Dental marketing ideas for Halloween

The season for cavity-causing sugary treats is coming! Dentists know better than anyone that Halloween can be a sticky, tricky time for children’s teeth. As a dentist, Halloween may not be your favorite holiday, but look to embrace it! Use it to market your practice and educate your patients along the way.

Here are five Halloween marketing ideas for your dental practice.

Invite patients to come in costume

Invite patients to have another fun opportunity to wear their costumes when they come to their dental appointments! Offer a special prize or treat to each person that arrives in costume.

Themed prizes like Halloween toothbrushes, magnets, or gift bags would be great prizes! Try to include your practice information on the giveaways so that those items continue to market your office long after the appointment.

Try to also include fun staff dress up days to continually delight patients and uplift your teams’ spirits. Make sure to take pictures of the patients and staff in costume and post on social media for maximum reach!

Hold a Halloween-themed coloring contest

During the month of October, invite patients to color a Halloween-themed coloring sheet! Small prizes like stickers or Halloween toothbrushes are great to give to every child that submits an entry. At the end of the month, your office can pick or draw a final winner for the grand prize.

Share the coloring page before or after dental appointments and on social media. Allow patients to hand them in to your front desk or digitally submit their entries.

Engage existing and potential patients on social media

There are many ways to use social media to promote your dental practice at Halloween. A few ways include:

• Post recipes and images of Halloween-themed healthy snacks. Parents of your patients will appreciate when you share non-sweet treats their children will enjoy. These jack-o-lantern fruit cups or these ghostly bananas would be great ideas!
• Give advice on keeping teeth clean and healthy during the Halloween season. Post a video on how to properly brush your teeth. Or share a two-minute Halloween-theme song to which folks can brush their teeth for “2min/2x” each day during the month of October.
• Share ideas for non-sweet treats that your patients can give to trick-or-treaters who ring their doorbell. Parents will appreciate these fun, festive and non-sugary treats. Halloween toothbrushes, glow necklaces, squish toys, or plastic fangs are all great treats for trick-or-treaters. The kids will not miss the candy!

Host a Halloween candy buyback

Promote healthy candy alternatives by hosting a candy buyback event at your dental practice. Make sure to schedule the event shortly after Halloween. Encourage patients to bring their candy to the event in exchange for cash (per pound), local coupons, Halloween hygiene kits, goodie bags, or other creative treats.

A buyback event removes candy from your patients’ homes in exchange for other fun treats. You can then donate the candy that gets collected to U.S. troops via organizations like Operation Gratitude or Operation Shoebox.

Spread the word about your buyback via social media, signage in the office, and even by contacting your local media. During the month of October, send each patient home with an invitation (postcard or flyer) to the buyback event.

A buyback will be a success for your patients, your practice and your community.

Decorate your office

Finally, decorate your office with Halloween-themed décor. Jack-o-lanterns, bats, or Dracula make for great toothy-themed décor. Perhaps name each treatment room with a Halloween theme such as Haunted Molar Mansion, Cavity Monsters Cave, or The Dental Dungeon.

Have fun with it, and your patients will too! Plus, funny decorations and whimsical themes may ease the nerves of those who are anxious about their appointments.

Halloween gives you the opportunity to have a little fun with your patients while encouraging them to be mindful of their dental health. Activities, events, and special treats can help build patient loyalty while bringing smiles to their faces.