Case Study: EDDM Direct Mail Boosts Customer Growth for Best Dental
How Best Dental in Houston Grew Their Customer Base By 15% In Just A Month using EDDM
Table of Contents
Introduction – Is Direct Mail Really Still Relevant?
The Client: Best Dental in Houston
The Objective: Boost The Office’s Patient Growth
The Method: Sending EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) From USPS
The Results: A Dramatic 15% Increase In Patients In Just One Month
The Future: Expected Results Of Future Campaigns
Conclusion – Direct Mail Works, So Try It For Yourself!
Introduction – Is Direct Mail Really Still Relevant?
If you’re interested in getting new clients, building buzz about a new business, or reaching local customers in a particular area, you may be wondering what the best way is to do so. Should you create a Facebook page? Buy pay-per-click (PPC) ads online? Optimize your website for local SEO? All of the above options are good – and should be part of your marketing strategy.
But what if you could only choose one way to reach local customers? What would be the most effective option? At Catdi Printing, we think the choice is clear – direct mail! More specifically, EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) from the USPS. This program allows you to send a mailer to just about every address in a particular geographical region, and reach thousands of customers near your location for a low cost. Why is this the best option for local advertising? In this white paper, we’ll look at a case study from one of our recent clients – Best Dental in Houston, and show you how Catdi Printing helped increase new patient growth by 15% in just a single month. Read on, and get more details.
The Client: Best Dental in Houston
Our client was Best Dental in Houston. The office is run by Dr. Jasmine Naderi, an experienced dentist who has been practicing general and cosmetic dentistry at various dental practices since 2002, with great success.Recently, in early 2019, Dr. Naderi decided to open her own practice in Houston, near the Katy and Richmond, Texas areas. This area of Houston is growing fast – so competition for dental patients is fierce, and it’s only becoming more difficult to obtain new patients. Dr. Naderi wished to find a way to reach local residents and let them know about her new office – and to encourage them to come in for a checkup or any other dental work that they might need. While looking for a way to reach new clients, the team at Best Dental in Houston got in touch with Catdi Printing, and told us more about their goals.
The Objective: Boost The Office’s Patient Growth
Dr. Naderi wished to bring in more customers to her office. Given that it’s a relatively new business, building buzz and awareness in local Houston, Richmond and Katy residents would be key to a successful marketing campaign. There were already quite a few dental shops in the area – and given that this area was growing in popularity quite quickly, Dr. Naderi knew that she had to start marketing her practice and winning over patients as soon as she could.
The Method: Sending EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) From USPS
An EDDM campaign consists of sending a piece of mail to every address within a particular geographical area. For example, a new restaurant could send a take-out menu to every residential address within a 2 miles radius of the store – potentially reaching thousands of people. You can learn more about EDDM and targeted mail marketing from the USPS at this link.Given that Best Dental in Houston was looking to reach customers within a small geographical area and boost awareness about their services quickly, we suggested that an EDDM campaign would be a good option. Dr. Naderi and the team at her office agreed, and we quickly drew up a proposal for the campaign. The campaign itself used a few key strategies to ensure that we reached the most possible potential customers in the area, as follows:
- Well-designed, professional 6×11 mail piece – Catdi Printing worked with Best Dental in Houston to develop a high-quality, 6×11 postcard. This mail piece was professionally designed and included a photo of Dr. Naderi, as well as information about the key services of Best Dental in Houston, and the location and business hours of the dental practice. With a professional design and appealing imagery, this mailer was designed to be highly effective at bringing in new customers.
- Radius of ½ mile from the office’s location – We calculated a radius of about ½ mile from the location of Best Dental in Houston. Dr. Naderi’s goal was to find local patients who would come to the office consistently for regular cleanings and other services, so that she could build a reliable base of customers in the area. This radius alone contained about 30,000 homes.
- Two drops of 15K, dropped 2 weeks apart – To ensure that Best Dental in Houston would not have scheduling issues or be overwhelmed by phone calls, we determined that it would be the most effective to have two mail drops of 15,000 pieces each, spaced 2 weeks apart.
- Coupons focused on core services – The mailers we created included coupons for the core services offered by Best Dental in Houston, including crowns, wisdom teeth examinations/removal, teeth whitening, and teeth cleanings/oral exams.
These discounts were minor enough to have a minimal effect on profit margins, but were appealing enough to be attractive to new patients who may be seeking a new dentist, or are interested in returning to the dentist after not visiting a dental professional regularly.
- Mailer required for coupon redemption – The 6×11 mailer that we developed with Best Dental in Houston required the individuals to bring the mail piece itself into the office to redeem it and make use of their discount. However they have stopped requiring this as sometimes people didn’t have the postcard with them.
This had a few benefits. First, it ensured that patients who were on the fence about visiting Best Dental in Houston would hang onto the mailer and keep it on their fridge, kitchen table, or somewhere else where they would be reminded of Best Dental in Houston – increasing the likelihood that they may choose to visit the office for an appointment. This also ensured that we could track the results of the EDDM campaign. Each new patient with a mailer could be tracked, allowing the team at Best Dental in Houston to measure the effectiveness of the campaign. With the plan and the mailers in place, the only thing left to do for Catdi Printing and the team at Best Dental in Houston was to begin the campaign, and measure its results.
The Results: A Dramatic 15% Increase In Patients In Just One Month
Within just a few days of the first set of mailers being sent to Best Dental in Houston, Dr. Naderi’s office began receiving numerous calls from individuals who had received a mailer and were interested in scheduling an appointment for routine dental work. Within the first month of launching the EDDM campaign, total new customer growth had increased by 15%, and new customers were continuing to call due to the mailers sent out by the team at Catdi Printing. Overall, the campaign was a success, and has helped established Best Dental in Houston as one of the best dentists in Houston, Richmond, and Katy, TX. We expect that, in future campaigns, Dr. Naderi can expect to gain 10-30 more new customers for each additional campaign.
Conclusion – Direct Mail Works, So Try It For Yourself!
If you run a local business in Houston or anywhere in Texas, direct mail is a great way to reach more customers, build buzz about your business, and market your products or services more effectively – particularly if you partner with an experienced printing company like Catdi Printing. Direct mail is alive and well in 2019 – and thanks to services like EDDM from the USPS, it’s never been easy to get your business out there, and benefit from geo-targeted direct mail advertising. So don’t wait. As the example of Best Dental in Houston shows, direct mail is effective, affordable, and easy to use – contact Catdi Printing now at 713 882 4629to get started.