If you are a healthcare professional, you may have wondered about testing marketing strategies that work for other industries.
The healthcare space is unique in its own right, as well as very highly regulated. So, what works for the manufacturing or retail sectors, for example, may not work for you.
Email marketing is one such marketing tool that can be confusing and complex to use, especially in the healthcare space. However, if you think that email marketing cannot work for, you, let me convince you this is wrong!
If you are a doctor or dentist, do not ignore email marketing. The open rate for businesses in the medical, dental, and healthcare industries, averages about 22.76%, and the click-through rate for these industries averages about 3.07 percent. This is much higher than other industries.
Email is one of the primary means of communication for 2.5 billion people. If done right in the healthcare space, its impact can be huge. In this article, we’ll talk about what to do to ensure that email marketing is both powerful and popular in the healthcare space, as also why you, as a healthcare professional should adopt email marketing…
- Email is the preferred method of communication: In several studies, survey results have revealed that patients prefer to receive healthcare information by email. What’s more, this is true for every age group. Coming a distant second after email, is healthcare information received by mail, then phone and finally, by text communication.
- Email enables quick communication: Email is speedy and allows for quick and easy messaging between healthcare providers and their patients. The healthcare industry is constantly evolving, with new breakthroughs, medical news, and scientific discoveries. With email marketing, you can quickly and efficiently send out information about all of this, so that your patients and potential patients think that you are the go-to source for all of the latest developments in this ever-evolving industry.
- Email is extremely cost-effective: Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective tools available in your marketing arsenal. This means that fostering relationships with your patients is more affordable than ever.
- Email targets select audiences: With email marketing, contact lists can be segmented, so that certain messages are sent to select audiences. Messages can be sent to targeted groups, based on their need and requirements. With email marketing, healthcare providers can send appropriate information to corresponding patients.
- Email lends itself to personalized communication: It is very easy to personalize email marketing messages for individual patients. Personalized email communication can engender patient loyalty to your practice, thereby helping you build lasting relationships and showing that you care about your patients.
- Email enables increased online interaction: By sending emails to your patients and prospective patients, you are encouraging them to interact with your healthcare brand, by linking them out to your website. You can then measure website visits which you can easily track through tools like Google Analytics. You can also send out online surveys through email marketing, thereby asking patients for their opinion about specific health-related topics. This will engage your patients and get them interested in your brand.
- Email lets you gain exposure through newsletter distribution: With email marketing, there are no geographical boundaries, and so you can send out newsletters to a widespread audience. You can also position yourself as a market leader providing up-to-date information. You can choose to introduce new staff members, share patient testimonials, disseminate seasonal information, or then, update them on the latest technology and services available at your healthcare practice.
- Email lets you schedule automated marketing campaigns: Email marketing makes sending and scheduling messages easier than ever before. You can schedule your email marketing campaigns weeks in advance by automating the times and dates of your emails. You can also schedule multiple messages to the same person, as this increases the chances that they will open your email and read it.
- Email lets you track marketing campaign success: Using email marketing software, you can track the success of your email marketing campaigns. You can pay special attention to open rates and click-through rates. You can compare your rates with the industry average and see if your campaign was successful, or needs tweaking.
So, now you know why and how you should use email marketing to garner new patients and engage existing ones. If all of this sounds too complicated, help is here. You can engage a digital marketing agency that specializes in email marketing for the healthcare industry.
One such agency is IntellaHealth, which will work with you to set up a comprehensive digital marketing strategy for your healthcare brand. IntellaHealth specializes in email marketing for the healthcare industry at an extremely affordable price.
So, what are you waiting for? Consult with your marketing agency to come up with a holistic and personalized email marketing strategy for your healthcare practice and reap the many benefits for several years to come.
For more information on how you can hire a digital marketing agency and set up an email marketing campaign for your healthcare practice, contact Kristine Grace DDS, MS, MBA at kristineg@intellahealth.net.
by Kristine Grace, Aug-23-2017