Email campaigns are among the most powerful medical marketing tools available. Because they give you the ability to target your audience with relevant, meaningful content.

And in the process, help you build customer loyalty, awareness—and sales. All with an impressive ROI.

But for healthcare email campaigns to be successful, they must be developed with great care.

In this article, we detail the 6 steps for you to plan a powerful email campaign.

1. Build your mailing list

A successful campaign starts with a strong mailing list.

Build your list organically—don’t buy lists from third parties, which may put you out of compliance with anti-spam regulations.

Instead, only send emails to those who have opted in to receive them.

Be sure to scrub your list regularly. Remove bounced addresses promptly.

2. Segment your list for precise targeting

Segmentation enables you send emails with relevant content to your target audience.

There are many ways to segment your list, for example:

•  Past interest in other products and services

•  Consumer demographics (age, location, household income, health conditions)

•  HCP demographics (age, location, practice size, specialty)

•  New or existing customer

3. Use a CRM platform to organize and track your campaigns

Many companies use CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software that’s designed to help them efficiently manage and track interactions with customers. Many CRMs are Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant, which will help you steer clear of potential problems regarding the security of patients’ personal data.

Some popular CRM software solutions include Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Pipedrive, and Freshsales.

4. Employ an email deployment platform

These platforms help you create, schedule, and deploy targeted emails. And let you manage email lists, including adding, deleting, and segmenting your audience.

Many platforms offer email templates that you can adapt to your corporate brand guidelines. And often integrate with CRM platforms.

Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and Campaign Monitor are examples of widely used email deployment platforms.

5. Time your campaign

Sending an email once a quarter probably isn’t going to do you much good. You should create a calendar and try to send relevant content at least once or twice a month.

But don’t over-email. Your audience may tire of your messages and unsubscribe—or worse, mark them as spam.

The goal: be a consistent, frequent-but-not-too-frequent presence to remain top of mind with your target audience.

6. Comply with the rules

Be sure to comply with regulations like the CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) Act and, in Europe, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).

Also, make it easy to unsubscribe. Offer an easy-to-find link in every email.

And avoid spam “triggers.” Don’t overuse words such as “FREE!!!”, “100% guaranteed!,” or “Act now!.”

Simply put: treat your audience with respect and communicate with them honestly.

Stay tuned for part 2

In part 2 of this series, we will outline the 7 simple steps to execute and track your healthcare marketing email campaign.

We can help you plan your email marketing campaign

The team members at Bryant Brown are specialists in healthcare marketing, with experience everywhere in healthcare: medical devices, health information technology, hospitals and health systems, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, and patient and professional advocacy.