Weekly Web Tip: Adding an e-Newsletter

There are different ways to get a database of emails together to send out some material at consistent intervals to stay in the front of your dentist's minds. Some generate it slowly over years, some buy the list and some have a sign up option on their website.

Generating an e-newsletter over the years is a slow but effective process. The dentist is usually prompted for contact information during a face to face and helps you keep your dentists up to date with what’s going on in your lab and means you don't necessarily need a website.

Buying a list to market to is faster but less effective. If you received an email from an unknown business your first thought is "spam" – delete. That's if you make it to the inbox in the first place. On the other hand it gives you access to possibly thousands of dentists you wouldn’t have the opportunity to market to normally.

Getting dentist to sign up through your dental lab website is the porridge that isn't too hot or cold. If you have some great resources on your website that are accessed frequently then why not get the visitor to drop in their email address in the process and quickly build up a data base of people that are already interested in what you're doing. The added benefit of this technique is the dentist already knows your lab and is interested in what information you are presenting.

No matter what technique you decide to go with an e-newsletter is only as good as the content and the consistency of the information. This is not necessarily feasible or a smaller lab, although it could be an alternative to having a website. E-newsletters don't have to be sent out every day or week or month. The information is there to educate but to remind your customers your dental lab is still the best choice for their restorative work. Choose quarterly or bi annual times for release and make the e-newsletter worth reading with industry studies (from LMT for example) on the sentiment in the market, new products and services you provide, advances in equipment or employee training and certification etc.

The purpose of the Weekly Web Tip is to motivate and create conversation around dental lab websites. Please feel free to comment.