When it comes to dental marketing strategies, newsletters are woefully underused. In fact, only 20% of UK dentists are reportedly using them. Yet they’re also one of the most efficient AND cost-effective forms of marketing you can implement.
While many other types of dental advertising are self-serving, newsletters are different because they provide quality information that your potential and existing patients want to read. For this reason, they already have the edge over traditional ‘practice-centric’ methods which are often viewed with a degree of suspicion by those seeking dental treatment.
Aside from this, there are some other advantages to newsletters that dental practices can also tap into:
They help to maintain relationships
By sending out regular dental marketing newsletters to your opt-in list you will be reaching out to 3 different target groups. These are…
• Those who already visit you like clockwork every 6 months
• Those who have previously made enquiries about your services but haven’t yet taken it any further. And finally…
• Those who have used your services in the past but for whatever reason, no longer does.
By targeting them with a regular newsletter you’ll be reminding them that you are still here and open for business. This way, the next time they need dental treatment or need to recommend a dental practice to friends and family, they’re more likely to pick you.
Promotes upcoming events
We’ve already mentioned that dental office marketing in the form of newsletters shouldn’t entirely be about practice advertising. However, they are a great way to promote upcoming events. This might mean an event in your local community or an event or promotion that your dental practice is planning. The truth is that many of your patients won’t visit your dental website to see what promotions or events you have on. However, according to Salesforce (a US-based cloud computing company), 82% of people will open a newsletter from someone they know and/or trust.
In other words, if you’re advertising say
‘20% off the cost of laser teeth whitening when patients have a dental clean’
what better way to spread the word than via your weekly/monthly newsletter.
Perfect for sharing
Any dental marketing company worth their salt should suggest that you run a periodic newsletter campaign. Why? Because just like social media, newsletters are easily shareable.
In a study carried out by Wired Wealthy Report it was suggested that 42% of respondents surveyed said that they’d forwarded a newsletter on to friends, family, and acquaintances. So if you want to get your information out there fast, you could do a lot worse than send regular dental practice newsletters.
So now you know why you should use dental marketing newsletters, let’s take a look at the components that make up a newsletter.
Firstly all dental newsletters should incorporate the essentials. These include things like…
• Dental and oral health tips
• Information on new and existing treatments
• Events or marketing that your practice has been involved in
• Any special offers
• Latest patient testimonials
• Any recent news associated with oral health that your readers may find interesting – The alarming sugar levels found in certain takeaway coffee drinks; or the ‘to floss or not floss’ debate springs to mind.
In addition to the essentials, you might also want to showcase your fun side. This may include:
• A jokes section (clean of course)
• Competitions and/or quizzes; or
• Maybe even a ‘Kids Corner’.
The whole thing should be somewhere between 2-4 pages in length and should be accompanied by pictures. Remember a newsletter is supposed to be an easily digestible document and not something academic and heavy going like a white paper, so it should be light, and relatively compact.
So there you have it.
In short, dental marketing via newsletters works. If you need help organising and planning your newsletters or are considering setting up a newsletter campaign, let’s talk about how we can help.
