A private practice email marketing list consists of patients and prospects that have entrusted you with their email addresses and are willing to receive information from your practice. Email is still a great way to stay in touch with your patients and share relevant news and information with them from time to time. This will make sure they will not forget about you and if they find your email content valuable, will even make new appointments and recommend you to their friends.
A proper email marketing strategy will add credibility and improve your reputation even further. Email marketing is a must for every business that wants to be perceived and treated as highly professional. The public shares a common perception of respect towards businesses that send regular and valuable emails vs those that don’t.
Building your private practice email marketing list
At this point, we will assume that you already have an email list, but perhaps with not enough recipients. If not, speak with your website developer.
In private practice, the best way to grow your list is simply to ask every new patient for his/her email. Put up a poster at your reception to tell them about your newsletter. Ask patients to sign up after each treatment. Include a field for email address on your patient intake form and a check box to confirm they want to receive news and updates via email. You can then add every new email address you collect into your newsletter software. Your website should have a means of newsletter subscription. Speak with your web developer for help.
To convince patients to join your list, you have to offer a clear benefit. It may be health news or useful tips about their issue/treatment/future procedure. Also tell them about how often you will communicate, the type of topics you will cover and how simple it will be to unsubscribe.
Tell your patients that they can sign up directly at your website. Have a clear call to action on your website in a visible spot, so that your visitors will know how to sign up. A subscription form by itself may not be enough though. To make visitors interested, offer them something valuable and free in return, like downloading an e-book or a guide when they subscribe.
Importing existing email addresses
If you already have some email addresses in your database or practice management software, be careful about adding them directly to your private practice email marketing list. Make sure you have permission to send such emails to those patients. If you are unsure, it’s a good idea to call them and ask whether they would like to receive emails from your practice before adding them.
Consider what you send to your list
Keep in mind that growing your email list is one thing, but keeping your subscribers is another. Only send highly valuable information. Don’t spam or share your email list at any cost. Avoid talking about yourself too much. The content should consist of 80% valuable topics and 20% should be about your practice and promotions. If you are not careful, patients will unsubscribe in a heartbeat.
Subject lines you use in your emails are crucial to getting your messages actually opened and read.
Consistency is also important. Being consistent adds a sense of timeliness and responsibility to your reputation. It will also show that you are a professional practice and take your job seriously.