You may have heard some of these buzzwords recently from Marketing and Online service providers:
- Drip email campaigns
- Email funnels
- Automated follow up emails
- Email Auto-Responders
But what is it all about and what makes sense for your business?
Let’s take a step back and get some clarity on this wishy washy world of automated email campaigns. These are crafted in advance and sent out automatically when activated to trigger. What that means is being able to have fully automated emails in funnels that are sent based on a variety of actions that are taken. Examples of those actions can be filling out a form requesting an appointment, opening up an email and interacting with the media (clicking on a link), or having an upcoming scheduled appointment.
There are a couple ways to tackle email campaigns- Doing It Yourself, Email Template Providers, and Full Service Agencies.
So maybe you put together a newsletter every month to your current patients. Is this your business’ complete email strategy? Likewise if you have an email template provider, you may have a service who is taking care of sending that monthly nurturing emails to your current patient base.
We work every day with our clients to drive new patients through their door so we know how important that is to you. Can you imagine if you had automated contacts going out to that person every step of the journey with your office? And with little to no effort from you or your staff? It could be GOLD for your medical practice.
The key with automated email sequences is determining the events that should trigger communication and what content would be relevant to that individual at that point in time. Some great examples for your medical practice could be:
1. After someone requests an appointment or additional information – Sending them a video from the Doctor giving them an introduction to the practice
2. Someone has scheduled their first appointment with your office – What if they saw a couple testimonials in emails before their appointment to help them feel more at ease about coming in?
3. Anniversary Date – Has someone been coming to your office for a specific length of time whether it is a couple of reoccurring visits or a year? Let them know you appreciate them choosing your office, invite them to leave a review or forward it on to a referral.