A postcard marketing campaign is probably your most proactive tool for landing a clinical dental hygiene job. I’ve helped clients with them for years and they continue to get temp work, interviews, and permanent jobs.

But they aren’t just for clinical dental hygiene positions. They can also be effective in seeking corporate jobs in other fields and industries. This article will mostly address a postcard strategy for clinical positions. But for those seeking a job outside of clinical work they can also help you effectively target and impress key decision makers.

Postcards take a little more time to pull together but that’s partly why they work – not very many people bother. So it’s worth reviewing the steps for launching your own postcard marketing campaign.

Where Can You Work?

The first step is to find all the offices you may potentially want to work at. This is the tedious part of the project – but it’s very important because narrowing the field saves you time and money.

You can find these offices yourself on the Internet. And it will give you a high degree of comfort that you have them all covered because no one knows the area you live in better than you.

Another option is to hire someone. Go to Fiverr.com and hire someone to find addresses for all the dental offices within specific ZIP codes. Just search for “data entry” or “web scraping” and you will find a number of people that can do it for $15-25. The person you hire will likely use sophisticated software to do the work and send you the results within a day or two.

Keep in mind what they “scrape up” isn’t always 100% accurate as offices move around and spring up constantly. The end result of your dental hygiene postcard list should be a Microsoft Excel file you can create address labels with.

Dental Hygiene Postcard Design

There are several ways to get the design for your postcard. Local designers, online designers, templates, and then, of course, ME. Yes, I design lots of postcards for hygienists.

The main advantage I offer is that I can do it with your other materials (resume, cover letter, etc) and create a coordinated look.

A coordinated design package is impressive – it means you went to considerable lengths to market yourself and look professional. Employers love that because it shows you go to great lengths and they want employees with that attribute.

The design of the postcard should be simple. Don’t cram your whole resume into one. Keep it to maybe 3-5 short bullet points, your contact information, name, picture, and maybe a link to your LinkedIn account. Then dress it up with some graphics and/or background picture.

Postcard Printing

I prefer to get postcards printed using Vistaprint.com. They offer a simple and inexpensive ordering process while delivering great quality.

Printing them through other online services is also an option, as is a local printing company.

You may be tempted to print them at home to save money. It will actually save you very little by the time you buy special card stock paper and account for ink costs. On top of that, cutting them out and having them look professional is very challenging. Just let VistaPrint do it to get a great finished product that saves you grief and time.

Postcard Distribution

Now that you have a list and printed postcards, it’s time to distribute them.

You have two options – hand delivery and mailing. If you have lots of extra time on your hands and absolutely need to save the money, hand delivery is not a bad option. In fact, I think you get an extra opportunity to interact with some office staff that is invaluable.

When you hand-deliver a postcard to an office, those receiving it will also value it more. As a result, they will likely keep it visible because they feel they owe you something for your effort. It also gives the front office personnel a chance to see how personable you are.

But, if you don’t have the time to do all that running around, don’t despair. Most of my clients mail them out and get great results. Create some labels from your mailing list to avoid writer’s cramp.

I would recommend mailing them out in waves of 50. So if you have 150 to send out, mail out 50 on a Monday, then the next 50 out the following Monday, and so on. Mondays work good because offices tend to get the most mail on Mondays, which means they will actually get it on a Tuesday. If you land in their box on a Monday you might get overlooked. And by sending them in waves, you help even out the responses in case you get lots of them.

Summary

Dental hygiene postcards work really well – check out my testimonials page and videos to see for yourself. Yes, they take time and money, but most would agree they made it all back. And, they give you the feeling you are taking action and not waiting for job openings.

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Doug Perry is an expert resume writer and job search coach. He and his wife, Tracie, who is a dental hygienist, created GetHiredRDH in response to the challenging dental hygiene job market and have helped thousands of dental hygienists through tips and individual services. If you need individual help, click here to contact Doug.