Careers
Part of Dental email marketing: the practical version
Dental email marketing examples: the patterns that repeat
Dental email marketing examples show repeatable patterns, from recall reminders to post-visit review requests, that any Canadian practice can adapt.
What to take away
- The patterns that repeat are hygiene recall, overdue reactivation, review requests, treatment plan follow-up and new patient welcome.
- Recall and reactivation carry the clearest return. A quarterly newsletter is enough for most practices.
- US practices answer to CAN-SPAM, the TCPA and HIPAA. Canadian ones answer to CASL, PIPEDA and Bill 96 in Quebec.
- Dentalcorp and 123Dentist run these patterns in Canada; Aspen Dental and Smile Generation run them in the United States.
- Copy the trigger, the audience and the single ask. Never copy another practice's conversion rate.
Patterns that repeat, with named examples
| Pattern | Trigger | Named example (country) |
|---|---|---|
| Hygiene recall | Six-month interval date | Dentalcorp and 123Dentist practices (Canada) |
| Overdue reactivation | 9 to 18 months since the last visit | RevenueWell campaign (US and Canada) |
| Review request | 24 to 72 hours after treatment | Podium and Birdeye (US and Canada) |
| New patient welcome | First booking confirmed | Smile Generation (US) |
| Treatment plan follow-up | Unscheduled plan above a set value | Invisalign aligner reminders (US and Canada) |
| Claim or benefit notice | Claim processed | Delta Dental member email (US) |
| Coverage note | Enrolled in the Canadian Dental Care Plan | CDCP practices (Canada) |
The trigger matters more than the wording. A recall email that lands 30 days before the interval date arrives in a quiet week. The same email sent after the patient has booked reads as careless. The dental email marketing guide sets out the sequence with the consent steps attached.
What the named programs do
Dentalcorp network practices send recall and reactivation email. 123Dentist pairs a patient blog with a newsletter that feeds one contact list.
Aspen Dental runs more than 1,000 offices in the United States and advertises a free new-patient exam and X-rays for patients without insurance. That offer needs an expiry date and a plain list of exclusions.
Smile Generation, tied to Pacific Dental Services, uses email for reminders and points readers to procedure explainers.
Delta Dental member email carries claim and explanation-of-benefits notices, and the same list receives consumer oral health articles.
Invisalign, made by Align Technology, sends aligner-change reminders through the My Invisalign app and email. Aligners typically change every one to two weeks, and treatment in Canada typically runs CAD $3,500 to $9,000.
The US rules your copy has to pass
CAN-SPAM governs commercial email. The from line and the subject line must be accurate, the message needs a valid postal address, and the opt-out must work and be honored within 10 business days.
HIPAA treats an appointment reminder as treatment communication, so it needs no separate authorization. Marketing that draws on protected health information does. The HIPAA Privacy Rule covers what a promotional email may say.
Marketing texts sit under the TCPA. Collect prior express written consent and store that record away from the clinical chart.
The dental email marketing mistakes that cost the most are dull ones: a bought list, a broken unsubscribe link, a Gmail address as the sender.
Canadian rules, kept short
CASL needs express consent with a recorded source, and every send needs an unsubscribe that clears within 10 business days. PIPEDA covers how you collect and store addresses.
Bill 96 requires French versions of commercial communications to Quebec patients, and the Office quebecois de la langue francaise sets that requirement. The RCDSO, CDSBC and Alberta Dental Association each publish advertising standards your copy must pass.
Example: the recall email
Subject: [First name], your hygiene visit is due
Hi [First name], our records show your last hygiene visit was on [date]. Your six-month interval is due now. Pick a time that suits you: [booking link]. If your insurance has changed, reply and we will update your file.
[Practice name], [phone], [practice address]
One audience, one ask, one link, no clinical claims. When a provincial fee guide changes, add a single line explaining why.
Example: the review request email
Subject: How was your visit on [date]?
Hi [First name], thanks for coming in on [date]. If you have a moment, a short Google review helps other patients find us: [review link]. That is all we need.
Send it 24 to 72 hours after treatment, not the same day. Never offer anything for a review. Google's policy on prohibited review content covers incentives and review gating, and Canada's Competition Bureau treats undisclosed incentives as deceptive marketing.
Benchmarks: what you can copy
No public benchmark exists for dental recall email booking rates. Vendor case studies describe their own client base, and cross-industry email averages do not transfer to a hygiene list. Platform fees belong in the wider dental practice marketing budget, not in a separate line.
RevenueWell and Weave quote per location, typically a few hundred dollars a month. Mailchimp starts near $13 a month for 500 contacts, and Constant Contact typically lands between $12 and $35 at the same size.
A two-chair practice with 1,400 active patients and a 60% recall rate leaves 560 patients past due. That arithmetic is illustrative, not a target. Track five figures per send: emails sent, emails delivered, booking link clicks, appointments booked, appointments that showed.
Before you send
- Sender address uses the practice domain, not a personal account.
- The consent source is recorded for every address.
- The unsubscribe link works and was tested on a phone.
- Clinical claims pass the state or provincial advertising rules, checked against the FTC health products compliance guidance in the US.
- One variable changed per send, and the result logged.
Once a pattern proves itself in your numbers, fold it into your dental marketing strategy best practices and review it each year.
