Boost Your Online Physician Marketing Response: 8 Secret Email Tips

Marketing professionals recognize the potential benefits of email as an online physician marketing tool. Patients prefer digital health communications. It’s fast. Email is convenient. And it's affordable and cost effective. But there are simple-but-essential secrets to doing it right.

How to get online physician marketing right...

Here are some of the email marketing tips and techniques that boost response:

• Clean and maintain your list. Successful email efforts rely on a current and up-to-date list. Maintain your list by keeping accurate and current addresses. Respect and remove opt-out, undeliverable and unsubscribe requests, changes, duplicates and opt-in requests.

• Think mobile devices first. Better than half of all emails are opened on a mobile device. If your message can’t be seen and read on a small screen, it’s likely to become a candidate for the trash bin. Optimize emails to be seen on a smartphone or tablet, as well as on a desktop monitor.

• Have singular and obvious call-to-action. Devise your email message to be about a single topic. And include one (and only one) action step for the reader. Make it obvious…and compelling.

• Make the sender a person (and not a business). Person-to-person email is far more effective and trustworthy than an impersonal generic or company name. Designate FROM as an individual name with matching email address.

• Personalize the recipient with an individual’s name. Personalization works better than “Dear Madam/Sir” or other non-specific salutation. Communication directed to a specific person’s name engenders stronger connection and loyalty. If your list doesn’t have a first name/last name, work to clean, correct and update the list for future use. (And revise your opt-in list building routine to trap off the personalization data going forward.)

• Be personable. Find a voice for your message that is genuine, warm and friendly. Make it a reflection of the sender’s personality with a person-to-person tone of voice.

• Be social and sharing. Include social media sharing buttons when appropriate. And invite recipients to include your name and address in their contact list.

• Always proof, test and track. Every email campaign requires fresh eyes to review and proof. Install a means to test the components (list, offer, timing, etc.), and a way to measure and track results.

Stewart Gandolf, MBA, CEO