Reasons to Reinstate e-Newsletters in Your Practice If you are looking for a way to power-up your practice’s outbound marketing tactics in 2015 for a low cost, consider integrating (or reintroducing) electronic newsletters into your monthly or quarterly marketing plan. This often overlooked form of email marketing provides many benefits. Through e-newsletters you can: Build your entire practice by introducing and subtly cross-selling your services Provide a direct line of constant communication with prospects in your existing database who are still in the “investigation” phase of decision-making Strengthen existing patient relationships Position your practice as a knowledge resource for industry news Inform people about new procedures they didn’t know they needed (or wanted) Remember that it takes some prospects two years or longer to make the decision to pursue an elective surgery. That is a long time to nurture the lead and convince the prospect that your practice is the right choice. Through this type of “drip” marketing tactic, e-newsletters give you that constant contact that is necessary to stay “top of mind” and complement your other efforts. Choosing Topics You may be thinking that coming up with topics for a monthly or quarterly newsletter will be tough. It’s not really all that difficult if you look for industry news and monthly observations that will speak to your patients. Through research, you can gather topics such as Glaucoma Awareness Month, Great American Smokeout, Eye Injury Prevention Month, American Diabetes Month…just to name a few. Just make sure you don’t copy these articles verbatim in your newsletters. Put your own spin on the articles and make them your own. You can also announce events or news happening within your office, such as: New doctors or staff members New technologies or procedures Monthly promotions Community involvement projects Personal or professional achievements of staff members Personnel spotlights Try not to use your newsletter as an obvious sales tool; provide your readers with interesting articles to keep them looking forward to receiving your next installment. Track, Track, Track One major advantage of e-newsletters is that you can instantly track the results and know if your efforts are paying off…or if you need to tweak your tactics for better results. Whether you have hundreds or thousands of patient and prospect emails, good e-newsletters have been shown to produce: 34% open rate (standard emails generally produce 20% open rate) 4% click-through rate (standard emails generally produce 2-3% click-through rate) The bottom line: The more worthwhile information you provide your patients and prospects, the better chance you have at converting those individuals into loyal supporters that sing your praises – and maybe even come back for future procedures.