Tips for Mailing Marketing Materials

We’ve all heard the phrase, “you have one opportunity to make a first impression”. In your business, the first impression that your practice makes on a future patient is the “welcome packet” – the documentation you ask the visitor to bring with them to their first appointment.

Many practices send these documents to patients electronically for both convenience and cost benefits, and that is fine – but if you’re going to do that exclusively, I would also suggest that you send the visitor a text notifying them that these documents are in their email inbox.

That’s the problem with email – because of the sheer volume of it, the likelihood of it actually being seen (and printed and filled out) by your visitor becomes suspect.  

Conversely, people now receive less mail at home – so the things that they do receive via postal mail get more attention than they did in the past.

For now, I suggest that you send the documents both electronically and through the postal mail.

When sending documents through regular mail, many practices elect to use a standard #10 (letter) envelope. I believe this is a poor choice in your line of work, because you provide a cosmetic service. Due to the out-of-pocket cost of your services, and the visual impact of your finished product, the materials that you send out should reflect the nature of your work as well as its value.

For these reasons I recommend that you eschew the habit of sending out folded-up, visually unappealing documents in standard envelopes. Instead, invest in 9 x 12 size ones and have all of your documents sent out as unfolded, visually appealing (with your logo and color palette) one-sheets that make the appropriate first impression when slid out of the end of that envelope.

Drab, folded-up documents are fine for an upcoming annual physical or a colonoscopy. But for an appointment to discuss whether or not to invest in orthodontic treatment? Not so much.

You’re in an entirely different business – on in which you have to persuade people that they need what you offer when they visit your practice.

Make sure your outbound documents reflect that.