We check our email daily, if not multiple times a day. Email and text messaging are the two most common forms of communication. Email marketing is one of the easiest and most economical ways to communicate with your patients and keep your brand top of mind,  so long as you avoid these five common mistakes.

1. Not creating a long-term strategy

One email campaign will produce limited results. An effective email campaign consists of a series of emails that are designed to lead your patients to action. When you are creating the strategy, take your time to think about it thoroughly. Make sure that the content and design will engage and satisfy your patients. Failing to do so could potentially lead to your emails being seen as junk, or even worse, being marked as spam. So, what’s the rush? Think things through.

2. Creating campaigns that are perceived as spam

Email clients can analyze incoming emails and categorize them as legitimate or spam. To prevent being perceived as spam avoid these things:

• Using catch phrases in the subject line such as ‘specials’, ‘news update’, ‘open immediately’
• Using extravagant colors, excessive use of capital letters, bold font, and exclamation points
• Not maintaining a balance between images and text – whether using too many images or just one but with no text to complement it

3. Not sending a test email before publishing

When you finally have your end product ready to send, stop. Once you’ve sent it, there is no going back. Test it first with several email accounts within your business. Not only can you revise it again, but you can see how is it going to be received and viewed across different email clients like Outlook, Gmail and Apple Mail.

4. Not measuring the performance of your marketing campaign

You have finally launched. Now what? Begin tracking the campaign’s performance. How many patients have opened the email, clicked through to your website, unsubscribed, etc. This valuable information will help you measure your performance and craft future email campaigns.

5. Not explaining why the patient is receiving the email

When you are creating your email marketing campaigns, do not forget to identify yourself and/or your practice with real and updated information. Your name, your business name, its address, phone numbers, email account(s), and above all, an unsubscribe option are vital. Doing these things will ensure you’re compliant with CAN-SPAM Act and increase the likelihood of being delivered to the recipient’s  inbox instead of the junk box.