Dental PR & Sponsorship – Step 8

DENTAL PR – RAISE YOUR BRAND PROFILE

Dental PR and sponsorship are excellent ways of raising your brand profile to new potential customers. Understanding which publications they read (both online and in print) is a great starting point. Find out their trusted sources for information, and what other products or services they use which complement yours.

Finding stories for your dental PR campaign, or angles which will provide an interesting article is worth writing about. A well written press release sent out on a regular basis should start to generate interest for your business. You may want to consider a reader offer or competition to create some publicity. You can even stage or sponsor an event which will appeal to your target customers.

PRESS RELEASES

One of the best ways to get free publicity is to get editorial coverage in a local newspaper or relevant publication. Although you will have no editorial control over what (if anything) is published, it can be an excellent way of generating publicity for your dental PR campaign.

There are two ways to go about getting free editorial coverage. The first is to simply phone the news desk of the publication and talk to a journalist. They will take all the details and then hopefully produce an article for your dental practice. The alternative is to produce your own press release and send it to the news desk. This has the benefit of ensuring you include everything you want in your story and if you are very lucky, it may be used verbatim.

FIND A GOOD HOOK

The most important thing to remember when writing your press release is that you need a good “hook” or angle. Your dental PR campaign is very unlikely to get any coverage if it is straight forward advertising with no news angle. The other thing to bear is mind is that local papers are very parochial so you need to have a local angle as well. If you have a good photo to accompany your press release do send it as again, this will increase your chances of your release being used.

MAKE USE OF YOUR PRESS RELEASE

Editorial coverage is perceived to be more credible than advertising, and it’s free. Any press coverage you get can be used on your dental website, in newsletters etc.

Even if your press release isn’t used, it doesn’t need to be wasted. You can use it on your website or in a newsletter or even adapt it for a mail shot or letter. Likewise any articles you do generate can also be used on websites and newsletters ensuring continuity in your dental PR campaign.

ADVERTORIALS

If you really need to make sure your event/product launch is covered but want to position it more as an editorial, ask about ‘advertorials’. An advertorial is a mix of an advert and editorial and is paid for in the same way as an advert. This way you will have control over what is included, though the publication is likely to state that it is an ‘advertising feature’.

DENTAL AWARDS

Awards and sponsorship are also good ways to raise your profile and credibility. Entering dental awards can be time consuming, but provide many internal benefits as you will engage your team’s input, and you will naturally be reviewing what you do.

SPONSORSHIP

Sponsorship is also a good way of reinforcing your brand values, and accessing your target market through a different route. Think about places your patients would visit and the events they may attend. Think about the sports they may play and how your brand and messages may be relevant to them. Whenever you consider the price for a sponsorship, make sure you have a similar amount to invest in maximising or exploiting that sponsorship. Think of sending out press releases, local event advertising, promote the sponsorship on your website and so on.

Whether it’s a one off press release for a local newspaper or building relationships with trade press a good dental marketing consultancy can handle this for you. Your dental PR campaign can be carried out on a project by project basis, and you will gain knowledge from some of the basic procedures. You dental marketing consultant can also help you to create a targeted PR and sponsorship plan to generate coverage in national press, radio or TV.

STEP 9 – PATIENT COMMUNICATION

Be proactive and put into place good patient communication systems >

WHO AM I?

Alex Nicolaou is a Brand Designer and Advertising Strategist who partners with company directors, dentists, specialists and entrepreneurs to grow their personal and professional brands. Having 20 years experience in dental marketing and a total of 30 years designing and advertising in all industry sectors, Alex knows how to make your brand get noticed and communicate with your ideal target audience.

Alex has always been artistic, creative and passionate about art and design. His natural talent enabled him to develop his career working on blue chip accounts for successful London based advertising and marketing agencies. The skills learned and experienced gained placed him in good stead for running his own business which he has successfully managed and directed for 20 years.

His expertise has helped dental practices and other businesses to win national awards for design, branding and marketing. If you want your business to turn heads, he’s the man.

Read more about Alex Nicolaou here >

DENTAL BRANDING & MARKETING

For more information call Alex Nicolaou on 01923 609770 to find out about making the most of your website marketing opportunities.
www.design4dentists.com >