In the age of social media, should you bother with an email newsletter?

With everything moving toward social media posts and other forms of fast content, lots of practices are wondering if email newsletters are still a worthwhile form of marketing.

Is it a waste of time to bother with an email newsletter when it seems like everyone’s obsessed with Facebook and Twitter? The short answer is no it’s not a waste of time.

And if you do it correctly; you’ll have a great way to market your practice both to new patients and to other healthcare professionals.

In this article, you’ll find tips and ideas you can put into practice with your e-newsletters.

Newsletter marketing

Email newsletters actually have an advantage over social media in the sense that they allow you to create more in-depth, targeted content that sticks with your readers. The e-newsletter can be something your audiences look forward to each month (or with each mailing) for more thorough news and expert articles that are relevant to their interests.

Generally, planning upcoming issues is easy to do if you put together a calendar and sketch out a few ideas in advance. As you get closer to publishing, you can always add content that’s specific to recent news and trending topics. You’ll want a mix of evergreen content (content that’s relevant all the time and isn’t specific to recent events) and coverage of trends or news about your practice.

Whatever you do, don’t send the same newsletter to different audiences. If you try to make articles for every possible reader fit into the same newsletter, that’s a recipe for alienating your readership. Instead, you’ll need to target your newsletters.

For patients

Many chiropractic practices target their newsletters for patients with articles that are interesting to laypeople who don’t know much about chiropractic care and are interested in learning more about their health and your practice.

These articles:

 

• Feature straightforward topics. For your patients, you’ll probably want to write jargon-free, easy-to-read introductory pieces to health topics and educational articles about chiropractic care and about your practice philosophy. These articles are friendly and informational.
• Cover practice news. Vacations, new team members, policy and schedule changes, etc., are great topics to cover. Including a calendar also makes sense, to inform readers about any upcoming events at your clinic.
• Present you as the expert without being overwhelming. Remember, your goal here is to provide useful information and create a marketing piece.

 

 

For your colleagues and other healthcare professionals

You may not have thought about having a newsletter for other chiropractic clinics and other healthcare professionals to read, but this can help you build connections to colleagues. Many chiropractors see other professionals as competition, but the healthcare community can serve as a valuable source of referrals that can help you build your practice.

Here are some possible benefits for you:

• Reaching other chiropractic clinics reminds them of you and educates them about your practice in case they ever want to refer their patients somewhere else during vacation periods, scheduling conflicts, etc. If you have specialties, such as offering prenatal chiropractic care, then that’s important to highlight in case they’d rather send a particular patient to you.
• Allopathic, osteopathic and naturopathic physicians can be great referral sources. Letting them know about your practice can give them a trusted place to send patients who need chiropractic care.
• Remember, it’s not uncommon for patients to see many different specialists for different reasons, too. Physical therapists, massage therapists, and others are also potential referral sources.
• Establish yourself as an expert chiropractor by presenting relevant information for your readers. You can use more jargon and have longer articles, since this is intended for a professional audience.
• Educate people who aren’t chiropractors about the chiropractic profession.

To promote your newsletter, you can send a brochure in the mail about your practice and include a letter letting them know you’re offering subscriptions to interested professionals or reach out with a personal email. Don’t just add other practices to your email list without inviting them first―you could be seen as a spammer and that can create ill-will even if you have good intentions.

Source:

Forbes Agency Council, “In the Age of Social Media, Should You Bother with E-Newsletters?” Forbes Magazine. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/04/23/in-the-age-of-social-media-should-you-bother-with-e-newsletters/#d3a47a41b5fa. Published: April 2018. Accessed: May 2018.