Email marketing is a crucial strategy for engaging and informing your patients, regardless of practice size. As you're selecting an email marketing platform, consider your unique practice needs. Ask yourself a few questions while you're making a decision.
- How will you onboard your patients?
- Will you be organizing patient addresses into specific lists?
- Will you be sending newsletter-style emails on a regular basis, or just reminding patients about events?
- How often will you email patients?
- Can social media meet some of your practice marketing needs?
- What service and support features will you require?
Don't be afraid to ask other providers what platforms they use to connect with patients. If you receive newsletters or automated emails from blogs and other websites, you can also study those emails to get an idea of the platform you want. Once you've formulated a set of parameters, you have plenty of platforms to choose from. We've compiled a few here to get you started!
1. iContact
If you already use social media to promote your practice and want to improve your strategy, consider iContact. The platform's social media integration is consistently praised as one of its most attractive features. Using iContact alongside your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn presence is a fantastic way to grow your practice quickly and effectively. Like many platforms, iContact has a scalable price model, with plenty of resources for larger practices. The amount of space in the image library is limited, however, so consider carefully if you send picture-heavy messages. Users also have access to instructional information through iContact's help database, which is great for first-time marketers.
2. Benchmark
Benchmark is a simple online email creator, with a simple interface that produces professional results. Use the drag-and-drop, HTML or plain text editor, based on your team's skill level. Helpfully, Benchmark provides color palettes for easy designing, so your email visuals can impress. Benchmark offers a variety of analytic tools, including geotracking, to determine your campaigns' success. The company has excellent customer service reviews as well, so if you're interested, check out Benchmark's free and paid plans.
3. GetResponse
If you don't want to spend a lot on email marketing, GetResponse is a wonderful low-budget option. Plans are priced based on the number of contacts that emails are being sent to, with no feature restrictions and no limit to how many emails you can send each month. The platform has hundreds of templates, an analytics dashboard, and an extensive image library, all at an extremely competitive price.
4. MailChimp
One of the easiest user interfaces available, MailChimp is simple, friendly and fun to use. The online help guide is extensive, so aut0-generating fields or integrating other softwares is a snap. Very small practices can benefit from the free plan, but MailChimp's paid plans are affordable and scalable. The analytics dashboard is very helpful for new marketers, or for anyone trying to grow their practice with patient marketing.
5. Constant Contact
Many consider Constant Contact an email marketing standby. With its simple templates and easy contact importing, Constant Contact proves to be a good fit for unfussy, effective campaigns. Use Google Analytics to track your campaigns, and create signup forms within the platform. Constant Contact offers a free trial, so before you commit to a paid plan, you can get a feeling for the platform's interface and features.
6. Campaigner
Campaigner's platform is advanced, attractive, and optimized for mobile. You can set up emails on a recurring schedule, and use the extensive tracking features to analyze your campaigns' success. Campaigner automatically offers list suggestions when you import contacts based on similar traits, but you can also organize your contact emails however you see fit. Since you can send an unlimited number of emails per month, this is a great fit for really well-engaged practices.
7. VerticalResponse
VerticalResponse is a smart platform for professional-looking emails on desktop, mobile phone and tablets. It's convenient and easy to optimize your emails for any of these devices. The platform's emails are simple and clean, and offer multiple levels of customization. VerticalResponse allows you to target users based on their engagement levels, too, so if some patients don't open or respond to email campaigns, you can focus specific efforts on them. There's an online community and knowledgebase to supplement VerticalResponse's customer service department as well.
Whatever your practice size, email marketing is crucial to your success. Figure out what your practice values, and pick a platform that lets you engage with patients easily. If you're a marketing pro, or just getting started, there's a great variety of options at all price points. In other words, no excuses: step up your practice marketing game today!
Have you tried any of these platforms? We'd love to hear your feedback in the comments!
See detailed reviews of these platforms at:
Reviews.com
BusinessNewsDaily.com
PCMag.com
