Every medical practice needs an email list of patients and potential patients. That includes yours! Not just because you want to promote your healthcare services to grow a thriving practice, but also because it is one of the best media available for health education. In today’s information economy, people don’t want to wait until their next appointment to ask you if they should worry about Zika or if they can really get the flu from the shot.
Typically, a medical email list is accumulated by embedding an email sign up form right into your website. Several email services offer this capability. They are well-designed, and easy to use. We like MailChimp, because it is simple and free to inexpensive depending on your number of subscribers and the number of emails you send out each month. AWeber is another email service provider that offers excellent features.
In addition, an email service will do the work of keeping you compliant with laws regarding email marketing and spam. The CAN-SPAM Act is just one important reason you shouldn’t try to manage your list yourself unless you want to devote a lot of time to it.
You probably already have a list of emails of your patients. You can upload these emails to your email service, too. This way your email list is kept in one secure location. You can then create sublists of current patients, former patients, potential patients, age groups, genders and other categories. Then you can customize the content you choose to share with individuals groups or the entire list.
Once you have your list set up, and the sign-up form embedded on your website, this will allow anyone who visits your site to get the health information you choose to share. There is no limit to the valuable information you can convey through your emails.
- Blog posts (you don’t have to count on folks to remember to visit your website each time your create a new post);
- Newsletters (you can even embed audio and video);
- Notices about community health events;
- Introduction or news about your staff members;
- Health reminders for things like flu shots and screening tests;
- Rapid response to health issues in the news (think Zika precautions);
- and the list goes on.
It goes without saying that you should never share the information on your medical email list or use it to send anything that could be considered spam. Be sure to let people know that this is how you operate – don’t just assume that they know it. We all hate getting spam in our inbox, and most people have grown cautious about giving out their email address because of it. This should be stated in your sign up form on your website.
The simple process of building an email list of individuals who are interested in what you have to say about healthcare will help you make the most of the doctor-patient relationship, even when your patients aren’t in the office.
And that reminds me. We have an email list here at CB Medical Marketing. It’s right down below this post where it says “Subscribe to Our Blog.” Why not sign up to get the latest info on marketing your medical practice? We will never sell, share, or spam your email (see how I did that?), and you can unsubscribe at anytime. We have some exciting things coming in the next few months, so why not go ahead and sign up now, so you don’t miss a thing?
Related:
Your Medical Website Isn’t a Crockpot
Photo credit: lenetsnikolai via Adobe Stock
