Email Marketing for Dentists: Strategy + Real Examples

Dentistry might be a clinical skill, but it’s also a business. That means that for any dentist running their own practice, being a business owner is at least half the job.

And that means job No.1 is bringing in clients and keeping them long-term.

For many dentists, email marketing is part of that strategy. With an average ROI of $36 for every $1 spent, it’s an excellent way to continue to grow your practice.

In this post, we’ll dive into the basics of email marketing for dentists, and provide some tips and real-life examples from dental practices who’ve implemented it successfully.

Benefits of Email Marketing for Dentists

Email marketing has lots of benefits when it comes to using it to promote a dental practice. Here are some standout advantages:

Cost-Effective Promotion

Running a dental practice can be expensive. Luckily, email marketing is very affordable, especially for smaller businesses with limited budgets.

There are several cheap email marketing software platforms available that cater to most small businesses’ needs. There are even some free email marketing platforms you can take for a spin. Combine that with the high ROI email marketing provides, and this form of marketing becomes an excellent value for promoting your dental practice.

Increased Retention

According to the Journal of the American Dental Association, the average dental patient retention rate is about 41%. Although this isn't terrible, small improvements can make a huge difference to the bottom line.

In fact, research suggests that increasing customer retention rates by just 5% increases profits by up to 95%. What's more, 69% of patients say they would switch dentists due to poor service or lack of trust. If you want your clients to keep returning, email can be a great way to build a longer-term relationship with them.

Increased Procedure Acceptance

People don’t typically rush to see the dentist, even when it's necessary. Email marketing can help give people that little push to get more regular dental care.

Maybe your emails can help people understand the value of regular cleanings, or you could share stories of how preventive maintenance can help reduce the likelihood of more invasive and expensive procedures.

Boosted Referrals

Referrals can be a great way to continue to grow your practice, and luckily, email marketing can help you with this. By keeping your practice top-of-mind and continuing to grow your relationship with clients, you are more likely to get a referral. You could also use email marketing to actively promote a client referral program.

Informed and Engaged Patients

Most dental patients know little about new procedures, technologies, or even the basics of dental hygiene. Email marketing can educate them on improving their oral health and how your practice can support their efforts. This not only boosts client growth and retention but also brings more informed and receptive patients into your practice.

Simplified Booking Management

Experienced dentists know that no-shows are always a challenge. Email marketing can help by providing clear information on booking appointments, directions to your clinic, arrival times, and what to expect during the visit. You can also set up automated reminders to increase the likelihood that patients will show up for their appointments.

Your Dental Email Marketing Campaign: Tips to Get Started

If you’re ready to give email marketing a try at your dental practice, here’s what you need to get started.

Choose Email Marketing Software

Email marketing software makes it easy to design and send emails. It can also track how emails are performing to ensure you're meeting your marketing goals. Setting up email marketing automations is another tool these platforms offer so that you can continue to grow and nurture those clients.

Deciding which email marketing software to use depends on your level of experience, your needs, and your budget. We researched more than 230 email marketing software providers to come up with the best email marketing software based on a number of key factors, including marketing automations, key features, pricing, and more. (In other words, we did your homework for you!)

Grow Your Email List

Once you have your email marketing platform set up, it’s time to collect some emails. This is often referred to as “lead generation.” There are plenty of ways you can do this, but it’s a good practice to give existing and potential clients several different sign-up opportunities. A few to consider include:

• Offering a sign-up form for your email list at your office.
• Including a subscribe option on your website and social media channels.
• Encouraging sign-ups via patient appointment reminders.
• Using an incentive, such as a coupon or gift card, to promote sign-ups.

Segment Your Leads

Next, it’s time to do what’s called “segmenting” your leads. This means dividing your audience into segments based on certain criteria or shared characteristics. According to data from Hubspot, segmented emails drive 30% more opens and 50% more clickthroughs than unsegmented ones. This is definitely a step you should take once you’ve grown a reasonable email list.

For example, maybe you specialize in dentistry for children but also have a sizable group of elderly patients. Those are two very different groups with very different needs. They could benefit from different (and more targeted) messaging. If you have both prospective and previous clients on your list, these groups may benefit from more individualized messaging as well.

Fortunately, email marketing software makes segmentation easy by allowing you to create groups based on how and where people subscribe. This guarantees your emails are relevant and engaging for each segment of your audience.

Develop Clear Goals

As with any form of marketing, it’s best to lay out some clear goals you’d like to achieve with your email marketing. This will allow you to tailor your strategy and campaigns to meet those goals.

First, consider what you want to accomplish. Is your goal to boost customer retention? Or are you looking to get more referrals? You can have as many goals as you think you can tackle, but each email campaign should have a specific purpose. This will help you decide what types of content and calls to action are most likely to lead to your desired results.

Whatever your goals are, be sure to set them carefully, write them down, and track your progress. Overall, we recommend using the S.M.A.R.T. approach to goal-setting.

A few examples of goals you might set for your campaigns include:

• Decrease the number of no-shows by 25% in the first quarter.
• Rebook 10 existing clients this month.
• Get 3 referrals from email marketing this month.

Create Engaging Content

Now, it’s time to get creative and start creating content to send to your subscribers. There’s plenty to learn when it comes to creating content that converts, but you can find a good deal of resources to educate yourself on the basics of email marketing and email design for marketing.

That said, there are a few tactics that’ll help you increase open and clickthrough rates from the get-go. We recommend focusing your attention on:

• Creating a clickable subject line.
• Building a beautiful email with engaging copy and photos.
• Having a clear call to action to ensure people move farther along in their journey with your brand.

These elements require hard work and practice to perfect, so we recommend diving deeper into these areas. You can also learn from successful emails created by other dentists.

Monitor Results and Adjust

No email marketing campaign is complete without analyzing its performance. Analytics help you assess how well your campaign did and what you can learn from it. Many email software platforms provide easy-to-understand analytics and reporting for each campaign.

At a minimum, we recommend tracking:

• Open rates
• Click-through rates
• Conversions
• Unsubscribes
• Spam complaints

Your email marketing analytics will help you detect what’s working (and what’s not) so that you can adjust your strategy.

Real-World Dental Email Marketing Examples

The best way to get a sense of what a successful email marketing campaign might look like for a dentist is to see some real examples.

Here are a few dental practices that leveraged email marketing and experienced great results:

Reducing Missed Appointments with Appointment Reminder Emails

Maria Eugenia Sørensen, founder of Clinical Dental Sørenson Mataró, implemented a simple automated system to send reminder emails for regular check-ups and cleanings.

Instead of just including a reminder, Sørensen boosted the impact of her campaign by including educational content about the importance of routine visits.

The result? A 30% reduction in missed appointments.

Why it worked:

• Emails were sent based on triggers like the date of the last appointment.
• Patients were informed about the importance of acting on these reminders.

Improving Patient Recall with Personalized Outreach

Margaret Baker, the creative director at Stanley Dentistry in North Carolina, achieved success when she and her team implemented software to capture more information about their patients.

By using this software, they were able to find patients who had missed their recall for cleanings in the past 12 months. The team then put together a custom email campaign for this group of patients, letting them know they were overdue for a cleaning and the doctor was concerned.

The result? The email was sent to 400 patients; 257 of them opened the email, and more than 20 called the office to schedule appointments.

Why it worked:

• Including the patient’s name made the email feel personal and direct.
• Sending the email from their dentist added credibility and urgency to the message.
• Providing scheduling information and a phone number made it easy for patients to take the next step.

Here’s what the email looked like:

8 Key Ideas for Dental Email Marketing

So, what kinds of emails might work to market a dental practice via email? Here are a few ideas to consider:

Welcome Email

This is an email that goes out to each new subscriber immediately after they subscribe. More than 80% of people will open a welcome email, and they have above-average clickthrough rates as well. That makes them a great way to start a relationship with new subscribers who are also your potential clients.

New Product/Service Email

If you have something new to offer, email can be a great way to let people know about it. This can be especially helpful in dentistry, where many people may not even be aware of the options that exist to help them.

Discounts and Promotions

Whether you regularly offer discounts and promotions or want to use them to engage your email list, it can be a simple way to entice people to make an appointment. This is especially effective for cosmetic services like teeth whitening or bonding.

Office Updates

A key factor in encouraging repeat visits to a dental office is the staff. If you have a fantastic team supporting you, helping your patients and potential patients get to know them better can increase the likelihood of booking an appointment.

Educational Emails

Patient education is an important aspect of dentistry. Most people have limited knowledge about oral hygiene and often need reminders. Educational emails can help by providing valuable information that improves their oral care and informs their decisions about potential procedures.

For example, you could send an educational email about periodontal disease. This email could include information on what it is, signs to watch for, and tips on prevention. Additionally, it can highlight the ways a dentist can help manage and treat the condition.

Birthday or Anniversary Emails

If your goal with email marketing is to strengthen your rapport with patients, sending regular birthday or anniversary emails can be an effective strategy. These emails don’t need to include any promotional content or calls to action. A simple message like “Smile! It’s your birthday!” shows your patients that you’re thinking about them.

Appointment Confirmation/Reminder

Appointment confirmation emails are practical rather than promotional, but they still offer a chance to strengthen client relationships. You can include helpful tips, such as directions to your office or how to prepare for their visit. You can also provide links to your blog or offer the opportunity to sign up for your regular newsletter to keep clients engaged and informed.

Prompt for a Review

If online reviews are crucial to your business, email is an excellent tool to solicit them. You can automate emails to be sent after a patient’s appointment so they remember to leave a review. This also provides a final opportunity to thank clients for their business and reinforce your appreciation.

Email Marketing Templates for Dentists

One of the simplest ways to build an attractive email to send to your list is by using a template. Fortunately, there are lots of great templates available just for dentists. All you have to do is find one that you like and then customize it with your own images, branding, and content.

Here are a few places to find email templates for your dental practice:

1. Your Email Marketing Software Platform
   Many of the best email marketing software platforms provide free templates you can adjust to your liking.

2. From an Email Design Software Provider
   Email design software providers like Unlayer and Stripo provide thousands of templates that can be adjusted according to your needs.

3. Etsy
   Etsy is home to several excellent templates for dentists looking to market themselves. These templates are typically designed to be edited using Canva and can provide some of the basic designs you might need. It also has loads of templates for businesses in general.

Compare Your Email Marketing Options

We hope this guide has provided you with everything you need to start email marketing for your dental practice.

One of the first steps is choosing the right email marketing software, which is crucial to your success.

At Softailed, we've done the legwork for you by researching and testing more than 230 email software providers to identify the best email marketing software on the market. We've categorized these based on various factors to make sure you find the best email marketing software for your specific needs.

If you don't know where to start, try our Finder Tool. Simply answer a few key questions, and our tool will recommend the best email software for your needs.

Don't forget to check out our guide on the basics of email marketing for more helpful tips. You can also read about how other professionals, like lawyers and photographers, are successfully using email marketing.