EMAIL MARKETING FOR PATIENT EDUCATION & ENGAGEMENT

Create a Template – You can personalize your base email template for each group, maintaining an overall layout that is consistent across all emails.

Display your Deets – Prominently locate your logo and phone number at the top of the email. Bonus points for a “Book Appointment” link. Add your address to the Footer of the email.

Call to Action – Encourage interaction with buttons – “Call Now”, “Contact Us”, or another form that captures information from your readers.

Follow us – Don’t forget to plug other forms of communications – include links to your social media platforms and your website.

Welcome Email – This email can provide an overview of what to expect at their appointment, reminders of any policies and procedures in place, and let them know what documents to bring to their first appointment.

Post-Appointment – follow up on their visit and reinforce any specific care plan details, confirm the next appointment, and ask for feedback! Include links for patients to easily leave a review.

Automated emails – Target patients with appointment confirmations, birthday wishes, and annual checkup reminders or take advantage of your segmented lists by providing educational content regarding pregnancy health, child-care or new-baby tips, surgical recovery and more. The opportunities are endless.

Open Rate – Your open rate reflects the percentage of people who have opened your email. According to Constant Contact, the open rate for health and wellness emails hovers around 18%. Encourage patients to open your emails by creating an eye-catching Subject Line.

Click-Through Rate – Not to be confused with your open rate, a click-through rate measures the amount of those who open your email and then follow a link within the message, whether to additional content, social media, or other interactive buttons. This is effective in measuring engagement within the emails as patients read through the content.

Unsubscribe Rate – recognize when patients are no longer interested in your emails by monitoring your unsubscribe rate. Not always a cause for concern, this could be due to a move or following completion of a treatment plan. If your rate raises sharply, though, this is an indicator that you may want to revisit your strategy.

Bounce Rate – indicating undeliverable emails, bounce rates can be further categorized into permanent errors, such as an address that is no longer valid, or temporary, which can indicate a technical glitch or error within the email server. You can manually remove these addresses and flag their patient file to ask for updated information at their next visit.

Newsletters – Creating a regularly distributed newsletter allows you to include holiday reminders and various healthcare topics, product and service launches, and other topics that are relevant to your patients.

Surveys and feedback – Asking for and implementing feedback increases the patient experience. Highlight actual reviews from patients in future newsletters or social media posts, just be sure to get permission before posting.

Promote your social media networks – different communication streams appeal to different demographic groups within your patient base. Let your patients know that you are active on various platforms and they can engage through multiple avenues.