marketing for orthodontist

Back to School Dental Office Ideas
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Back to School Dental Office Ideas

Hello Friends,

The back-to-school season is upon us. While we typically reach out to the schools during February’s Dental Health now is a great time to start 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.

Community Involvement – 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 pages, 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.

Social Media Platforms – Share  school-related and dental health content to your social media pages, 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)
dental ideas for local schools tooth decay is preventable dental coach betty hayden

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, send over a coffee or ice cream truck, 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. The 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.

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.

Book Fairs – Many schools will be hosting book fairs this school year.  These fairs typically bring in many families.

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?

Tooth bags – Make up 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?

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, I am here for you.

If you enjoy the complimentary ideas that I share each month, I would love and truly appreciate for you to please leave a review/recommendation on GOOGLE and/or FACEBOOK

Have you signed up to receive my complimentary dental marketing and practice management ideas that are sent right to your email inbox each month? If not, take a second and sign up. Or send me your email address to bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com and I will send you an invite to follow. This way, you won’t miss a single idea!

We’re on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest stop by and say hello. 

Yours for Greater Success,

~Betty

Dental Office Tips and Ideas for May 2020
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Dental Office Tips and Ideas for May 2020

Hello Friends ~

WOW! Things have certainly changed, haven’t they? I hope that you all are staying safe and healthy. As a dental coach for many different teams, I have spent countless hours helping them prepare to start seeing patients once again.

I understand that some offices have already reopened and others are awaiting their start back dates. Regardless of the status of your office, even with all the changes to dentistry, one thing remains the same – your patients want to know you care, your community appreciates your support, and your employees need to know that you are taking steps to ensure their safety and that they’ll have a job to return to.

The Leadership, Management, and Marketing Tips and Ideas that I am sharing for the month of May will work whether your office is open or closed. Ready? Here you are: (I crammed a lot of ideas in here so surely you will find at least one thing you can implement. Haha)

Dental Office Leadership, Marketing, and Practice Management Tips and Ideas for May:

Dental Coach Betty Hayden Spring Dental Marketing Ideas

Leadership Tips and Ideas –

“Developing excellent communication skills is essential to effective leadership. The leader must be able to share knowledge and ideas to transmit a sense of urgency and enthusiasm to others. If a leader can’t get a message across clearly and motivate others to act on it, then having a message doesn’t even matter.” — Gilbert Amelio

Communication: If your office is temporarily closed, please stay in touch with your employees. Check-in on them with a telephone call or text. Schedule regular team meetings – these can be held virtually from the safety of their homes via Zoom and other platforms.  Don’t assume they know what’s going on, don’t assume they’re comfortable returning to work. Create together a plan for returning back to work.

If your office has already reopened, daily morning huddles are a must, and regular team meetings important. Schedule in advance your monthly team meetings for the year. If we don’t make time to effectively communicate it often doesn’t happen.

See: Tips and Ideas for Successful Monthly Dental Team Meetings and Dental Office Morning Huddle Agenda Tips and Ideas

Here is a fun idea for your team – May 15th is National Pizza Day – If you are back to work, bring in pizza for the team. If you are still at home, have pizza delivered to your employees’ homes as a special treat. Plus, you’re helping to support local businesses.

Learn how to lead your team, creating greatness based on high-performance expectations and principles. Produce more, Collect more, Stress-less, and have more Fun!

Schedule your complimentary no-obligation 30-minute coaching consultation today at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com.

Dental Marketing Tips and Ideas –

Theme: National Smile Month “We Always Go The Extra Smile”

Focus: Healthy & Beautiful Smiles (Preventive & Cosmetic Services)

Goal: Bring in New Patients, Increase Production & Exceed Patients Expectations

Contest/Raffle – Family Fun & Wellness Gift Basket (Tote/Cooler) – Fill with Lawn games, BBQ supplies, Sunscreen, Citronella candles, Toothbrushes, Paper products, Chalk, etc.

Patients earn entries for Facebook engagement, FB reviews, Google reviews, and for referring new patients.

Videos – Share videos on Instagram, Facebook, and Google about what you’re doing to help keep your patients safe during this time and what they can expect as far as changes when they come in for the scheduled appts. Reassure them that just as you always have – their safety is your top concern.  Share with them what you’re doing to help them smile healthier.

Community Opportunities:  This month makes it very easy to build relationships with some of the local businesses.  Specifically, your Nurses, Police Officers, and Teachers.

During the month of May you have:

Teacher Appreciation Week: 4-8

National Nurses Day and Week: 6-12 

National Police Week:  10-16

See here: Dental Office Appreciation Ideas for Teachers, Nurses, and Police Officers for some ideas on how you can celebrate and acknowledge these amazing people in your community.

Educational Opportunities:

May is Save Your Tooth Month and Root Canal Appreciation Week: 3rd – 9th and Root Canal Appreciation Day: 11th 

What can you do with that? Share with your patients in person or via your social media platforms the importance of saving their natural teeth. Explain what root canal procedures are and how they help.

National High Blood Pressure Education Month 

Are you consistently taking your patients’ blood pressure?  If not, now is a great time to start.

dental office blood pressure betty hayden consulting

Many people see their dentist more regularly than a physician and could get an early warning about high blood pressure when getting their teeth cleaned or having other dental treatment done.

Dr. __ and our team are not only interested in your oral health but your overall health. We take every precaution necessary to ensure that you will leave happy and healthy. We look forward to seeing you soon at your next appointment!  

Practice Management Tips & Ideas:

Friends, if you do not know what your office numbers look like, or how many of your active patients are unscheduled, or how many patients were canceled and not yet rescheduled during COVID, and so many other important key practice indicators; please take note of what those numbers look like. This will help you reopen your practice with a baseline to work from and guide you.  You need to know where you’re at currently to know how to best care for your patients and what your potential for growth is. To help you get that data quickly, like within minutes – if your PMS is either Dentrix, Eaglesoft, or Open Dental you can request a complimentary, no-obligation practice data snapshot here: Game-Changing Awareness from Dental Intelligence  – Within minutes we’ll identify your practice’s strengths and uncover hidden opportunities.  I am happy to assist you with this at no charge.

Social Media Post Ideas to Improve Engagement during the month of May

Side Note: Now more than ever it is important to stay connected with your patients (and the community) via your social media platforms and Google My Business.  Don’t overthink it. Have fun with it. In addition to posts and pictures, create some brief videos to share as well.

Drinking Water Week: 3rd-9th (Share the dental health benefits of drinking water)

World Laughter Day: 3rd (We all can use more laughter!)

National Piercing Day: 16th (Share risks of oral piercings)

Eat More Fruits & Vegetables Day: 21st

National Taffy Day: 23rd (Best and Worst Candy for Your Teeth)

National Senior Health & Fitness Day: 29 

World No-Tobacco Day: 31

If you appreciated these complimentary ideas I  would love for you to please leave me a review/recommendation here on GOOGLE and/or FACEBOOK.

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 each month? If not, please start following us today. If you prefer, send me your email address (to bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com) and I will send you an invitation to follow my blog.

Keep Smiling and Stay Healthy!!

Yours for Greater Success,

~Betty