Posted on October 20, 2017

How to Keep Patients Engaged with Email Newsletters

When it comes to engagement, it can seem like there a million steps that need to get done, on a daily basis. Are you checking your Facebook page and responding to patients? Are you getting regular testimonials and posting them on your site? Is your site optimized to succeed? The questions of things that you could (and probably should) be doing could go on and on. But here’s a simple one you may be missing: email newsletters. We’re not talking about internal email newsletters, but email newsletters that you’re sending out directly to your patients. Keep reading to learn more about how this simple practice can help keep your patients engaged, and happier!

GET DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF PATIENTS

Many people think of email as a hassle, at best. But what other form of marketing is best for getting directly in front of a patient? If you are sending quality email newsletters, you’re appearing directly in a patient’s email inbox. That’s extremely powerful, and almost unheard of in the world of digital marketing today. So, what makes up a quality email newsletter?

The first thing to remember is to create an email newsletter that patients want to open. It’s reasonable to put out your newsletter monthly, or quarterly. This gives you plenty of time to gather quality content that patients will be interested in. Email newsletters are great for providing a behind the scenes glimpse into what makes your practice a fun place to work.

KEEP YOUR EMAIL NEWSLETTER INTERESTING & INFORMATIVE

Spotlight exceptional employees who always have a smile on their face, or start an Employee of the Month award. These can also be a great place to let people know when you are sponsoring a local event in the community. Your email newsletters can also include fun things like seasonal recipes, or links to blogs that the practice has recently written.

THE DO’S AND DON’TS OF EMAIL MARKETING

After you’ve developed a good idea of what to include in your email newsletters, you should begin thinking about how to make it aesthetically pleasing to your patients. Make sure to incorporate your logo to keep your branding consistent, and use a color scheme that is neutral, rather than outrageous. Stock images from sites like Shutterstock are great for creating custom images that aren’t distracting as your email newsletter is being viewed.

Make sure you have a high-quality email newsletter before you start sending out your emails. A well cultivated email list can do wonders, and can often be part of the word of mouth referral process. Emails are highly sharable, which makes it imperative that sharing is encouraged in your emails. Make sure patients are only receiving emails if they’ve given you their permission, since anything else is considered spammy.

It may be worth your time to take a quick glance through your site and make sure you have call to actions set up for capturing email addresses for your newsletter. This allows your list to be constantly growing and evolving. In this case, quality versus quantity is everything. Email newsletters should include links to all social profiles: Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Google +, etc. This can result in more engagement across social media as well!

Ready to take the next step in your digital marketing strategy and add a practice email newsletter? We’re here to help if you hit any speed bumps along the way, or you need to cultivate an email marketing strategy!