Convert More New Patients With Print + Paid Campaigns

Prospective patients aren’t passively thinking about dental treatment, nor are most homeowners surrounding your practice passively wondering about your dental office. The modern patient journey doesn’t just start at search – people need to be prompted to think about dental treatments. They need to be made aware that your practice exists and that you’re the choice they should make when considering treatment.

Using newsletters to reach your target audience is not only proactive but also guarantees reaching 100% of your ideal new patient households. The newsletter format adds a special touch for dentists wanting to attract quality new patients. Female head-of-household decision-makers are looking for quality information to make good decisions for their families, and they appreciate the value-added content of a newsletter. These decision-makers still make over 90% of all healthcare decisions.

Direct mail campaigns trigger interest and drive consumers to call and check you out online for more information. By combining paid media with direct mail marketing, dental practices benefit from a multichannel approach by being visible where your audience lives, works, and plays. 

Multiple studies suggest that when direct mail and paid media are combined, the effectiveness of online campaigns improves by up to 400%. This is attributed to the high trust level that consumers have for direct mail. Statistics show that over 80% of consumers trust direct mail most when making a buying decision, and neuromarketing studies have shown that a four-page newsletter delivers the highest trust scores, with an almost 2X impact over digital and postcards.

It all makes sense, doesn’t it? Reading something in print requires less cognitive effort, and the tangible physicality is proven to have an enduring effect on brand recall. As a crazy example, I was looking at a client today who had discontinued their direct mail campaign at the end of 2023 and still had direct inbound calls from the newsletter through 2024 and even into 2025, with a new patient booked just last month. That’s an enduring impact! People hold onto great information!

Combining print with Google and META Ads offers dental practices an improved opportunity to capture new patient attention in their local community. Patient NEWS elevates it even higher with our high level of targeting, developing like audiences for both online and offline efforts, ensuring that the practice becomes more visible and consistent with the consumers they want to attract.

At Patient NEWS, we precisely target consumers surrounding each practice with a geo-mapping analysis, capturing demographics, interests, and online behavior. This chart shows the results for an actual client who incorporated a Google Ads budget into their overall strategy for the combined power of Google Ads, custom website, and neighborhood newsletter, generating a superior ROI across all channels.

Now, don’t look at that chart and think this office should drop direct mail because it has the lowest ROI and the highest investment. First, generating a 12X return on any investment is fantastic! That campaign generates a steady 300+ new patients to the practice and does not reflect the new patients that went to their website or clicked through a Google Ad and had last touch attribution after being prompted about the practice via the newsletter. There is a synergy to the marketing mix that begets the practice’s superior results and generates the consistent new patient activity they want. They’ve set their target at 80 new patients per month, and they consistently beat that number. Without the newsletter hitting homes consistently and driving overall activity, results from their website, paid ads, and overall practice growth would be diminished.

How do you know if a combination of print and paid would work for your dental practice?

In most markets, both print and paid ads are highly effective. They work better together because they reach your audience differently to build and boost practice authority. As with any marketing campaign, there is always testing and tweaking, refining offer strategies, and adjusting content, but with consistency, the combination always delivers results.

By working in conjunction, you’ll have your practice standing out and more new patients taking notice. Both direct mail and META Ads build brand awareness. Both direct mail and Google Ads generate clicks and calls. Direct mail triggers branded intent searches, meaning new patients look for you – they don’t just search “dentist near me”!

The team at Patient NEWS has been exclusively helping dentists attract and convert new patients for over 30 years with proven digital and direct mail solutions.

The truth is, we don’t promise miracles. There is a nurturing process to move people through your patient journey, and that takes a smart, consistent approach. Nothing happens overnight with one mailing and 30 days of digital ads. It begins with awareness building and consistent marketing to break through. There needs to be team support and training, available appointments, a strong online presence, positive Google reviews, and a great online user experience. If located in a competitive marketplace – especially when digital ads flood the space – it simply takes time to break through the barriers, increase practice awareness, and drive new patient activity. The good news is, most of the time, we can secure an exclusive lockdown on your market area for direct mail, meaning no other dentists can use our format while you have it. This gives our clients the upper hand in their neighborhood.

If you’re the type of dentist who wants to OWN YOUR BACKYARD, we can help with precisely targeted, highly customized, strategically planned, well-managed, tracked, and analyzed print and paid campaigns to help you win more new patients and be THE dentist of choice in your area.

Book time to speak with one of our consultants today. It’s free, comes with a ton of value-added information, and there’s absolutely no obligation to work with us. We want to share our knowledge and help successful dentists become even more successful and happy!