DO YOU OPEN every email that hits your inbox? Be honest. If you’re like most people, probably not.
Open rates for the healthcare industry hover around 21%. This means that 79% of people will either delete your email without engaging with it, or just let it languish in their inbox until such time as a batch delete clears out the thousands of backlogged messages.
Crafting the perfect email isn’t as easy as some DIY platforms would have you believe. A lot more goes into an email newsletter than just reminding people to book an eye exam.
Snazzy subject line. For most people, the subject line is what entices them to open an email. You only have one shot to stand out. Offering a promotion is a great way to get noticed! Strategically placed, tasteful emojis are eye-catching too. Inbox algorithms are tricky these days and there are some keywords that will send an email straight to spam — your best bet is to engage a professional email marketer who can help you avoid any pitfalls.
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Original content & calls to action. Once your patients have opened your email, they’ll spend an average of 12 seconds with the content. It’s tempting to cram way too much information in, but studies show that people really only skim.
Readers look at headlines, sub-headers, imagery, and calls to action. Make sure that each section of your email inspires the reader to take action. You can get much more creative than just “Book an Appointment” too. Try “Come & Visit Us” or “Get Fitted for Contact Lenses.”
Your website already has great information on it — your email newsletters should not aim to duplicate that content. Little teasers of information are great.Keep your emails short and fun and take some creative risks!
Know your audience. Email newsletters are sent to your existing patients—so it’s important to know who they are and what they’re interested in. Sure, you might want to build your dry eye business, but email newsletters need to help your current patients learn more about dry eye.
A good email marketer can craft content that will help any topic appeal to your current patients.
Conversions can happen creatively. Just because people aren’t booking appointments immediately, directly from the email, doesn’t mean your email marketing isn’t working. Think about how you interact with emails.
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Now picture this. One of your patients is at work, sitting at her desk when her phone lights up. There’s a new email and it’s from your office. She takes a look, smiles at the creative content, and then makes a note in her calendar that it’s time for an eye exam.
That patient probably won’t call the moment she receives your email. Chances are, she calls your office when she has a break in her day or visits your website later in the evening to book an appointment.
A great marketing agency will have all of this data for you. They’ll be able to walk you through exactly what steps your patient took to get from that email into your office and help you replicate that success in every campaign.