Here's Why You Really Do Need a Patient Newsletter:
Patient newsletters are one of podiatry's most valuable and underutilized marketing tools. Now, you might be thinking, “Newsletters? Give me a break. Those went out of style decades ago.” You wouldn't be alone for thinking this—but a patient newsletter is at least as relevant today, if not more so, than it ever has been. It isn't a tool you should ignore. In fact, if you're wanting to grow your practice and increase your referrals and reactivations in the next year, you need one.
Why? It boils down to two simple reasons:
1. A great newsletter stands out in the mailbox. Pretty much all that comes through the US Postal Service these days are bills, catalogs, and junk that gets immediately tossed. Think about what you do when you get the mail—you sort it into “must open,” “might read,” and “toss now” piles. The only things that make into that “might read” pile are the things that catch your attention. Since bills, catalogs, and junk are the only things in most people's mailboxes these days, a high-quality and interesting patient newsletter from a trusted source (a doctor) stands out. People will be more interested in reading it.
2. A great newsletter is an easy way to build a relationship with patients through e-mail. E-mailing your patients regularly is an important part of nurturing a relationship to help build your referrals and reactivations. You don't want to spam your patients with e-mails, though; you want to send them interesting and useful content they'll want to read. Enter your newsletter. Now, it's true, only a small percentage of patients (less than 25%) will open and read e-mails from you, much less act on any calls-to-action. However, the percentage that do open and read your e-mails are still a respectable number. Your newsletter allows you to reach out to them regularly for a very low cost.
In general, newsletters allow you to communicate with your patients about topics that interest them and keep your practice at the forefront of people's minds. Remember, most patients will forget your name in less than nine months. They simply have too many other things to remember and worry about in their lives. Regular communication and useful, interesting information in a newsletter that patients look forward to means those patients won't forget you. They'll also be reminded regularly that you can help solve their own and their loved one's podiatric problems when those arise.
So if you're at all interested in growing your practice, you should have a patient newsletter. It really is one of your best tools for building up your referrals and reactivations over time.
Of course, you need your newsletter to be high-quality and actually interesting for patients to want to read it. This can feel overwhelming to do yourself, which is where Top Practices can help. Our Podiatry Practice Patient Newsletter service creates an engaging, beautiful newsletter for you that can be customized for your office. And during June, 2017, we have a special offer to celebrate Top Practices' 10th Anniversary! Sign up for your own patient newsletter by June 30, 2017, and receive 15% off your first newsletter, as well as Rem's Copywriter's Workshop course (“How to Write Copy that Produces Results for Podiatry Practices”) entirely for free.
Newsletters aren't the old-fashioned or silly, out-of-date marketing tool some podiatrists believe them to be. If you're serious about marketing your podiatry practice to help it grow in the next year, you need to invest in a patient newsletter.