Create A Welcome Pack – Step 5

WHY CREATE A WELCOME PACK?

How much do you value your patients? Creating the right impression is essential and your patient welcome pack may be the first presentation they see of your dental brand. Many patients will call and request information as soon as they see your dental practice signs, or by finding you on the internet or even after being recommended by a friend. Patients may not necessarily be given a welcome pack after visiting your practice for an initial examination. Whatever the situation, its imperative to ensure your patients feel valued by providing them freely with the information they are looking for.

REFLECT THE QUALITY OF YOUR BRAND

The quality of the welcome pack reflects the quality of your brand and its services. It must introduce your brand ethics and should communicate all aspects of the patient journey. This includes creating the kind of mood and ambience of the practice as well as the personalities and characteristics of those who are building a unique experience.

MISINTERPRETATION CAN BE COSTLY

A dental welcome pack needs to match the philosophy and credentials of the personnel behind the brand or leaders who practice in it. The quality of the welcome pack can show how much a principal cares for his or her patients and their practice as a business. If the patient pack looks cheap, lifeless or full of mistakes – how much is this a reflection of the care and attention of the principal? Does he or she really care about their patients? Is their dental work full of mistakes? Do they use cheap material on your teeth? Have a think before you send out information about dental treatments. A well put together welcome pack will reassure patients of your clinical expertise and qualifications.

MAKE A WELCOME PACK FLEXIBLE

A welcome pack can be any size but ultimately it should be flexible and as timeless as possible. You do not want to be updating the design and reprinting it every six months. This can be too costly and time consuming. A well considered welcome pack should be flexible in order to be versatile for various different uses. It needs to contain a welcome letter, any necessary medical forms, treatment information, incentives or special offers, your business card and a brochure.

A DENTAL BROCHURE IS A WORK OF ART

The whole purpose of the brochure is to sell your dental practice and its services because you are not available to sell it yourself. Imagine your dental brochure is a work of art by painting the perfect picture of your dental practice. It needs to tell a story by clearly communicating who you are and what your brand stands for. Your dental brochure is a miniature hard copy version of the real thing. Patients must imagine themselves being at your practice when reading and browsing through. Just like a luxurious hotel brochure or spa brochure setting the scene for what you should expect when you visit.

PLAN YOUR WELCOME PACK

When planning to create a welcome pack, prepare a brief for the designer. This has to include all your brand values and patient service levels. Think about the job you need it to do and how often you may need to update it. Every page must be considered and in a story telling process. It should create excitement and engage readers to turn every page but, do not give everything away. A well designed brochure teases the reader so they enquire further.

WHAT TO CONSIDER

Will you send a welcome pack before or after patients visit the practice? This will depend on the nature of the initial enquiry but you don’t want to miss out on an opportunity to show a potential patient what you can do for them. The skill of the front desk staff should be able to determine from a phone call or a request on an email whether the opportunity is too good to miss. If the patient is looking to have treatments that require your expertise or there is a strong chance of the patient joining the practice, it is probably worth sending them the welcome pack. They may have recently relocated or are disgruntled because of a bad experience with their old dentist.

Consider how your dental brochure and welcome pack will differ from your website. A brochure can be controlled more by creating an order of pages to read like a story. Your website will be viewed in a very different way as it allows the visitor to pick and choose which pages they want to read information from. The story on a website can therefore become distorted as most visitors do not read every page and miss out on a lot of crucial information. Also, many websites only contain basic information. An exciting brochure that captivates the mind will make a patient read all the information from start to finish.

TONE OF VOICE

Think about the style in which you want your brochure to be written. As a dentist you will always want to reassure patients of your clinical expertise however, avoid jargon and clinical terms and make it easy for patients to understand your approach and what the benefits are for them. Do you want to appear friendly or serious? Do you want to be short and sharp to the point or provide longer and more detailed explanations? We all have personalities and speak in different styles, and your brand should do the same. Once you have decided your brand style (sometimes called tone of voice) you can apply this to your brochure, website, patient letters and even the tone of your adverts. Make sure you proof-read every page to avoid careless spelling or grammatical mistakes. Remember, anything written and printed is seen to be more reliable and a statement of fact. People believe in it more if it is written.

HOW MUCH SHOULD I BUDGET FOR?

Be prepared to invest wisely. The best brochures do not contain the most pages and your welcome pack should not be littered with lots of unnecessary information. There are four main tasks which will contribute to the costs. The design, copywriting, photography and printing. All of which are important to execute the perfect project. If your designer has created a beautiful concept but the photography is substandard and the copywriting is non-engaging, then your welcome pack will fail to deliver. Expect to pay approximately £5,000 for a small welcome pack with 1000 pieces. This equates to £5 a patient which is a small investment for a lifetime gain. A patient on average may spend £80 a year with you. For more luxurious brochures and welcome packs this figure can reach up to £10 or £15 a pack. If the patients will be receiving a first class service with advanced dental treatments that may transform their life, then it is a relatively small price to pay for success both ways.

STEP 6 – MARKETING & ADVERTISING YOUR BRAND

Effective dental marketing is key. What are your campaign goals? > 

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 >