Goals & Who to target for Summer Dental Marketing

  • 1. Help patients maintain and/or improve their oral health by leveraging employer-funded dental benefits.
  • 2. Help the dentist and patient plan treatment over a longer period for optimal outcomes.
  • 3. Help the office increase production by providing preventive treatment and diagnosing needed treatment.
  • 4. Reach out to insured patients whose benefits expire in June rather than the traditional calendar year.
  • 5. For offices who don’t accept dental insurance, this is a great time to do a School is Out Campaign targeting families.
  • 6. Get an average response rate of 26% of your patients scheduling an appointment – let SmartPractice show you how!

Summer Social Media Promotions

Your patients want to show off a great white smile at summer events including Weddings, Family Reunions and Graduation Parties

Whether you choose to do a “Pin it to Win it” campaign on Pinterest, a Facebook contest or an in-office promotion, make it summer-inspired and fun and watch how your schedule fills up.

Idea #1: Tag Along on Patients’ Vacations

When you hear your patients talking about upcoming vacation plans, WOW them with Personalized Travel Toothbrushes! They’ll think of you every time they use it, no matter where they are in the world. With kids out of school for summer, this is the time many families plan vacations. For families taking camping trips, offer Disposable Toothbrushes or Chewable Toothpaste Tablets (can be used without water – cool, huh?).

Idea#2: Create a Fun Summer Contest

Promote high-value dental health products like Waterpik Flossers or Power Brushes. Use contests to generate more traffic and ‘likes’ on Facebook and to create brand awareness and patient engagement. Facebook has established rules about how to conduct promotions. Make it easier on yourself and let SmartPractice help you do it. Here is an example of an online promotion completed by one of our Dental Offices:

 

They used PracticeMojo Automated Recall & Marketing with the Facebook App to set up their Facebook promotion. This office has had a Facebook page for a while and has only been able to earn 65 “Likes.” Patients really didn’t post much on their page but did occasionally like some of the educational content. With their centrally located office, they were looking to build a stronger base of families and use Facebook and its referral potential to build more brand awareness. They chose to promote the Waterpik Flosser for Kids – it’s adorable! If you have not learned about this product – watch the video on smartpractice.com. It comes with stickers so kids can decorate it and make it their own. What kid wouldn’t love that? Once they had the promotion set up on Facebook, they sent Waterpik Flosser for Kids (340059) an email to their patients. Within a day, they had increased their “Likes” by 22%!

Contest Tips

•Make sure to include a promotion disclaimer that clearly states the dates of the contest, who is eligible, the prize(s) and when you’ll announce the winner.
•Create a clear call to action – Enter to Win! ‘Like’ us on Facebook and fill out the entry form.
• In addition to sharing the details of the contest on your practice blog and Twitter, be sure to display
signs in the reception area and in the operatories as well. (PracticeMojo supplies this to support the
promotions.)

Idea#3: Refresh Patients’ Smiles for Summer Photo Ops

Summer is filled with big events including Weddings, Family Reunions and Graduation Parties. Your patients
want to show off a beautiful white smile. End each hygiene appointment with a conversation about whitening. You’ll be surprised to discover how many people have been thinking about it. Looking for more natural, easy ways to bring up whitening to patients without feeling like you are selling the solution? Download your FREE “Icebreakers” questionnaire on smartpractice.com/whitening to get patients talking about their smiles. Dental offices love this chair-side cheat sheet.

If your dental office has a whitening program, let patients know about it. Create a custom promotional sign to display in the reception room or treatment areas to advertise whitening services to patients. Ask patients to post images of their bright new smile on your dental office’s Facebook page to receive their next whitening refill for free. Load your Newsfeed with examples of your work.

Looking to refresh your whitening program? Use giveaways to build brand awareness. Create a branded kit using Reflection™ Personalized Patient Take-home Whitening Kits to offer a safe whitening solution that looks like it’s manufactured exclusively for your dental practice. You can easily select existing packaging or provide SmartPractice with your dental logo and we can create packaging that is uniquely yours.

Idea#4: I flossed on my vacation!

Summertime is the perfect time to use your dental Facebook page and other social media channels to connect and
interact with patients. One great way to do this is to hold a summer-long photo contest. Invite your patients to post pictures to your Facebook page, have them tweet you the image, or have them tag you in an Instagram photo of them brushing or flossing their teeth wherever they happen to be vacationing this summer. Your Summer Social Media contest should run something like this:

Part 1 – Contest Details
Send an email, patriotic postcard or other communication instructing patients to bring in their family for an annual cleaning. At the end of the visit, give each patient the same toothbrush, pack of floss or another item that they must include in their summer picture. Make sure those who may not be going on vacation are also included. Patients can take the photo anywhere as long as the Toothbrush and other items are included. Instruct patients to take their picture and post it to your dental office’s Facebook, Twitter or Instagram page. Choose a central location to make it easier to monitor.

Part 2 – Voting

The second part of your Summer Social Media contest is the voting. Select the winning image based on the amount of ‘Likes’ and comments the photo has. This is an important step in the overall contest strategy. To stay in the loop patients must ‘Like’ your Facebook page and continually come back to your page to like and comment, creating interaction with your brand. In an effort to increase ‘Likes’ for their own image patients will encourage their friends and family to visit your page and ‘Like’ their image as well. Make sure each patient understands voting and encourage them to get as many ‘Likes’ as they can.

Part 3 – Prize

The last part of the contest involves the prize for the most popular image. At the end of the contest select the image with the most ‘Likes’ and post the results on your page as well as the winner’s Facebook page. Leave instructions to stop by the office to pick up their prize.

Leverage the ongoing popularity of social media to become more involved in patients’ everyday lives. Once they’re conditioned to check your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feed on a regular basis, they’ll continue checking in to see what’s new.