Eye Care Marketing and E-Newsletters: Does Frequency Really Matter?

Many of us who commit to email marketing as part of our overall eye care marketing strategy get hung up on which matters more:  Frequency or Content?

Well, it depends…But first,

Content Is King

Okay, so you’ve figured out that email is an extremely cost-effective way of getting your message out to the patient base.

Your email systems set up and ready to go and you even have a few emails collected.

So what are you going to talk about? The answer is easier than you think.

The key to is to give patients what they want – useful information about their eyes.

Yup. That leaves it wide open.

Whatever topic you focus on, it must be about them – for them – with them in mind.

But of course, written by you, from you, and with some semblance of your voice included.

Great content delivers value in style. The style is you, the practice, the doctor, or the eye care owner. The value is whatever topic promises to help people.

So you create an email broadcast and you send it. To your surprise it gets lots of opens. A few patients even write back to you. And if you are truly on the ball, more than a few decided it was time to see you…

So they clicked your online appointment link and now you’ve paid for the hosting, email service, and time it took you to put the email together.

Now you are ready to send the next one?

How about next week?

What Will Patients Think About Another One So Soon?

The answer again, depends.

And this time, its about your track record.

Or, to follow along with our discussion, how you put together that first message together.

Another thing about great content is that it always takes people on a bit of a journey. Everyone likes a story so its natural to cover a topic and mention that in the future there will be more about this.

For example, the topic of this discussion is one part of a much longer story that I’ll covering in great detail as we go on. Indeed, I’ve been putting this stuff together for you for quite some time, but I have my own practice to run.

In fact, I’m in the process of getting my next series of emails out to my patients about our upcoming Trunk Show. So I better keep this short.

The point is this:  If you are delivering good content – or information that does not sound corporate or smell of sales and marketing or looks like the last three messages in their inbox, then you can send them out as much as you want – especially if you told them  -as part of you story.

Maybe your not convinced and worried about turning patients by sending to many marketing messages. Most eye care professionals tend to discount the power of email in their overall eye care marketing strategy.

Eye Care Marketing: Effective E-Newsletters The Easy Way

You would think that once you’ve collected a the patient emails, uploaded them to your email delivery system, and refined your website, that the rest would be smooth sailing.

What’s the big deal, right? You get a ton of email newsletters in your inbox. Which ones do you read?

But a lot of people have a hard time from here.

Obviously, you have valuable insight on a subject people need and want to know about. But how do you deliver this efficiently

Here are the keys:

Keep it short and sweet.

Everyone is busy and we tend to scan ‘E-stuff’ quickly. And ‘Sweet’, in this context, also means lively – so keep it fun where appropriate.

Speak in your voice.

This a personal connection. Much more so than most imagine. If you are thinking about all those emails in your inbox, STOP. This is different. Your patients SEE you in an  entirely different manner than we see marketers and spammers. This is an email coming from the Doctor!

Give THEM something valuable.

Say you’re on a long flight. Your neighbor – a really nice, well-adjusted person you could get along with. They have problem-X and they want to know how and why it happened to THEM and what THEY can do about it. Tell them. Who knows better than you? If someone does know better than you, tell them that too.

Show them how to act.

We all need a little guidance. If you have a link to your appointment schedule or if people make appointments the old-fashioned way (they call), then remind them about. And tell them specifically what to do – as a service.

Once you have that, the next step is simply a matter of pressing send! Then watch the appointments fill in.

Not ready for this? Most doctors have a tough time with this aspect of practice.  Click to learn more about email marketing for your practice.

Eye Care Practice Management in Today’s Competitive Marketplace

Growing your practice in today’s competitive marketplace is no easy task. Traditional means of getting the word out to your patients—ads in the Yellow Pages, newspapers, and on the radio—are effective, but also costly. How can you expand your practice without also paying more? Does optical practice management need to cost a lot?

Fortunately, it doesn’t. You can harness the power of the Internet to do all of the things that traditional advertising did for you, and at a fraction of the cost. Your current patient list is like a pot of gold waiting to be discovered. By revising your optical practice management to be in step with current best practices, you’ll be well on your way to outperforming the competition.

Here are some ways you can market to your current patient list:

o Write a periodic newsletter and send it to patients via e-mail.
o Build a better website. Include special offers to visitors, and offer them the opportunity to sign up for you e-newsletter.
o Ask visitors to return. It’s amazing what a simple, “Thank you, come again!” will do for your optical practice management. Courtesy counts.
o Ask for a referral. In other words, if you can tell a patient is happy with the service you’ve provided, see if they can’t recommend some of their friends, relatives, or co-workers to visit you. Make things easier by handing them a few extra business cards for good measure.

A quick note on the e-newsletter—make sure you get permission from the people to whom you intend to send it. Federal spam legislation now requires that people give you permission before you send an e-mail to them. By creating an “opt-in” for these patients, you’re following the guidelines and showing your courtesy at the same time.

Want to market to your current patient base effectively? Following the eye care practice management suggestions listed above will get you on the right path.

Eye Care Marketing and Email: The Doctor Will Text You Now

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000…513900382.html
(You may need a subscription, but here’s the link)

The article in this morning’s journal, “The Doctor Will Text You Now: Patients Visit With Their Physicians Online as More Insurers Begin Paying for Digital Diagnoses” gets off on to an embarrassing start by using a ‘red eye’ example, which you have to let slide (for now) in order to get to what I think really can be helpful.

This is what motivated me to share it with you:

“This year, 39% of doctors said they’d communicated with patients online, up from just 16% five years earlier, according to health-information firm Manhattan Research, a unit of Decision Resources Inc. So far, the most common digital doctor services are the simplest ones, like paying bills, sending lab results and scheduling appointments. But patients like Ms. Rust are also using computers to deal with issues that usually require a trip to the doctor’s office.”

And this where they miss the point:

The article goes on to focus on reimbursement as they describe the demand for online care growing leading to “more health insurers begin paying doctors for treating patients virtually, albeit at a lower fee scale than for traditional in-office appointments.”
***

Perhaps the Internist, overwhelmed with 40 patients per day, cringes at the idea of answering a flurry of patient emails ‘on the house’. Maybe you can’t blame the insurance provider for looking for ways of keeping patients out of the office.

But what about doctors who simply want to provide a valuable service, build solid loyalty, and GIVE patients a compelling reason to refer family and friends?

Many of you already make this service available in your practices. Its even part of your marketing strategy. You have a website and email contact form (so you don’t get spam). Some of you collect emails and regularly broadcast to your patients.

A lot of patients will email you from vacation. Some will have questions best answered by your staff. Occasionally, you’ll get a note from a prospective patient- usually with a good question – who almost always becomes your new patient soon.

Many of us immediately see the downside. What ‘can of worms’ am I opening with this? Does my response need to be formal? I don’t have time for this. Is this patient going to abuse this/me? Patient loyalty is complex and not predictable, and therefore you cannot rely on this alone to build trust (perhaps true). Is this even HIPPA compliant?

Of course, in reality, patients are simply overwhelmed by your willingness to acknowledge them (in any format) and most-often they WILL follow your advise — whether you reassure them, answer a question, call in an RX, or send them to the nearest ER.

And more often than not, you’ll get a very well-articulated question from a patient pointing out a problem or concern that many other patients might be thinking about. If you can then capitalize on this by delivering your response to the greater patient base, you have just leveraged serious value.

Okay. Now worry with the tiny reimbursement from the insurance masters.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000…513900382.html

Read more about how optometry marketing and email can transform the way you practice!

Eyecare Marketing through E-mail

Practically everyone has an e-mail address these days, but did you know the numerous potential benefits it can have for your eyecare marketing? If you’re just getting started and building your practice from the ground up, you might be surprised just how much e-mail can help. Used wisely, e-mail can help bring in loads of new patients and get your practice off on the right foot.

There are many ways to use e-mail for eyecare marketing, but the best are those that make things more convenient for you and your patients. Your e-mails might consist of newsletters, appointments reminders, e-coupons, or educational information. Bottom line: Your communications should benefit your patients, and they should anticipate receiving them.

Of course, building that list of patients when you’re just starting out can be a daunting task. Despite your good intentions and innovative ideas for eyecare marketing by e-mail, you still need a list of contacts to send the e-mail to. And without a patient base, where will the e-mails go?

What you don’t want to do is send random e-mails. If you send unsolicited e-mails to people who may or may not be interested, you won’t get the results you’re looking for. Plus, you’re on shaky ethical ground if you go this route. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 regulates bulk e-mail communications and closely monitors suspicious behavior—such as sending out unsolicited e-mail in bulk.

An alternative is to contact only those patients who opt in to your e-mail campaign. It’s not as difficult as you might think to expand your contact list for potential patients. Here are some suggestions to obtain legitimate patient leads to grow your practice:

Use e-mail to communicate regularly with your existing patients. They’ll like the convenience of e-mail and will feel comfortable asking questions and scheduling appointments over the internet. As existing patients, they’ll be the foundation of your new “word-of-mouth” eyecare marketing campaign.

Get your patients’ family and friends involved. When you’re sending e-mails to your current patients, include e-coupons that can be redeemed by their family members or friends. You’ll be surprised how many new patients this approach can bring through the door. Even during times of economic uncertainty, people need glasses!

Give them the chance to opt-in. Your website should give patients the ability to opt in to e-mail communications. Better yet, it should give them the incentive to do so. If you offer an interesting newsletter or other information that’s beneficial and interesting to your patients, they’ll be more likely to want to receive e-mail from you in the future.

“Brand” other marketing materials. Make sure your e-mail address is on your other marketing materials. This makes it easier for your patients to contact you when they need to. And once they’ve contacted you, the likelihood is high they’ll end up in your office.

Offer prizes. Really! If you publicize a contest with a great prize—a free pair of glasses or a year’s supply of contacts—and publicize that you’ll notify winners via email, you’ll be wowed at how many people sign up. You’ll also get contact information for potential patients who need your services.

Don’t forget one of the golden rules of eyecare marketing: Target locally. In other words, advertise to people in your area. The internet offers you the opportunity to advertise anywhere, technically, but there’s no point in advertising to Lee’s Summit, Missouri when your practice is in Vacaville, California.

Growing a practice isn’t easy, but e-mail can help. Follow the advice printed here and you’ll be well on your way to establishing a thriving practice.

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