5 Tips to Enhance Your Patient Emails

Sending emails to your patients between visits is an impactful way to connect and communicate. It can foster stronger relationships, increase loyalty, keep your practice top of mind, and lead to quality patient referrals. By including thoughtful and valuable information in your emails, you can brand your practice as the optical expert in your area and build trust with patients.  

Here are our top 5 tips to use email as an effective marketing tool:

1. Educate and inform. Today's patients want to be active and involved in their healthcare. When patients are educated about potential health concerns such as the link between diabetes and eye health or blue light exposure, they are more likely to be proactive in protecting their vision. Consider including tips and solutions for common issues such as dry eyes or allergies, as well as preventative care. Emails about how to protect eyes are both informative and help position you as an expert.
    
2. Keep it genuine. How well do your patients know you? What makes you more interesting than other practices? Reintroduce your practice staff and doctors by featuring a staff member or doctor, sharing hobbies and interests, or letting patients know how you’re getting involved in your community.
    
3. Use a strong email subject line. 64% of people decide to open or delete an email based on the subject line.* A strong subject line is important to capture attention, spark interest, and show your expertise. Personalizing the subject line and keeping it under 50 characters can help increase opens. 
    
4. Keep it concise. Use bullet points and keep your paragraphs short to keep your patients engaged. Images also help break up text and provide a nice visual. Make sure to include clear call-to-action to schedule an appointment in each email. 
    
5. Choose the right content. The information should be relevant for your patients and add value. Content such as the services you offer, promotions and savings, frames you offer, eye health tips and facts about common vision problems do well. Testimonials from satisfied patients are also an impactful way to promote your practice and showcase the excellent care you provide.
   
   Choosing the right content also applies to patient segmentation. For example, encourage patients who haven’t had an eye exam recently to book an appointment before their children head back to school. For patients who have an upcoming visit scheduled, include an appointment reminder and encourage them to check their vision benefits ahead of their appointment.

By engaging your patients through emails, you ensure that: 

• Your practice stays top-of-mind with your patients.
• Your patients feel that you are offering them value.
• You are actively engaging with your patients and reminding them to consider eye health as an important part of overall health.
• Your patients are educated and have information they can share with friends and family.
• You are taking advantage of a strategic and effective marketing tool, useful for both existing and new patients.

Need help with content for your newsletter? Check out Premier Edge Marketing Support’s marketing campaigns for additional resources such as images, videos and email templates.

Questions? Send us an email at premieredgemarketing@vsp.com. 

Looking for more ways to attract VSP patients and help them maximize their benefits? Complete the Premier Edge Marketing Support Virtual Assessment to get personalized recommendations for your practice!

_{* Saleh, K. (2021, April 11). Email subject lines – Statistics and trends. Invesp.}