This article was provided on behalf of Patient News
Referral cards sent with newsletters can be an effective way to get dental marketing tools into the homes of existing patients and motivate them to take action. Since most dentists depend heavily on referrals to grow their businesses, nothing is more important to a dental office than making it easy for satisfied customers to refer their friends and family.
As much as 70 percent of a dental office’s business can come from referrals, according to some statistics, but receptionists and cashiers often have too many other tasks on their minds to remember to ask patients to make referrals.
When patients are asked, they often simply brush off a request to refer their friends, never giving it a second thought once they leave the office and return to their busy lives. Even those who are willing to take a card or two often forget about them.
Inserting a professionally designed referral card into an equally well-designed and enticing newsletter can be an effective dental marketing tool for many providers, however.
A good newsletter brings the dental practice to the minds of patients, reminds them of the things they like about the office and the professionals with whom they have established relationships and creates a good feeling about the dental office. When they see a referral card inside the newsletter, they may be willing to pass it on.
Even more importantly, mailing cards in newsletters gets the cards into people’s homes where they can be seen by family members and left around for friends to see. Because these referral cards include complete contact information, they can be passed along without much explanation.
While online newsletters may not be quite as effective for distributing referral cards, they can also increase good feelings about a dental office and can be forwarded to others if the text encourages readers to do that. Customized online referral cards can also be used by practices that don’t send print newsletters to help spread the word.
When sent directly to existing patients rather than distributed at the office, referral cards can be an important part of a complete dental advertising plan.
While nothing will cause an unwilling or dissatisfied patient to spread goodwill about a dental practice, referral cards help customers who are so inclined easily provide referral information to their friends and family members who are looking for a new dental service provider.
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