Is there a place in our healthcare marketing for email?
Email marketing is seen as a major component of outbound marketing in many professions and industries. But does it have a place in our healthcare marketing strategy? I think it could have, in fact I think it could be very effective given the right parameters. It would also reduce the cost of not only your mail marketing but also your day to day mailings.
Email marketing has moved on greatly, there are many services available for designing and deploying very attractive and powerful email newsletters such as smore.com, It is even free. So the design and deployment element can be easily taken care of with something like smore, Outlook, a bit of inspiration and some elbow grease. Using these tools we can make email marketing a part of our healthcare marketing strategy.
But do our demographic use email? That is a resounding yes according to Pew Research 80% of American adults are online and 91% of them use email every day. You can look on that as a generalisation from a limited study. So the best thing to do is ask them. Ask your Patients do you have an email address, include that data on your Practice management system. Ensure everyone is asked and their response is recorded. You may not get a 100% yes rate, but I think you will be surprised by the amount of Patients that have an email address.
So if you find that your Patients have indeed predominantly got email addresses. Why don’t you take the opportunity to roll out targeted email campaigns, quarterly email newsletters, even your ordinary everyday call back letters. It is a win win for a Practice, it costs little other than time. It can be exquisitely targeted, with read receipts you know it has been delivered and opened if not read.
Email marketing has one of the best ROI rates in other industries, perhaps it is time that we tested it’s success in our healthcare marketing strategy.
Regards
Geoff
I’ve been sending my quarterly newsletter to my patients with email addresses. In my database, about 1/3 of the patients have email addresses, but I’m sure the proportion goes up as age goes down.
I use Constant Contact, and like that I can track when an email is opened and which links are clicked. That helps me figure out what articles people are interested in so I can better tailor future editions for my readers.
I think it makes perfect sense for several reasons especially expense and targeting.
Carol what type of return rate or maybe the best thing to ask is what type of engagement rate do you get?
On my last newsletter, I got a 38.5% open rate, and an 18.2% click rate (I have articles in the newsletter, then they can click to read the rest of the article). I’m going to send my next newsletter in a few days, so I’ll be able to report those statistics in a week or so.