July 31, 2018 by bettyhayden

Dental Marketing Tips and Ideas for your Local School District

Hello Friends,

With the back-to-school season in full swing, there is no need to wait until February’s Dental Health month to reach out to the local schools in your neighborhood, start early in the school year building relationships with school staff & the families that attend these schools.

Here are just a few easy, inexpensive & effective ways for your dental office to reach out to your local schools.

Gifts for School Staff – Choose one, two, or more schools (depending on the size of the teaching staff) and deliver some treats to show your appreciation for the work they do in caring for the children in your community. Some ideas: Breakfast, Lunch, Snacks, Toothbrush goodie bags, Lip balm, etc. Be sure that your office information is clearly imprinted on any toothbrushes or small gifts. See my Pinterest boards for gift ideas…

and/or

Host a Favorite Teacher Contest – Invite local students to nominate their favorite teacher. Winning teacher gets FREE teeth whitening and a certificate stating they won for the favorite teacher contest. The classroom with the winning teacher gets a gift card for school supplies or pizza/ice cream lunch.

You could easily ask for donations from local businesses to add to the winning teacher’s prize or for the classroom.

This can be promoted via your office website, newsletters, postcards, emails, office social media sites, local newspapers and signs in your office.

Have fun with it and be sure to share lots of pictures on your social media pages.

Donations – Use your office as a community donation site for school supplies or new & gently used books to be donated to local children and/or schools in need. Advertise in office, on your social media sites, to local businesses and the news media via press release that your office is collecting donations for school supplies or books.

This is a GREAT way to bring in potential new patients… when folks come into the office to drop off their donations, be sure to warmly welcome them, give a brief tour of the office, hand out small thank you gifts that are imprinted with your office information or have a raffle they can enter to win a prize.

Book Fairs – Many schools will be hosting book fairs this school year. And if your local school(s) are anything like mine, these book fairs draw a very large crowd.

Create fun, interesting Bookmarks for your local schools that include your office contact information. Deliver these bookmarks as a gift to the local schools to use during their book fairs. Easy! Right?

Just a few more ideas…

Social Media Sites – Post school-related content to your social media sites, such as:

Back to School Tips
Healthy Lunch/Snack ideas
What to do in a Dental Emergency?
Ortho care while at school
Dental Health (importance of, regular check-ups, sealants, mouthguards, fluoride & braces)

Give-Away – Or have a school-themed gift that you’ll raffle off. Promote via your social media sites. Allow for your current patients and potential patients to TAG their favorite teacher in the post for a chance to win the gift. Encourage them to share the post on their pages.

Tooth bags – Make up a little bags or boxes with a “congratulations on your lost tooth” message from your office with space to write the child’s name. Deliver these to local elementary schools for them to keep on hand for when a student loses a tooth during the school day. Both of my kids have come home with a tooth wrapped in a napkin or in a plain Ziplock bag. Why not take advantage of this opportunity to advertise your office?

For additional ideas to use with local schools see February’s Children’s Dental Health Month and October/November’s Candy Buy Back. Also, my Marketing Ideas for August have some nice ideas for you to use with students & teachers.

I have witnessed firsthand just how effective marketing to local schools can be. The opportunity to bring in many new patient families to your practice is huge.

Please feel free to share with me your ideas for marketing to local schools or if you have any dental marketing questions that I can help you answer, please comment below.

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Yours for Greater Success,

~Betty

February 15, 2018 by bettyhayden

Dental Marketing Tips and Ideas for March

Hello Friends ~

The month of March is the last month of your first quarter – how are things looking for the office? There is still time to make it your best quarter ever. Here are a few dental marketing ideas to help you exceed your current patients’ expectations as well as attract new patients in your community. (Note: If you’re looking for Practice Management Tips & Ideas for March visit HERE)

Dental Marketing Tips & Ideas for the month of March

Theme: Tropical Luau

Product/Service Feature: Teeth Whitening

Tagline: “Smiles So Bright You’ll Need To Wear Shades!“

Special Offer: Offer teeth whitening at a reduced price or BOGO (encourages patients to bring a friend) or donate a portion of teeth whitening collections to a local charity.

Remind your patients that gift certificates are available!

National March Into Literacy Month –
Host a book drive for your local library, schools or families in need. Ask your patients and people in the community to drop off their new or gently used books. Submit a press release to the local newspapers and TV news. Run this event for a few months.
SEE More Ideas Here: Dental Marketing Ideas for your Local Library & Dental Marketing Ideas for your local library – Part 2

Educational Opportunity –

National Kidney Month – Good dental health isn’t just about preventing cavities and keeping your gums healthy. Both tooth decay and gum disease can lead to infections that can cause problems for people with kidney disease. A study in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology reported that people with kidney disease and those on dialysis are more likely to have periodontal disease and other oral health problems than the general population.

~ Social Media Post Ideas to Improve Engagement ~

World Compliment Day 1^st

Oreo Cookie Day 6^th

Lips Appreciation Day 16^th

Spring 20^th

Spinach Day 26^th

So there you have it, some fun & educational ways to help your patients and potential patients smile and exceed their expectations during the month of March.

If you are interested in having me help your office create a custom marketing campaign that includes ideas for special offers, office fun, patient give-aways/drawings, community involvement, cross-marketing with local businesses and hygiene continuing care/incomplete treatment scripting, please contact me today at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com

Don’t miss out on any of the ideas that I share each month! Are you receiving my complimentary Practice Management and Marketing Ideas in your email inbox each month? If not, please start following us today. If you prefer, send me your email address at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com and I will send you an invitation to follow my blog.

Yours for Greater Success,

~Betty

P.S. Please stop by and say hello to me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest

September 21, 2015 by bettyhayden

Dental Marketing Ideas for your local library – Part 2

Hello dental friends,

If your local library is anything like mine, they get a lot of traffic. People of all ages visiting from within the community. So why not start planting some marketing/advertising seeds at the library?

A while back I shared some ideas on how to market to your local library. Today, I have a few more ideas to share with you. ( I will include the ideas from the earlier post at the end of this one. )

Here are some special dates to help you take advantage of this wonderful way to build a relationship with friends of the library:

National Book Month – October

National Friends of Libraries Week – October 15-21

Library Lovers Month – February

School Library Month – April

National Library Workers Day – April 11

Get Caught Reading Month – May

Children’s Book Week – May 1-7

Reading Is Fun Week – May 14-20

New & Gently Used Book Drive:

Collect new or gently used books to donate to your local library.

Invite patients and non-patients to come by the office and donate books. Promote this event via your social media sites, the local newspapers, in-office fliers, on continuing care postcards and to your patients when they come in for their appts.

Incentive: Gift Basket or Gift Card (put together a fun themed gift basket)- Every person that donates books can enter a drawing to win the gift basket or gift card.

Once you have collected all of the books…

Take a picture of the donated books. Put together toothbrush gift bags w/office information and a special offer for library employees to deliver with the books. Send a press release to your local newspaper with pictures about your book drive and the results.

Library Events Calendar – Check your library’s event/programs calendar to see how you can be involved or help promote upcoming events and programs.

Visit the Library – Offer to come in for a dental health presentation/demonstration/science experiment. Similar to what you might do during Children’s Dental Month.

Or offer to have the dentist come in during story-time to read a dental related book or two.

Library Social Media Sites – Be sure to comment on, like and share posts from your library’s social media sites on behalf of your office social media pages.

Here are the idea’s from the post a few months ago…

Bookmarks – Create fun, interesting Bookmarks for your local library that include your office contact information. Deliver these bookmarks as a gift to the library to give away during their programs and events.

Toothbrush bags – Throughout the year the library hosts several events that bring in people of all ages. Why not make up some toothbrush bags for them to hand out at some of these events. Be sure to use imprinted toothbrushes.

Lip Balm – Personalized lip balm is a great give away! It’s inexpensive too. Lip Balm Express is one of my favorite companies.

Pencils – Imprinted pencils that the children can use to fill in their reading logs.

Prizes – During special library events, they may offer little prizes to the children. Why not donate Little Prizes that they can give away to the children. If you get individually wrapped prizes be sure to place a label on them that says Compliments of your office name. If they are not individually wrapped, be sure to add some type of tag to the prize that includes your office contact information.

Act now to get your name in front of all the people in your community that will be visiting your local library.

Some office’s express concern that they just don’t have time to implement any new marketing/advertising ideas. If that’s true with your office, please contact me. I can help! bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com

If you have any dental marketing questions that I can help you answer, please comment below.