Is your medical aesthetics clinic heavily invested in direct mail marketing campaigns with little to show for your marketing budget? Direct mail marketing certainly has its place. Even in today’s digital world, direct mail marketing has a measurable impact when sent to the right contacts. But if your medical aesthetics clinic isn’t exploring email marketing, you may be missing out on significant cost savings and a much higher return on investment (ROI). Here, we explore how email marketing can be easily incorporated into your current marketing strategy.

Whether your medical aesthetics clinic opts for email or direct mail marketing depends on the focus of each marketing campaign more than your target demographic. For example, many businesses might assume email is the best way to market to their target millennial audience, but a recent survey cited by Forbes reports that 36% of those aged 30 or younger look forward to receiving snail mail. With this in mind, it’s clear that direct mail marketing has its benefits, but it also has its costs.

When it comes to acquisition, direct mail and email marketing spending may be similar, but email marketing offers a much higher ROI at an average $38.00 made on each dollar spent, compared to $7.00 made on each dollar spent with direct mail marketing, according to the Direct Marketing Association. This might be because email marketing lists are a compilation of past customers alongside prospective customers who have taken the first step to connect with your business by opting in to your email list. Simply put, direct mail marketing has its place in highly targeted or new patient acquisition campaigns, but email marketing offers the opportunity to selectively reach out to past and prospective patients from one email service provider for quick, targeted, low-cost campaigns that offer a higher average ROI.

Email marketing also allows you to see the impact of each campaign, such as emails delivered, open rates, and even click-through rates, to allow for better evaluation of each campaign’s success rate. Finally, compared to other digital marketing campaigns such as paid search and social media, email offers a higher average ROI of 122%.

With 80% of small to medium-sized businesses feeling email marketing is a key piece to a successful patient acquisition and retention puzzle, it’s time to ramp up your email marketing efforts. Follow this step-by-step guide to get started.

Email marketing service providers are digital businesses that offer email marketing support services such as templates, contact list management, the setup of auto-responses, opportunities for A/B testing, data analytics and insights, and mass deployment. There are plenty of email service providers, so it may take some time to search out the best option for your needs. Most providers offer free basic services to begin, charging per contact or per number of emails sent as you grow. Look for providers that offer a decent monthly or yearly fee that scales in line with your business goals. If possible, browse templates to ensure some options align with your brand or are easily customizable. Also explore whether email signup widgets are available for your website’s content management system.

Anti-spam laws in many regions require you to seek out express consent from potential recipients. If you have emails on file, reach out to your contacts with an easy sign-up button inviting them to add their name to your email list; if they don’t sign up, don’t send follow-up emails or you’ll risk a potential fine. Have a paper list at reception that current clients can add their email to during appointment check-ins and promote the benefits of your email list to followers on social media or those visiting your website to encourage sign-ups. You may wish to offer a benefit to first-time email subscribers, such as a 10% discount off any consultation fees you might charge or a free tip sheet on how to choose the best skin care regimen for their needs. Ensure you have an auto-response welcome email set up to greet new subscribers and deliver their discount code or freebie.

Make it easy to send out new email marketing campaigns and newsletters moving forward by creating a template or two that matches your brand. It’s best to limit graphics to one or two to improve load rate. Label each template based on its general purpose so it’s easy to know which one you’ll choose based on the campaign you’re creating. Again, to conform to anti-spam laws, ensure you have an unsubscribe button included in the footer of each template. This might seem like a little much all at once, but most email marketing service providers have easy-to-use tools to guide you through this process.

The best tip is to always keep your branding voice and style in mind and always deliver content of value to your subscribers. If you can’t offer value—whether that’s in the form of discounts, invitations to VIP events that offer loyal patients first access to new treatments, or simply informative letters reminding patients of the importance of sunscreen—don’t send out an email. It should be noted that it’s common to see at least one unsubscribe with each email sent. With this in mind, make each email marketing campaign count, investing your best effort to not only grow your business, but also serve past and prospective patients well. Review analytics about 48 hours after sending each email, allowing the numbers to inform your next campaign for best success.

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