Want to generate referrals, keep patients engaged and reactivate patients that have not been in the office in a while?
A well-done monthly newsletter is an effective way to keep your patients connected to you and at the top of their minds, helping to boost your practice’s long-term growth through referrals and retention.
Specifically, a Newsletter Marketing Program Can:
- Demonstrate your thought leadership in your field or a particular niche
- Introduce new treatments and/or practitioners on your team
- Encourage more word-of-mouth referrals
- Strengthen referral partnerships
Ready to get started?
Follow these 8 tips and create a compelling practice newsletter of your own.
1) First and foremost, know your brand. What is your specialty and what types of treatments bring the largest number of patients into your office? Talk about those first and often! Do you have a particular font style or color scheme that you’ve used in past marketing materials? If so, continue to use them (as long as they present well) to establish your unique brand identity. If you don’t have a favorite font, pick one that is professional and clear to read. Here is a color-wheel HTML generator to help you choose the perfect hues!
2) Build your database with qualified targets. Collect email addresses from every patient who comes to see you, in addition to those who are referred by partner physicians. Think of your list as a self-selected target audience—a collection of patients who want to hear what YOU have to say! As your staff members collect email addresses, remind them to assure patients that you will only send relevant and helpful content, that you will not overwhelm them with too many emails and that you will never—ever—share their address or use it to send spam.
3) Develop compelling content that is relevant to the problems that you help solve. The relevancy of content is perhaps the most critical component of a successful newsletter. To avoid unopened emails and high unsubscribe rates, focus on your patients rather than your accomplishments. By creating high-quality content that demonstrates your knowledge in areas that your patients care about, you show that you can effectively help change their lives if they come to see you or another physician in your practice.
4) Write enough words to convert. Short 500-word articles are engaging and easy-to-read, yet marketing polls have shown that people are more likely to share articles with 1000 words or more. So, feel free to write your heart out! If you want to go into depth on a particular topic, break the longer content into shorter paragraphs with standout headers and don’t be afraid to use bullet points, especially for lists.
5) Sharing is caring. At the end of your newsletter emails, ask your patients to forward the email to someone who may benefit from the information. In general, people love to engage their sense of altruism and help improve loved one’s lives. Adding social media buttons to your articles is another great way to get your content shared far and wide.
6) Create a regular email schedule. Once per month newsletters are ideal, but one per quarter is fine if you’re strapped for time. If your articles are compelling and helpful, your patient will begin to look forward to them! Building this type of loyalty may take some time, but will occur faster if you send a newsletter each month.
7) Create compelling subject lines. Short, descriptive and targeted is best. Email open rates will be highest if you offer readers something that will benefit them immediately. If you’re stumped, just describe the topic that you’re covering in the feature (or single) article. Pay mind to avoid using these words that are more likely to trigger spam filters: free, weight loss, reverse aging, save money and the “$” sign.
8) Advertise specials, new services and new physicians within the newsletter. Give your patients yet another reason to open, read and click through by offering a “deal of the month” on products and/or services.
3 Free Newsletter Services to Try
MailChimp: Free if you have less than 2,000 addresses with no expiring trial, contract or credit card required. Create the perfect look and feel with a drag-and-drop designer or use their built-in templates. MailChimp also lets you create forms and collect subscribers from social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and WordPress.
Send in Blue: Unlimited contracts, mobile-friendly email designer, premade templates, drag-and-drop design options, customizable sign-up forms, phone and email support, and real-time reporting make this platform ideal for beginners.
Target Hero: Perfect for smaller practices with smaller lists, this plan includes 1,000 contacts. They offer an easy-to-use editor, HTML or plain text emails, the ability to import web pages, image hosting and real-time analytics (so that you can track your open rates).
Get (More) Free Practice Marketing Tips!
Click here and find the icon labeled “Marketing” to take a short questionnaire about your existing marketing efforts. Once complete, you will see how well your marketing program is aligned with practice growth and get our free PDF, filled with tips from the P2P practice marketing experts!
Power2Practice is the first EMR, business development platform and patient portal designed specifically for Integrative, Anti-Aging and Functional Medicine practices. Click here for a 30-minute online demo or call (800) 590-7459 to have all of your questions answered.