Plastic Surgery Internet Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most productive, cost efficient, promotional opportunities used in plastic surgery internet marketing. It is important to have a message that will cause patients to desire to contact you or click on your website for more information. It is important not to bombard the patients but keep them involved in what is happening in your practice. There are many email marketing communications vehicles to reach and stay connected to your prospective patients and as cosmetic surgery email marketing experts, we at PUMC believe it is important to have a documented plan to communicate with your patients.

Why Do You Need An Email Marketing Plan?

Having an Email marketing plan ensures that there is an ongoing email campaign program that will:

• Anchor your patients to your practice.
• Educate them about the services and procedures you offer.
• Incentivize them to take advantage of new services and special offers.
• Encourage them to visit your website which in turn enhances your website’s SEO.
• Encourage them to forward your E-Campaigns to friends.
• Encourage them to participate in your social media.

PUMC has found that the most economical and effective plastic surgery internet marketing tool is the broadcast email, typically referred to as an e-blast. PUMC recommends establishing pre-planned broadcast emails on a monthly basis. E-Communications do not always have to offer a special “deal.” They can announce a new service, introduce a new member of your staff, or provide a holiday message. The key is to have something that communicates to your patients and keeps them abreast of you and your services. This is also an excellent method to encourage your patients to refer their friends and/or relatives for your services. E-Campaigns should be easy to read, have an enticing subject, be attractive, minimize scrolling and if need be have a “call to action.”

How to Generate an Email List for a Cosmetic or Plastic Surgery Email Campaign

The opportunity starts with harvesting email addresses and key data about the people behind the addresses. PUMC has created special protocols to expertly generate, gather and harvest surgeries and procedures from a variety of email sources including but not limited to:

• Current patients of record.
• Past patients of record, not entered into a practices Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system.
• Prospective patients that have contacted your practice by phone and email.

How to Create Segmented Lists for Email Campaigns

The process of communication with people on your lists should be approached with care and precision. Creating segmented mailing lists ensures that the right messages go to the right people at the right time. The goal is to generate the largest number of responses from your targeted lists. You earn the privilege to do frequent mailings and not have your mailings deleted or marked a spam! To get the best response and open rate results from your e-blasts, each of the lists should be grouped into one of the following or a combination of these groupings:

• Gender.
• Existing patients by service used.
• Existing patients by services they have interests.
• Prospective patients who contacted your practice inquiring about a specific service.

How to Track Email Campaigns

Careful tracking of e-blast results can significantly improve the overall effectiveness of your email marketing program and prevent spam. Your tracking activity should include careful review of:

• Open rates.
• Peak Time and day your emails are opened.
• Elements of the Email content that receiver clicked on.
• Email forwarding activities.
• Spam and complaint rates.
• Unsubscribe rates.

Not tracking this information about each of your E-Campaigns could result in your email address and you being classified as a spam sender by both the people on your lists as well as the entire emailing network including, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL and others.

How Email Campaign Preparation Leads to Email Conversion

When designing plastic surgery internet marketing email campaigns, you are best served to have a strategy for your overall campaign and a strategy for each message sent in a specific campaign. Your campaign strategy should take into consideration:

• The purpose of each email/blast.
• The demographics or characteristics of the audience receiving your e-campaign.
• Customization of each email through list segmentation.
• The timing of each emails arrival to the audience.
• Identification of the desired response expected.
• Crafting the call to action.

Staff knowledge and preparedness for questions and/or setting up appointments related to the E-Campaign.
PUMC has a team of cosmetic surgery email experts ready to assist you in developing your broadcast email, including designing the look and helping you to set up your email patient list.