7 Tips To Build Great Healthcare Email Marketing Campaigns

Email is one of the best ways to keep in contact with patients and leads without spending too much of your marketing budget. Additionally, healthcare email marketing gives you more privacy and flexibility in communicating with your audience.

Here are seven expert tips to help you create an effective healthcare email marketing campaign:

1. Conduct in-depth research.
2. Let patients opt in to receive emails.
3. Provide useful information.
4. Protect your patients' privacy.
5. Target any special days and holidays.
6. Test your messages for effectiveness.
7. Automate the campaign.

There is a lot to discuss, so get ready to take notes.

Let’s go!

Are you looking for help with marketing your healthcare business? Watch the video below to learn our approach to healthcare marketing and why 150+ healthcare companies have chosen Digital Authority Partners to help them generate more leads and patient appointments.

1. Dig Deep When Conducting Research

Any successful healthcare email marketing campaign starts with researching the best approach to connecting with your target market through email. For instance, you must segment your target market and build strategies tailored to each segment’s unique problems and concerns.

It is also important at this stage to have a solid and grounded concept of the message you want to send. Identify subject lines, keywords, and topics that appeal the most to your audience and use those as the basis for your campaigns. Set these aside for when you begin testing your emails.

During your research, note habits and convenient times for your target market to better plan when and how you execute your campaigns for more concrete and reliable results.

2. Let Patients Opt In to Receive Emails

A primary concern with email marketing tactics is that you must pass through several security measures to reach the recipient. For example, every email service implements its own set of filters in addition to the recipient’s unique set of rules they use to guard and sort their inbox.

Once you get through those, you face the challenge of getting the recipient to open and read your message. To raise the chances of an open and click-through, you can allow the person to pick how, when, and what marketing emails your medical practice sends them.

Add opt-in to your intake forms, on your website, and in emails so they can easily modify or cancel their subscriptions. Then you know you are sending emails only to people who want them.

3. Offer Valuable Information or Services

When you run a healthcare email marketing campaign, consider whether your goals align with the strategy's purpose. For the most part, emails convey crucial information to whoever receives them. You should, therefore, avoid using this strategy for shallow advertising.

Instead, take the opportunity to connect with your patients on a deeper level than you would otherwise. Write personal messages that speak directly to the needs and concerns of the recipient. You should not, however, mention specifics about their health issues.

It might be tough to balance, but avoid going into depth about any specific personal health issues the patient has or struggles with. Keep the tone general, helpful, and sincere in your email.

4. Uphold Your Patients’ Right to Privacy

Healthcare email marketing must adhere to strict rules rooted in US federal laws, apart from any guidelines or protocols you implement for your healthcare business. In a nutshell, as mentioned above, you must always safeguard your patients’ identity and dignity.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) requires the secure use, storage, and transfer of protected health information (PHI). Private healthcare providers and businesses like these fall under HIPAA and must abide by it.

Failure to comply with HIPAA’s rules can expose you to the risk of a lawsuit for failing to protect PHI.

5. Target Special Days and Holidays

Building a healthcare email marketing strategy does not have to be dull or strictly business in all aspects. You can inject a bit of creativity and fun into your campaign even while observing HIPAA rules. A simple way to do this is by including events and holidays in campaigns.

For instance, around Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, you can send emails on women’s and men’s health services to your mailing list. You can even focus on tips on maintaining good health or detecting issues that patients can follow or incorporate into their daily lives.

Use these occasions to show that you are a valuable ally and asset in keeping their bodies healthy and in good condition. Find your angle and properly set up your campaigns.

6. Test Your Messages for Effectiveness

It is hard, if not impossible, to get the desired results from any marketing strategy the first time you put it into action. There must be a cycle of testing and improvement before you can see ROI. In other words, trial and error is a natural part of marketing.

Evaluate the effectiveness of your emails with split testing (also called A/B testing). Create two similar versions of the same subject line, message, or content and simultaneously deploy them. That way, you can compare their effectiveness.

Regular split testing keeps your strategy in top shape to keep reaching people.

7. Use Automation to Run the Campaign

Running a healthcare email marketing campaign is time-consuming and tedious. Delegating the job of running your campaign to an automation tool works best.

When you rely on software to manage your email marketing and keep track of all those details, you free up your time (or your staff’s time) to concentrate on patient care. 

Automation results in a better customer experience without necessitating any sacrifices when it comes to your marketing efforts. It becomes a win for you on all fronts.

Summing Up

Marketing emails have great utility for healthcare providers and private practices. They allow constant communication between provider and patient without costing too much time or money. Getting a good and strong campaign going takes considerable effort at the start, though.

Need help building a great healthcare email marketing campaign? Contact Digital Authority Partners to learn how we can help.