May Dental Marketing Plan: Oral Health for the Entire Family

May is almost here, bringing warmer days, upcoming holidays (for some), and the end of the school year, and it’s the perfect chance to re-engage with your patients who have families before summer schedules fill up.  

This month’s theme is oral health for the family.  

Use the ideas below to build a multi-channel marketing campaign. You can focus your content on parents, kids, and teens with messaging around preventive care, summer-ready smiles, and timely specials that make it easy for families to book their next visit.

Let’s get into it!

1. Email Newsletter: Educate and Engage Patients.

Newsletters are one way to stay connected with patients and what makes them effective is that it’s a form of owned media, meaning you control the content, the list, and how often you send it. There’s power in that because you can get in front of patients, assuming they’ve subscribed to your newsletter. Newsletters should serve up helpful information while subtly nudging patients to act.

Newsletter goal(s): Educate and encourage family patients to come in for their regular hygiene appointments and give them some helpful tips to protect their teeth over the summer.

Audience: Active and inactive adult patients with kids under 18.  

Here are some topics to cover in your May newsletters:

• Tips for a Safe, Healthy Summer: Give your patients advice on keeping their teeth in top shape while traveling, swimming, and enjoying summer treats. ‍
• Summer Foods That Harm Your Teeth: Think ice, popsicles, ice cream, sodas, and sticky candies. Break down the dos and don’ts of summer snacking to keep those pearly whites strong and focus on enjoying sweet treats in moderation if it’s not possible to completely avoid them.  ‍
• Types of Braces for Your Teen: Perfect for parents of teenagers who are considering orthodontics. Bonus points if you highlight clear aligner options! ‍
• Memorial Day Hours & Closures: Avoid confusion by clearly communicating any holiday schedule changes in advance. Your team deserves the time off!  ‍
• Retainer & Braces Care: Help patients keep their orthodontic appliances clean and functional with easy-to-follow maintenance tips. ‍
• Flossing Technique Video: A quick, engaging video can make all the difference in helping patients improve their technique.  

2. Social Media: Boost Awareness & Engagement.

Depending on your patient base and ideal patients you’re wanting to attract, social media is another way to garner more attention and appointments and show a human side to your practice. After all, you are real people.  

Goal(s): Boost awareness around general dental hygiene, 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: You can decide which ones to post on. 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, ideally, most appointment requests.  

How often should you post: This depends on the channel, but as a rule of thumb, you can start with 1-2 posts a week. For example, if you have a Facebook/Meta page, then you can start with 1-2 posts a week.

Keep your content fresh, engaging, and shareable with these post ideas:

• Pictures of Pediatric Patients (with consent!) – Celebrate your younger patients' milestone visits with a fun "Cavity-Free Club" or "Braces Off Today!" spotlight. ‍
• Mother’s Day Tribute – Encourage patients to share a smile-worthy photo with their mom and tag your practice for a shoutout. Bonus: Offer a whitening discount for moms! It’s worth noting you can also choose to acknowledge those who may not have a mother figure in their lives and show empathy there. It’s up to you.  ‍
• Referral Contest – Reward patients who refer friends and family this month with a giveaway. A fun prize (like an electric toothbrush or gift card) can drive engagement! ‍
• Promote Online Reviews – Share patient testimonials and encourage happy customers to leave a review. ‍
• Memorial Day Post – Show appreciation for those who serve by offering a small discount or free consultation to veterans and military families. ‍
• Dental Tip of the Week – Short, punchy advice posts that keep oral health top of mind. Here’s an example: "Drinking more water = fewer cavities! Stay hydrated, friends!"

3. Email Promotion: Get Patient to Schedule Visits.

Now sending both a newsletter and email promotion might seem like a lot of emails, but it’s not. Think of your newsletter as a source of education and even entertainment. An email promotion can be more focused around getting appointments and encouraging patients to take advantage of special offers, so your schedule stays full. For both emails, the key is to highlight the benefits of cleaning and what it means for them.  

One promotion you can run in May is dental sealants for kids.  You can tie this into some of the other content you’ve created related to cavity prevention.  

Goal(s): Increase family appointments for May to maintain a fuller schedule.  

Audience: Active and inactive patients with kids under 18 from the last 12 months.  

Here’s what you can send:

• Dental Sealants for Kids: With summer break approaching, now is the time to remind parents about the importance of sealants for cavity prevention.  

This promotion should be time-bound to get more appointments for May so be sure to emphasize the dates to encourage bookings, particularly before summer vacations and activities start, and schedules become more busy  

Here’s how you can take it a step further:

• If your practice has weekend hours, you can host a “Sealant Saturday” event where families can bring kids in for quick, easy protection against cavities.
• Offer a “Summer Smile Bundle” where parents who book a sealant appointment also get a free consultation for orthodontics.

With these ideas, you can turn May into a productive month for your dental practice and make your practice the go-to spot for family oral care in your community.  

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.