Dental Marketing Ideas and What Messages to Send to Patients and Prospective Patients that Motivate

At the end of each year you should be considering your dental marketing ideas and how to motivate patients in the next year.

Did you know that much of the business of your practice runs on an annual cycle and many aspects of that cycle can be best managed by firstly realizing the cycle exists and then addressing it as part of an annual calendar planning session.  There are nuances in most markets, slow months that occur in a location, and even weather and migration patterns.  There are even behavioral cycles related to the culture one lives in. All these factors need to be taken into account when thinking of your dental marketing ideas for the future and how to improve on reaching out to more patients.

Knowing these patterns exist, it makes zero sense to “wing it” on an annual basis with how one structures the business around factors that are known, certain, or likely to occur (again).  It makes no sense, yet many practices will dedicate more time to planning the office vacations in the coming year than they do with addressing things that impact the financial health of the practice and ultimately stress of the doctor and team and enjoyment from practice. Planning for and applying dental marketing ideas and strategies regularly will relieve this stress.

The next few weeks will be sprinkled with things that dentists accumulating advantages in their local market place will have either already done or be doing in their locations in the final months of not just this year but each year.

First up to use your dental marketing ideas are annual end of year communications to patients and prospective patients.

The changing of the calendar gives you a reason to communicate to your patients and prospective patients with messages that strike a chord with the “loss” of time sensation that everyone gets as another calendar year rolls over.  People mean the best for themselves but procrastination is the norm.  We all do it. If you want to get more dental marketing ideas, try my new book on Amazon.

Why do this?  It moves patients to do something in December and helps set-up January for a better start.

Here are some examples:   You can help your patients decide for better dental health by letting them know their insurance typically must be used by 12/31. You can further motivate patients who need treatment by offering ‘smart discounts’ for specific types of treatment.  For those marketing bigger elective cases, end of years messages related to retaining fees at the current year’s level and even tax write-offs can be the one last ‘reason why’ a patient with significant treatment opts to start in December or to pre-pay for a January start.

Regardless of what you do with this knowledge and which messages are appropriate for your practice, getting it into the hands of your patients very early in December is must otherwise you get lost in the (wait for it…..) then annual holiday cycle which interrupts everything and will be back at this same exact time next year. Want to learn more ? Check out my website.