The average dental practice can expect to lose at least 8–10% of its patient base per year, just through normal attrition. (1) About 8% of your patients will move to a different county—and most will need to find a dentist closer to their new home. (1) Other patients switch practices for any number of reasons. Some die. That means just to maintain your current revenues, you need at least the same number of new patients coming in as you do going out. If you want to grow your practice, you need even more.
So how do you find them? With consistent marketing! And one specific form of marketing is particularly effective, especially for dentists. Consider these statistics:
- 40% of consumers have made a purchase in the last three months because of this type of marketing. (2)
- 56% of people say this type of marketing is most trustworthy. (3)
I’m going to show you how three dentists used this tool to bring new patients into their practices! These are real clients of mine, but we’ve edited some of the practice names and contact information for privacy.
Campaign 1:
50 new patients per month in Apex, North Carolina
Mailing list: Households in areas with a median annual income of $75,000
Mailing schedule: 6,000 per month
Campaign results: 50 new patients per month
I can’t emphasize enough how important consistent marketing is, and this practice proves my point. They mailed their postcards to the same 6,000 people monthly for seven months. When people see your marketing again and again, they understand that you are a stable, trustworthy dental practice.
These guys also ran a DirectMail2.0 campaign, so prospects in the same areas where their postcards went out also saw geo-targeted ads online (which mirror the postcards), adding even more repetition and credibility to their marketing.
One more thing: DirectMail2.0 campaigns come with call tracking numbers that count and record every call that comes in from your postcards, and an online dashboard that shows you how many times your online ads are being seen and clicked on. That’s how this practice was able to see that during the month of their seventh mailing, they generated 50 new patients (which resulted in $35,400 in immediate revenue).
Campaign 2:
75 new patients per month in Kissimmee, Florida
Mailing list: Residents of surrounding zip codes over 40 years old with annual incomes of at least $40,000
Mailing schedule: 6,000 per week
Campaign results: 75 new patients per month
This practice, which specializes in restorative dentistry, also ran a DirectMail2.0 campaign and took full advantage of the call tracking feature. When they listened to the calls that came in from the postcards, they learned that their receptionist was not following her training—and was actually turning prospective patients away! They were able to resolve the problem and recover the leads they had lost by calling people back.
Since running this campaign, the practice has doubled in size! They had to move to a new location to accommodate all their new patients.
Campaign 3:
64 New patients per month in Indianapolis, Indiana
Mailing list: Households in an area with a median annual income of $50,000
Mailing schedule: 5,000 per month, then 20,000 per month
Campaign results: 64 new patients per month
This young dentist bought a declining practice and needed to boost his patient base. He was skeptical about using direct mail at first, but his marketing company (not mine) encouraged him to try out a small number of postcards. At the time, he was spending the majority of his marketing budget online. After mailing out just 6,000 cards over three months and tracking his results, he was surprised—to say the least—at how well his postcards performed. That’s when he called my company to start sending out more. Figure 1 shows how many postcards he mailed out and how many new patients he had coming in.
As you can see, he increased his mailings from 2,000 postcards per month to 5,000 and then to 20,000—and his new patients increased, too. In January of 2017, he increased his postcards again (to 45,000) and had his highest production month ever. Suffice it to say this dentist is now a big believer in the power of postcards!
References
1. Joyal F. 7 real-life reasons your patients leave. 1-800-DENTIST website. http://www.1800dentist.com/7-reallife-reasons-your-patients-leave/. Published August 2007. Accessed April 11, 2017.
2. Print plays an increasingly important role in a multi-channel world for marketers according to InfoTrends study. PRWeb website. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2015/12/prweb13122794.htm. Published December 9, 2015. Accessed April 11, 2017.
3. Morris B. 10 print marketing statistics you should know. DMR website. http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/10-print-marketing-statistics-know/2/. Updated September 9, 2014. Accessed April 11, 2017.
Author’s note:
Need help attracting new patients to your practice? Visit postcardmania.com/dentaldesigns to see postcard designs that are currently working for other dentists and request a sample kit, or call us at (844) 269-1836.
