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Editor's note: This blog was written by My Social Practice Chief Marketing Officer Adrian Lefler as part of a series of practice management guest posts.
Corporate giving jumped over 20% in 2021. Individuals are becoming more and more socially conscious, and giving more of their individual earnings to both nonprofit organizations and socially-minded businesses they support, even in the face of economic hardship. Running a teeth whitening charity campaign in your practice is a great way to connect with your patients and engage your community.
You’ve probably felt it yourself–the urge to acknowledge those who are hurting, to share your gifts with the world. Your dental team wants their time and talents to go to something bigger than themselves, and your patients are paying attention to whether you’re sincere when you say that you believe in supporting the community.
Ultradent has long supported humanitarian missions around the world, including Dr. Bob Koff at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica.
Charitable giving fosters a feeling of unity, a sense of higher purpose, and helps others understand that your business is not just about making money; it’s about putting good into the world.
Our team has watched over and over again as our most successful practices have implemented a steady habit of charitable giving, not for the attention, but for the power it has to ignite a feeling of connection and well-being in their office and their community. Fundraising and volunteering isn’t just about how it affects you, though. It’s a natural expression of gratitude for the many blessings that we experience.
Let’s Not Deny the Marketing Potential, Though
While your purpose for charitable giving should never be about the bottom line, what you give comes back to you in a big way. Charitable giving can indeed be a great way to promote your business. Your patients love knowing that by being a part of your practice, they’re supporting a business that cares. Fundraisers make it easy to spread the word about a good business. Consider these impactful statistics:
- 55% of consumers will pay more to support a company that does good
- 89% of customers will switch to a brand associated with a good cause
- Brands with a commitment to a philanthropic cause experience 10% more growth than those without
Take Time to Consider Your Real Mission
Do you have a practice mission? How often do you set specific goals around that mission, check in regularly, and make that mission a part of your daily vernacular? It’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day rush of a busy practice. But when you take time to consider the long vision for your practice and your life, it changes the tone of every interaction you have.
So what will it be? What really gets you out of bed in the morning? What are your long-term goals for your practice, your patients, and your team? And will a teeth whitening charity campaign be just the thing that orients you in the right direction? It’s certainly worth a try.
How to Run a Teeth Whitening Charity Campaign
There are a million ways your practice can do good–and probably already does! But it can be hard to get started if you’ve never tried a charitable giving campaign before… or if the last one was a bit of a flop (it happens to the best of us!)
Luckily, we’ve taken the guesswork out of the process. For over a decade, we’ve refined our turnkey campaign to make it as easy as possible for practices like yours to dedicate one day and make a huge impact. Here’s how it works at a glance:
- Ultradent/Opalescence™ whitening create a variety of marketing materials you can download and use on your own channels. Use those and My Social Practice campaign material.
- Volunteer you and your team for a day of professional teeth whitening.
- Donate all proceeds from the day straight to the charity of your choice.
1: Pick Your Charity
You might want to open up the question of where you’ll donate your funds to your team. Putting it up to a vote or making it a contest could kickstart new motivation amidst employees and help them become passionate advocates who get the word out to your patients more effectively.
Your cause may be dental-related or it may not be. You might find a local cause that will mobilize your community, or discover that there’s something close to your team’s heart due to personal struggles. If you’re at a loss, consider these dental marketing charity opportunities we’ve compiled. You may also want to screen your organization of choice using someone like Charity Watch to make sure that your dollars are making the biggest impact possible.
2: Download Our Campaign
To ensure that everything goes smoothly, we’ve provided step-by-step instructions for your team. You’ll also find digital assets you can use to spread the word online, and print-ready materials to promote the campaign in your office and throughout your community. Over and over again, this model has worked for practices just like yours. Take a look at this example from our client Dr. Nabors, who raised over $10,000 to fight Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
3: Designate a Day
While some practices may choose to spread out their campaign over a longer period of time, we’ve constructed a model that only requires one day of work from your team. It’s your job to make sure that day is busy from the time you open to the time you close. Welcome old patients, new patients, friends, and family into your practice on one special day. Schedule it far enough ahead that you have the chance to let patients in your office know about it.
4: Get the Word Out
Our pre-designed charitable campaign materials make it easy for you to spread the word. Utilize the printouts in your office, write a blog post, take some photos of your team holding our social signs… but don’t stop there!
- Reach out to referring practices in your professional network (orthodontists, pediatric practices, periodontists, and more) and ask them to promote the event in their offices, too.
- Encourage team members to inform patients directly about the event and extend personalized invitations.
- Put up signs in local coffee shops, your community library, schools, stores, and gyms.
- Run a story in your local newspaper with details on the charity organization and why you chose it.
- Create some short promotional videos to share on your social media channels.
5: Take Pictures and Share Your Success
Your promotional efforts don’t end when your one-day charity campaign does. Seize the opportunity to create viral content that will get patients excited about your practice and the next charitable campaign you do. You might even make the day more of an event with complimentary refreshments, raffles, and a photo booth.
Ask patients to share their experiences, take photos and videos to show how things are going in the office, do a live video stream to share how much you raised for your cause. Publish a follow-up blog post where your staff shares their feelings about the day and thanks everyone who helped make it a success.
Want to Make it Even Simpler?
The idea for teeth whitening charity campaigns came from My Social Practice’s partnership and participation as the marketing arm of The Smiles for Life Foundation. You can still run this one-day event on your own, BUT we want to encourage you to join hundreds of Smiles for Life dental practices who are doing the same and have raised over $48 million for childrens’ charities all over the world!
If you’re interested in learning more about the Smiles for Life Foundation, they can be reached at 800.276.9658.
Get Started Today and Watch It Grow
2023 is the perfect time to start a new tradition in your practice. Give our charitable giving campaign a shot and see how great it feels when you do good with your patients and team.
Adrian Lefler, CMO of My Social Practice
About the Authors: Christine Hill and Adrian Lefler are dental marketing experts and valuable members of the My Social Practice copywriting team. To learn more about the dental marketing strategies provided by My Social Practice check out their dental blog.
