the house she grew up in. So she calls. Or, perhaps she will put it up on the refrigerator to remind her to call you when she is ready.

2) If you are not doing repeat mail with your postcards you are flushing your money down the toilet.

Repeat mailings cannot be repeated enough. DO REPEAT MAILINGS! DO REPEAT MAILINGS! DO REPEAT MAILINGS! A one-shot-in-the-dark postcard mailing is not going to change your practice, your bottom line, your life or your anything.

The long and the short of it is, if you are not up to confro

In my plethora of experience I have managed to cull out for you what I consider the “best of the best” – in other words, I took the most proven details about postcards that are significant to you starting a dental postcard campaign and really winning with it.

In marketing to your potential patients I want you to understand some key direct mail marketing essentials that will help you to acquire new patients effectively:

1) A postcard is better than something in an envelope.

For many reasons, the main one being, with an envelope you can’t make your potential patient see your message.

People are fast. We see and read very quickly – actually much more quickly than we even realize. Think about yourself – how fast do you go through your mail and process out what you want to keep and what you don’t want to keep? Pretty fast. It takes fractions of seconds to go through and process in your mind “bill, bill, advertisement, bill, advertisement, letter…” And it also takes fractions of seconds to decide whether you are even going to bother giving more attention to the pieces that you designated as advertisements.

With a postcard, even if they throw it away, they already saw your message regardless of whether they think they did or not. They saw it enough to either throw it away or keep it or respond to it.

And if they tossed it, the next time they get that same postcard in the mail, they'll see it again - as they throw it in the trash, again.

Let’s face it - junk mail gets thrown away. And postcards are junk mail just like other advertisements you get in the mail.

Although they may be junk mail, postcards get read no matter what – even if thrown away without reading them, they get seen. It’s like the phoenix rising up from the ashes. And the truth is, one day a wife or mother is going to sift through her mail as quickly as always and see your postcard (again) and remember it is time to start little Johnny going to the dentist - and you know what? She'd rather send him to someone that specializes in kids rather then her dentist. And besides that, your office is closer to Johnny's preschool while her's is all the way across town near the house she grew up in. So she calls. Or, perhaps she will put it up on the refrigerator to remind her to call you when she is ready.

2) If you are not doing repeat mail with your postcards you are flushing your money down the toilet.

Repeat mailings cannot be repeated enough. DO REPEAT MAILINGS! DO REPEAT MAILINGS! DO REPEAT MAILINGS! A one-shot-in-the-dark postcard mailing is not going to change your practice, your bottom line, your life or your anything.

The long and the short of it is, if you are not up to confron

ope you can’t make your potential patient see your message.

People are fast. We see and read very quickly – actually much more quickly than we even realize. Think about yourself – how fast do you go through your mail and process out what you want to keep and what you don’t want to keep? Pretty fast. It takes fractions of seconds to go through and process in your mind “bill, bill, advertisement, bill, advertisement, letter…” And it also takes fractions of seconds to decide whether you are even going to bother giving more attention to the pieces that you designated as advertisements.

With a postcard, even if they throw it away, they already saw your message regardless of whether they think they did or not. They saw it enough to either throw it away or keep it or respond to it.

And if they tossed it, the next time they get that same postcard in the mail, they'll see it again - as they throw it in the trash, again.

Let’s face it - junk mail gets thrown away. And postcards are junk mail just like other advertisements you get in the mail.

Although they may be junk mail, postcards get read no matter what – even if thrown away without reading them, they get seen. It’s like the phoenix rising up from the ashes. And the truth is, one day a wife or mother is going to sift through her mail as quickly as always and see your postcard (again) and remember it is time to start little Johnny going to the dentist - and you know what? She'd rather send him to someone that specializes in kids rather then her dentist. And besides that, your office is closer to Johnny's preschool while her's is all the way across town near the house she grew up in. So she calls. Or, perhaps she will put it up on the refrigerator to remind her to call you when she is ready.

2) If you are not doing repeat mail with your postcards you are flushing your money down the toilet.

Repeat mailings cannot be repeated enough. DO REPEAT MAILINGS! DO REPEAT MAILINGS! DO REPEAT MAILINGS! A one-shot-in-the-dark postcard mailing is not going to change your practice, your bottom line, your life or your anything.

The long and the short of it is, if you are not up to confro

ces that you designated as advertisements.

With a postcard, even if they throw it away, they already saw your message regardless of whether they think they did or not. They saw it enough to either throw it away or keep it or respond to it.

And if they tossed it, the next time they get that same postcard in the mail, they'll see it again - as they throw it in the trash, again.

Let’s face it - junk mail gets thrown away. And postcards are junk mail just like other advertisements you get in the mail.

Although they may be junk mail, postcards get read no matter what – even if thrown away without reading them, they get seen. It’s like the phoenix rising up from the ashes. And the truth is, one day a wife or mother is going to sift through her mail as quickly as always and see your postcard (again) and remember it is time to start little Johnny going to the dentist - and you know what? She'd rather send him to someone that specializes in kids rather then her dentist. And besides that, your office is closer to Johnny's preschool while her's is all the way across town near the house she grew up in. So she calls. Or, perhaps she will put it up on the refrigerator to remind her to call you when she is ready.

2) If you are not doing repeat mail with your postcards you are flushing your money down the toilet.

Repeat mailings cannot be repeated enough. DO REPEAT MAILINGS! DO REPEAT MAILINGS! DO REPEAT MAILINGS! A one-shot-in-the-dark postcard mailing is not going to change your practice, your bottom line, your life or your anything.

The long and the short of it is, if you are not up to confro

ail, postcards get read no matter what – even if thrown away without reading them, they get seen. It’s like the phoenix rising up from the ashes. And the truth is, one day a wife or mother is going to sift through her mail as quickly as always and see your postcard (again) and remember it is time to start little Johnny going to the dentist - and you know what? She'd rather send him to someone that specializes in kids rather then her dentist. And besides that, your office is closer to Johnny's preschool while her's is all the way across town near the house she grew up in. So she calls. Or, perhaps she will put it up on the refrigerator to remind her to call you when she is ready.

2) If you are not doing repeat mail with your postcards you are flushing your money down the toilet.

Repeat mailings cannot be repeated enough. DO REPEAT MAILINGS! DO REPEAT MAILINGS! DO REPEAT MAILINGS! A one-shot-in-the-dark postcard mailing is not going to change your practice, your bottom line, your life or your anything.

The long and the short of it is, if you are not up to confro

the house she grew up in. So she calls. Or, perhaps she will put it up on the refrigerator to remind her to call you when she is ready.

2) If you are not doing repeat mail with your postcards you are flushing your money down the toilet.

Repeat mailings cannot be repeated enough. DO REPEAT MAILINGS! DO REPEAT MAILINGS! DO REPEAT MAILINGS! A one-shot-in-the-dark postcard mailing is not going to change your practice, your bottom line, your life or your anything.

The long and the short of it is, if you are not up to confronting that you need to do a campaign then don’t bother being in practice. Sorry if I sound a bit harsh!

And the plus point is that people start to really believe you exist when they see your postcard over and over in the mail. It communicates credibility and gives people the idea that you are established and not going to go away. Some people may respond right away – a lot of people do not. They want to “see” if you are a one-shot in the dark kind of dentist or not. Think about all the mail you receive at home and think about the companies that hit you again and again. In your own mind, I'll bet those companies are more real and more credible then some company you received just one piece of mail from.

3) The best price is not best necessarily the best postcard.

The cheapest is not necessarily the best. The old adage “you get what you pay for” applies here. I know that goes for dentistry as well. You are not going to get the top cosmetic dental surgeon for rock-bottom prices. I am not saying that one cannot get good dental work done for a reasonable cost; all I am saying is that cheaper is not always better. When you are looking for a good postcard company, get whatever potential Postcard Company you interview to send you samples. Make sure the postcard is a very good-quality, stiff card that catches your attention. Get them to give you customer references. Call those references and find out what they think of that company’s service, product, etc.

There is a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes into getting your postcard done right. If they mess up the printing, if they don’t get your mailing out on deadline, etc. – doing it dirt cheap might not mean getting the quality service you need or want.

4) Although most people, if surveyed, say they like full color on both sides, the truth is black on white on the back of the postcard gets a better response.

Why? Because full-color on both sides can be confusing. When people have the option of color on the back they tend to go a little nuts with the design to the point where the recipient doesn't know where to look first and the message gets completely lost. On the other h