The online world has changed people’s behaviour drastically in a matter of decades – nowadays people rely heavily on the internet to connect with friends and family, to voice their desires and expression, and especially to find goods and services such as accessories, clothes, gadgets, and many more.

Despite the advances in technology many local and national businesses still receive a lot of their customers from traditional printed medium. This includes dental clinics. Why is that? As the internet is getting more and more cluttered and competition more fierce less businesses are using traditional methods like direct mail. There are less competition in traditional mail yet people still look at their mail. The secret is to integrate online technology right and research in the printed flyer.

Here are the seven best tips on acquiring patients with direct mail

Integrate both online and offline

More and more dental clinics are spending online because it’s faster and provides perceived higher return on investment. Less dental clinics are doing direct mail which means it’s a less cluttered advertising avenue but the return are lower. What’s the solution? Integrate online with offline. Advances in online technology help with tracking and optimizing your direct mail ads. You can track your ads with special links, QR codes to scan, and tracking phone numbers.

Moreover there are many elements that help with getting your patient to book which cannot be available on the printed direct mail such as video, image gallery, finance calculator, and online booking request. Solution is to have links so the patient can get that information easily.

Present dental offers that are necessary and easily read

There is nothing more annoying for people than to receive letters from different companies that have vague and lengthy content. Sending dental post cards are enough, preferably with sizes 4×6 or 6×8.  Also keep the contents of your dental postcards to a minimum, and state the ones that will be the most necessary and write them in a manner that is easily understood. You can also write your offers on both sides of your postcards for additional content. Keep your messages to 1 or 2.

Organize and build your mail database

Choose the ones whom you will send the letters to—either previous patients or to those who have responded to your previous advertisements online or offline. Office visits are also advised, to build relationships with those who can possibly use your dental services in the future. More importantly, choose your target market wisely—some people choose to ignore mails coming from companies. Keep track of the ones that responded and if they do not become a patient, target them again in the future.

Share things about you and your profession

It does not hurt to put some details about you in the mail that you will send—your professional background, accomplishments as a dentist and skills that you think are relevant. Doing so also adds to your credibility in your profession. Plus experiments have shown that people make decisions based on non rational factors such as going to the same school or having the same hobbies.

To accommodate extra content you can alternate between postcard and newsletter. Also alternating mediums will get patients who do not respond to one of the mediums. Make sure you have enough information for them to decide.

Time the sending of your mails carefully

As effective as direct mailing can be, postcards and letters take some time to produce and reach your potential patients. If the postcards contain promotional offers or something that only exist for a limited amount of time make sure to time the delivery so that all postcards are sent and gives the patient enough time to take your offer. To avoid delays, send your postcards out a few days before the start of a promo. Doing this can also prevent you from losing money, as some patients wait for promos before they seek out your dental services. For the best results you want to send the dental direct mail at certain time in the year. The best times are

1. Month before the end of the year where patients need to look good for the holidays and their plan is ending
2. Beginning of the new year when dental plans are renewed
3. For students their dental plans renew around September

The lowest response rate is around summer break when people are on vacation.

Track your success

Make sure you know exactly how many patients you get from each mailing. Use a call tracking number to track the calls because asking the patients can be inaccurate and it only shows the patients that booked. You can use DentistFind.com Marketing System which includes call tracking and it’s designed and developed just for dentists.

Professional Design

Many dental clinics has been dissatisfied with returns with their direct mail. The number one reason is that the designs were poorly done. Use a good design company or choose a simple design.

The Right Information

This might be common sense but you are probably doing it wrong. Have the right information for the patient to decide. This include, address, map, phone number, hours, and list of services. Simple? This is where most clinics get it wrong, organize it so that the potential patients can see it clearly, not at the back bottom right corner in 9 point fonts.

Try a bit of everything

Of course, no marketing method works the first time. Do not restrict the marketing strategy of your firm to just direct mailing; try sending out e-mails or making a website of your dentistry business. Because all your marketing will add up and will lead to multiple exposures. Nowadays many patients need not only to discover you by direct mail but they need to research you on your website and get reminded by email and online ads before they make the first call. Direct mailing is effective because it gets the patients attention and remind them about their dental care.