Relocation is a common decision for many practices and businesses. Whatever the reason, your efforts in communicating this change to your patients and clients should be well thought out in order to ensure no patient or client gets left behind.

Here are some tips to ensure you have a successful move!

• Two months out from your expected moving date, start telling your patients and clients that you are moving.
• Place a plaque with a custom message announcing your move at your reception desk. Make sure you state the month of the move if you don’t yet have the actual moving date.
• Have magnetic business cards and new appointment cards made up with the new address. As your office staff schedules the patient’s or client’s next appointment, use the new cards. A magnetic business card makes sure your new address is always kept easily visible and never misplaced!When you order the appointment cards and magnetic business cards, go ahead and have your new stationary, business cards, appointment reminder postcards, reusable tote bags and other products done, too. Make sure all of your communication and promotional products are up to date!
• Two weeks prior to the move, send out a mass mailing of business moving announcement cards to your patients or clients announcing your relocation and giving the date you will be in your new offices.
  • For a one-time fee of $45 add a custom map to your cards!
  • Or add message highlighting for just $25 to ensure your new address is remembered.
• Change the message on your voice mail to mention the upcoming move, giving the date and new location.

A relocation always has its stressful times, but you can make it easier on yourself and your patients or clients by having a relocation plan in place for all of your marketing communications!

Feel like your office needs some sprucing up? Freshen up your space with wall art from Sharper™. Any of our dental recare cards or dental recall cards can be turned into professional-quality full color prints, available as posters, laminated, or block mounted.

For a modern and upscale atmostphere, try these designs:

W-1024                          W-1222

For a kid friendly, family-orientated atmosphere, try these designs:

W-1042                          W-1035

Special Offer!
With the following promotion, you can change out your decor every few months…Buy 1, get the second half price. Quote promo code WA10. This offer ends June 30, 2010.

We would all like to believe that our existing patients are happy and that others are lined up at the door for an appointment, however this may not always be the case. 70 percent of patients leave a dental practice because of poor customer service.

Winning them over and improving your conversion rate can be much easier than you realize if you begin to focus on their needs and concerns on a personal level, starting with their first appointment. Wow them with better customer service and followup. Make their initial experience with you and your staff the best it can be, and start off on the right foot by sending  a personalized dental  welcome card right after their first visit. Show them that you really appreciate the fact that they have considered you as their dentist of choice.

Take the time to let them get to know your practice a little better by choosing the right welcome card for your dental practice marketing. What are you and your staff like?

• casual/fun

• family oriented

• serious & professional

Whatever dental welcome card you choose will set the tone. Plus, all of our Sharper postcards are available as wall art as well, and can give you even more branding power. Choose from any of our welcome card designs, and have it transformed into beautiful artwork for your dental reception area.  Also, choose a design with a matching personalized peel & stick dental appointment card for even more coordinated visual impact.

Mix and match your products and save at the same time.

Postcard marketing is an affordable way to stay in touch with patients or clients. You can send eye care postcards as an appointment reminder, to prospect new business, or to promote your services. The possibilities are endless!

The most effective eye care postcards have a specific goal in mind. Ie. To book their next eye exam. Some other goals include:

• Notify and reschedule a missed appointment
• Educate on eye-related diseases and low-vision problems
• Renew their prescription
• Offer a discount/promotion
• Announce a new product or service

It is always important to connect your marketing efforts with the “brand” of your practice or business. Combining the look of your vision postcards with your eye care appointment cards, business cards and reusable tote bags will have your patients or clients, as well as prospects remembering your practice or business over the competition.

Try long-lasting promotional tools such as personalized magnet calendars, magnetic business cards and reusable tote bags to keep your contact information visible year-round!

Check out some of our latest eye care postcards:

My dentist runs a very successful practice so while visiting recently, I asked him what his greatest business challenge was.  Like many practices, he indicated dental patient acquisition so we started talking about the techniques he uses with his front office staff and patients to encourage referrals.

Listed below are his easy (and cost-affordable) ideas which may help your dental patient acquisition program:

- Train staff to openly ask patients for referrals
- Send personalized business thank you and welcome cards
- Reward patients that send referrals to your practice – a movie pass or gift card to Starbucks
- Make it easier for patients to refer your practice with a personalized practice brochure or custom business cards
- Post a couple of wall art signs in the office that reminds patients your office welcomes referrals

My dentist says these ideas work great for him - and considering how busy his practice is (and his luxury Lexus in the parking lot), I believe him!

Show your consideration for your patient’s or client’s time by alerting them when you are relocating your practice or business.  Sending out personalized business moving announcement or moving postcards is a great way to inform them of your new address, and by including a map with the personalized message, you will make their search for your new office much easier.  Avoid having them show up at your old location, only to realize you’ve moved.  There may be very unkind words for you next time they visit.

Sharper™ also carries a great selection of full color business cards that you can also include, and if you really want to celebrate your beautiful new office, having a grand opening or open house event is the way to go.  Sharper™ also offers perforated postcards. They are available exclusively in Canada.  Just select a design, then personalize with one of our messages, or customize it by writing your own.  Designs may be mixed and matched in lots of 50.  Blank envelopes are free with your order of folding cards, or for $25 you can have them personalized, regardless of quantity. Prospect new patients in the area by including them in your mailing list as well.  Let them meet your staff, see your facilities and get to know you better. You may even want to include a black and white photo of your staff on the back of the postcard along with the rest of your personalization.

So, good luck with the move, and if you get those moving postcards mailed way ahead of your dreaded packing, I assure you, it will be a breeze!

Let’s face it…no matter how much dentists educate their patients on the risks of tooth decay, Halloween is a time when sugary treats are sometimes too tempting to resist! So, instead of advocating total candy avoidance, dentists should take this as an opportunity to instill good oral health practices:

1) Add Kids Sparkle personalized toothbrushes to dental tote bags

2) Dental recall cards are not just for reminding patients about upcoming appointments! Use the back of the cards to highlight how kids can protect their teeth and gums and include as a give-away.
Messages could include tips such as
- Be careful when eating hard candy to avoid tooth chips
- Remember to brush and floss
- Ensure parents inspect all treats before consumption

3) Include sugarless gum as a give-away, as it’s a fun alternative to candy and it reduces the amount of bacteria in the mouth

4) Use Halloween themed reusable dental supply bags so that kids can use them for trick or treating.

Remember...the main reason you are sending your personalized recall or reactivation postcard is to get noticed and to call your patients or clients to action. As the economic downturn has made it a lot tougher, the messages on all your business communication products needs to be more innovative, colorful, and more targeted to the recipient, but at the same time affordable.

At Sharper™, our in-house design team focuses on creating clever designs with high impact, suitable for all your communication needs. Top selling postcard designs are monitored, trends are documented and considered, and suggestions from our customers are always taken into consideration before we go to the drawing table. The design team always strives for carefully crafted messages that are either humorous, serious or very business-like. Only the very best stock photography is used and an original spin is always applied. Every design is produced with tender loving care, and available to you at a fraction of the cost of an advertising agency service. By personalizing the back of the card, you can make it your own for no extra charge. The attention-getting benefits of this approach to branding your practice or business is easy and economical. Check out all of our recall, reactivation, reminder and all occasion postcard and folding card designs for the Dental, Veterinary and Pet Care, Contemporary Health, Vision and Hearing , Financial and Insurance, and other general business. If you can’t find what your’re looking for, we will be happy to customize your message through our Custom Creations™. It’s quick, easy and very affordable. We’ll ask you a few questions and then provide a quote for design and printing.

After completing a quick on-line search to see what $45 could buy, here’s what I discovered:

• A book called ‘Dancing in Peanut Butter’
• 6 miniature saxophone ornaments
• Former Saturday Night Live star – Molly Shannon’s autograph
• 1 of 5 easy payments for a piece of as seen on TV workout equipment

Based on this on-line exercise it’s obvious that there are many ways to spend $45, but when it comes to your practice or business, the number one goal is to stretch those dollars as far as possible.

Here’s a great tip to help you attract more business and grow your patient or client base.  Add a black and white photo of you or your staff to business thank you cards, personalized reminder cards, and welcome postcards for a one-time fee of $45.  Once your photo is on file you can use it again at no additional charge.  The more you use your photo, the better value you get.

Benefits of adding a photo to your Sharper™ products:

• Creates an added level of familiarity between you and your patients or clients
• Helps you stand out from the competitors
• Gives your products an enhanced level of personalization
• With your photo on file it can be added to the personalization of future orders at no additional cost to you

The next time you’re shopping at Sharper™ don’t forget to ask about adding your photo.

Reusable tote bags have a variety of uses for increasing traffic to your practice or business, building loyalty with your patients or clients and even welcoming new ones!

Here are a couple of ways to use plastic supply bags to increase your marketing efforts.

‘Tis the season, so why not start planning a holiday giveaway as a thank you to your patients or clients! We have a variety of great designs and you can include products such as business holiday cards, promotional calendars, personalized magnets and a host of promotional products such as personalized lip balm and personalized toothbrushes!

Check out some of our great holiday tote bags.

We also have a great selection of reusable tote bags specific to every market, that you can use all year around to welcome new patients or clients! Check out our reusable tote bag selection for the dental, contemporary health, vision & hearing and pet care markets.

It’s always interesting to see what designs our customers seem to enjoy the most. It gives us a stong insight when coming up with new designs and following trends. If you ever have any suggestions for new designs and product ideas, please comment and let us know!

Check out the top selling designs for the month of October for the dental, contemporary health, vision, hearing and pet care markets.

Top design for the dental market:

There are many coordinating products with some of these popular designs such as dental appointment cards, dental business cards, dental laser cards and more!

Top design for the contemporary health market:

22-0085
Health & Happiness Ornaments

There are many coordinating products with some of these popular designs such as chiropractic business cards, appointment reminder cards and other chiropractic marketing tools!

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We Focus

Look out for coordinating products with popular designs such as optometrist business cards, peel and stick appointment cards and other tools for your practice or business!

Top design for the hearing market:

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A Hairy Chest

Top design for the pet care market:

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Peace On Earth

Love the designs you see? A lot of the time there are matching products that use the same design themes such as peel and stick appointment cards, veterinary business cards and much more to help you build a brand for your practice or business!

Taking every opportunity to say thanks, and doing it with taste and style will strengthen your image while building stronger relationships. Practices and businesses today are finding Thanksgiving season a great time of year to express appreciation to patients or clients for their loyalty. Sending business Thanksgiving greeting cards makes a nice addition to your usual personalized recall and appointment reminders, business cards and birthday greetings which are typically mailed throughout the year.

Our Sharper™ customer feedback surveys tell us that they are very pleased with the wide selection of high quality holiday card designs we are offering this year. Here are some tips to help you choose what will work for you:

• Avoid being buried in the Christmas rush of business holiday cards – get a head start with personalized Thanksgiving holiday or 2010 Thanksgiving calendar cards. Plus, think of how many fewer Christmas holiday cards you will need to send out! To keep your practice or business information top of mind even longer, the Thanksgiving calendar card is a great solution and slips nicely into a #10 envelope.

• Autumn is a time for reflection. The color palette is always a favorite -  Thanksgiving cards with appealing imagery have a very long life. With the right look and tasteful design that doesn’t scream, “I am a marketing piece”, your personalized folding card or postcard will sit on the recipient’s mantle until Christmas along with family and friends’.

• Choose designs that you know your patients or clients will enjoy - Think about their lifestyles and personalities. It’s about acknowledgment and emphasizing the fact that you are aware of their individuality.

• Choose a look that emphasizes your values and also connects with the values of your patients or clients – A traditional elegant look, offering well worded Thanksgiving greetings shows that your practice or business remains successful and stable, even during the trying economical times experienced over the past year. A humorous postcard may be a good fit for you and will reinforce the casual approach that you and your staff typically engage in during your daily interaction with patients or clients.

Schedule Thanksgiving into your marketing mix, and do it with beautiful imagery that will leave a lasting impression. These personalized business Thanksgiving cards are suitable to send to Dental, Financial, Chiropractic, Massage Therapy, Spa and Salon, Optometry and Veterinary patients or clients.

It is often hard at Thanksgiving to save room for dessert.  We eat so much that by the time the pumpkin pie comes out we are all so stuffed we can barely eat anything else.  There is however one specific thing we should all save room for – and that is Thanksgiving Folding Cards and Postcards.

By sending patients business holiday cards to thank them for being a dedicated and memorable patient, it will encourage them to keep coming back to your office. With everything being so electronic and technology based now a days, it is a unique touch to send a personal note to the patients or clients you care about.

Ways to add a personal touch to your business holiday cards or business greeting cards;

• Add your digitized signature on the inside of the card for a one time fee of $35.
Have your entire staff sign a piece of paper, fax it over to us at
1.888.251.4454 and we will gladly add it to any business holiday card for you.

• Add an extra ink color.  Sharper™ has several standard ink colors so why not set
yourself apart by using our red or burgundy ink colors to have your card stand
out more than the rest.

• Business holiday cards are not as common for Thanksgiving as they are for the
winter holidays so why not send a thank you to your patients that will set you
apart from the competition and might be one of the few Thanksgiving cards they
receive?

“Why did Johnny get such low grades after Thanksgiving?”
“Because everything is marked down after the Holidays!”

The same applies here at Sharper™.  I will let you in on a little secret. Quote Promo code P1009C and you will receive 15% more Business Greeting Cards and/or Business Holiday Cards for FREE when you buy 100 or more. Just a little gift from me to say thank you to you for being a valued customer with Sharper™.

Happy Thanksgiving!

There are very few people that aren’t animal lovers, or at some time in their lives haven’t been blessed with a cute and cuddly furry friend. Traditionally we see them on all types of personalized reminder cards, appointment cards, business greeting cards, and they always bring a smile to an otherwise hectic day. That’s why I am so excited about this new line of Sharper™ postcards called Hugs & Kisses. Sharper™ has recently partnered with talented photographer, Gregg Cuddiford who presents the joy of animals through his charming collection of animal portraits. The detailed imagery of each portrayed animal character is visually strong on its own, so when the design team at Sharper™ began to work on these postcards, it was decided that “a picture was worth a thousand words”…no need to embellish with headings and overpowering typeface.

Enjoy this light-hearted approach to your marketing initiatives. Use them as appointment reminder postcards, recall cards or to thank patients or clients for their referrals. Couldn’t we all use a hug, maybe even a kiss, especially when it comes to busy schedules and often missed appointments? With no words on the front of the postcard, you are free to include your message in more detail on the back when you personalize the postcard. As a bonus, Sharper™ has also introduced reusable tote bags, gift certificates and magnets featuring these lovable friends. Your patients or clients will love to keep them to reuse when they take them home. Hugs & Kisses images are the perfect way to brand your practice or business and to “seal your message with a kiss”.

Keep your contact information in front of your patients or clients all year round. Your contact information will always be visible and top of mind. magnetic business cards are a great addition to business thank you cards, business greeting cards, reusable tote bags, or hand them out to visitors of your practice or business. Magnetic business cards combine the contact information of a business card with the longevity of magnets.

Missed appointments are the ever-growing symptom of our busy lives. Missed appointment cards are a great way to reconnect and remind your patients or clients of their missed appointment with a friendly reminder to call and rechedule. Missed appointment cards are a wonderful opportunity to show that you value their business.

Are you trying to reduce no-shows? Sending appointment reminder cards and peel and stick appointment cards will help reduce your amount of missed appointments and make your practice or business more efficient. Don’t forget the power of personalized wall calendars, personalized magnets, and other giveaways as powerful tools to increase the loyalty of your patients and clients.

Custom business cards are an excellent economical marketing tool.  However, most people don’t realize that they’re missing out on valuable space by leaving the back blank. Here are a few ideas that you can include to get more out of your custom business cards for only $35.

• Differentiate you practice or business by including a mission statement or an inspirational quote.
• Reinforce the need for your practice or business by including an interesting statistic or fact.
• Parking pass to display on dash or provide information on where to park.
• Use them as dental appointment cards, chiropractic appointment cards, veterinary appointment cards or eye care appointment cards.
• Advertise special offers or discounts.
• Frequency chart in which the practice or business collects stamps/initials on their card to redeem a discount.
• List of services.

Create your own custom business cards that compliments your existing brand identity. Your custom design will be a memorable addition to your communication and promotional
products with help from our results-oriented team of graphic designers.  Along with custom business cards, you can create a unique look for a wide variety of items including postcards, laser cards, reusable tote bags, personalized magnets and more. It’s quick, easy and very affordable!

A referral program is a great way to build relationships with existing patients or clients, while generating new business. A successful referral plan does not have to be complicated.  Follow the simple steps below to create your own plan to obtaining new patients or clients.

Step 1: Determining your offer

• What are you trying to achieve?

1. Are you a new practice or business looking to quickly grow your patient or client base?
2. Are you an established practice or business that would like to maintain a consistent, yet smaller number of clients?

• What should you offer?

1. A highly motivational incentive would be an offer for a free service or free gift
2. A targeted motivational incentive would be to offer a free upgrade or ‘add on’ to their next service.

Step 2: Get your cards or gift certificates ready

• Now that you’ve established what you will be offering, make sure you have the materials in place send out your acknowledgments.  Sharper™ has a wide range of business thank you cards, as well as personalized gift certificates. This gesture will strengthen your relationship with your clients and ensure they feel appreciated.

Step 3: Tell your patient’s or clients about your referral program

• This is the most crucial element to the success of your referral program. The reality is that most patients or clients do not realize the importance of referrals and need to be informed that you do appreciate new business.
• Send business greeting cards or personalized reminder cards to communicate the details of your referral program.

The most important thing to remember is, be proud of your practice or business and don’t shy away from actively seeking referrals.  Implementing a referral program is one of the easiest and cost-effective ways to grow your practice or business.

Our 2010 Bookmark Calendars are a daily reminder of your commitment to your patients and clients. With a curved notch to keep it in place, these Bookmark Calendars can have long-lasting value.

Bookmark Calendars are available in a wide variety of designs and can be personalized with your practice or business information. Include them as giveaways in Plastic Supply Bags or mail them with your Business Greeting Cards as an additional token of your appreciation.