Comes an email from a PT Owner asking about my email strategy:
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“Paul… I’ve been following your emails for sometime now… I look froward to reading what you have to say and consider you to be very generous with information you give away.
I note recently you have mentioned “email marketing” as a means for getting past patients to come back to your clinic.
I’m curious about the open rates you get – just I keep hearing that email marketing is dying and I believe that less and less people are opening their emails these days due to the excess volume we all receive.
Keep up the great work.
– Dylan. PT. Washington State.
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First up…
Let me say the that “irony” is NOT lost on me that someone is questioning the effectiveness of email marketing – by replying/responding to my email marketing.
Go figure.
Anyhoo.
About the open rate thing.
First up, it’s pretty irrelevant.
Let me explain:
The only thing that I’m ever interested in when I send out emails to past patients is the response that I get.
Now, I NEVER sell directly in an email.
All that I’m looking to do is to get a handful of people to show an interest in a particular topic that I’m writing about – say, an article I’ve written on ways to ease “back pain”.
At this stage … most of the “clickers” (on the article) they have NO intention what so ever of calling me.
They’re just looking.
Inside the “store” (so to speak)…
…holding the dress or shirt out in front of them, but not really serious about buying it!
Yet.
But, when I note the interest, my follow up goes to work.
And with a little help of a few more emails and one or two phone calls – in the end, how ever long it takes, we get the referral.
And as a happy by-product of this strategy…
We will ALWAYS get a call from a past patient who reads the post, remembers he has back pain, and just calls the clinic.
And will often say something like this:
“When I got your email, it was like a “sign”
that I needed to do something about
my back pain…”
Well, guess what… it was!
A sign from me that I’m here, my phone line still works and I know how to solve the problem that you’re having.
And about the open rate “dropping” thing.
People who tell you email marketing doesn’t work are usually trying to sell you on something else – such as direct mail.
But here’s what they won’t tell you:
The open rate for people aged 50+ is actually going UP.
(Not down).
It’s now the most common way that people aged 50+ communicate with each other and it’ll likely stay that way.
Open rates in GENERAL are going down because the “millennials” (…and people in their 30’s trying to be “cool”) are using everything BUT email to communicate with each other.
Those guys wouldn’t dream of sending an email or opening one unless everything else failed.
Good news is, those guys are NOT your ideal patients.
(They don’t have the cash nor do they value their health enough to invest in it regularly).
To sum up todays lesson… email marketing is likely to be an ever increasing “secret” weapon in your arsenal to boost sales at your clinic.
If, you chose to implement it.
“Spy” on how I do it, if you like??..
Here’s a secret link that lets you onto my “past patient” email list:
www.paulgoughphyio.com/free-tips
Just enter your name and email …
…and you’ll get to see how I “work” my list to keep the people on it entertained, healthy and happy to come back and see me – all in 500 words or less.
Sincerely,
Paul Gough.
