Marketing Our Pediatric Practice
Pediatric dentistry is a specialty that requires a different kind of marketing. Our practice has been in business for 42 years and has tried all types of marketing and advertisements. We find recommendations from our existing patients are the absolute best way to market our office.
In our practice, we reach out to parents between the ages of 23 to 40 with kids in daycare, preschool, and kindergarten. However, our most significant referral source is “mom to mom.” Eighty percent of parents who accompany their children to their appointments are moms.
Marketing is everything from your Google search to the exit interview after each appointment, not just the new patient visit. The family experience at your practice is essential. Your goal should be to ensure your patient comes first and that parents are always informed. This goes a long way to get that parent-to-parent recommendation. Customer service plays a huge part.
Adding schools to our marketing program has been very effective. We set up a booth at each health and safety community event, giving out brochures, coloring books, and toothbrush kits. We visit the county library for story time, present healthy snacks, and give out toothbrush kits and coloring books. Talk to your team for ideas on community events to do together.
We partnered with a few schools and sponsored all kindergarten classes with our logo on the students’ take-home folders. We also printed car rider pickup hangers for parents’ rearview mirrors. One side has our logo and what to do in a tooth emergency, and the other side has the numbered system for the car rider line. These items have our logo in front of the parents every day.
We visit daycare and preschools at pickup time to speak with parents and hand out brochures on how to care for their child’s teeth and when to see the dentist for first visits.
During February Dental Health Month, we visit all kindergarten classes in our surrounding area. Our hygienist gives a PowerPoint presentation on healthy snacks, brushing, and hands out goodie bags. Everything we hand out has branding on it with our QR Code.
A local artist created our coloring books and has the doctors in cartoon characters with brushing and flossing instructions. The children absolutely love them. Our website can be shared with anyone with our QR Code and visually appears like an app on their phone. I highly recommend getting one if you don’t have a practice QR Code.
Also, your office website needs to be user-friendly and visually attractive. Updating the website at least once a year is a priority, if not more frequently. Videos on your website will help in Google searches to attract more people to your website.
We added our patient forms, care instructions for every procedure pre-op and post-op, consent forms, and doctor referrals to our website. This cut costs on printing and mailing for our office and provides excellent value to our patients. Our patient portal allows parents to sign in and fill out forms electronically, which is necessary for offices that want to be efficient. Technology is a great asset, and we need to maximize it.
I challenge you to have a team meeting on marketing and encourage everyone to contribute to the marketing plan for your practice. You could also invite a speaker to talk about customer service to help them realize their importance in the practice.
Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and find things that make your practice unique. Promote positive thinking and thank your team often because what they do makes a difference!
About the Author
Traciee D. Stafford, MAADOM
Traciee Stafford is the Practice Manager for Children’s Dental Associates of ColumbiaThis link opens a new tab to the CDoC website, TN/Sims Orthodontics. She started as an assistant in 1989 and is a lifetime member of AADOM, receiving her Fellowship (FAADOM) in 2017 and Mastership (MAADOM) in 2023.
She became a Fellow of AADOM in 2017. Traciee is the Pediatric Specialty Network Chair and South Central TN AADOM Chapter President.
