What to Put on a New-Patient Postcard: A Checklist for Dental Practices

Front: one message, readable from across the room

• A welcome headline that speaks to new neighbors: “New to the neighborhood? Welcome!”
• One photo: your team or your front desk, smiling. A real face beats a stock tooth.
• Your practice name, large enough to read at arm’s length.

Back: the offer and the next step

• One offer, stated plainly, for example a new-patient exam and cleaning. Check your state’s dental advertising rules and your insurance contracts before you print any price or discount.
• One way to book: a phone number or a QR code that goes straight to scheduling. Not five options.
• Your address and a small map, so families see you are a few minutes away.
• Hours, especially early mornings, evenings or Saturdays if you offer them.
• Which insurance you accept, or that you welcome patients without insurance.

Make it trackable

• Add a short offer code (“WELCOME”) or a dedicated phone line so your front desk knows the call came from the card.
• Ask “How did you hear about us?” on the new-patient form, with “postcard” as an option.
• Keep your mailing list: you can match a new patient’s address against it later.

Mistakes that waste a mailing

• Too many offers or services on one card.
• A phone number in small print, or no clear call to action.
• Mailing once and stopping. New families move in every month; a monthly card keeps you in front of each new group.
• Sending to every household in a ZIP code instead of to the families who just arrived.

Where the addresses come from

The card only works if it reaches the right mailbox. A new mover list gives you the mailing addresses of households that recently moved near your practice, every month, as an Excel file and Avery #5160 labels. DentalLeads plans start at $49.99 a month for 200 addresses, and DentalLeads can also print and mail a 6×9 color postcard for $0.75 each, postage included.

A list is not a booked appointment, and no one can honestly promise a number of new patients from a mailing. What you control is the card, the offer and how your team answers the phone. This checklist covers the card.