Postcards are a critical component of your Dental Direct Mail Marketing
They are, in particular, effective at communicating with your patients, because postcards are versatile, highly readable, and easy to track.
Even though some people throw postcards right away, your patients still need a reminder of the importance to take care of their oral health. You can quickly generate leads with a referral postcard or educate patients about early detection or regular checkups benefits.
In recent research carried out by USPS, it’s shown that direct mail fills gaps left by all other media. Nowadays, 52% of Americans use DVRs to skip commercials, less than 1% of Facebook page fans can see your updates, while email doesn’t reach the inboxes because of spam filters. What an opportunity for direct mail to take over and deliver highly targeted and relevant messages!
Dental Postcards are highly targetable
Unlike TV advertisements that address their messages to a general audience, you can send mailings to a specific customer list, targeting your prospects by gender, age, location, level of education and income, or ethnicity.
You can easily micro-target your audience and create mailings with different messages, addressing their specific issues, for example:
- Hispanic folks experience poorer oral health compared to other racial and ethnic groups in the U.S.
- Seniors retirees have a higher risk for diabetes and heart diseases related to oral health because only 2% of old Americans have dental insurance.
- Pregnant women have increased risks to develop periodontal disease, tenderness, or bleeding gum due to the hormonal changes during pregnancy, etc.
You can emphasize the points that are most relevant to each group and increase your chances to be called for an appointment.
Statistics say that Gen X’ers (born in 1961-1980) and Baby Boomers (born in 1940 -1964) prefer mail over online ads to help them make their purchasing or enrolling decisions. 78% of them read direct mail, and a majority of them read it immediately. If you want to target Millennials instead, prompt them to a digital action. Totally doable with all the new direct mail integrated marketing technologies!
Direct mail is for sure effective, but for producing outstanding results, it has to stand out in the sea of advertising. How can we achieve that?
Dentist Postcard Template from StockLayouts
Dental Postcards Ad Copy
Catchy design and a professionally printed postcard will make the right impression on your customers. But a proper design will trim your postage costs and speed up delivery. You can design your own dental postcard or contact us for assistance to meet USPS regulations.
Here are the postcard elements in the order of their importance:
Large imagery. The picture is the focal point of a dental postcard. Use only professional photos that communicate your ”dental” message instantly. 80% of successful dental postcards use the image of their buyer persona smiling as its main feature. A smile is the quickest recipe for you to convey your dental offer.
A clear headline tells to your prospects exactly what you are offering – healthy gums and confidence restored for a bigger smile. Make it as concise and straightforward as possible. The central photo should complement the headline and vice-versa.
Contact information. Put in the most visible places your practice name, address, website, and phone number. Don’t forget the map pinpointing your location either. 85% of patients indicate the convenience as the deciding factor when choosing a new dentist.
Provide also a personalized URL asking your customers to visit your website. There you can offer more information about your services and prices. Or you can give them a QR code that can be quickly scanned with a smartphone, to direct your targets to a welcome video. Reinforce your message through your digital channels on the day the mail is hitting doors to reach the same people around the same time.
The message. Bullet points are easy to read and help your recipients to understand information at a glance. Avoid hard-to-read copies or too many words delivered on one page. Highlight your benefits:
- Quick results with less radiation
- Healthy Smiles
- Gentle, pain-free dentistry
- We speak Spanish!
Trust elements are essential in your dental postcards. According to a University of Washington study, an overwhelming 75% of patients have dental anxiety. Help them cope with their fear of the dentist and you’ll gain patients for life:
- Include a friendly photo of yours and a one sentence bio.
- Don’t forget to quote a current patient testimonial, this will help you sell up to 90% of your prospective patients.
Your dental offer – about 60% of successful dental postcards have two or three offers.
Learn more about How to make direct mail offers attractive. Here are some examples:
- Free whitening treatment $99 Value.
- FREE Consultation & X-Rays.
- New Patient Special $50 Off.
Send, if needed, different postcards to each segment of your prospects or current patients and address your offer only to one segment. Also, make it time-limited and worthwhile.
Beautiful Smiles from Postcardmania
Dental Postcards Design Elements
When choosing colors for your promotion consider the psychology of colors. People associate different colors with different thoughts and emotions. According to Pantone Guide to Communicating with Color:
- Hues of blues indicate trust.
- Greens and browns give a sense of sustainability.
- Gold and purple signify abundance.
- Red and pink are great at attention-grabbing.
- Yellow and orange suggest a warm and cheerful proposition.
Start with your practice’s colors. Then add some complementary colors to the color scheme for your dental postcard. Use professional guides to help you choose the best color combination.
Keep the most important elements (headline, offer, call to action, contact information) in the most visible areas. For a more significant impact, we recommend:
- Standard sizes: 6.5 X 11 is the cheapest option, and 6 x 11, 8.5 X 11, 17 X 11 foldouts have more space for your message.
- Full-color, two-sided printing
- 80-100 LB matte and glossy paper stock
- 6 x 11 Dental Postcard from HM Fusion
Read more Custom Postcards: Color, Message, and Printing Tips
Postcards, of course, don’t guarantee the success of your marketing campaign. You still have to make good choices about your targets, offer, graphics, colors and message, paper stock, and postcard size.
However, with careful planning and our assistance, you definitely can boost your appointment rate! We can help you run a simple local saturation mailing campaign or generate more sophisticated lists that use demographic, psychographics and lifestyle data. Call us Today for a Free Consultation!
Remember that free list reports and instant estimates are available to you upon request. As always, when you have questions, please call us, toll-free at 1-877-433-9101.
