What are the best parts about being a dentist?
There’s a wide range of answers, from the salary to benefits to providing a societal good.
Getting to do dental email marketing, on the other hand, is probably not what the average person would say.
That doesn’t make it any less important. Plus, it’s not all that bad.
If you’re struggling to get new folks to sit in the chair, you need some tips.
A good marketing strategy can bring in new patients in need of root canals, fillers, and compliments on their clean teeth.
With the right steps, you can improve your marketing, which will improve the practice overall. Here’s how.
The ultimate goal you have when you send out emails is to reach as many people as possible.
So, it seems to make sense that you want your lists as big as possible. The more the merrier, right?
Well, not so fast. Before you send out an email to every address you’ve ever come across, consider two things.
The first is that not all email addresses are up and running. Who hasn’t started using an email address before switching to another?
Estimates suggest there will be over five billion email addresses by the end of 2018.
That means there are millions of email addresses out there that aren’t worth talking about. It’s not that they’re dangerous to send content to.
They’re a waste of your time. If an email address is not being used, it’s a waste of time to add it to your lists. Plus, an inflated email list-serve will inflate your confidence in the audience.
If you send an email to a few hundred emails, and a third aren’t opened, you’re not maximising your audience.
Use a service like Mailtrack to see if your emails are being read. Over time, you’ll be able to skim off addresses that don’t open your messages.
Once you have a realistic list pinned down, it’s time for the next step in dental email marketing: organise it.
Just because you can email everybody all at once doesn’t mean you should. Sometimes, you have a message you need to send to all of your patients.
If you’re changing locations or hours or needing to send out some other vital information, blast away and send an email to everybody.
However, if it’s a more specific message, you should pick and choose who you send the content to.
Dental email marketing is done best when it is calculated
Dentistry is needed for every kind of person. It doesn’t matter who you are: old or young, fit or not, charming or boring.
Everybody needs a dentist. That’s why over twenty-two million people in the UK visited the dentist in 2016.
But, because of all of those differences between people, patients have different relationships with their dentist.
Your emails should reflect those differences.
Some settled, working adults want regular checkups on their teeth every six months. They’re the kind of patients who likely don’t need any content emailed to them beyond scheduling reminders.
Somebody who doesn’t work but is of means might be interested in some content that is entertaining and unrelated to logistics.
You have a good dentist story or two, right? Or maybe a groundbreaking development in the industry?
Of course, this is also a good way to push deals to people who are of less financial means.
The point is that you should not be sending every email to every patient. You should categorise your email list-serve into different categories.
That way, you can only email the relevant information to different people. The more interested your patient is in your email, the more likely they are to enjoy the content.
And the more likely they are to open the next one. It’s more effort to individualise emails for specific groups, but it’s worth it in the long run.
That sounds great. Now how do I write content that people will want to read?
The prospect of doing that might intimidate you. But don’t worry.
In any email you send, the message is the most important part. You want your reader to leave their computer or phone or tablet with something in their head.
It could be information about your practice hours, changes to your schedule or any other marketing content. The point is that you want to affect your reader.
One of the most common ways to achieve this is to include a call to action in your email.
A CTA is defined as a wordy method of getting your clients to do something after reading. Often, it’s a hyperlinked message at the end of the email.
Often, it’s a simple and sweet command, like “check out the offer now!” or “is this deal right for you?” However, it doesn’t need to be a sales pitch. It could be an invitation to explore a new feature of the website, for instance.
Is the call to action the right format for you?
If not, there are plenty of other ways to let your clients engage with your emails.
One possible method is to create a unique subject line.
Try something that begins with “The Most Important Information…” or “The Secret to…”.
You could ask a question, too, that is relevant to the reader: “Have You Flossed Enough This Year?” or “Bad Breath? Fix the Issue Now.”
Those are the kinds of subject lines that draw in the reader and make them open your email.
Another possibility to consider is including GIFs, which have been the centre of viral content at websites like Buzzfeed in recent years.
Anything you can embed–from a video to a picture–is also good for dentist email marketing.
You need your patients to interact with your emails so they don’t get bored. And the biggest trick to keeping them entertained nowadays is to find them online.
In 2004, Facebook was founded. Today, it’s on the verge of having 2 billion users.
In less than fifteen years, social media has gone from an interesting concept to the main way that people interact with each other.
That means if you’ve had a practice for over a few decades, you’ve seen this change.
Wait–wasn’t it only a few years ago that dental email marketing was the hottest marketing trend?
Well, it still is. Companies are figuring out how to use social media to create more effective marketing using both social media and emails.
You should already have a social media presence across platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat.
In your dental email marketing, invite your audience to like or follow you on social media. Posts on social media are sometimes better ways to reach more people faster.
By incorporating it into your emails, you will combine the two worlds. From your emails, you can draw your patients to funny images on Instagram or important posts on Facebook.
That will improve your dental email marketing by expanding the reach of your audience because social media is where content goes viral.
And that way, more people will see your message.
Ultimately, the best way to get your dental email marketing to stand out is to make it unique to you.
You run a successful practice–there’s a reason why. You should work to reflect your uniqueness in your emails.
Do you get patients because of your especially great care? Then maybe consider including a motto at the end of your email, written in italics.
If you don’t yet have a motto, consider making one.
It’s easier than breakfast!
Yours can definitely be better than that.
Emojis are a great way to express emotions throughout the text of your content. Tell anecdotes, write swiftly–the same tricks that make any writing good.
One of the most effective ways to show off your personality is to use the first person. People enjoy human communication more than something that seems cold and calculated.
While you shouldn’t take the time writing every email to every person individually, it’s important your voice comes through.
You can make this happen through anecdotes or advise, or maybe even life stories.
If a patient is more familiar with your own life, they’ll be more likely to feel connected to you and your practice.
And at the end of the day, your presence in the mind of the patient is the most important factor in building your client base.
TIP: Don’t forget about GDPR regulation! Learn how we have implemented GDPR for cour dental client here.
Digital email marketing shouldn’t intimidate you. You should look at it as an opportunity to solidify relationships with current patients while expanding your circle.
With the right steps, you can create compelling email content that will keep customers interested.
At the end of the day, your outbound marketing is a cornerstone of your business. You should treat it as such.
Feel free to continue reading or to reach out for any questions you might have about dental email marketing. Good luck!