Quick Contest Ideas for Dental Offices to Get more Clients

Are you looking for ways to grow your patient base at your dental office? You may want to consider adding a few contests to your list of social media ideas.

Contests can increase engagement with existing dental patients, improve retention, and bring new patients to your office. Even better, they don’t need to be too expensive or time-consuming on your part. Some of the best contest ideas will only cost you a gift card or a small monetary prize.

Read on to learn our contest ideas for dental office marketing.

How Can I Make My Dental Office Stand Out?

If you own a dental practice, it probably isn’t the only practice in the area. Potential patients need to have a reason to choose your dental clinic over the other options in your city.

One way to diversify your practice from the competition is to host contests. Contests can benefit your dental office in several ways:

• Increase brand awareness
• Spark discussion about your dental clinic
• Provide you with potential patients’ contact information
• Show patients you care
• Improve engagement with your dental practice
• Give you consumer data to shape future marketing ideas

Social media is the easiest platform to host contests. You can post the contest rules and deadlines on your dental social media page and inform followers that they can increase their entries by “sharing” the post on their profiles. Doing so can increase your content marketing reach and improve social media engagement without needing to pay for Facebook ads or Google ads.

What Are Good Contest Ideas?

One of the best aspects of hosting contests through your dental practice is getting creative with the terms and prizes. You can choose to keep your contests strictly dentist-related or incorporate fun prizes that don’t have anything to do with dentistry. Either way, these contests can improve engagement and bring in new patients.

Here are a few contest ideas to get you started:

Dental Office Promotions and Giveaways for Holidays

Centering your social media marketing contests around holidays gives your practice an excellent excuse to engage with your potential patient base. Here are a few holiday-themed contest ideas to consider:

Valentine Contest Ideas for Dental Office

• Like and share the social media post to enter to win a date gift basket.
• Comment on the social media post and share why you love and appreciate your sweetheart.

Christmas Contest Ideas for Dental Office

• Find the “Elf on a Shelf” in the dental office to win a prize.
• Comment a link to an item on your Christmas wish list, and one commenter will win their item.

Award a Patient Who Overcame Dental-Related Anxiety

As a dentist, you probably know how serious dental anxiety can be for some patients. If you have a patient who recently overcame their fears to undergo a dental service, you can consider recognizing them on your social media page and awarding them with a small prize. Of course, you should make sure to get their consent before posting any information about them.

Gift Cards or Spin the Wheel Prizes

If you’re looking for a way to make your office more fun for patients, you can consider hosting “Spin the Wheel” contests. Simply purchase a contest wheel online and write prizes on every spoke of the wheel. We recommend making the majority of the prizes cheap items that you can purchase in bulk, such as:

• Fun toothbrushes
• Chapstick
• Sugar-free gum

Then, you can make one or two prizes on the wheel more valuable. For example, you can add:

• Gift cards
• Coupons
• Cash
• An electric toothbrush
• A free teeth-whitening session

If you are a pediatric dentist, you can tailor these prizes to a younger patient base.

Oral Health 30-Day Challenge

You can also center your contests around dental health. These contest ideas kill two birds with one stone: increase engagement with your dental office and promote the importance of oral health.

For example, you can invite followers to participate in a 30-day healthy teeth challenge, where every day they post a photo of their smile after brushing. At the end of the challenge, you can choose one or two participants to win a prize.

Host a Contest for Patients of Similar Age Groups

Whether your practice focuses on general dentistry, cosmetic dentistry, or pediatric dentistry, tailoring your interactive content to your prospective patient base can increase engagement. Here are a few social media post ideas that target specific patient age groups:

Back to School Kids and College Students

You can host a back-to-school contest to win a $50 gift card for school supplies.

Teens Essay Contest

You can invite teens to write essays about the importance of dental care and proper tooth cleaning. Then, you can give a prize to the best essayist.

Seniors Before and After Cleaning Pics

Your office can promote a special giveaway to seniors who permit you to take before and after photos of their dental cleanings.

Contest Guidelines To Avoid Potential Legal Issues

Before you begin posting dental marketing contests on your social media channel, you need to be aware of potential legal issues that come with running contests. Here are our tips to help you remain compliant with giveaway laws:

Find Out the Contest and Giveaway Rules of Any Social Media Platform Used

Every social media site has rules surrounding contests. Before you post a contest idea on social media, you must read these guidelines thoroughly and make sure you adhere to them.

For example, most social media channels require you to state that the social media platform does not sponsor the contest. Additionally, many platforms only permit business profiles to run contests.

Build Social Media Engagement About the Contest on Every Social Media Channel

Some social media platforms have rules against requiring participants to complete an action — such as sharing the post — to enter. As a result, you may need to send your followers to your website to enter the contest instead.

However, you can still promote the contest on your social media platforms. We recommend sharing the link to the contest on every social media site you can to enhance engagement.

Provide Valuable Details About the Contest in All Social Media Content

When you host a contest on social media, you need to provide all the details about the contest in the social media content. Giving details can also make potential patients more likely to enter, as they will know exactly what to expect.

Ensure an Effortless Sign-Up Process for the Contest

Finally, you should try to make the sign-up process as simple as possible. Again, some social media platforms have rules against requiring participants to complete an action to enter. If you still want to host the contest on these platforms, you’ll need to offer a simple method of participating.

If you’re looking for another surefire dental marketing idea, we recommend checking out Weave as your dental practice marketing software. Request a free Weave demo today to learn more.