Healthcare email marketing is booming, facilitated by the rise of technology and the ever-growing number of communication channels available to marketers and communications professionals.

But marketing is only part of the story. Much of the information shared in this industry is communication and education from a healthcare provider to a patient. Or from one medical professional to another. This isn’t marketing, it’s communication. And this means traditional email marketing platforms often fail to deliver the features needed to facilitate safe, compliant communication for healthcare professionals.

We’ll discuss the topic in depth, but first, let us introduce ourselves. Envoke is an email marketing platform built for communicators Our healthcare customers count on our unique mandatory messaging feature which gives you the ability to send mandatory emails without the possibility to unsubscribe - in addition to opt-in messages, of course. This is useful when you're sending must-receive information to staff, partners and patients who are otherwise unsubscribed from optional content like newsletters.

Unlike Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and other platforms, Envoke’s focus is on subscription management and effective communications rather than commercial revenue generation. Check out this handy comparison chart: Envoke vs. Mailchimp.

“The platform is very user friendly. It has every feature you could possibly need to send a successful email campaign. It’s easy to integrate with your website, and has great customer service that is quick at responding!”

Spencer Boddy
Tall Tree Health

If you work in the healthcare sector, you’re likely here to learn about which healthcare email marketing and communication strategies make sense in your industry. In this article, we will share tips and best practices to help you succeed.

We will walk you through:

• Why you should consider healthcare email marketing
• 5 ways to keep adding new patients to your email list
• 3 tips to create email marketing campaigns for your hospital 
• 8 Healthcare newsletter ideas to increase patient retention  
• How to start email marketing for your hospital

Let’s dig in.

Why You Should Consider Healthcare Email Marketing

Email is a powerful marketing channel. It gives you the ability to personalize your message according to your target audience. And delivering to your audience the information they need the most creates a trusted connection and builds a positive relationship. This is marketing and communications at its very best. With healhcare email marketing, you can send personalized emails based on your contact’s interests, health status, and phase of life.

Healthcare providers need email marketing to: 

• Maintain communication.
• Deliver important information.
• Automate appointment reminders.
• Engage patients.

The main point is, it keeps the link between you and your patients active, even when they are not seeking your medical assistance. But it won’t work if your relationship is not authentic. It’s important to truly inform and engage your contacts, especially when you’re involved with public sector email marketing. Be mindful of their time and respect it because, as business coach and keynote speaker, Bob Hooey said: “If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will.”

Email marketing has proven to be cost-effective, too. According to MailerLite report, the average email open rate for health-related emails is 23.46%, with a very high click rate of 3.62%.

Now let’s look at how you can launch and sustain an email marketing campaign for healthcare institutions.

5 Ways to Keep Adding New Patients to your Contact List

Your contact list is the key to growing your relationship with your existing patients and a pathway to building relationships with new connections. But when it comes to healthcare email marketing, standard tactics aren’t always an effective way to grow your list, and you need to take care with your approach. With that in mind, here are five good ways to keep adding new patients to your email list.

1. Get your patients’ email addresses 

This step is obvious. It’s important to get your new patients’ email addresses early on in their journey with your services and products. Your ultimate goal will be to create a relationship that is valuable to both parties.

How can you do this? You can start by adding an email request section in the paperwork your client fills out. Ideally, you can make the process more practical by having them fill out an online form using their email address as a checkout.

Finally, try to ensure that your clients understand that the main purpose of your emails is to keep them informed and that they can unsubscribe from optional communications at any time.

2. Make your appointment booking online 

Fast and easy! Online booking is the simplest and most efficient way to allow your customers to book available services, so you never lose a potential customer. In addition to the fact that online booking is intuitive, clear and accessible 24/7, it also means your customers will provide you with their contact information – and begin to expect to interact with you through this channel.

3. Offer free information-consults with experts 

Offering a free information-only consultation with an expert is an eye-catching opportunity. It’s not common among healthcare marketing strategies, but it will make you stand out.

Consider this: there are many medical service providers to choose from, and your future client isn’t sure if you’re worth the investment. This gives them a genuine opportunity to see your excellence on display. Free information-only consultations with experts also help establish you as a thought-leader and an authority, and they’re also a good testing ground to understand public opinion about any new medical products and services.

Offering a free information-only consultation can be so effective that people will contact you directly, which means you will be organically growing your email list

4. Host medical webinars

Some healthcare organizations host medical webinars to establish themselves as thought leaders. Webinars can attract new patients, and strengthen the relationship with the existing ones.

In healthcare, webinars also have an industry-facing side where managers, sales teams and medical practitioners use them to share information. You can use your authority in this field to provide reliable information to your audience, establish yourself as a reliable expert and attract new contacts and patients this way.

5. Use opt-in forms 

Another way for you to acquire email addresses is to reach people online. If you have a blog or use digital advertising to attract new web traffic, you can create integrated forms, pop-ups or custom landing pages using Envoke email software.

The 4 best places to integrate a sign-up form are:

• The blog sidebar
• Under each blog post 
• In the “About” or “Contact Us” pages
• In pop-ups on your website

Here is a perfect example of a subscriber form tucked into the footer of this email. It is well-designed, with a clear value proposition of what the subscriber will receive. 

If you’re managing healthcare email marketing in Canada, make sure to create CASL compliant opt-in forms and obtain your subscribers’ express consent. Before thinking about your healthcare email marketing strategy, make sure you know the best practices as they pertain to the healthcare industry, to ensure your campaign is a success.

3 Tips to Create Email Marketing Campaigns for Your Hospital 

Email’s incredible return on investment comes from its ability to target the right people with the proper message. The three most effective practices to achieve this are:

• Automation
• Segmentation
• Personalization

1. Automate your email campaign

Once you start expanding your email list, it becomes difficult to manually send emails to each subscriber at the right time. Email automation solves this problem by allowing you to send emails based on behavioural, temporal, or other triggers. For example, when subscribing, you can automatically send a welcome email and/or set triggers to send a patient a reminder of an annual appointment.

2. Segment your subscribers

Segmenting your subscribers into smaller groups based on a set of characteristics revealed by their data, or information shared in their opt-in form, will help you send more targeted emails. For example, you can set up a group of patients with kids, or patients with specific medical needs. That way, instead of sending pediatric information to your entire list, you can simply target the relevant group with information about children’s health.

In Envoke, you can add labels and tags to contacts to help segment these groups. You can also automatically segment contacts based on the data they submitted in their opt-in form, which leads us to our next point.

3. Personalize your healthcare email marketing newsletters

Even if you are sending messages to hundreds or even thousands of people, you can give the impression that you are talking directly to one person.

Email marketing for healthcare can be extremely personalized. And nearly 96% of organizations believe that personalization improves the performance of email marketing. 

How to do that? 

• Use your contacts’ first names.
• Use your contacts’ date of birth.
• Trigger your contacts’ interests.
• Include your real name and picture.
• Send personalized emails based on the opt-in source.
• Use Envoke’s dynamic content blocks to send information targeted to specific segments based on internal tags

You’ll need to experiment and monitor your KPIs to see which personalization techniques work best for you. Now let’s talk inspiration! Here are eight of the best healthcare newsletter ideas and real-life examples.

8 Healthcare Newsletter Ideas to Increase Patient Retention

Now that you’ve got some insight into why healthcare email marketing matters, and tips on how to get started, let’s get inspired. Let’s discover 8 of the best healthcare newsletter ideas and examples.

1. Start with a welcome email

A welcome email is your first contact with your subscriber. When a person registers, you set up an automatic message that will be sent at the exact moment they confirm. This instant response sets the tone for the relationship. It lets your registrants know that they are important and that you are ready to meet their needs. So, the welcome email is an opportunity for you to define your expectations and make a valid first impression.

Below, the Mayo Clinic does a nice job of welcoming new subscribers. They outline their value proposition, explain what to expect and offer valuable welcome discounts.

2. Inform your subscribers

People want access to reliable information,so sharing current health-related information and resources is a natural fit for healthcare email marketing. It’s also a great opportunity to encourage your stakeholders to be attentive and proactive with their health.

This healthcare email template showcases reliable information concerning COVID-19. Letting your audience know that you are there to inform them and guide them will create an authentic relationship that they trust.

The following healthcare email example is very suitable since it’s brief and straightforward. Don’t forget to promote your services and products. By building a relationship based on trust, you also create an environment where your contacts will be more open to purchasing related products you may sell.

Market segmentation is very important, too. By adding tags and labeling your contacts, you can send them highly targeted messages. For example, you can segment leads that are interested in healthy eating habits, fitness and weight loss and send them emails that are relevant to their interests.

This sample above is a great example of a targeted email that is rich in information and resources.

3. Share tips with your patients

Becoming a trusted source of information for your contacts is your primary goal, so be sure to track your open and click rates to discover what style of content resonates with your readers. Sending emails packed with actionable information contained in easy-to-understand tips is one effective and pleasing communication style. The design of this healthcare email below is a great example: it’s attractive and the content is very clear and precise.

Here’s another great example from Fullscript. This email design is easy to digest and attractive. It’s quick and creative, with a “keep reading” button for those who would like more information. A perfect e-blast.

Use your full palette of brand colors in your healthcare email marketing. Your designs should be attractive and approachable and you should strive to make your content friendly and relatable.

4. Offer promotions 

Promotions keep your audience hooked. They love them! So why not share promotion announcements in your newsletter regularly? This healthcare promotion email below is a great example. It’s eye-catching, simple and full of interesting graphics.

5. Make your medical products accessible online

Once you have established a certain relationship with your audience, they will be more open to receiving product/service advertisements. Remember to tailor your products to your customers’ needs. This will increase your sales success and will also help you remain relevant and trusted by your stakeholders. No one wants to receive information that is irrelevant to their interests and needs. 

Take note of the large call to action button on this page. It’s sizable, but fits into the page design so well, it feels like an design element rather than a giant “buy now” button. Great choice!

6. Confirm your orders with an email

A good order confirmation email capitalizes on your buyer’s enthusiasm, and eliminates confusion. Most importantly, it lays the groundwork for a successful relationship with your customers. In short, an order confirmation email is a “must.”.

Below is an example of a breezy, friendly order confirmation email: Simply clarify your client’s order details with a thank you note.

7. Share testimonials 

Testimonials work perfectly in healthcare email marketing since they are not rigid selling pitches, they are presented in an unbiased voice, and their purpose is to build trust. You can showcase your satisfied customers to demonstrate the success of your product or service. Here is a great example:

8. Send a Happy Birthday email

Sending a happy birthday email is a way to personalize your healthcare newsletter. It shows you are attentive, that you value your contacts, and is a great opportunity to keep your relationship vibrant and ongoing. Below is a nice birthday wishes email example that can inspire you.

Time to set up your action plan!

How to Start Email Marketing for Your Hospital?

Healthcare marketing has a lot to do with building a personalized and comfortable patient experience. This helps your patients:

• Find value in your communication.
• Receive good care and guidance.
• Not miss out on important dates and information.
• Feel positive about their experience with your healthcare centre.

As a first step, you need to choose the right healthcare email marketing email software.

Envoke is an excellent choice for your healthcare email marketing campaigns. It includes:

• Customizable sign-up forms to build your contact list.
• Pre-built responsive email templates to use.
• Automated autoresponder messages, and more.

After you register, create your first sign up form and embed it into your website to grow your contact list. Here is a preview of the form builder inside Envoke.

You can create a lead magnet campaign to provide an incentive for your website visitors and increase your lead generation performance.

The next step is to send personalized email campaigns to engage your patients and provide them with a positive experience with your institution.

It’s easy to design an email campaign in Envoke: no coding or IT skills required. Use our drag-and-drop email editor to create responsive and engaging healthcare email marketing campaigns.

Keep an eye on your campaign analytics to learn which campaign is working the best to help you optimize your performance.

Conclusion

A major part of healthcare marketing is building trust and providing a comfortable experience for your patients, staff and other clients and customers. This relationship usually begins with the first visit, and thanks to email marketing, you can grow that connection over time.

Email marketing allows you to establish a personal link with your patients. Staying in touch with them, and sharing your knowledge and insight also lets you remind them of the excellent care you provide. Start building a long-term relationship with your patients today, and watch your practice grow.