marketing tactics

Designing an offer that will draw in potential dental patients is important As a dentist, you don’t need an extensive marketing background to do your job. However, a little marketing knowledge can make the difference between a booming practice and scraping by. My company, PostcardMania, has helped more than 2,400 dental professionals build direct mail campaigns for their practices, and we have tracked and analyzed the results to figure out exactly what works and what doesn’t work.   The results of this decade-plus of research are solid marketing principles you can rely on to grow your practice consistently. Here are the top five successful actions for dentists:   Offer matters most The single element of a dental postcard design that has the biggest impact on response is the offer. But what does a good offer look like? Here are nine of the most successful offers we’ve tracked. Choose what fits your practice best:   ·      Free whitening for new patients ·      Complimentary exam ·      $25 children’s cleaning and exam ·      $250 off laser whitening ·      Free consultation and X-rays ·      Free children’s cleaning plus check-up ·      $59 exam, full set of X-rays, and cleaning ·      Free Sonicare electric toothbrush with new patient exam, cleaning, plus X-rays ·      $150 off any restorative procedure (fillings, crowns, root canals, etc.)   Easy-to-find offers This is a logical follow-up to the first point, and it is worth mentioning. We found that postcards with the offer printed on both sides perform better. Make sure you have your offer on both sides, and that it is easy to find (within two seconds of looking at the card).   Picture and bio of dentist Among the campaigns we tracked, postcards that included a picture and short bio of the dentist performed better than those without this information. People like to know whom they are dealing with, and this helps them connect to you and your practice.   Simple 3-step format You don’t want to do too much with your postcard. The messages you use should accomplish these three goals as quickly and simply as possible: ·      This card is from a dentist! ·      Here is a great offer! ·      This is what I look like and a little about me!   Bigger is better Last, but not least, the best campaigns use 6x8 postcards or larger. The practices that mailed 4x6 cards generally didn’t get as high of a response, even if the design and offer were the same.   And that’s it; it’s that simple! This is proven marketing data you can use to grow your practice. I test and track all the marketing I use for my business, and I believe in passing on what I learn. This data is ready to apply to your campaigns. Best of luck!   Still looking for more information on this? You can receive free postcard samples, as well as more information on how to get all of these steps in one convenient package right here.   Joy Gendusa is the owner and CEO of the direct mail marketing firm PostcardMania.