5 Helpful Tips for Your Medical Email Marketing Strategy

The shift from direct mail to email since 2000 has brought health-related businesses greater return on investment (ROI) and improved the ability to reach community members in need of services. Despite new focus on other digital methods, healthcare email marketing remains one of the most powerful strategies around. If you want to reap the benefits of direct communication, it is time to learn how to grab interest and keep it through email. How can it help your practice succeed?

The Benefits of Email Marketing Today

Email marketing can be a great way to engage potential customers who may be interested in their health care. And who isn't? By providing informative content and keeping your messages brief, you can capture attention and encourage customers to learn more about your products or services. Consider sending the messages at different times to test engagement. Additionally, this type of target contact offers an effective way to keep current customers updated on new offerings or special promotions. When used correctly, healthcare email marketing can be a powerful tool for building relationships with both potential and existing customers.

• Onboarding New Patients – People who plan to visit your doctor’s office for the first time need information about how everything works. You also need information from them to maximize your ability to give them what they need. Automated email messages teach them how to use your online portal, make appointments, set up bill payment, and do other essential onboarding tasks.
• Retain Existing Patients – Quality information and new opportunities for health improvement are great ways to improve your relationship with current patients. Information for this segment of your email list can include-home health tips, reminders about prescription adherence and responsible use, and reminders about general advice like regular physicals and more.
• Build Reputation in the Community – Every opt-in subscriber to your healthcare email marketing list judges whether your doctor’s office, clinic, or wellness services company provides real benefits they can trust. The information you share must give them something valuable, or they will unsubscribe and move on to another practitioner.

How To Build a Quality Email List

Healthcare email marketing is an amazing way to connect with new and existing patients and improve your reach into the local community. However, you cannot simply send messages to random groups of people. You must convince people to subscribe or opt-in to receive your messages first.

Add your opt-in form to your website in noticeable and actionable ways. It helps to have it prominently displayed on your homepage, on the patient portal, and your contact page at least. Also, promote your newsletters or healthcare email marketing content from social media accounts, video sharing sites, business directories, and anywhere else you have a positive presence online.

Make sure people understand what type of content they will receive when they sign up for your emails. Some healthcare providers and related businesses offer incentives like additional information, an e-book, a course, or even a special offer or discount for products and services. At the very least, you must attract their attention with the type of content you intend to share.

Best Practices for Healthcare Email Marketing

Before getting into specifics about healthcare-related messaging, it is important to understand what makes a great email campaign. Only send emails to people who signed up and completed the verification process. Mass emails are a bad idea because they can get you in trouble with spam regulations and damage your chances of successful delivery in the future. Follow all necessary rules, like including an unsubscribe link at the bottom of each message. Do not send out too frequently; you don’t want people becoming frustrated with a cluttered inbox.

• HIPAA Compliance – Despite strict privacy and security rules, you are allowed to send healthcare email marketing messages to existing, past, or possible patients. Make sure every form of contact follows HIPAA regulations to avoid serious problems including fines, legal trouble, and a breakdown of trust from your patients.
• Change Up Your Content – People get bored with the same type of email messages sent over and over again. The worst offender is advertising or marketing emails. These contain only information about how to make an appointment, buy a product, or sign up for a service. Remember that your goal as a healthcare practitioner or wellness company is to solve problems for people. Giving information and guidance freely makes more sense than trying to sell something every time.
• Personalize for List Segments – The people who sign up to receive your emails will be at different stages of their journey with your organization. Some may not have had a single appointment yet while others are lifelong patients. These groups should be split into separate lists that receive different types of content.
• Test, Collect Data, and Tweak – No matter what your focus and who subscribes to your emails, you must test different options to see what works the best. Collect information about open, click-through, and bounce rates. Split test different subject lines or content types. Try using templates, basic text or graphics, and more. This is a constantly changing process that allows you to perfect your metrics and your engagement of your target audience.

All of these best practices can help you create a high-quality healthcare email marketing strategy that gets the attention of the right people and keeps it. However, doing all of this and managing your list effectively takes a lot of time and energy. While you concentrate on the business of providing medical, health, and wellness assistance to patients or clients, engage the services of an expert team to manage your email marketing for you. A top-quality agency can provide all the benefits with minimal effort on your part.

Summing Up

Every step of the patient attraction and onboarding process gets a boost from healthcare email marketing. If you are ready to make changes to your strategies, contact Digital Authority right away. Our team understands best practices and latest opportunities for doctor’s offices and other medical industry organizations who want to improve their bottom line.