How Do Patients Prefer to Keep in Touch with Your Practice?

How often do you check your email each day? More often than you check into your Facebook page? How do you prefer to receive promotional messages from companies you are interested in?

If you’re like 77% of consumers in a recent ExactTarget* survey, email is your preferred method of contact in a ballpark all its own. Direct mail comes in at a distant second at 9%, then text messaging at 5%, Facebook at 4%, and the telephone at 2% to round out the top 5.

But why is email the preferred method, and how can you use this information to better reach new and existing patients?

Email Marketing Demographics vs. Ideal Patient Age

What is the average age of your patient base? Can you pinpoint one age group where you’d like to improve? Above all other methods of distributing promotional messages for your practice, email marketing can provide the means to reach this ideal patient.

What Motivates Patients to Click on Email Links vs. Social Links

When was the last time you clicked on a link from a company trying to sell you something? Where was that link located, in an ad, on Facebook, in an email? The majority of consumers prefer email, but what really motivates us to take action?

5 Reasons Patients Prefer Email

Beyond pay-per-click or Facebook, email is an extremely effective way to reach consumers because they have already expressed an interest in your practice. Below, we expand on five factors highlighted by the study’s participants as reasons they prefer email more than other direct marketing strategies.

Familiarity

When a potential patient receives an email from your practice, they are already familiar with the brand and doctor’s name. You already have a foot in the door.

Manageability

Consumers appreciate the trickle down effect. They have asked to be included when you have something they want. Don’t overload them, as they can just as easily opt out.

Privacy and Security

Instead of broadcasting their interest in elective healthcare to their entire social network, email allows them to receive secure, private messages.

Relevancy

Patients have signed on for this particular marketing message because they find it relevant to their situation and their needs and wants. Be mindful of this and keep it relevant.

Exclusivity

Email allows you to connect with a specific group of patients, it provides them with a feeling of exclusivity as you aren’t merely broadcasting this message to your entire fanbase, just a select few.

Patients Are Most Likely to Share an Email with Friends

Thought sharing was only for social networks? Turns out a majority of consumers share emails with their friends and family.

While we still strongly believe in the power of the social share, the study statistics show email is not a thing of the past and has reinvented itself as a powerful social tool.

*Source: visit Exact Target to download the full survey.