Marketing Overview
Dental Marketing Tool gives you three distinct ways to reach patients and grow your schedule. Understanding what each one does, and when to use it, helps you get results without duplicating effort or sending patients more messages than they need.
The Three Marketing Tools at a Glance
- Campaigns are one-time or scheduled blasts sent to a defined group of patients, either by email or text message.
- The Social Planner lets you write, schedule, and publish posts to your practice's social media pages without leaving the dashboard.
- Automations are sequences that trigger automatically based on what a patient does, such as booking an appointment or going a year without visiting.
Each tool has a different job. Choosing the right one depends on whether you want to reach a specific group right now, build your social presence over time, or let the platform handle follow-up in the background.
Campaigns: Reach a Specific Group with One Message
Use a campaign when you have something to say to a defined list of patients at a specific moment. Common examples include announcing a new service, filling open chairs with a last-minute special, or wishing patients a happy holiday season.
You can send campaigns by email or by text message. Email campaigns work well for longer messages, seasonal newsletters, and announcements where patients may want to read at their own pace. Text campaigns are better when you want a short, immediate message that patients will see within minutes.
Before you send, you select (or build) your recipient list using patient tags and filters. This lets you narrow the audience, for example, only patients who have not been in for more than 18 months, or only patients tagged as Invisalign inquiries.
The Social Planner: Keep Your Pages Active Without the Hassle
A steady presence on social media builds trust with patients who are researching your practice before they call. The Social Planner lets you draft posts, attach images, choose a publish date and time, and schedule everything in one place.
You can plan out a full week or month of posts in a single session and let the platform publish them automatically. Open the Marketing tab in the main menu, then select Social Planner to get started. From there you can connect your pages and create your first post.
The Social Planner is best for steady, ambient content, things like patient tips, before-and-after spotlights, team introductions, and office milestones. It does not replace direct patient outreach. Use campaigns for that.
For step-by-step instructions, see Scheduling Social Media Posts.
Automations: Let the Platform Do the Follow-Up
Automations run in the background and send the right message at the right moment without any manual work from your front desk. They trigger based on patient actions or time intervals, such as when a patient submits a contact form, misses an appointment, or has not returned for a hygiene visit.
Good uses for automations include:
- A follow-up text the day after a new patient inquiry, if they have not booked yet
- A reminder sequence leading up to an appointment (note: appointment reminders are also available directly through automated appointment reminders in your calendar settings)
- A thank-you message sent 24 hours after a visit, with an option to leave a review
- A re-engagement series for patients who have not been in for 12 or more months
Automations are set-it-and-run workflows. Once you build one, it handles follow-up for every patient who meets the trigger condition going forward. They are your most powerful tool for consistent, timely patient communication without adding work to the front desk's day.
When to Use Each Tool
- Something happening now (a last-minute opening, a limited-time offer, a new service launch): use a campaign.
- Building long-term visibility and patient trust: use the Social Planner to stay active on social media consistently.
- Routine follow-up that should happen every time (post-visit check-ins, no-show outreach, recall reminders): set up an automation and let it run.
Where to Go Next
If you are ready to send your first message to a patient list, start with Sending an Email Campaign or Sending a Text Campaign depending on the channel you want to use. If you want to automate follow-up for new patient inquiries or post-visit outreach, explore the Automations section in your dashboard.