This blog post was written in association with My Dental Success. For more information visit www.adeogroup.co.uk/dentalsuccess
Although a majority of your dental patients will only visit your practice once every six months this does not mean that your communication with them must be the same.
Email marketing is still one of the most important parts of many business’s online marketing strategy. And implementing an email marketing strategy for your dental practice will not only help you to maintain customer relationships and build trust, but it will also give you a great (and measurable way) to target new customers and develop your brand.
Your patients will be likely to check their email inboxes every day and an email from you may be just what is required for some to act as a friendly reminder that they are overdue an appointment. Better still, if your practice offers private cosmetic dentistry services, emails can be a great way to promote your range of treatments and special offers such as teeth whitening and smile makeovers.
Today’s post will provide you a few different ways you can collect email addresses to build your newsletter subscriber list before offering ideas for what to include in your mail outs.
5 Ways to Gather Email Addresses from Your Dental Patients
1. Make it part of the signup process
Ask for an email address when new patients are filling out initial paperwork with an option to receive emails from your practice.
2. Ask current patients
It might be the case that your dental practice has been running for some time and as such, you have patients that have been registered with your practice for many years. If it is appropriate, you or your dental secretary may ask current patients for an email address for your records to send appointment reminders. At this time you can ask if they also wish to receive emails from the practice with offers or the practice newsletter.
3. Add a newsletter signup button on your website
If your dental website receives a lot of traffic (or even if it doesn’t!) you may be missing a trick if you don’t have a newsletter signup visitors can use to stay up to date with your practice.
4. Promote on social media
You may also benefit from promoting your mailing list on your social media channels.
5. Network events
If you attend local events or conferences you should carry business cards with your website and/or social media handles so that people can follow or check back on your practice. If you promote your mailing list sign up on these channels then this may be another way to increase your follower count.
Some Tips Before You Begin…
Before you start your email marketing campaign you should spend some time deciding on your strategy.
Firstly it is important that any email you send out is branded the same as your website and practice. This will help keep consistency and build brand loyalty. This will also help people trace you if your email is forwarded or shared. You should include visuals and a compelling subject line as these two elements have proven time and time again to help open rates and engagement in emails. Lastly, if you can, you should make your email mobile responsive as more than half of emails sent today are opened on mobile devices.
Email Marketing / Newsletter Ideas for Dentists
If your practice wishes to promote certain treatments then you may benefit more from creating landing page style emails particular to these treatments. Alternatively it may suit your practice’s image more to put together a monthly newsletter which encompasses a number of different topics including practice news and patient testimonials.
Whichever route you decide to go down make sure not to send email communications too regularly or you may experience an increase in unsubscriptions. You should also monitor the open rates on different days and at different times.
Below are some ideas of what you can include in your dental emails.
Before and After Pictures
Pictures are a great way to engage readers and what better way to show what your practice can do for patients than including before and after photos of treatments, such as veneers or teeth whitening. Photos can create a stronger connection than words and they are easier to digest and share.
Patient Testimonials
You may also want to include patient testimonials within your email to build trust towards your dental team. Patient testimonials not only ‘prove’ your practice is legit but also show that people have experienced great, long-lasting results from treatment with you. If possible it can be good to couple together this point with pictures for added authenticity.
Advice for Nervous Patients
You could include advice for those who are scared of visiting the dentist, or include information about your practice and dental team to make it a more welcoming environment. You may want to to include some steps to overcoming a dental phobia.
Share Blog Posts
If your practice website has a blog that is regularly updated then you can include some of your more popular posts from the month, or include snippets with links to the full article.
Dental Care and Tips
It may be useful to include dental health and care tips. You can advise parents on taking care of their children’s oral health, or include signs of gum disease or mouth cancers.
Practice News
Email marketing is a great way to make announcements about your practice, such as new opening times, when particular dentists are on annual leave, or when staff have joined or left the team. This can ease frustration for patients as they will be in the loop for what’s going on in the practice and avoid phoning to be told their dentist is on holidays for two weeks.
Competitions
A tried and tested way of creating engagement is to run competitions. Your prize can be anything you like, an electric toothbrush, tickets to a local event, or partner with a local restaurant and offer vouchers. Ask patients to share a post on your social media channels to enter, and you if you partner with another website you could even build a link to your dental website boost your SEO!
Special Offers
If you decide to run any special offers, for example teeth whitening in Summer, or complete smile makeovers, you could let your email subscribers know first or give them an extra discount for their loyalty.
Take Your Dental Practice Into the 21st Century
Embracing technology and building a relationship with your patients outwith the dental chair can help build the relationship with your practice and decrease their chance of leaving. They may also be more likely to recommend you to others and come to you if they choose to have cosmetic dental procedures.
Make Sure Your Dental Website Reflects Your Practice & Emails
It is important that any dental email marketing campaign is coherent with your practice, branding and website. If you are unsure of how to develop your dental email marketing strategy, or would like to build a new dental website for your business, then Adeo Group can help. Contact us today for more information: info@adeogroup.co.uk
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