PRACTICE MANAGEMENT | E-MARKETING | rates and thus, more revenue. However,
you may find that the reverse is actually true and sending out more e-blasts can have a disastrous effect on your analytics. I tend to hedge my bets. I prefer to send
e-blasts on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and around mid-morning. Fridays tend to be risky, and weekends and holidays seem somehow too intrusive. The day after a holiday is also among my blackout dates. By using the analytics tool from your email marketing service, you can see the days and times your emails were opened. If Tuesday afternoon is the most popular, then you can try that time-frame again for special offers and see what happens. The goal is to reach out to potential customers at the days and times that it is most convenient for them to get their attention. If you have the time, conduct some internal testing with their mailing list by sending emails on different days of the week and measuring the click-through and open rates. The target customer, as well as the content of your e-blast, should also be considered. For example, if you are trying to reach stay-at-home mothers, you might try mid-morning or mid-afternoon when children are most likely to be napping.
Maintaining your lists Your email list is a hot commodity that deserves a dedicated staff member to manage. Every time a patient comes into the clinic, make sure someone checks the chart to be sure you have the accurate contact information, address, as well as email address. Whenever possible, a personal email is preferable to a work or professional email that tends to change more often. A personal email address is more permanent. Growing your list is
Steps to effective email lists ✔ Collect emails with permission to use them
✔ From the beginning, segment your emails as much as possible (by gender, post ode, patient vs. referral, surgery vs. non-surgical procedures, etc.)
✔ Maintain your list to be sure to have the correct emails ✔ Delete or update any bounc- backs or unsubscribes
✔ Debride your list of chronic non-responders every 6 months
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important, but debriding it to get rid of the non-responders is equally important to have a healthy list to work with. A list packed with email addresses that
Think of this way: why waste time and
money to send mail to someone who will
probably never make a purchase, click on your website, visit your clinic, or refer a friend?
are no longer taking action (opening or clicking) on your emails is not effective. These people may be just clogging up your good list and serve no real purpose as part of your overall marketing plan. Think of it this way: why waste time and money to send mail to someone who will probably never make a purchase, click on your website, visit your clinic, or refer a friend? Disinterested subscribers may also complain rather than acting on an unsubscribe option, which can count as a strike against you with your service provider. If your e-blasts keep missing subscribersÕ inboxes, many service providers like Gmail and Yahoo may classify your mail as spam or junk. To grow your list, consider
offering incentives for your current subscribers to get their friends to sign-up, such as a
discount on a future purchase or a free skincare gift for referring a friend. If your list is segmented, you can create different campaigns for different segments to target each of their specific needs, interests and topics they care about.
Add some sizzle to your email marketing campaign If you are using an outdated method of sending e-blasts manually ® through AOL or Yahoo for example ® it is time to take your email marketing to the next level. Upgrade your template with a fresh,
new look that mirrors your website, Facebook page and all other practice materials. Make changes to the layout, colour scheme, and add some new links and Call to Action buttons. Save examples of e-blasts in your inbox that compelled you to read them and think about what you liked about these to get ideas. Images are a vital component in an email campaign, but you also need to have enough text to make it interesting to read and click through. A good e-blast should be constructed to be effective, even if the recipient is not able to see any of the images used. A common mistake is to create a pretty looking ad in Photoshop without adding text. A header image should be relatively narrow (in terms of height), and readers should be able to
January/February 2013 |
prime-journal.com
Promote clinic news,
added products, services,
events, staff, media hits
Avoid using images in place of header text
Make sure all live links are active
Add share buttons, send to a friend
Keep copy brief and punchy with ÔR ead MoreÕ li nks
read your lead-in text without having to scroll down. The subject line is what convinces
recipients to open the email. Then, if the intro text and first paragraph is meaningful to them, the reader will be far more likely to click to download images. However, some percentage of users still wonÕ t download the images and prefer to just read the entire email without images enabled. Compelling subject lines should hint as to the contents of the e-blast in a friendly, engaging and interesting way. The most important factor is the quality of the content of your e-blasts. To increase subscribers and click through rates, and decrease unsubscribes, keep the value and quality of the content of your e-blasts high. If your e-blast is providing useful information and something they cannot get anywhere else, you are more likely to keep your subscriber list intact. Mobile marketing applies to e-blasts as
well. A mobile-friendly design is well worth investing in as more people now view e-blasts on smaller technology. With technology continuing to progress,
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