l Marketing for Hospitals: the Ultimate Guide [2023]
Email marketing is not the most popular topic among healthcare providers. However, it can be a powerful marketing strategy for healthcare organizations.
An effective healthcare email marketing campaign can help you attract more customers to your facility, and ensure that they are satisfied with the services provided. It will also help you to stand out and increase your return on investment.
Email marketing is a great investment for any hospital or private practice. Where should you begin? Learn more in this article about how email marketing can be used to maximize ROI for hospitals.
Why is email marketing important for hospitals?
With a well-executed program of email marketing, a hospital can cultivate long-lasting relationships. This can be achieved by:
- Send personalized and timely emails
- Email content that educates clients is a great way to reach out to them.
- Distinguish your company from the competition
You can, for example, establish the credibility of your hospital through email marketing. This is done by sending them content that has a high impact. Here’s what you need to know:
The Mayo Clinic Diet newsletter provides healthy diet tips and information. It has helped them build a strong reputation and credibility within the healthcare industry. To build long-term relationships and trust with your clients it is wise to prioritize email content that is valuable and relevant.
Three Key Elements of a Successful Email Marketing Strategy for Hospitals
A successful healthcare email campaign can change the game for hospitals. Three key elements are necessary to achieve success:
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Email Automation allows businesses to send the correct emails at the right time. This involves automating workflows that send certain emails in response to triggers. You can, for example, set up a trigger so that a client gets an email right after an appointment. You can set a trigger to send appointment reminders on time.
Email automation allows you to save both time and money. Customers also appreciate quick responses. When you set up workflows and triggers correctly, your customer experience will be enhanced.
Email automation also increases conversions and open rates by allowing for advanced personalization. Each hospital client receives relevant emails in response to actions they’ve taken or useful information at a particular time.
You need a high-quality email service, such as Moosend or Mailchimp, to automate your marketing emails. Choose a platform that offers pre-made automation recipes and templates for email campaigns to create beautiful, conversion-oriented campaigns with minimum effort.
2. Segmentation
email segments are the groups of your subscribers based on shared characteristics. You can then send the most relevant content at the right time to your target audience. This will help you to avoid sending irrelevant emails that could harm your sender score or deliverability.
You can segment your audience as a hospital in many ways. You can first segment your audience based on their condition. You could, for example, have a segment dedicated solely to patients with diabetes and another one exclusively for physiotherapy dieting patients.
Here are a few more ways to segment an email list for a hospital:
- Segmentation based on location: You can target your audience according to their location. If your hospital has different regions that it covers, then they may have different influenza seasons. It’s therefore best to send out flu management tips to subscribers in regions about to experience a season.
- Customers exist in a spectrum. Some customers are actively involved, while others are passively engaged. Actively involved people need to be contacted regularly via email, whereas passively involved people need to be reminded of your existence occasionally.
- Based on website activity: By looking at a customer’s online activity, you can learn a lot about their behavior. Some customers might visit your website and read pages or blog posts on a specific topic. Email autoresponders can be used to track these activities and provide health information.
There are many other ways to segment . Develop customer segments that are suitable for your healthcare practice.
3. Personalization
Email Personalization involves the inclusion of specific information that readers are likely to find interesting. Emails can be too generic without it, resulting in less engagement and more subscribers unsubscribing.
The personalization of emails can increase conversion rates up to six-fold. Start by customizing the subject line of your emails. You can mention something that the recipient already knows, such as an appointment, a medication they purchased, or their name.
You can start by using an email Subject Line Tester. Let your autoresponder add dynamic content to each subject line.
You can personalize your email in five other ways:
- Copy You may include personal information, such as the person’s name or preferences, to address them directly.
- Imagery You may also include personalized images, such as graphs relating to a conversation or appointment that they had with their caregiver.
- Offers Send incentives that are tailored to the recipient based on his or her purchase history and web activity.
- Product Recommendations: Also, you can recommend products to complement their purchase or as alternatives. Product recommendations that are personalized have a higher conversion rate than generic ones.
You should also do some research to find out which personalization is most effective for your hospital. It will also depend upon the robustness and technology of your email marketing campaigns.
7 Best Email Marketing Practices For Healthcare Professionals
You’ve now learned the importance of email marketing in hospitals and what makes a good email campaign. Now let’s look at some practical newsletters you can use right away. Here are some practical newsletter ideas you can implement immediately.
1. Collect New Patient Email Addresses
Email lists are a collection of contact information for people who have agreed to receive promotional emails or updates. A email lists is a list of prospective patients that you can nurture using your email marketing strategy for healthcare.
Here’s how you can build an email list, whether you’re a doctor or work in a clinic:
- Begin with existing patients. Since you have already established a rapport, it is safe to ask for their email. Ask for their email at their next appointment or reach out to them via SMS or call. Inform them of your intentions such as news, updates and offers.
- Use social media.Social Media channels are a great way to grow your email list. This is especially true if you have an established audience. You can, for example, share a link to your landing page in your bio on social media. Here’s what Mayo Clinic has done:
- Create sign-up forms online:You may integrate an email signup form into your website depending on different triggers. They can, for example, appear as a user prepares to leave your website – exit-intent Popups.
- Run an online contest or giveaway. In the healthcare industry, you can offer free consultations or check-ups to patients in exchange for their personal information. For instance, Columbia Memorial Hospital held a contest in order to give away an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) to a medical organisation.
2. Start with a Welcome Email
When a reader subscribes to a mailing list for the first time, they receive Welcome Emails. The welcome email marks the start of a relationship with the customer. The tone of your email can give a customer a sense of how you communicate. A welcome email gives you the opportunity to tell your readers more about your company and introduce your services.
Mayo Clinic offers a fantastic welcome newsletter.
A great welcome email will have an attractive subject line. The subject line should be personal and tell the reader about the newsletter.
You can also explain the benefits of signing up for the mailing list. Include a call-to-action encouraging the reader explore other aspects of you business. You can, for example, add a hyperlink to your resource center.
3. Sending appointment confirmation emails
When someone makes an appointment, they receive an email confirmation. This email should be sent immediately following the action. These emails are known as Transactional, and they play a crucial role in the success this marketing channel.
This email should not be complicated. This email should acknowledge the meeting and if necessary, give more details about it. For example, the time or place. This is an example of a well-written letter:
4. Send a Happy Birthday Email
Birthday emails can be a wonderful way to show your clients how much you care. This shows your appreciation and can help to retain and engage customers. They also receive high click-through and open rates. With the right CTAs, they can even encourage readers to take additional action.
You can connect with your clients on a deeper level by sending a good birthday email, like this one from Dr. Anthony Bennet.
You can collect the dates during the sign-up process for the newsletter or later at the appointment, as part of the patient history.
5. Sending Wellness Tips
Email content should be valuable to the reader. It’s therefore important that you send your subscribers relevant healthcare resources. Dental clinics, for example, could provide tips on healthy living around dental care. Diabetes clinics could share tips for living with diabetes.
In the example below Fullscript teaches its audience about Vitamin C:
By sharing credible information, you establish yourself as a trustworthy source for content, products and services. This helps you become a recognized authority in your area. You will have an advantage over other experts when people start looking for one.
6. Offer Special Promotions
Use your newsletter to cultivate your audience with special promotions. This is an example of a promotion email from Lady Lake Smiles Dental.
Here are some other incentives that you can provide:
- Offers are only valid for a limited time
- Exclusive deals
- Promotions for holidays and seasonal events
- Product launches
- New Arrivals
- Discounts and coupons
You can send targeted emails to achieve the best results by using email segmentation. You can, for example, send an email with a promotion after a patient’s first appointment if they have had their first one.
7. Share Client Testimonials
Testimonials can be a powerful tool for marketing, as they serve as proof that you have provided an impressive service. You can share testimonials with your most loyal clients via email.
Here is a sample where a couple shares their experience of dealing with ambiguous ethical issues in IVF. At the bottom of the email Tennessee Reproductive Medicine also includes a client testimonial.
You can gradually encourage more people to share their experiences. These reviews will boost your facility’s credibility and increase the confidence of current and future clients.
Conclusion
A healthcare email campaign can be an excellent marketing tool for hospitals. You must first build an email list that is robust and ongoing. Start by collecting email addresses from your existing patients. Then, use social media to reach a wider audience.
For maximum results, the email campaign should also be segmented and personalized. Automate your emails to save time and increase the effectiveness of your campaigns. Segmentation and personalization will ensure you are targeting the right customers with the right offers, products, services, etc. at the right moment.
Want to streamline your email marketing for your healthcare center’s website? Create a Moosend account and improve your metrics with our features.
Author Bio
Austin Andrukaitis
Entrepreneur Leadership Network Writer
Austin Andrukaitis is the CEO of ChamberofCommerce.com. He is an experienced digital marketer with years of experience creating successful online campaigns. Austin’s approach in developing, optimizing and delivering web technologies has helped organizations achieve higher profits, increase productivity and position them for accelerated sustainable growth.
The post Email Marketing for Hospitals: the Ultimate Guide [2023] first appeared on Email Marketing Automation Platform For Thriving Businesses.
