With the ability to effectively reach a local audience, direct mail is the perfect marketing tool for dental practices. From attracting new patients to staying in touch with existing patients–direct mail marketing for dentists can have many benefits. Read on to learn how dentists can benefit from direct mail and how to strategically use this tool to market your practice.

Why Dentists Should Have a Direct Mail Strategy

There are a number of ways that dentists can benefit from having a direct mail strategy in place:

Gives You an Opportunity to Stand Out

In a world that’s increasingly moving online, marketing communications have also shifted mostly to digital spaces even among smaller businesses. A survey by The Manifest found that 69% of small businesses communicate with consumers using only online channels while 23% use a combination of online and direct mail. As such, direct mail gives you the perfect opportunity to differentiate your dental practice from that of the competition.

Enables Multichannel Marketing

As your practice caters to a wide variety of people across different age groups and having varying behaviors, their choice of communication channel also varies. Direct mail allows you to extend your marketing to a different channel so you can connect with people who prefer to get physical mail with dentist postcards. 

High Response Rates

People are responsive to direct mail. In fact, the Data and Marketing Association found that direct mail campaigns see an average response rate of 9%. Moreover, consumers engage with 96% of all direct mail. 

Helps Fight Dental Anxiety

Dental anxiety is a common issue that plagues not just children but adults too. The proper marketing materials can be used to provide valuable information and ease this anxiety in existing and prospective patients. 

Mailer Marketing Strategies for Dentists

If you don’t want your mailers to end up in the trash, you need to be strategic with your approach. Here are some tips that you can use in your direct mail marketing strategy:

Reach the Right People with the Right Message

This is one of the most important steps in any direct mail marketing strategy. To make sure that your investment pays off, you need to get your marketing message to the right people. This means targeting the right market segments such as new movers who will need to find a dentist in their area, households with children, and households with seniors—target homes only within a few miles of your practice.

Personalize Your Messaging for Different Segments

Dentists cater to a wide range of patients with varying needs, pain points, and concerns. So, the same marketing message may not have the same level of impact across different segments. For example, parents with several kids may not be too convinced by your top-of-the-line equipment but may be more interested in dental care packages to help them save money. 

It’s important that you craft different messages that will resonate with each of the market segments you want to target. Think about the unique challenges that each segment may be experiencing and develop your message to address those challenges.

Be Strategic About Design

Your dental postcard design should be impactful enough to hook in recipients. For starters, choose the right color representation to create a feeling of trust and security in prospective patients. This is a great way to subtly convince more people about your expertise and get them to make their first appointment with you.

Drive Costs Down With Automation

Leveraging direct mail automation can help you save time and reach your prospects and patients at the best time possible and at the best cost. For example, using a saturation list can help drive postage down as low as 17c per postcard.  

With customized mailing lists and personalized messaging, direct mail can be the perfect tool to attract new patients to your practice. Need help with direct mail marketing for dentists? Get in touch with One Stop Mail to learn more about our Healthcare Direct Mail Marketing service.