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Simple Ways To Update Your Healthcare Email Marketing Strategy

In Health
October 25, 2022
Healthcare Email Marketing Strategy

When you think about digital marketing, email marketing may not be top of mind. It makes sense because to reach a younger demographic, tools such as social media and SMS marketing are commonplace. However, email marketing in the healthcare sector continues to be relevant and effective in 2022. In this article, we will look at several ways you can update your email marketing strategy to produce results in the promotion of your healthcare service.

By The Numbers

 To give you an idea of the impact email marketing can have, Statista concluded from their research that email activity is expected to keep increasing. The research firm estimates that by this year, email traffic will balloon to more than 300 billion emails sent and received daily. That’s over 300 billion emails moving back and forth each day. Another main attraction to email marketing is that it is affordable and provides a high ROI (return on investment). Statista found that email marketing registers the highest ROI than any other digital marketing program at an average of $36 for every dollar spent. 

So how do you make the power of email marketing work for your healthcare service? Here are some tips to help you with that:

Tip #1 – Use Automation Tools

Using an automated email program produces greater open rates simply because subscribers to a mailing list already have an idea of what to expect (regular emails). Applying autoresponders to healthcare industry emails makes sense because it not only assists in building a strong, trusting relationship with patients, but it keeps them feeling connected and valued. Here are a few ways to use automation with emails that produce results:

Response Emails with Goals in Mind

These types of emails keep your healthcare service in the minds of patients and are typically in the form of such emails as appointment confirmations, after-visit emails, and even welcome emails to build a connection with patients showing that they are more than just another client number.

Educational Emails

Any email that provides valuable information will generate responses. This can be anything from monthly programs, promotions of specific events and activities, positive stories of patient successes, or even educational information on health-related matters aimed at teaching.

Holiday/Birthday Emails

Nothing says you are thinking about your patients like sending a personalized email message on their birthday. The same applies to emails that acknowledge holidays or other special occasions. These are easy to format and provide a friendly way to insert a call to action.

Tip #2 – Add Extreme Personal Touches

It is much easier to add personal touches to your healthcare emails than it may sound. Personalization has been proven to increase recognition, brand loyalty, and trust. When properly executed, personalization will make patients perceive your brand as being relevant and make it more noticeable. It also makes them feel connected to your brand. But how do you do that? Here are a few suggestions:

Tailor Your Content

This involves using data collected on your contacts. By implementing content that speaks directly to subscribers rather than something generic, you make them feel connected. This type of content can be instructions on how to use medications, tips related to specific health concerns, dietary suggestions matching patient conditions, information on how to access online doctor services and other topics of personal interest..

Call-to-Action with Personalization

This is a very simple way of touching a patient in an email. Instead of using a generic call-to-action line or postscript, why not incorporate the patient’s name in those elements? Also, expand on this by sending specific offers that match the health concerns of patients on their birthdays or during holidays. Each of these ideas increases the connection a subscriber will feel.

Use Relevant Subject Lines

Subject lines can make the difference between an email that is opened and one that is deleted without a second glance. Catchy subject lines are not relevant in this application, but using subject lines that include the patient’s name will get attention. Using a patient’s name in the subject line of a tailored email will increase the open rate of those automated emails.

Friendly Email Address For Replies

Instead of using a typical ‘noreply@emailaddress,’ why not change it up with something a bit fun and friendly? It’s an easy change and when a personalized email is received and contains a reply to an email address like ‘thanks@emailaddress’ or ‘hello@emailaddress,’ it doesn’t seem nearly as cold or stiff. Using a light-hearted, friendly email address adds to the tone of the email.

Tip #3 – Segment Your Market

The purpose of using segmentation is that it permits you to target your emails to the appropriate subscribers. The easiest way to do this is to group contacts into smaller segments. It also keeps irrelevant email content, like billing invoices, from going to the wrong email addresses. You want your patients to receive content that is useful to them specifically and segmentation ensures this. Here are ways to gather the data you require for refining your segmentation efforts:

Request a Review

This type of email increases engagement and builds on your online reputation. It means that you are asking your subscribers to spread the word about your healthcare service and give you specific demographic data that you can use when segmentation is the plan.

Send Re-Engagement Emails

According to Digital Authority Partners, surveys are a great way to learn the preferences of a patient. The questions in these surveys will cover anything from broad ones about service preferences to some personal questions used to group respondents by various likes, ages, etc. so that segmentation efforts have a better chance of success.

Final Thoughts

Although email marketing is considered an old-school approach to a modern problem, it is still a cost-effective way to reach people. Using email marketing in the healthcare industry makes perfect sense when you examine the ROI and potential future reach. All you need to do is fine-tune how you use your email marketing program with the simple strategies listed above. They aim to be helpful without complicating the process. Once you implement them, you should see results that previously would not have been possible.