5 Best Practices in Healthcare Email Marketing

Healthcare is always personal and built on trust between provider and patient, whether you’re a hospital that provides traditional care or a clinic that focuses on alternative therapies like acupuncture or any other healthcare provider. In an increasingly digital healthcare environment, clients expect more from their providers. Patients have become selective customers. They have many health care options to choose from in the local market and are quick to shop around and compare medical institutions concerning services provided, price and general experience.

With the ever-changing health sector, healthcare email marketing strategies must focus on patient retention in order to accomplish significant progress for the healthcare system. Email marketing services, as the undefeated leader of marketing media across industries, offer customers the information they need to keep healthy. It has extraordinary potential to maximize your return on investment as a healthcare provider.

What is the Objective of Email Marketing in Healthcare?

Email marketing serves multiple purposes rather than just one. It can help you gain recognition, i.e., make yourself known to your target. It can also help you project an image of being an expert in a specific medical field. Email marketing aims to sell your products or services and facilitate retention.

Keep in mind that health professionals do highly specific tasks. In order to establish loyalty among your contacts, email marketing must include more than just providing relevant information about your products, services, or company. To generate business, you must urge them to open your emails and then visit specified pages on your website.

So, how do you achieve these objectives?

Tips for Email Marketing in Healthcare

Whether you’re looking to wow your peers at the next budget meeting or aim to improve the patient experience, email marketing has many benefits to improve your internal operations and enhance the experience of the communities you serve. Here are some of the healthcare email marketing strategies we recommend:

1. Start an email with a warm welcome

Across industries, the welcome email sequence is the series that paves the way for customer retention and engagement. Moreover, a welcome email has a 91.43 % open rate ad offers a CTR of 26.90 percent.

Your welcome sequence should demonstrate what your customer can expect from your relationship. Ideally, yours should include:

  • An introduction that establishes your brand’s mission and identity
  • Educational resources for your product or service
  • Engagement opportunities such as online webinars
  • Contact us for FAQs or customer service queries
  • Resources for ad hoc assistance

Welcome sequences should be streamlined, accessible, and user-friendly, graphically, verbally, and technically. The welcome sequence draws up the map that your customers can use to get to know you better and easily navigate your resources.

2. Personalize Emails

Each patient presents with a unique set of health concerns, life events, or problems. Launching a series of broadcast emails on how to help a baby latch on can be tremendously beneficial to a new mother. But it’s unlikely to garner much kudos with a recovering kidney stone sufferer. In addition, 91% of customers believe they are more likely to shop with brands that provide personalized offers and recommendations.

Advancements in email marketing, such as list segmentation, make it easier to target specific groups of customers with specific concerns. It ensures that resources relevant to their well-being are provided in kind. In short, the more personalized the message, the more likely your customers are to open it, and the more useful the content you provide will be.

“Personalization—it is not about first/last name. It’s about relevant content.” – Dan Jak

3. Develop an Incentive Building Strategy

Establishing a support network of healthcare providers can be a major challenge for potential clients seeking assistance, whether due to high costs or a lack of provider knowledge that can fulfill their needs. Email marketing is ideal for building positive relationships with existing customers and expanding your orbit to include new ones. Here are two effective ways to get your client to pass it on:

  • Referral Programs – Whether or not you can use referral programs to market your organization and health services depends on the type of business you run. Small and medium-sized businesses, especially those in the healthcare industry, are good at offering perks to customers when a customer calls a friend.
  • Shareability – Today, social and share buttons are built into the bones of marketing emails, allowing subscribers to post the content you provide on their personal platforms. As a general rule, any knowledge that lands in their inbox should be easily shareable with just a swipe.

Finally, your healthcare organization might consider offering perks to customers each time they complete a new milestone. For example, a tailored vitamin supplier might start an email rewards program to remind customers when to refresh their supply or that their 10th purchase will earn them a free month of collagen capsules.

4. Stick to a Schedule

Automated email marketing has greatly enhanced the efficiency of brand messages, particularly in terms of when certain communications are sent. These emails take a lot more time and work, but the investments you make here will pay off more in the long run. There are two main categories of automated marketing emails:

  • Email sequences – Pre-written and sent automatically, these messages anticipate the different stages of your funnel and meet the customer where they are. A typical example is a welcome sequence, but sequences can also be used to approach warm or cold clients with no engagement.
  • Broadcast Emails – Broadcast emails inform customers about sales, company developments, or programs you offer. They are often seasonal, precise, or urgent, informing your customers of business developments.

“Quality over quantity—Emails may be cost-efficient but it’s no excuse to not produce quality content to give to a targeted audience.” – Benjamin Murray

5. Provide Valuable Content

As a provider, you already know that health issues are best addressed through prevention, regardless of what modalities your business specializes in. Email marketing is an especially vital channel for content marketing, where subscribers receive valuable, complementary knowledge that can boost their profile. In the health sector, this could include:

  • Up-to-date recommendations from medical authorities
  • Product training linking the therapy services you offer to specific health conditions
  • Digestible blog posts on hot mental health topics
  • Physiotherapy videos to practice at home

Email marketing is part of a larger digital marketing strategy that thrives when paired with current internet trends. Content that puts patient concerns in context is more likely to be noticed, demonstrating your credibility and timeliness.

Conclusion

Ultimately, people want to interact with healthcare brands. You’ll be well poised for consistent, strong engagement with your email marketing efforts if you develop trust, protect privacy, stay mindful of frequency, segment well, and include compelling calls to action.