Finding new dental patients continues to be a priority. There was a survey of more than 7,500 dentists who were asked about the greatest challenge their practice faces. The overwhelming response (2 to 1) was new patient flow. A healthy practice should be seeing an average of 25 new patients per month per doctor.

Approximately 75% of these should come as referrals from existing patients. The others need to come from the Practice’s marketing efforts.

For new dental patient acquisition, direct mail remains the top prospect medium. This allows dentists to target the top prospects in their area with a compelling offer to attract them to their practice.

Find New Dental Patients with these top New Patient Prospects:

There are several key markets that bring in patients year-in, year-out:

• New Movers is the most widely-used dental prospect list. A New Mover list provides dental practices with a continuous opportunity to reach new households as they move in. Many practices mail to New Movers on an on-going monthly basis. This way they can generate new patients that will stay with their practice for years.  According to a study by Zillow, 70% of New Movers will want to find a dentist in the first 6 months they are at their new address.
• Selected Demographic mailings to targeted households. Usually, dental practices mail to a 5 miles around the practice, focusing on females who are the decision makers in the household. Many dental practices also request to have email addresses appended to their lists. This way you can reach people in more than one marketing channel. This will improve your name recognition and branding in the marketplace.

Special Lists for Specialty Dental Practices:

• Pediatric Dentists love our Children Turning 1 list . We suggest this for baby’s first dental visit. We also recommend families with children 5-14 years old to market Sealants. (Read the NY Times article on 9/22/16)
• Orthodontists mail to families in their markets with children turning 7 years old. A birthday card to this demographic will give an Orthodontist entrée into this special niche market.
• Cosmetic Dentists have great success with college graduates looking for jobs. They also do well with singles looking to find soul mates and affluent individuals looking to improve their appearance.
• Prosthodontics can reach out to individuals who have self-reported that they have Gum Problems. We also know that Diabetics are likely prospects as well.

Want more information on putting your mail campaign together? Just click on our latest white paper on Dental Marketing.Click Here for the link. Dental Marketing – White Paper. You might also want to read about the  difference between Dental Marketing & Dental Advertising.

Direct Mail is the #1 Channel to Find New Dental Patients – Click Here to Read Why

How do you know how much to spend on marketing?

Dentistry is all about recurring revenue and acquiring quality new patients worth the initial investment.

• Cost Per Acquisition – $150 – $300 per dental patient
• Year one as new patient spend averages $700-$1250
• Average dental patient stays with a practice for 7-10 years
• Average Patients spend – $653 per year (ADA average – 2016)
• a new patient will generate at least $4500 in revenue (excluding referrals) in their lifetime with a practice

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