By Joy Gendusa 

Whether it is Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza, or Festivus, chances are most of your patients are celebrating something this holiday season. And that means pictures. On top of that, dental benefits are expiring at the end of the year – and that’s another primo marketing opportunity. But with every opportunity, there are also pitfalls to be avoided.
 
My company has been working with dentists for over 15 years, and tracking the results of those marketing campaigns along the way. An analysis of this data reveals three things you definitely DO NOT want to do, if you want to be successful:

1. Do NOT Stick with a Stale Message

Marketing is all about cutting through the noise – and the noise is turned up to 11 during the holidays! If you are planning to trot out that sad, tired marketing message that has been disappointing you for the past couple years… stop the madness! Sure, if you’ve got a particular design or headline that works like gangbusters every year, by all means stick with it. But the better route for most of you will be to jazz up your message with a new angle.

Here are a few ideas:

2. Do NOT Put the Sleigh before the Horse

Don’t assume that benefits ending is a good enough reasons for folks to call. The single element of a dental postcard design that has the biggest impact on response is the offer. Here are nine of the most successful offers we’ve tracked for dentists. Choose the one that 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.)

Additionally, we have found that campaigns perform better when the offer is printed on both sides of the postcards. It’s just a little change that makes it easier for the message to sink in with the prospect.

3. Do NOT Blend into the Crowd

People like to know whom they are dealing with. After all, you’ll be poking around in their mouth! Our data indicates that postcards that include a picture and short biography of the dentist return better results than cards that lack this information. So don’t be a faceless dentist in the crowd! Show off your own pearly whites and people with be more inclined to trust (and call) you!
 
There you go! Pretty simple, right? This proven data can help you sidestep the potential pitfalls awaiting you this holiday season – and step into more patients and higher revenue! Best of luck!



 
Joy Gendusa is the founder and CEO of marketing firm PostcardMania, the noted developer of DirectMail2.O: New Patient Edition for dentists.