Dental Marketing Plan for April: Oral Cancer Awareness Month

We’re rolling out a new series where you’ll get a monthly high-level dental marketing plan that you can use to engage with patients and keep a full schedule.

April is Oral Cancer Awareness Month, making it the perfect time to educate patients and encourage screenings that could save lives. A multi-channel dental marketing plan can help raise awareness and drive visits. When implementing a campaign, it’s best to take a multi-channel approach, meaning showing your message multiple times through different channels. For some people, it takes 7 touchpoints to act on a message, so repetition is necessary. We understand that may not be doable depending on your team size so start with 1-2 of these channels.

Let’s dive into April’s marketing strategy.  

1. Email Newsletter: Educate and Empower Patients.

Don’t sleep on newsletters because 90% of Americans are subscribed to at least one newsletter so it’s an effective way to increase awareness and get more appointments. If your practice has one or has been thinking starting one, then why not launch it in April and focus it on oral cancer prevention?  

Newsletter goal(s): Educate and encourage patients, particularly those at risk, to take oral cancer seriously and drive appointments for screenings.

Audience: Active and inactive adult patients over 18 who may have done oral cancer screenings in the past and/or who have expressed concerns about it.  

What to Send:

• Habits to prevent oral cancer: Educate patients on lifestyle choices that can reduce their risk, like quitting tobacco, vaping, and maintaining good oral hygiene. ‍
• What to expect during an oral cancer screening? Remove the fear factor by explaining how quick and painless screenings are.  ‍
• What are the risk factors for oral cancer? Make patients aware of the common risk factors, such as smoking, excessive alcohol use, and HPV.

Pro Tip: Add a patient testimonial from someone who caught oral cancer early thanks to routine screenings. Be sure to get their permission first before you share their experience. Real stories make a huge impact though! Keep in mind the goal isn’t to scare your patients. Use it as an opportunity to educate and encourage them to make their oral health a priority.  

2. Social Media: Spread Awareness & Engagement.

Social media is a big part of many of your patients’ lives, and they don’t only use it to keep up with their friends and family. Some people use it to source health information, which isn’t ideal, but you can be one of the experts on those channels by sharing helpful information on these channels. This is an effective way to build some trust with prospective patients so when they’re ready to make an appointment, they choose you instead of a practice you view as a “competitor.”  

Goal(s): Boost awareness around oral cancer awareness, increase engagement on specific posts, and build your practice’s reputation as a go-to source for dental health.

Audience: Public (all social media followers)

Channels: It’s your choice. Start with posting on one channel if that’s all you have time for. But it should be the channel your patients are on and the one where you get the most engagement.  

How often should you post: For the sake of this piece, we’re just going to focus on oral cancer content so you can start with 1-2 posts a week, but keep in mind an “ideal posting” schedule varies by the social channel. For example, if you have a Facebook/Meta page, then you can start with 1-2 posts a week.

Here are some social media content ideas:  

• Oral Cancer Awareness Month: Post statistics, share patient stories (with their permission of course), and encourage self-checks. ‍
• Tips on self-screening for oral cancer: Teach patients how to check their mouths for early signs and when to call your office. ‍
• National Dental Hygienist Week (April 7-13): Celebrate your hygienists. Highlight their role in preventive care and let patients get to know them.  ‍
• Interactive poll: Do a poll asking your audience if they know the risk factors of oral cancer.  ‍
• Live Q&A: Host a quick session with your dentist on oral cancer prevention and how routine dental visits can make a difference. You can do this on Facebook/Meta, Instagram, YouTube Shorts or even TikTok.   ‍
• Myth vs. fact: Start a new monthly or quarterly series where you discuss the most common misconceptions about oral health. You can do one about oral cancer and screenings.

Pro Tip: Pick 2 of these ideas and focus on repurposing and resharing them so you can get more out of each social media post. For example, let’s say you want to do a myth vs fact video on the misconceptions around oral cancer. You can turn this video in a series of posts by sharing one myth and fact a week. You can also turn the video into a blog post on your practice site that you can share on social media. Another way to repurpose this myth vs fact video is by turning it into an interactive poll.  

3. Email Promotion: Drive More Screenings.

Let’s not forget email. 55% of consumers prefer to use it when communicating with businesses, and yes, your practice is a business.  

Goal(s): Increase oral cancer screening appointments to drive early detection.  

Audience: Active and inactive patients over 18 who may be at risk for oral cancer and/or who have expressed concerns about it and it’s in your patient notes.  

What to Send:

• Discounted oral cancer screenings: Offer a limited-time incentive to encourage patients to book. You can create urgency by setting a deadline for this offer. For example, you could say, “Book by April 30 to secure your appointment.”  

4. Do Community Outreach.

Online outreach isn’t the only way to get in front of your patients. You could also do some in-person marketing to give your practice more exposure in your community and potentially bring some new patients to your practice.  

Here are some ideas:  

• Partner with local businesses: (gyms, juice bars, wellness clinics) to spread awareness. Offer an oral cancer screening voucher for their customers. ‍
• Visit local schools to talk about oral health risks, especially for young adults who might not realize HPV and certain types of oral cancers are related. ‍
• Speaking opportunities: Offer to speak at a community event or record a quick YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok video about oral cancer prevention.  

Stay tuned for May’s marketing plan, where we’ll focus on smile makeovers and patient appreciation! In the meantime, you can also grab this  ready-made 12-month dental content calendar that your practice can use to start building out your campaign schedule for the rest of the year.