Impress Patients With Greeting Cards

Impress Patients With Greeting Cards

Mark Curtis believes there is an easy way for dentists to make their holiday greeting cards stand out. Curtis, of Curtis Marketing Group in St. Joseph, Minn., said dentists can get their cards noticed by developing a marketing campaign around the holiday seasons. Use a Christmas card as the campaign's kickoff, he said, and follow up throughout the year with continued holiday greetings.

Better yet, Curtis said, don't send a traditional Christmas card at all. Instead, wait for a different holiday, when patients won't expect a greeting and will be pleasantly surprised. Curtis recommends that cards be sent around Thanksgiving, because it is an American holiday and has been adopted by almost every group. "Another aspect of Thanksgiving is that at the core of the holiday is a universal concept that we should be thankful for what we have," Curtis said. "I believe this is a time when instead of saying to patients 'happy holidays, and we hope the season brings wonderful things to you,' dentist should say 'we'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for having patients like you."

Curtis said the best way to create a favorable and lasting impression is to personalize holiday greetings by signing the cards and addressing the envelopes by hand. Also, he said, use real stamps on the envelopes instead of running them through a postage meter.

Curtis recommends that dentists use a card that sits sideways, and features a scenic photograph on one side and a calendar on the other, so it can be applicable all year. Also, dentists should design their own cards, from logo to text, so they can send a personal message to their patients.

"In today's world, relationships are becoming more and more impersonal," Curtis said. "All that dentists have to sell to their patients are themselves. Everyone has the technology, everyone has the materials and can do the latest whitening. So if you don't build strong, sincere relationship, you can lose patients.