Should Your Practice Use Direct Mail?

And how to do it well

Is a direct mail campaign a good strategy for your dental practice? Only if you want to OWN your marketplace and attract a steady flow of quality new patients!

Kidding aside, I’m following last week's post theme of “Should I?” Effective direct mail campaigns tailored specifically for dental practices require distinct processes and strategies. Yes, direct mail will be effective for most dental offices, but it’s a scientific combination of the creative, the offer, the list, and the practice.

We will explore various dental direct mail ideas, from targeting methodologies, creative concepts, design elements, and messaging tactics to practice responsibilities that will maximize the impact of dental direct mail initiatives. By implementing these ideas and strategies, dental practices can effectively engage with their target audience, generate leads, and drive new patient acquisition through effective direct mail marketing.

Need help with direct mail for your dental clinic? Talk to one of our experts today!

How do you know if direct mail would work for your practice? Or what type of direct mail would be best? There are a few questions you can answer that will help determine if this strategy will be right for you.

Are there more households you could attract within your current draw area?

Sometimes, you may think you’ve done it all, and people are tired of hearing from you. Yet, the average dental practice has approximately 1,250 active patient households, usually scattered in a 5- to 15-minute market draw area. That area usually includes 30 to 40 times that many homes: 40,000 to 50,000 to 60,000 households within a 10-minute drive. And homeowners change all the time. That’s why most practices experience 15 to 20% naturally occurring attrition annually. There isn’t a market that does not have a lot of untapped (and ideal) market share primed to hear about a dental office within their reach.

Do you want to increase specific treatment acceptance?

Clear aligners, same-day crowns, emergency services, implants, veneers, whitening, or just more hygiene patients?

1. How do prospective patients find out about all these options when they haven’t heard of them, or they’re not top of mind?
2. How will they determine that they need or want those services?
3. Finally, how do they then determine that they should call YOUR practice to get them?

Consider how limited media coverage is around dentistry and all the benefits it provides to consumers. For your dental practice in your market area, awareness building is your responsibility. It’s the beginning of the patient journey towards you, and direct mail is the most effective way to awaken interest, nurture, educate, inform, and build authority. Direct mail can take your practice from awareness to conversion.

What type of creative design will best reflect your practice and services?

You want your campaigns to create an impact. You want to strengthen and enhance your position as an authority in your field. Given that consumers perceive that all dentists basically offer the same thing, one thing you don’t want is your marketing campaigns to blend in. When considering how you intend to grow your practice, what image do you want to project? That may answer how you want to develop your direct mail design.

For most of our clients, it’s not a postcard, although we do have success with this material for some clients. For most of our clients, the four-page newsletter format best represents their brand and vision. A newsletter stands out. It signals comprehensive care. It demonstrates expertise, authority, and value.

Today’s empowered consumers are demanding dramatic changes in their relationships with providers. Aligning your marketing campaigns and strategies to the preferences of your audience will result in improved points of engagement. Those households you drive by every day to get to your practice are being marketed to by other dentists all day long via digital and direct mail advertising.

When it comes to direct mail, you can choose a variety of formats with the most popular being postcards and newsletters. The right format for your practice can make a dramatic difference in how your audience perceives your brand. For dental offices that want to elevate their reputation and brand image, direct mail newsletters not only stand out due to their size and content, but they are also proven to drive more activity.

Today’s patients require confidence-building and trust before making a dental buying decision. When it comes to creative, consider that consumers want quality information to make good decisions for their families.

What are the best ways to strategically target the right households?

Most direct mail companies offer radius targeting, but to maximize your direct mail results, it’s better to first complete the research.

You want to develop like-audiences to your current ideal patients to target more like them, and to do that, you need to understand where they live. You want to understand the current draw area and the distance those ideal patients are willing to travel. Keep in mind that consumers want convenience. New patients are unlikely to behave differently than the majority of your existing patients, and that’s where drive time understanding applies to list development.

One of the biggest mistakes dentists make is trying to reach into a perceived “higher-end” market that is outside their existing draw area. Those areas would be considered nice to have, but you need an unlimited budget to test without anticipating a good ROI, as it’s simply a test to see if you could draw from there.

Not only do you want to look at the practice’s current draw area and related drive times, but you also want to zero in on patient spending in each neighborhood so you can precisely target those like-audiences most likely to respond. 

You also want to know where competitors are located to find your clear line of sight to your core areas with lower competition.

How do you know what type of messaging will resonate with your ideal patient personas?

Consider all the promotions that end up on your kitchen counter, cross your screen, or land in your inbox and don’t engage you. Perhaps they’re not relevant, not personalized, there’s not an immediate need, or perhaps the way they present actually changes your perception of the quality of the offer or the business.

The foundation of content lies in leveraging and layering patient data, demographic information, and the reputation and goals of the practice. Also, when preparing content for your direct mail campaign, consider the purchase level of the recipient. You want your message to reflect your practice's professionalism and expertise while being prepared in a way that is calm, reassuring, and welcoming to prospective patients. Too much technical lingo can be a turnoff, as can retractor smiles or dental implant screws.

Remember, the average new patient contributes $2,000+ in first-year production, plus referrals. That’s going to be a high-level purchase decision and commitment, so you want your marketing to enhance what you do and how you provide it to bolster confidence and encourage patients to move forward. Education in your messaging will help them be more prepared for treatment acceptance when they see you. It’s proactive.

What about the offer?

When launching any digital or direct mail marketing campaign, a solid offer strategy is what will give patients a reason to “act now.” We’ve worked with many offices over the years who emphatically didn’t want to discount – and that’s doable but not recommended. In most cases, the practice will be located in a competitive marketplace, so understanding that it will take longer to drive results, i.e., just invest and go, and it can be done. Being consistent in the targeted households will build awareness and win over residents simply by being there with value-added content that highlights your competitive advantages and unique selling features.

For a more effective campaign, you want to nudge patients into more urgent action with a call-to-action offer. It could be a special bonus or additional value, like free x-rays with your free Invisalign consultation, which is a $X value, a free second opinion, whitening for life, or an electric toothbrush with their first cleaning. Membership plans are great, including elective bonuses or a significant discount that doesn’t impact your margin for moving forward with a big-ticket item fast. Focus on the treatments you want to deliver and ensure there is some offer wrapped around those solutions so you get those butts in your chair!

Do the numbers make sense?

This is the largest statistic to consider. Direct mail is unique in that it can reach anyone with an address. It’s the only channel that gets you into 100% of the homes you want to know about you!

Most direct mail formats are more effective at driving behavior than digital media (except for postcards), with a motivation factor almost double that of digital. Neighborhood newsletters, for example, rank tops with a motivation score of 1.75 versus digital ads on smartphones, which score .91, and postcards, which score .90. Dentists who use Patient NEWS®, on average, realize a 6:1 ROI within 6 to 12 months.

When the practice is cranking on all cylinders – meaning great reviews, great call handling, solid treatment acceptance, strong new patient values, and appointment availability – the ROIs will be much higher.

Check these off:

1. Yes, I want to build more awareness of my practice in area households.
2. Yes, I want to elevate my reputation as THE practice area residents should choose.
3. Yes, I want to increase treatments like X, Y, & Z.
4. Yes, I want to increase new patients and production.
5. Yes, I’m on a growth trajectory and am committed to my success.

If you answered yes to all of those, direct mail is a solution you should investigate. Our 24-page Reveal Report should be the first thing you order. Regularly $795, you can get access to it FREE right now!

Can my practice take responsibility to ensure success?

That’s right. Practice accountability and responsibility for success. When you’re a successful practice with consistent production, good new patient value, and are committed to growth, you’ll have a strong result. You’re not interested in flipping in and out of marketing campaigns. You want a plan, and you’re ready to stick with it. You have a steady flow of positive Google reviews and are responding to them positively. You have convenient appointment availability blocked for new patients within days or a week of any new patient inquiry. Your office team is excited to welcome more new patients, can focus on answering the phone live, and is trained to convert new patient calls.  If any of these are lagging, you’re ready to work on improvements.

Hyper-drive your campaigns with Patient NEWS

At the end of the day, if you want your practice to be top-of-mind in your ideal households surrounding your practice, direct mail will improve your odds of gaining those new patients. With Patient NEWS, your campaign will be data-driven, hypertargeted, hyperdifferentiated, hyperpersonalized, and managed with advanced analytics and insights.

Dentists with a consistent strategy attract more new patients – around 25% more than the average dental practice. The good news is that not every dental office engages in direct mail, and with the Patient NEWS neighborhood newsletter system, you get exclusive use of the system in your target area. No other dentist can use it. We want you to own your backyard and get the success you deserve.  

Need help?

Are you tired of ineffective marketing strategies that don’t grow your dental practice? We want to help you dominate your local market and attract the high-quality patients you want. Let us take you step by step through the development of our 24-page Reveal Report, which provides a clear picture of your local landscape and a step-by-step strategy for your marketing plan. Get in touch now!