Attendance is the number that matters, and it’s decided in the fortnight before the event.
The Bigger Brand is a Manchester-based dental marketing agency that plans and runs open day campaigns for private and mixed dental practices across the UK and Ireland, covering implants, Invisalign, cosmetic treatment and new patient days. Campaigns include targeted advertising, qualifying questions, confirmation calls, reminder sequences, on-the-day scheduling and follow-up afterwards. Results are reported as attendance rate and treatments started, not bookings taken.
An open day removes the two things stopping most people from booking. One is the commitment, because it’s a single afternoon rather than a course of treatment. The other is the price conversation, because they’re coming for information rather than to agree to anything.
It also does something a normal consultation can’t. It creates a deadline for someone who’s been putting this off for years, and puts them in a room with other people doing the same thing.
Scanning on the day is what converts it. Someone who has seen their own 3D scan and a simulation of the outcome is a completely different patient from one who’s been handed a leaflet.
Here’s how it usually goes. Two weeks of advertising brings in thirty bookings and everyone’s delighted. There’s prosecco in the fridge, the balloons are up and the whole team is in on a Saturday.
Nine people turn up.
The agency reports thirty leads and considers the job done, while you’ve paid four members of staff to stand around for six hours.
The drop-off happened in the fortnight nobody was watching. There was no confirmation call, no reminder, and no reason to prioritise a free appointment they’d booked on impulse while scrolling.
A free booking has no weight to it. Somebody who paid a £20 deposit turns up. Somebody who clicked a button on a Tuesday doesn’t, and doesn’t feel bad about it either.
The advertising is maybe 30% of an open day. The other 70% is everything that happens between the booking and the Saturday.
Every open day we run follows the same timeline, starting six weeks before the event.
We pick the treatment and the date, then confirm which clinicians are in, how many slots there are, what's being offered and what the next step in treatment looks like. A day with no clear next step just generates nice conversations.
The landing page is built and advertising goes live across Meta and Google, targeted tightly to a realistic travel radius. Qualifying questions on the form mean you're not scanning people who were never going to start.
Bookings are coming in, and every single one gets a confirmation call within 24 hours. It's the highest-impact half hour in the whole campaign, and the one most practices skip.
The reminder sequence starts by text, email and WhatsApp, covering what to expect, how long it takes, where to park and who they'll meet. Familiarity reduces no-shows more than urgency does.
The reminder sequence starts by text, email and WhatsApp, covering what to expect, how long it takes, where to park and who they'll meet. Familiarity reduces no-shows more than urgency does.
Scanning, simulations, treatment coordinator conversations, and a booked next appointment before anybody leaves. Not a leaflet.
Everyone who attended and didn't book, and everyone who booked and didn't attend, goes into a follow-up sequence. A meaningful number of cases come from this week rather than the Saturday.
Most practices resist this at first, then never go back.
A refundable deposit of £20 or £25, taken at booking, transforms attendance. You’ll take fewer bookings but see more people.
Twenty free bookings producing eight attendees is a worse day than twelve paid bookings producing eleven.
It also filters. Someone willing to put £20 down is seriously considering treatment, which changes the whole atmosphere of the day and what your clinicians are dealing with.
We’ll build it either way. We just think you’ll be better off with it.
Tell us the treatment, the date you have in mind and how many slots you can run. We’ll come back with a six-week plan and a realistic attendance target.
A successful dental open day needs targeted advertising four to six weeks in advance, qualifying questions at booking, a confirmation call within 24 hours, a reminder sequence in the final week, scanning or assessment on the day, and a booked next appointment before people leave. Attendance rate, not booking volume, decides whether the day succeeds.
It depends heavily on follow-up. Open days with no confirmation calls or reminders commonly see attendance below 50%. Campaigns with structured confirmation, reminders and refundable deposits regularly reach 75% or higher, and a small refundable deposit at booking is the most effective single way to improve attendance.
Usually because there was no commitment at booking and too little contact between booking and the event. Free bookings made on impulse carry little obligation. Practices that take a small refundable deposit, phone to confirm within 24 hours and send reminders in the final week typically see much higher attendance.
Most open day campaigns run advertising for two to four weeks before the event, with planning starting around six weeks out. Shorter campaigns limit bookings, while longer ones widen the gap between booking and attendance, which raises no-shows unless there’s a structured reminder sequence.
