Dental Design Thoughts

Identify your mission - Why are you sending out postcards? Is it to gain new customers, promote a new service, or advertise a special promotion?Your design and message should clearly be in line with your goals.

Identify your target - You need to know who you are sending your postcard to. If you are a children’s dental practice, then children and parents are your main targets. If you are a family owned and family friendly practice, then families are your goal. If you are an affordable dental practice that mainly assists low-income individuals, then your focus is going to be on those who don’t already have dental insurance and who make less than a certain amount. Additionally, many dental practices choose to target new movers, in which case, designing a postcard welcoming new residents may be the focus of your design.

Draw the consumer in with related photographs – Photographs tend to be easier on the eye compared to having a lot of text. With the right photograph, the consumer can feel like the advertisement is specific to them; that your business would benefit them specifically. Having a picture of all adults for a children’s dentist would not convey the message that the business is meant for children. The same goes for pictures of families, multicultural groups, etc. Additionally, the most important thing is to draw the consumer in. You want your potential clients to remember your advertisement; not throw it away.

Have a catchy, creative, informative headline - In order to draw your consumer in, you need to have a headline that is not only catchy and creative, but most importantly, informative. You don’t want to have a headline that sounds clever and funny but is confusing to decipher what is being said. You want your consumer to know exactly what you are offering/advertising. If there is confusion, the consumer may throw away your postcard because they don’t want to put in the effort to try and figure out what is being said. Additionally, the headline should not be too long. It should be long enough to convey the message but short enough for the consumer to recite back.

Use colors that stand out, yet match the rest of your design - You want your words to be readable and stand out enough to grab the consumer’s attention. However, you don’t want the colors to be so obnoxious that it makes the consumer not want to look at the postcard nor do you want the colors to be so boring that your postcard doesn’t stand out. We recommend using 2-3 colors that compliment and contribute to your overall design. Use colors consistent with your brand/website/other advertisement.

Provide an offer or incentive to make the client visit your business - This is one of the most important aspects of your postcard. You want the recipients of your postcard to have a reason to come in, otherwise they may forget about your business or throw away the postcard. If there is a promotion or coupon on the postcard with wording such as “must bring in the postcard to receive offer,” the client now must save your card. Additionally, you want to make your promotions and coupons easy to use without confusing the consumer. For ideas on promotions and offers, please visit our ideas page.

Include contact information - You want the consumer to have multiple ways of contacting you. Include your address (with cross street or reference with a landmark such as “In the Walmart Center” etc), phone number and website – all very visibly and in big enough font size.

Provide an action for the customer - The customer needs to know to act on your postcard. This can be as simple as saying “call us today to make your appointment!” or having an expiration date on a promotion or coupon.

Keep everything short and to the point - Your message should be short and straight to the point. You shouldn’t have to write a paragraph explaining your service. Use bullet points and try to keep it to one, short line. Remember, the goal of the postcard is not to actually make the sale, but for the prospect to contact you. Ensure your front office is properly trained to receive calls and deal with prospects.

Keep your design consistent and do not change look and feel of postcard every 2-3 months - Some of the most successful direct campaigns we run may not have an exceptional design but consistency is key for advertising. You want your prospective customers to remember your design, postcard, and logo so that your business is easily identifiable.

Some general guidelines/suggestions for postcards:
Front of postcard: 1-2 striking pictures with powerful headline, business address, and phone number. You may want to put an offer or two on this side.
Back of postcard: Repeat the logo, contact information, phone number, and add offers and promotions. This side will have postal indicia and also some space will be taken by the residents’ address.

For postcard design ideas and to give us design instructions using the design galleries:
General Dental Postcard Designs
Dental New Mover Postcard Designs
Dental Pediatric Postcard Designs
Dental Orthodontics Postcard Designs

If you would like to have our designers create a design for you from scratch, please fill out this form.

If you already have a design, and would either like some minor revisions or would like us to go straight to printing, please submit your files here.