Email Marketing with a Dental Office Newsletter

There are multiple avenues for marketing your dental practice, and email has proven to be a worthwhile return on investment for many. In fact, 80% of business professionals credit email marketing for acquiring and retaining customers.

Email marketing may have gotten a bad rap due to some companies filling inboxes with daily ads, but there’s a better, more personal way to reach your current and potential patients: the dental office newsletter.

Newsworthy Objectives

Before putting together a regular office newsletter, it’s important to understand the benefits, and to make sure you’re providing value to the recipient. Here are some of the top purposes of email newsletters:

Stay Connected | Remain top-of-mind with your current patients and they’re more likely to make those regular cleaning and follow-up appointments. Connect with new patients by sending a welcome email and an invitation to subscribe.

Inform & Educate | Provide the information patients need, whether it’s the benefits of sedation dentistry or new office hours. Anxious patients like knowing what to expect.

Show Expertise | Educating patients through a regular newsletter also demonstrates your expertise in the field and puts people more at ease.

Build Trust | Engaging newsletters with the information patients need and want will build trust and generate loyalty, which will ultimately result in better treatment plan acceptance, patient retention, and referrals.

Promote Services | Email readers won’t feel inundated with ads when you include a promotion for a service or product within the newsletter. Helpfully notify patients of x-ray specials, new aligners, or IV sedation services.

Entertain | By offering informative, relatable, and fun content on a consistent basis, patients will look forward to receiving each newsletter!

Connecting with Content

It doesn’t have to be intimidating to come up with content for a dental practice newsletter. In fact, simpler and briefer is better. Bite-sized paragraphs will encourage readers to keep going, especially if the content has value. While keeping the above objectives in mind, create your newsletter with some or all of the following:

• Oral healthcare tips and relevant articles
• Upcoming events
• Elective services and products
• Eye-catching photos and images
• Staff news such as new hires or changes
• Fun dental trivia or quizzes with answers in the next newsletter
• Online presence including links to website and social media accounts
• Call to action – always request readers to call, make an appointment, order now…

By letting recipients know what you’re about and what your practice has to offer with creative content, you’re making a valuable connection. Reinforce your brand while making patients feel like they’re part of the family. Keep them engaged by requesting feedback, referrals, and reviews.

Newsletter Nuts & Bolts

Choose from several email platforms and services that provide the framework for your newsletter, including databases, DIY templates, scheduling and more. Mailchimp and Constant Contact are the most well-known, and there are some geared to the healthcare sector as well.

In order to create a strong mailing list without purchasing one, include sign-ups with your patient intake forms, send a personal “welcome” email with an opt-in link, and promote the newsletter on your social media platforms. Segmenting your subscriber list into different recipient groups is also an effective strategy for targeted campaigns.

Frequency is an important consideration so you don’t have patients deleting or designating the emails as spam due to an over-abundance of promotions. A monthly newsletter can be effective and informative, without turning readers away and important emails like appointment reminders won’t get lost in the shuffle.

Make your newsletter work for you by adding it to the website, posting it on social media, or tying it into your other marketing endeavors like direct mail or digital ads. At RAMP, The Dentist’s Marketing Company, we know the value of successful email tools as well as other newsworthy marketing solutions. Contact us today for a free consultation!