Creating a cosmetic dentist retail sales calendar for 2023

It is a great feeling when your marketing plan gets off the ground. You know who you want to reach and you’ve identified the right platforms to get your message out. YouTube, here you come.

Now you just need to figure out what you are going to say. And how often you want to say it. An easy way to get going is to create a content calendar for your message delivery. That way, you can create the content in advance and maybe automate it when it gets posted. 

You want your delivery to coincide with your audience’s need for your service and for this reason I want to make it clear that a social media calendar is not a retail calendar. 

A retail calendar talks about ideal times for you to sell your products and services. That might be Mother’s Day, that might be New Year’s, Christmas, or Thanksgiving. Holidays when people want their smile to be brightest for all the festivities.

Many of the templates for social media calendars have a lot of superfluous holidays. Like Donut Day. Most people are not gonna celebrate Donut Day. And it probably doesn’t make them think about a cosmetic dentist. The ‘celebrations’ are more promotional, but they don’t necessarily drive sales. 

You want a retail calendar because that’s what businesses use to plan their year. To break it down further, there are two types of retail calendars. The first is going to be a community-based calendar. Think about the holidays, like Mother’s Day, which most people celebrate. This rundown also includes things like Tax Day, which is not really a celebration but noteworthy nonetheless.

The other side of the retail calendar is the personalized events in people’s lives. Like graduations. High school or college graduations can be a community event, but in general, they’re more personalized. Graduations can happen at various times throughout the year, and they often include parties and other celebrations. A birthday or a wedding is another example of a personalized event. Those kinds of events are specific to an individual or smaller group for that time. 

Now that you have these two overlapping calendars you can start to set up your own content calendar for sales. Start by identifying both a primary and a secondary topic you’re going to cover for the month. 

Take April as an example. We have April Fools and Easter as well as Mother’s Day — with graduation on the horizon. Both the primary and secondary topics would center around some of these events. It gives you something to hang your hat on content-wise. The TikTok videos you generate and the clever social media posts will be relevant for a specific month. They are going to highlight your products and services.

Your calendar is all part of the content creation process. Using it to create focused messaging has a high value for your customer. 

In the April example, the messaging might center around the wedding season. Or Easter photos. Events where photography is important. You highlight the event in relation to your business or service and then make the funny video on top of that. 

For weddings, you can talk about a cavity free fresh start to a marriage. Or you might highlight your teeth whitening service. What about a group discount for the bridal party? With guaranteed bookings for that service. 

Layering in the tax season is another element. People who receive refunds might be that much more likely to purchase teeth whitening services before their wedding. That’s why you plan.

That’s also why you need to think ahead when you build these content packages. Planning what you want to say at least one to two months prior gives you time to select the services that you want to promote. You can also use a scheduling tool to automate it. That gives you the ability to have a more controlled and structured promotional process for your cosmetic dentistry practice. 

On the other side, you should be able to correlate the content that you’re putting out there in terms of sales and converted customers. 

Although it may seem like a lot of work upfront, you will save time and eliminate stress on the back end. Being deliberate about your process allows you to make better connections with your client. And there are plenty of tools out there to help you create and automate your social media posts if you need the humans in your office for other priorities.

Typically, we recommend building a calendar three months out at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed. That means January is on the horizon. New beginnings, fresh starts. You get it. February is Valentine’s Day. Perhaps you can suggest a mini makeover for someone to give, or a gift to themselves. 

Once you get through a year you’ll have the hang of it and you can tweak as you go. But the structure is there. The sales will follow.