2 Email Content Ideas to Grow Your Practice

PrescriptionLast time out, we talked about the challenges that face doctors as they try to get more patients (and get the same ones to come back when they should).

It’s hard to build a relationship with someone you only see (maybe) once a year, and convince them to schedule that next checkup, or have their chronic headaches checked out. People come up with all sorts of reasons to just stay away.

So what’s a business-minded M.D. to do?

Let’s look at ways you can use email to build relationships with your patients, reinforce the need for them to come see you, and grow your practice.

Idea: Make It Quick & Painless… Even… Enjoyable? (Gasp!)

One of the objections people have to visiting their doctor is that they’re used to it taking forever to get checked in, see you and get back out the door and on with their lives.

Streamline this process, and then promote your office’s efficiency in your emails! Track how much time passes between:

When you can say “80% of our appointments start right on time,” or “6 out of 7 patients are in and out of our office in less than 30 minutes,” you’ve got a huge competitive advantage. Just be clear that you’re not sacrificing quality of service.

One avoidable time-eater when we’re in your office is all the paperwork we have to fill out. Give us the option to complete that before we come in (send us a copy or a download link via email)!

Not only does this streamline the check-in process, it gives us the feeling that we’re partly responsible/in control of how quickly we get in and out.

And don’t forget comfort, either (especially if your patients aren’t in and out especially quickly):

Idea: Tout Your Credentials

One of the points I made last time was that people like to think that they don’t need doctors (at least, not for anything less than a broken arm). We’ve got access to tons of medical information online, so we wonder why we need you.

Medical school’s hard (right?). And then there’s research, residency and all of the other professional challenges that you’ve overcome to get to where you are.

Remind us that you’re the expert! Tell us about:

All of this helps to establish you as the authority, and someone we need to see.

I know what you’re thinking – you don’t want to brag, because this isn’t supposed to be about you, it’s supposed to be about the patient. But “If you done it, it ain’t bragging” (W. Whitman).

As long as you focus your message around how you’re qualified to help us, we’re not going to be put off – rather, we’ll be reminded of the fact that we’re not physicians ourselves.

More to Come

These certainly aren’t the only ways you can use email to connect with your patients.

Next time, we’ll cover a couple more ideas on how you can grow your medical practice through targeted email marketing.

Want More Small Business Marketing Tips Like These?

Sign up below for free email updates from our blog:

See Also

Why Physicians Must Market More

Print This Post

Related Articles

By:
Director of Education Marketing at AWeber. Justin Premick on Google

Become a Better Email Marketer

Subscribe to This Blog by Email
Why Subscribe?

4 Comments

  1. Gordon

    Hi Justin
    I’ve tried to implement many of the ideas from aweber’s education service into my Shoulder Pain website and I think overall I’ve been quite successful.

    I’m more focussed on marketing the website for it’s own sake rather than as an advert for my "bricks and mortar" face to face practice. I’ve achieved good success rates in offering a free ebook and I intend to eventually market other ebooks that visitors will pay for. That and google adsense keeps things ticking over quite well.

    Thanks again for your tutorial articles – I find them very valuable.

    All the best

    6/17/2007 11:40 am

Leave a Comment

Need an avatar?



Follow Comments
Send me notifications of new comments
rss Follow comments via RSS