Staying ahead of the competition can be serious work but it doesn’t have to be! Is your dental practice trying to attract more patients? Then it can greatly benefit from an often overlooked marketing channel and that’s SMS marketing. Texting is back and it’s better than ever. According to more than one study, texting has the highest open and response rates.

SMS marketing allows you to build a genuine connection with your clients and get much better response rates when compared to emails or social media apps. Today we present you with 4 SMS campaign ideas for your dental practice that are guaranteed to get you some results.

Welcome new patients

If you’ve been in the dental practice business for some time, you’ll probably know that new clients are much more valuable than existing ones. That’s why it’s important to attract a steady stream of new patients. You can achieve this with a proper SMS marketing campaign.

The first step is to make sure every new patient feels valued. Send out welcome texts such as:

Hi there, <patient name>!

Welcome to our dental practice! We’re excited to have you as a patient. You can always contact us if you have any concerns or questions.

Thank you!

<practice name>

Such texts are only the beginning but they can go a long way. By giving patients the right treatment from the very start, they’d be more willing to listen to you in the future. Lay the groundwork early and you’ll have no trouble increasing the number of your patients.

Appointment reminders

One of the worst things that can happen to your dental practice is a no-show patient. Not only does this cost you valuable time but it also disrupts your schedule. You can easily avoid that, or at least minimise the damage, by sending out SMS appointment reminders.

After you’ve scheduled an appointment, make sure you send enough reminders. It’s also a good idea to make it easy for clients to cancel or reschedule by simply sending an SMS. You can also combine everything in a single message.

Hi there, <client name>!

Just a quick reminder that you have an upcoming dental appointment scheduled with us on <date> at <time>. We can’t wait to see you! If you need to reschedule or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to give us a call or text us here.

Thank you!

<practice name>

Provide useful patient care information

If you really want to step up your game and stand out from the competition you can always bet on customer experience. Your patients will be more eager to return or recommend you to a friend if all their needs have been met. Use SMS marketing to shape patient expectations and give them thorough information on everything before and after a procedure.

Once a patient has had a procedure, you can follow up and check on them. Communicate important information to your patients and keep them up to date on the best dental habits (how to floss properly, what’s the best toothpaste & more). Allow patients to reach you directly with an SMS and get answers to some of their questions before or after a procedure. Just like welcoming new patients, this can go a long way and turn your dental practice into the preferred one in your area.

Run satisfaction surveys

The customer journey is never truly. You can use SMS marketing to get direct first-hand feedback from your patients. SMS messaging makes surveys convenient and hassle-free. It’s also a much better option than leaving a comment right after a procedure.

This makes SMS marketing the preferred method for patient surveys. Make your survey short, simple and straight to the point. Don’t overcomplicate it with a huge number of questions and use a number-scoring system to determine customer satisfaction.

Hi there, <patient name>!

We value your feedback! Please take a moment to let us know how we’re doing by replying with a rating between 1-10 (1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest) and a brief comment about your recent experience with us. Your feedback helps us improve and provide the best possible dental care to our patients.

Thank you!

<practice name>

Conclusion

Ensuring that your dental practice provides a smooth and effortless experience for patients is crucial if you want to attract new clients. By utilising SMS text messaging, your dental practice can simplify this process by sending reminders, and alerts, and directly engaging with your patients. Not sure where to start? Turn to Magic!

How Magic can help

Magic helps local businesses grow. Thousands of local businesses use Magic to get more online reviews, win new customers, easily manage customer conversations and grow sales. Magic offers these features:

• Reviews: Get more reviews with automatic review requests for popular review sites like Google, Facebook, Yelp, TrustPilot, and more. Rank high on local search and enhance your visibility on Google. 
• Inbox: Keep track of customer conversations across channels in one inbox, including SMS, Facebook, Instagram, and Gmail. Manage conversations better as a team and do more with industry specific templates. 
• Text Marketing: Drive more sales with instant text campaigns and reach your customers at the right moment with automation. Use prebuilt templates to send out text campaigns in minutes. 
• Webchat: Turn website visitors into customers with SMS powered Webchat. Chat to website visitors directly through SMS so you won’t miss a lead, even when they leave your website. 

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