How dental practice managers can increase their new-mover-marketing impact using in-practice and point-of-sale tactics
Editor's note: This article is part two of a three-part series. Part one may be found here.
New-mover marketing can be a powerful tool in the toolbox of a dental practice. In order to increase the impact of your new-mover marketing plan, I suggest that you make the most of your investment by following up with new movers after they redeem their first offer. This article showcases a few ways you can do just that!
Dental practices can lose about 8% of their patients every year due to moving and other patient turmoil, and dental practices are having to get creative to find ways to recoup lost patients. According to recent research, however, there is an answer. Direct-mail-marketing strategies have an outsized impact on lead generation—nearly 95% more effective than the next best form of marketing—especially when the mailings are timed to greet customers who are new and unfamiliar with the area.
But your marketing outreach cannot end with a customer using your new-mover-marketing gift certificate (example below) and then never visiting your practice again. To keep that from happening, you need to integrate your marketing from top to bottom and develop an ongoing relationship with the people you’re welcoming to your neighborhood. Building a relationship with customers has always been the goal of advertising, because trust is one of the biggest factors when families are deciding whether to purchase from you. Here’s how to build relationships with customers in a genuine way, and increase patient loyalty from just after a move, onward into the future.
Above: Example of a new-mover-marketing gift certificate.
The first tactic I recommend is using tracking on your new-mover mailings to let you know the response rate on your offers, through either asking at point-of-sale or through bar codes on the mailings. Keep track of the ways each patient reports hearing about you, and combine that information with their patient accounts. You can collect patient e-mail addresses to link them to an ongoing record of their visits and to extend offers and reminders to them throughout the year to keep them on top of their dental care.
Quick, point-of-sale surveys and promotions open the door to building long-lasting patient relationships. The reason point-of-sale works so well is because customers appreciate the personal touch at check-out and appreciate your willingness to ask their opinion right after service is delivered. There are no technological challenges in play and patients can provide honest feedback before they leave. Train your office staff to survey customers before they leave and make sure they send them home with promotional swag that keeps your brand top of mind!
There are many other ways to integrate your new-mover marketing with other marketing initiatives. Here are a few that work well for other dental practices:
• Send out seasonal promotions. By sending out new mover mailings, you show that you care about the milestones in your patients’ lives. Continue driving this messaging home by sending out promotions via email based on seasonal events. For example, for the patients with school-aged children, you can send out a back-to-school cleaning reminder email with a coupon.
• Use similar graphics in advertisements and direct-mail collateral. People who see the same images and copy more than once are much more likely to remember it later, and this multiplies the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. By projecting a consistent brand image out into the world, you increase their recognition of you, and thus, their likelihood of visiting your practice.
• Find ways to extend the impact of the first visit. Send them home with a goodie bag filled with floss, toothbrushes and even a small first aid kit with your logo on it. Offer a tour of your facility and a one-on-one meeting with their dentist. Make sure you send follow-up thank you postcards and additional offers, like we do at Our Town America. Personal touch is key!
New-mover marketing can be a wildly effective tool in your marketing arsenal. Integrating your marketing efforts can make you vastly productive, and ensure that the patients you gain through your new mover outreach don’t forget about you after their first visit. Don’t neglect relationships with your new neighbors! Keep in touch, and they will reward you through their loyalty!
For more information on Plummer and Our Town America, visit the Our Town America website at ourtownamerica.com.
