If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that plans may alter quickly. Whatever you forecast today may not be correct tomorrow. To stay ahead of the competition, you need to regularly monitor the latest trends and most effective methods.
Many healthcare practices adjusted their strategy to digitally interact and communicate with their patients throughout the global pandemic. As a result, email marketing received an unexpected boost, and new email trends have emerged.
What does email marketing do for my practice?
Email marketing helps you connect with your patients to promote your practice and increase revenue. Email marketing can inform patients about in-store promotions, remind them where they are in their eyecare journey and share interesting eye care information to improve your retention.
Does email marketing work?
When you want to communicate something about your practice or promote eye care, email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to do so.
The power of email marketing lies in its ability to provide businesses of all sizes with an attractive return on investment. In fact, according to an eMarketer study, the median email marketing ROI is 122%, and which is four times higher than any other digital marketing channel.
Still, people receive more and more emails all the time, and it can be challenging to stand out in full inboxes. That’s why various providers give you the tools you need to shine and develop an effective email marketing campaign for all your patients.
How do I get my patients email list?
You’ll see the highest ROIÂ when you build and maintain an engaged subscriber list made up of people who want to receive your messages (and who opted in on purpose). Although building a clean list can take more work at the outset of your email marketing strategy;Â it is however worth the effort.
Chances are, you have the information already in your practice management system. Ensure that you request an email address from all patients when visiting your practice for a consultation.Â
I'm ready for email marketing, but which platform should I use?
Whether you’re starting your first email marketing campaign or you’re a seasoned email pro, there are various tools on the market to reach your patient database via email. You want a quick and easy system that integrates with your existing systems.
How do I know if your email marketing was effective?
It is essential to measure your marketing efforts, one of the great things about email marketing is that there are built-in tracking tools in most email marketing platforms that give you a breakdown of your efforts. An analytical report showing which of your emails were delivered, bounced, read or clicked will provide insight into engagement with the email message.Â
Specialized platforms like OcuMarketing drill deeper, giving you further insight into which email recipients returned for a consultation. A revenue breakdown of the consultation value of who returned as a result of the email marketing campaign can lead to more than a 25X return on investment. Setting a campaign goal before sending your email campaign will enable you to measure effectiveness beyond reads and clicks, but of greatest importance, patients who return for paid consultations and services.
How does email marketing fit in with the new legislation of POPI?
Email recipients are more concerned about their privacy than ever before, and they are more aware of how their data is being utilized. To gain their trust and loyalty, you must go beyond ensuring POPI and GDPR compliance. To ensure that you achieve their expectations, make privacy the focal point of all your email campaigns.
Being considerate and offering your subscribers the choice to unsubscribe and manage their preferences ensures that a list stays current. As people may no longer wish to receive your email marketing, or recipients email addresses are no longer in use, you will have a healthier and more engaged email list.
As the challenges of 2021 draws to an end, there is still the opportunity to get your patients back to your practice. With medical aid cycles drawing to a close and new benefit cycles beginning, now is a great time to reach out to patients, especially those that are overdue for an eye examination. Many new email marketing trends are emerging, so if you can take advantage of them, you will be ahead of the competition to get into the patient’s inbox and into your consultation chair.
