Be Successful Here

Any successful dental advertising campaign begins with research. Before layouts are drafted, headlines are written or artwork is chosen, the savvy marketer learns everything they can about the target customer. It is important to research patients and also think like them. What are their pain points? What’s the number one thing they look for in a practice? What would keep them coming back to the same dentist?

Discovering current demographics is part of this research. Demographic information should include age, gender, household income, number of household members and physical location. There are many ways this data can help inform marketing decisions. For example, Patient News’s research, data analysis and years of experience show that women make more than 80 percent of all healthcare decisions, so most dental correspondence is addressed to the female head of house.

The next step is taking an honest look at your strengths and weaknesses as a practice. Once these are identified, marketing messages should highlight strengths and turn weaknesses into positives. If your practice excels at customer service, focus on the personal and friendly experience a patient will have at your office. If customer service is identified as a weakness because your front desk is understaffed, turn this into a positive point by telling customers you keep overhead low and pass those savings on to them.

Determining a budget is a critical part of any dental marketing campaign. Break down projected costs to determine the overall budget and then look at how often you can contact customers within that budget. Whether it is big or small, sticking to the projected costs and using them as a guideline for decision making will help your campaign be a success.

Once these pieces are in place, a marketing strategy can be developed. This strategy will outline clear goals, action items and measures of success. This is also the point at which the direct mail campaign is developed. This includes creating collateral, a mail calendar and mailing lists. The overall marketing plan and the direct mail campaign should be integrated and combined to complement and support one another. For example, if an advertisement for your practice runs in the local paper, send an acquisition mailing to new prospects at the same time.

If you are thinking about different marketing techniques, have you ever considered the benefits of leaflet marketing? It is still one of the most popular and effective types of marketing, even though newer forms of online marketing are growing in popularity. It can be used by businesses both large and small, and can still be very effective. Here are a few of the main reasons why letterbox distribution may be ideal for your business.

A Cost-Effective Marketing Technique

Price is always a consideration when it comes to marketing. After all, you want to achieve a good ROI from your marketing efforts. With leaflet marketing you have a very cost-effective technique, and this makes it very appealing.

There are also ways that you can make it even cheaper. If you get your design and delivery carried out by the same company then you can save even more money, making it even more attractive.

With doorstep marketing you should remember that the amount you spend is low when you consider the amount of people you can reach with your physical leaflet, and this is one of the main reasons why it is so attractive to businesses of all sizes.

Great Way to Target Local Customers

If you are targeting customers in a specific area, leaflet distribution and other forms of door-to-door mailing can be very effective. You will be able to target areas as specifically as you want to, even particular streets if necessary. You will also be able to cover a large geographic area which will help to ensure that you get your message before the eyes of the people who matter to your business.

Effective Technique to Get Noticed

Letterbox distribution is especially effective when you send out your leaflets or flyers on their own rather than accompanied with other marketing literature. This is more costly, but it means that your customers are much more likely to notice your leaflets.

One of the hardest battles you face with any form of marketing is getting people to take notice of what you have to say. People are bombarded with marketing messages every day, and it can sometimes be hard to get heard. With leaflet distribution you have a simple and effective way to stand out and get your message across more easily.

If you own and operate a dental practice, and would like a few helpful tips on how to grow your practice on the back of Halloween, then give this short article a read.

Let me explain:

It drives my wife crazy.

I cough.
I hack.
I snort.
And at times, I sound like a farm animal.

How come?

Well, for some reason my sinuses get clogged up like a Plumber’s worst nightmare. And to figure out what’s going on, I’ve been through a battery of allergy tests which turned up nothing.

So the next logical step was to get checked out by an ENT doctor.

And here’s how my appointment went:

I go into the doctor’s office. I fill out a bunch of forms. And a few minutes later the doctor whisks me to his office. We go through a bunch of questions. He does a host of tests. And he leaves to get something.

While he’s gone, his nurse walks into the room.

And while she’s here, I asked her a question:

“So what are you guys doing to promote your business for Halloween?”

And she looked at me light a deer in headlights. Because come to find out, they were not planning anything for Halloween.

Say what?

How in the world can a business pass up a chance to have fun (and promote themselves at the same time) by piggybacking off Halloween?

That would be like having a winning lottery ticket in your pocket, and not cashing it.

Really?

So what can you do to promote your dental practice for Halloween?

For starters, how about making your staff get dressed up in a costume? This is easy enough to do. And it’s fun for both your staff as well as your patients.

Or, how about having a Halloween party and inviting your patients to attend? They can even “bring a friend” which is a clever way to drum up some referrals!

Or, how about buying back sugary candy from your patients, and sending a press release to your local newspaper announcing what you are doing?

Or, what about holding a “trick or treat” contest in October? And if your patients schedule and appointment, they’ll get a “goodie” bag which includes a FREE electric toothbrush (and a few other valuable items). How can you get these items? Call up your vendors. Tell them what you’re doing. And ask them to donate items to your goodie bag.