Newsletters Targeting Your Patients or Referral Sources Can Be Successful if You Avoid the Most Common Mistakes

Practice newsletters can be an effective way to keep your name in the forefront of the minds of your patients and your referral sources, but can they really generate business and give you a good return-on-investment? The answer is YES, they can, but you have to avoid some common pitfalls if they’re going to be cost-effective healthcare marketing efforts.

Newsletters targeting patients and those targeting referral sources are two separate and distinctly different tools with different goals. Both can be effective, but the strategies and the ways you deliver the information to your targets are each different.

First, consider these important success factors for newsletters targeting patients:

• Focus on one topic – The goal of a patient newsletter is to keep your patients informed about your services, products, and treatments. Keep it simple and don’t provide too much information or you’ll dilute the message. Make it interesting enough to tease them to want to get more information.
• Email instead of print – Printed newsletters to patients that are mailed have shown to be less cost-effective than those emailed to patients. That’s because the two biggest costs associated with any direct mail piece are printing and postage. Emailing them to your opt-in list (those that have given you permission to email them) eliminates these two significant costs. Also, it’s easier for your patients to forward these emails to friends and relatives so they generate referrals to your practice. Encourage your patients to forward them to anyone they know who may be interested or in need of your services.
• Include a “call-to-action” – Make sure you don’t just inform your patients about a service, product, or treatment, but give them a reason to contact you now. Offer a reason to get more information, such as a brochure, eBrochure, or even a consultation. Consider offering a discount or an incentive to your existing patients. A newsletter should keep your patients informed, but you’ll need to get a response if you’re going to get a return.

The goal of a newsletter to your medical and dental colleagues is to keep your name in the forefront of the minds of existing and new potential referral sources. Here are some important success factors for newsletters targeting referral sources:

• Call them “Alerts” – Newsletters targeting referral sources are often called “Alerts”, such as “Physician Alerts”, “Dental Alerts”, “Cancer Care Alerts”, etc. Doctors are busy, so you need to give them a reason to take the time to read your “Alert”.
• Build your brand - Unlike patient newsletters, they should NOT have a strong call-to-action. The goal is to keep them informed AND to reinforce why you are the best to provide these treatments to their patients.
• Deliver them the way THEY want you to – Provide written Alerts (faxed, mailed or hand-delivered by your Practice Rep) if that’s the doctor’s preferred method of communication and email if that’s the way they prefer.
• Target the clinical staff – Make sure each provider within the practice receives a copy of your Alert. This includes each individual doctor, as well as nurses, PA’s, and assistants.

If you’d like to learn more about using newsletters in your practice, contact me for assistance.

Proven Strategies for a Strong, Profitable Practice!

Rich Hachenburg

Founder of Competitive Edge Healthcare Marketing
P.S. Let’s connect on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Plaxo.