Halloween isn’t canceled this year. It will just take a bit more creativity to help celebrate the holiday, and provide your patients and staff with some much-needed entertainment. This will be especially valuable to pediatric and family dentists, to enhance their patient experience for kids and their families.
Bring some joy to patients with the following dental marketing ideas:
Go all out on decorations this year.
The joys of Halloween come from the decorations, costumes, chill in the air, leaves changing color, and the play on light and shadow that surrounds us all in October. (Not to mention the prevalence of pumpkin-flavored everything.) All of this can be enjoyed safely — including at your dental practice.
In neighborhoods across the country, door-to-door trick-or-treating and candy collection won’t happen this year. Sticking your hand in a communal bowl of candy? That’s not appealing, and not recommended by the federal CDC guidelines, which advise against traditional trick-or-treating this season.
But to sustain the spirit, neighborhoods are amping up their decorations with Halloween ghouls and characters, lights, and spooky scenes projected on the sides of houses and buildings.
Take the same approach at your office! You can delight patients when they arrive with:
- A music playlist of great scary tunes.
- Festive lights, displays, and Halloween scenes.
- A movie selection available while they receive treatment.
- Halloween-themed, teeth-friendly, COVID-safe dental goody bags. Individual, pre-sealed bags of healthy snacks and other fun non-edible surprises like stickers, small toys, or an electric toothbrush work well.
Host a ‘best dentist’ Halloween costume contest on social media.
For a classic idea with a timely twist, host a social media costume contest. Encourage patients to dress up as a dentist, or in some other pandemic mask-friendly costume.
A doctor, nurse, and firefighter are also great options here. Not only do these go perfectly with a surgical or N95 mask, but they also represent people in the community who have helped others every day during the pandemic.
Here’s how you do it: To enter, patients must post their pictures on social media and tag your office. Give prizes to your top choices, and a grand prize (sonic toothbrush package or whitening system, for example) to the winner with the best costume.
Email Halloween savings to your dental patients.
Not all of your patients will make it into your office during the Halloween season, so send out a special trick-or-treat email with savings opportunities.
For example, you could offer a special discount on out-of-pocket services. Or, you could encourage patients to enter a raffle for a larger service-focused prize.
During this unprecedented time, dental marketing ideas centered on Halloween give you a great way to promote your practice, and the opportunity to have some fun with your patients while encouraging them to stay mindful of their dental health.
For more dental marketing tips, check out our modern guide to dental marketing and dental advertising.
