Creating an effective signup form on your Dentist or Orthodontic clinic’s website is imperative to turning your prospects into subscribers on an ongoing basis. Following these top 5 tips will help your email subscription list grow faster than your patients’ excuses for not flossing.

1. Position to Persuade, Not Overwhelm

You have to strategically position your subscription form links to avoid saturating your customers with the message you’re drumming into their heads. Contrary to popular belief, this type of repetitive signup exhortation is actually counter-productive:

We offer laser teeth whitening and many other options you can find out about when you SUBSCRIBE. We also specialize in cosmetic dentistry and there are some great before and after photos on the newsletter you will receive when you SUBSCRIBE. We pride ourselves on our child-friendly family care, so your kids will thank you if you SUBSCRIBE.

You’re better off to simply place a single sentence on your webpage driving customers to your signup form and then relying on a single link at:

• The top right hand side of a webpage
• On the left hand side nav bar
• At the bottom of the webpage (after the content)

Note that it’s just one of the above, not all three!

2. Offer Truly Valuable Opt-In Incentives

You must motivate your prospects to sign up for your email marketing newsletter by providing clear and valuable incentives specifically designed to motivate them. “My newsletter features my detailed reminiscing on every tooth I’ve ever pulled” is not an overly wise strategy. Your newsletter will be far more effective if it provides:

• Special discount vouchers
• Free initial consultations
• Free X-rays
• Free accessories or additional services
• Two visits or services for the price of one
• Complimentary hygienist appointment with specified dental care
• Toys for the kids
• Ebooks on tooth care

… or anything else that your clientele will consider valuable enough to get them to subscribe.

3. Entice while Sparing the Hard Sell Tactics

Crafting an enticement line that is specifically designed to attract attention as well as building the customer’s confidence and trust in your clinic is key to obtaining permission to send email marketing newsletters. The enticement should portray your value proposition concisely but unmistakably, without falling into the spammer technique of hard core selling:

Good – Subscribe to the Edentulate Clinic Monthly Newsletter to receive tips on taking care of your teeth & valuable discount vouchers.
Bad – LIMITED TIME OFFER: Get the Edentulate Clinic Newsletter & SPECIAL 90% OFF DISCOUNTS NOW! Only for the first 100 clients! ACT NOW or miss out FOREVER!!!!!!

4. Write Accurately & Simply

spElLng an grammEr mistaks will dissuade your potential subscribers as much as promoting your scholarly articles on neural blockade anesthesia of the mandibular nerve. Composing your subscription form to an eighth grade reading level is the best strategy to optimize comprehension and response by your clients.

5. Don’t Conduct “The Great Subscription Information Inquisition”

There is an abundance of information that you must collect for your patient files that you do not need to ask for on your subscription form. For example, the client’s address and phone number are mandatory for your in-clinic patient form, but placing a text entry field on your subscription form requesting that information can strike your prospect as being too personal. You don’t need the subscriber’s full address, just the zip code for your geographic segmentation, and you really don’t ever need to call them about the email subscription. Other information that it’s taboo to ask about on a clinic’s email subscription form include:

• Race
• Weight
• Height
• Education
• Employment Status
• Place of Birth
• Marital Status
• Dependents
• Medical History

It’s a dental newsletter, not the national census! However, if you live in a bilingual area and offer your newsletter in more than one language, it is perfectly acceptable to ask which language they’re most comfortable reading.

Proposing premium value offers in an informative yet conversational format is the best approach for optimizing your permission-based email marketing to get that subscription list ballooning!