In this blog post, I will be discussing as well as provide examples of how my team and I helped doctors use email marketing to increase their medical clinic revenue and efficiency.
If doctors have a good list of all their patients then the message going out to patients is easily segmented by the email marketing consultant into different email lists and is updated on a regular basis as new patients visit the medical clinic.
When I helped doctors set up an email marketing program we put together welcome emails to introduce the patients to this marketing medium as well as give them an option to opt-out if they wish to no longer receive an email newsletter from the doctor.
The way we set up welcome emails is to thank patients for choosing the Doctor and their medical clinic following their first visit as well as including the doctor’s office hours and phone number for future appointments. By doing this we provide patients with easy access to book future appointments. By having the office hours in advance, the patient can work out their own schedule ahead of calling the office and in doing so an appointment is more likely to be secured on the first call reducing time spent by receptionist on the phone.
The welcome email campaigns makes the doctor’s office more productive as the receptionist can now focus on more revenue generation tasks such as billing and booking appointments instead of on the phone advising patients of office hours.
Once we set up the email marketing program through the email service provider as well as the welcome emails we set our eyes on setting up email lists and segmenting the lists to increase engagement with patients of the medical clinic.
One such email list was for patients using specific prescriptions and segmenting that list into the many prescriptions drugs names which the medical client wrote to the patients.
The reason we did this is to advise patients of updates, recalls, and new drug treatment options that could be available to them. For example let’s say that in the medical practice some of the patients may be taking drugs for cholesterol but a revolutionary new drug received FDA approval and is now available. The email marketing consultant creates a new segment that includes all the names and email addresses of the patients taking cholesterol lowering medication and sends them a newsletter with the name of the new drug, the reasons why the patient should switch as well as some other relevant information that is important to the patients such as cholesterol lowering recipes.
Now instead of the receptionist having to call each and every patient to advise them of this new drug or the doctor having to wait for the patient to ask, patients will be calling to book an appointment to get a new prescription resulting in revenue generation when the patient visits the medical clinic.
Another opportunity for doctors to use email marketing is to send patients an email when they are due for a follow up visit and remind them to come in. This would work great for dentists when they need to remind patients to come in every six month for their dental cleaning or for dermatologist to remind patients to come in for their yearly skin screening.
Email marketing provides plenty of opportunities for doctors to care more, become more engaged with their patients and allowing the staff to focus on revenue generation tasks.
There are plenty of other email marketing opportunities that doctors can utilize. Some of the email marketing campaigns that I have set up for doctors are:
Patient testimonials – Nothing works better in increasing confidence in the doctor then patients giving positive testimonials in regards to the treatment they received at the medical clinic. The email marketing consultant can set up an email campaign once every three month and send emails to patients with testimonials keeping in touch and in front of the patient’s eyes so that when the need does arise, they think of the doctor for treatment.
Clinical Studies - An example of how this would be used with an email newsletter is if a dermatologist finds out about a new cream for Acne treatment which some of the patients may benefit from.
Another example is a doctor discovering a new way to treat diabetes and sends an email newsletter to his diabetic patients advising them of the potential benefits as well as asking if they are interested in participating in such clinical studies.
Trends in Health and Medicine – This can be a weekly/bi-weekly/monthly newsletter that the doctor sends out to keep their patients up to date on the latest trends as well as give them tips on how to stay healthy.
Upcoming Events – Doctors can show their patients that they are engaged in the community by sending email newsletters to clients in a specific area lettering them know if there are any special family or seasonal events by segmenting their list to individual cities.
Seminars and workshops that will be given by the doctor on new procedures and therapies those clients may be interested in.
Confirmation of appointments – Sending emails to clients a week before their scheduled appointment, 3 days before and one day before as well as providing them a number they can call or an online link (if available) to request to change the appointment.
Additional office opening – An email campaign can be set up once the medical doctor opens a new office, they can send an email to all their current patients who live within a relatively short distance advising them of the new medical and the new phone number should the patient wish to change.
Client Spotlight – An email campaign can be set up and sent to certain segments of the doctor’s patients list which details information about a specific client and how they benefited from a certain treatment. This can lead other patients to ask about similar treatments and lead to an increase of the medical practice revenues.
This is especially true with dentists who can offer cosmetic treatments such as crowns, tooth whitening, dental implants. Dermatologist can also offer cosmetic treatments such as Botox treatments, laser surgery, chemical peels and Blue light treatments to remove sun damage.
In fact an email marketing campaign can be created for any optional treatments that can be offered to the doctor’s patients.
Press Release statement – An email campaign can be set up and sent to all of the doctor’s patients if the doctor was recognized by their peers or the medical industry or in fact anything that warrants a press release.
Happy holiday’s emails – A doctor can ask the email marketing consultant to set up email campaign to send best wishes via email newsletters or holiday emails to patients before holidays saving money on stamps and increasing productivity in the office.
