Free Teeth Cleaning...

I had seen this direct mail piece before. Actually I had seen in several times in the last few months. Who was this guy? How was he so successful at talking every dentist in town into doing the same direct mail campaign? “I wonder if he knows how upset all of his clients are,” I thought to myself.

These direct mail pieces all looked so much alike. I mean you had to really look close to even find a difference in the logos. They shared the same color palette, the same photos of a desert scene with a saguaro cactus on the front, (a real novelty for Arizona… not). They even all had the same product offerings. FREE INITIAL EXAM, FREE TEETH CLEANING, HALF PRICE TEETH WHITENING… they were virtually identical. The sad news was that local dental practice were dropping these mailings to tens of thousands of Phoenix area residents at significant expense with little to no return on their advertising investment.

It is not my intention to go direct mail bashing here. For certain products, direct mail campaigns are still very effective if they are well executed. Here’s the strange common denominator with all the doctors that were involved in these mailings. When I asked them what set their practice apart from competitors, they all mentioned office amenities, friendly staff, attention to detail, pleasant experience, “we care,” great stuff. I went on to ask each of them, “when you run into an old friend or new neighbor who might be a potential patient or family of patients for your practice, what do you tell them?” The answers were all very similar. “I tell them that we take the fear stigma out of dentistry,” or “I tell them that we treat all of our patients like family.” This is good stuff, I thought but where was it? Would anyone read hear these statements in any of the practice’s advertising?

So I asked each doctor, “that’s great stuff, it makes me want to consider your practice, why doesn’t it show up anywhere in your advertising. What did you want this mail piece to specifically do for you.” This time the answers were exactly the same in all four cases. “We want to gain more steady patients, we want entire families to make us their regular family dentist and then go tell their friends.” I then asked the hard question, “what were the actual results of this mailer, did you track them?” In each case, it was really hard for the dentist to admit just how ineffective these campaigns had been, and I don’t blame them.

The practice that experienced the best result stated the following. “We sent out 50,000 mail pieces over five months and only received seven phone calls.” I then asked, “what were the callers most interested in when they called?” “Five wanted the free teeth cleaning, one wanted the half-price whitening and one wanted the free exam.” I wondered if any of these callers became regular patients, so I asked. “No… none of them… they just wanted the free stuff!” Still holding a sample of the mailer in my hand I reluctantly say, “so, you pretty much got exactly what you asked for in this mailer, right? People who were interested in the offers for free teeth cleanings and such.” This is when their eyes get big and that little light bulb goes on. As ineffective as those mailers were, the few prospects that did call, were interested in exactly what the practice had to offer. Can you blame them… from the mailer, how would they know any different?.

If you have a reputation for treating your patients like family and want to become the prospects regular family dentist because you care about them… TELL THEM!

In advertising, be careful what you ask for… you just might get it!