Direct mail is still the most powerful form of marketing for building and growing your dental practice. The ability to shape, manage and test your campaign is what makes direct mail such an effective marketing tool.
Here are nine keys that are common to most winning direct mail campaigns. Integrate these tips into your program and you have a great chance of experiencing success sooner, rather than later.
1. Use a personal tone
Direct mail is a great way to begin a conversation with your prospects. Avoid using a writing style that is either stiff and formal, or bloated with hype and fluff. Instead, use a conversational tone that is similar to how you’d speak to your patients in person.
It’s also important to write about the benefits patients will receive when they visit your practice. Don’t focus on why you have a nice practice, focus instead on how your patients will benefit from your nice practice.
2. Create highly-targeted, concise messaging
Consider your specific target audience and create marketing messages that would appeal to them on an emotional level. You also want to write messages that are short, simple and to the point. Simple words and short sentences are much easier for busy prospects to read, digest and remember.
3. Use bullet point lists
To maximize your space and make your mailer easy to read, use sharp bulleted lists to communicate key benefits about your practice. Using bullet points make your mailer “at-a-glance” friendly to prospects. Plus, using bullet points make it simple for busy prospects to scan your mailer quickly and receive an effective sales message.
4. Design your layout with your prospect in mind
Another way to make your mailer reader friendly is to give it a clean, open look and feel. Layouts that look cluttered and busy tend to be ignored by prospects. Lighter, warmer colors and a lot of white space will always be more inviting to prospects than dark-colored mailers that contain too much information.
5. Incorporate easy-to-read fonts
It’s always tempting to use a range of stylish fonts in a direct mailer. After all, today’s publishing packages give you hundreds of choices. However, simple easy-to-read font styles like Arial and Times Roman are still the most effective.
Also, make sure your font size is large enough so it’s easy to read. Using a smaller font size so you can cram more information into a mailer is a common mistake. Larger font sizes and simple styles make mailers easy to read, which always increases your chances of success.
6. Include a strong call-to-action
Always tell your prospects what to do next by including positive call-to-action lines in your mailer.
- Call our office today to schedule your free consultation
- Visit our web site to meet our staff and take a virtual tour of our office
- Call our office today to claim your free gift
Never leave your prospects guessing as to what they should do next. In a confident voice, tell them the exact next step you’d like them to take after reading your mailer.
7. Offer a free consultation
Take the risk away from your prospects by offering a free consultation. Prospects are more likely to act on your offer when they know the risk is on you, and not them. Inviting them for a 30-minute free consultation is a great way to get prospective patients comfortable with you and your staff.
8. Offer a discount or a free gift
Combine your free consultation with a free gift or a discount, and prospects are even more likely to respond to your mailer. Free is still the most powerful word in marketing. Combine a free consultation with a free gift and you’ve created a free on free offer that will grab the attention of your target audience.
9. Repeating your offer is the key
It’s important to repeat your call-to-action lines at the beginning, middle and end of your direct mail copy. Don’t be afraid to use repetition to entice prospects to take the next step in becoming your patient. It takes several impressions to get your point across to readers, so repetition is a must with your key marketing messages.
There you have it; nine powerful tips that have proven to be part of a winning formula for countless direct mail campaigns. Incorporate them into your program, and I think you’ll begin to experience the type of response rates you’ve been looking for.
Shayne Harris is President of EOS Corporate Direct-Marketing Professionals, and a recognized direct mail expert who specializes in achieving measurable results for a wide range of dental practices. He can be reached at (303) 663-8006.
