Tips for Growing Your Email Subscriber List

It’s long been known to marketing and advertising professionals that most consumers need to hear about a company several times from different sources before they seriously consider making a purchase. This is especially true in fields with high-dollar purchases (such as auto sales) or where a high degree of trust is required, such as our specialty, the medical field. In order to contact consumers enough to become recognizable to them (and to reach the widest possible number of consumers), you’ll need to have a varied and well-rounded marketing plan, and subscriber emails can be an excellent part of this. Of course, the success of your emails depends on how many people are receiving them as well as how interested those people actually are. That’s why our resident experts at McCauley Marketing Services have compiled some ideas to help medical practices and other businesses build a subscriber list full of true prospects.

1. This truly is rule #1: do not add email addresses to your subscriber list if the person has not given their consent for you to do so. Not only could this tarnish the trust which is so important in the medical field, but it will also probably mean your emails will be marked as spam more often by those who receive them, or that a high percentage of your subscribers will unsubscribe. Both of these will increase the chances that other patients’ email systems will flag your emails as spam, so you’ll actually reach fewer of the people who do want to see your emails.
2. Make it interesting. In order for people to not only subscribe to your newsletter but to stay subscribed and to actually open and read them, it’s crucial to make them intriguing enough to keep your readers coming back for more. Try useful tips in your area of expertise or news in your field.
3. Offer incentives. For instance, perhaps everyone who signs up for your mailing list gets an exclusive discount. Be sure to advertise your incentive everywhere you can – in your office, on social media, at health fairs, etc. But remember, while incentives can bring subscribers in, it’s providing interesting content that will make them stay.
4. Ask for an email on every new patient intake form, and include a box they can check if they want to be added to your email list.
5. Display your email sign-up on your website. You can include it along the bottom or sidebar of each page, and if you use an online “contact us” form, you can also add a box people can check if they want to subscribe.
6. Go to health fairs and other community events, and ask for emails from those who visit your booth. Try offering a raffle as an incentive.
7. Add a link to the end of your YouTube videos, inviting viewers to subscribe to your email marketing
8. Ask for as little information on your sign-up form as possible. All you really need to know is their email address and whether they consent to receive your emails, and the shorter the task is, the more likely people are to complete it.
9. Use the new call-to-action button on your Facebook page to urge people to sign up for your emails.
10. When patients are signing up, let them know how frequently you typically send out emails and assure them that you won’t share their information with anyone (and follow through with your promises). Some people don’t sign up for email lists to avoid a flooded inbox and security issues, so let them know that they won’t have these problems with your business.
11. Make a list of the email addresses you already have but which aren’t currently included on your subscriber list (e.g., patients who have been with your medical practice since before you began your email program so they were never asked to opt-in) and send them an email or even a traditional mailer telling them what your subscriber messages have to offer and inviting them to easily subscribe.
12. When you ask for subscribers, be sure to tell them the advantages to signing up, like additional discounts, regular events, interesting health tips, etc.
13. Add buttons to your emails to allow the recipient to easily share them on social media. If your content is interesting enough, this makes it easy for your existing subscribers to spread the word.
14. Post flyers in your lobby, so patients can ready about your emails and even sign up on their phones while they wait.

For a medical practice, one of the key aspects of gaining and keeping a steady flow of patients is trust. As you go about building your email subscriber list, keep this trust in mind and remember to stay away from dubious practices like adding email addresses without a patient’s consent or purchasing lists of email addresses from a third party. If you want to see more marketing tips, follow McCauley Marketing Services on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Or, if you’re ready for us to give you a hand with any aspects of your marketing, schedule a meeting with us.