Despite all the new trends and different ways to market your practice, email marketing is still an incredibly powerful tool
According to Statista, there were 3.9 billion global email users. That number is set to grow to 4.3 billion by 2023. In other words, half of the world’s population.
On top of that, almost 300 billion emails were sent and received in 2019 and that number is only expected to increase over the next few years.
Email has become a part of our daily lives. On average, people check their emails 15 times per day or every 37 minutes. That’s 15 opportunities to get more patients into your practice, remind patients of current appointments and reengage previous patients to come back.
No matter what way you look at it, email marketing can be an irreplaceable tool for your practice.
Get personal with patients
Sending specific emails to specific patient groups can be a great way to personalize your emails and increase results. You’ll want to segment your email list into patient types and groups, so you can tailor your messages accordingly.
Some ideas on patient groups include:
- Regular patients
- Previous patients
- New patients
- Prospective patients
- Specials and deals
- Health topics readers
If possible, you’ll want to separate these lists from the beginning and continue to update them accordingly.
It’s wise to set up a regular email schedule with monthly or weekly emails for each segment of your patient base. Having consistent contact can help you achieve real results and gain traction in your community.
Email marketing is all about the subject line
Subject lines can make or break an email. It determines whether or not they even open your email. And personalization is key.
Emails with personalized subject lines generate 50% higher open rates than those without, according to Yes Lifecycle.
A great way to customize would be to include the patient’s name in the subject line or to include things from your practice they may be interested in.
It’s a good idea to use action words in first part of the subject line and to match the content inside the email as best as possible.
You want to be brief but punchy without overpromising. Gimmicky subject lines may get you the open, but if it doesn’t match the message of the email then they aren’t likely to take any action.
The meat of the email
A good practice is leading with some text before any graphic. People have short attention spans with emails, and you want to capture them quickly.
Ensure the first message they see is at the top of the email and matches the subject line.
The main goal of any email marketing campaign is to get patients to take action, which can be visiting your website, making an appointment or calling your office. Make sure each email has a call to action (CTA). Without it, you are unlikely to see the results you hope for. All your content should be geared toward getting them to take action.
If you have a CTA that requires a phone call, be sure to correctly link the phone number, so that patients can click to call directly from their cellphone. It’s also a good idea to have those emails sent out during office hours to handle calls when your staff is there.
Speaking of staff, always tell them what message or offer you have sent out. You don’t want a patient calling about a special deal and your front office staff have no idea what they are talking about. Always clearly communicate any email marketing efforts going out and what they can expect from patients or prospectives that week.
Continuous improvement
The best way to improve your email marketing results is by reviewing each email effort.
You should be monitoring the number of opens, clicks and actions taken (appointments, calls, etc.) Over time, you can gauge what messages work best and which ones flopped. These findings can help guide your future email efforts.
A best practice with email marketing is to always be testing. Test subject lines, content, graphics and CTAs. While there are some things that generally work, each audience can be very different in what they respond to. Don’t be afraid to test different things and figure out what works best for your patients.
You know you are doing something right when you learn from each email send. There are always ways to optimize and tweak your emails to provide your practice with the best possible results.
