Email can be an effective marketing method for imaging centers. Whether you’re currently sending out emails, or not, this article will explain exactly what you should write about, who you should send to, and much more.
Should Email Be A Cornerstone Of Your Diagnostic Imaging Marketing Strategy?
Is your diagnostic imaging marketing plan not producing the results you want? We all get emails in our inbox, but sending emails out isn’t so easy, especially for an imaging center. There are plenty of resources out there that detail how to sell products through email, but not many that are specific to the medical field, much less email marketing for an imaging center.
But don’t be discouraged, email can certainly be an effective marketing method for imaging centers. Whether you’re currently sending out emails, or not, this article will explain exactly what you should write about, who you should send to, and much more.
Remember, even though email can be an effective marketing option, it should be one of many tools in your marketing toolbox. Your diagnostic imaging center reputation should have a management plan to keep your audience, patients and physicians alike, interested in doing business with you.
Don’t Let Your Competition Win Over Your Patient Base!
Email Marketing to Physicians for Referrals: Do it Right and You’ll Easily Get More Patients
Healthcare providers are obviously people you want on your side. If you have a designated Physician Liaison they have likely delved into this to some degree. However, marketing to physicians for referrals is a tricky business. Monetarily, it seems providers offices wouldn’t have much to gain by sending patients to any particular imaging center since it doesn’t directly impact their bottom line. Upon closer inspection, however, it’s clear that when patients are happy with an imaging center, and their doctor, everyone benefits.
It’s up to you to show providers not only that you are interested in their referrals, but that you are taking stock in their practice and the well-being of their patients. Your center’s diagnostic marketing emails to physicians should reflect this.
Provide value in every email you send
Like most of us, doctors don’t have time or patience for emails that are generic and salesy. People want to open emails that are chock full of useful information that is specific to the problems they are facing. This is important to keep in mind when incorporating emails into your diagnostic imaging marketing plan for gaining new referrals. Here are a few ways you can provide valuable information in your emails to referring providers. Help them help their patients. Anything from scheduling advice to training tips on staff and patient interactions, to the delivery of test results can be good information. Do some research to find what your specific providers would find most valuable. Help them help their practice. With healthcare, there are always new medications on the market and treatment options being developed. Help doctors stay up to date with recent research and popular topics related to their specialty.
Pro Tip 1:Don’t include a request in your emails. Instead, include key information about your imaging facility to help providers see the value and quality care your radiology center offers.
Pro Tip 2:Do your research. Take the time to learn as much as you can about each provider you’re reaching out to. It’s also important to research their specialty to better understand what value you can provide. For example, you might find articles that are of particular interest to Orthopedic Surgeons.
Get More Patients Through Radiology Email Marketing
Your diagnostic email marketing strategy is incomplete until you are sending effective emails to your existing patients. You may wonder how sending emails to current patients will help you get more patients coming in the door. The answer is community awareness.
When people read about something interesting, have a great experience, or save a ton of money, they tend to tell their friend, family, and coworkers about it. Here are a few ways to encourage your patients to spread the word.
Remind them how much money they saved. Find out how much the local hospital charges for the same exam and let patients know how much they would have spent elsewhere. Send patients interesting and actionable health information. There are countless article topics that people may find interesting. Find some articles that really help people understand their health, risk factors, and symptoms. Ask patients to like your imaging center on social media. If you’re confident that a patient was happy with their experience (you can find out with a satisfaction survey) there’s no harm in asking them to like or follow you. Just make sure you’re providing useful information on your social media sites to keep your followers engaged.
Pro Tip 1:Personalize and segment your patient emails. What is true for provider emails, is also true for patients. Generic emails are always a no-go in diagnostic imaging marketing.
Pro Tip 2:Track your results. The goal is to increase patient volume. If you don’t track your results, you will never know what emails are engaging and how many new patients are coming into your imaging center due to your efforts. Track your open and click rate for each email and be sure to ask new patients where they heard about your radiology center.
Pro Tip 3:Make sure you’re staying HIPPA compliant and that patients you email have agreed to be emailed. Of course in your email marketing for your imaging center, maintaining HIPPA compliance is a must. You may want to utilize an email opt-in selection on your patient registration forms so you know who to send emails to.
Email marketing to patients is an effective way to build a following and empower your patients to take an active role in their health care choices. Well informed and empowered patients also are more likely to schedule follow up exams when their doctor recommends them.
Build and Nurture Relationships With Emails
Email is not only a great marketing tool, it can also help you nurture your existing relationships with physicians and patients. Maintaining and increasing patient retention should always be a top priority and paying attention to what your patient need and want is key.
Keep people in the know by using emails to send out:
Appointment reminders and follow up reminders
Updates about new additionals or processes at your imaging center
Invitations to any events your radiology group is sponsoring or hosting in the community such as free health screenings.
If you’re already sending out emails to patients and physicians, and you are not getting the response you expect, it could be that your emails are not being received due to spam filters. In other cases, it may be that your emails are not being opened because your subject lines need some work. If you’re seeing low open rates, especially with your email marketing to physicians for referrals, you should address the issue before implementing new strategies.
Admittedly, marketing to physicians for referrals isn’t easy, even if you are an experienced email marketer. But, the rewards are well worth spending the time to craft your messages carefully. Always strive to give more than you ask in return and to respect the time and wishes of everyone you send to.
Analyzing your results regularly will help guide your future efforts. It’s crucial to know your open and click rate on each email so you can fine-tune your approach to marketing your imaging center. A/B or Split Testing is a great way to test out various content or subject lines to find what is most popular among your readers. Most email marketing services such as MailChimp offer an easy way to set up an A/B test.
Email is an effective approach to diagnostic imaging marketing if you do it right
Sending out emails without a clearly defined strategy is like cooking for dinner guests without a recipe. It might start out great, but once you get going you’re bound to run into some problems. And serving a burnt casserole at your party is not so impressive.
With some research, individual consideration, and careful planning, you will find that email is a very useful tool for gaining new business and nurturing existing relationships.
Taking a step back to assess what your patients and referring physicians really want and need from you will help you effectively incorporate email into your diagnostic imaging marketing plan with a solid path.
How would you like to market your center to referring physicians with Medical Practice Growth Tips and Doctor to Doctor articles?
Great strategy guides have been created for increasing patient referrals to new and growing diagnostic imaging centers, but much less is written about strategies for diagnostic patient retention.
Focusing only on marketing your imaging center to gain new patients may mean failing to nurture existing patients, which can hinder your efforts to build your imaging center’s reputation. And a good reputation is key to gaining new diagnostics patients and growing your imaging center overall.
Patients who slip through the cracks may suffer negative consequences of disrupted care, while your center loses the rewards of all the hard work that has gone into your outreach and reputation-building efforts.
Thankfully, there are many ways to keep your patients engaged with your imaging center, and they won’t break your bank. If you set them up carefully, many can even be automated!
Increase your patient retention by staying connected.
Asking patients for feedback is a great way to stay connected, get more online reviews, and pinpoint how to improve your patient experience.
Quality Care is the first step to increase patient retention for an imaging center
This one may seem obvious, but are you going about this with the right mindset?
You take pride in your staff’s training and dedication to current best practices, as well as the safety and rigor of the technologies they use. However, other metrics of quality may be an even more effective method to increase patient retention for an imaging center.
The patient’s understanding of their care and active engagement in decision making, the perceived goodwill of the staff, and ease of appointment making are just a few facets of patient experience that can make or break a patient’s relationship with your center.
Ensure that your diagnostic patients understand their exams
Although it is easy to assume that smiling, nodding patients understand what your staff is telling them, this is often not the case.
How can you help imaging patients play an active role in decisions about their health?
Consider asking the patient open-ended questions to encourage them to describe in their own words what you have discussed so that you can check for understanding.
Motivational Interviewing is a well-researched set of principles and tools that can help healthcare providers to avoid taking a paternalistic role with their patients, as this can result in the power struggles and ambivalence that lead to no-show’s as well as poor adherence to recommendations and follow-ups. Instead, these simple but powerful techniques help you to take on a collaborative partnership with your patients to keep them engaged.
Empowering your imaging patients to understand and take part in their health care will result in positive outcomes, including patient satisfaction and an increase in patient retention for an imaging center.
Retaining imaging patients by training your staff in rapport-building
Every staff member has an impact on how patients will perceive any outpatient imaging center as a whole. We also know that patients who think the staff and providers are “nice” will be more likely to come back. What might not be so obvious is how, exactly, to accomplish this, particularly in the face of time limitations or patient complaints.
Integrating warmth and continued connection with the patient into your center’s processes is one of the best ideas for patient retention. It turns out it’s the little things that make a big difference. Multiple studies have shown that small touches such as mailing patients postcards and letters can actually reduce suicide attempts. This highlights just how powerful small kindnesses can be.
Keep in touch with your patients, for example by mailing birthday or holiday cards. Not only does keeping in touch with your patients show them that you care, it can also help remind them to take stock of their health, which could mean coming in for a follow-up.
Many times it’s the little things that people remember. If you’re struggling with how to keep radiology patients happy, don’t overlook the details.
Retaining imaging patients means giving your patients resources that matter to them
When considering strategies for patient retention, providing valueto your patients is crucial. And we’re not just talking about a low price here. Help your patients make the most of their time with you, as well as the interactions you have with them outside your imaging facility.
Schedule quickly to help your patients to keep their appointments.
A large study of 54,652 radiology exam appointments showed that no-shows were more frequent if there were more days between the appointment and the day it was scheduled. Not surprisingly, patients who had missed appointments in the past were also at higher risk for missing them again. Get patients scheduled as quickly as possible, and use reminders to help patients remember their appointments. If a patient has no-showed previously, consider using multiple reminders to assist them.
Stay connected with your patients through radiology email marketing
Radiology patient retention can benefit from some of the same automated email strategies that help other businesses. These may include:
Emails welcoming them to the imaging center
Emails providing requested content
Example: A potential patient enters their email address into your center’s website so that they can receive an e-brochure on screening recommendations for their age group
Emails that invite the patient to get to know the center better. This could be an invitation to like or follow your facility on social media, or an invitation to a community event the center is hosting or sponsoring.
Emails that ask the patient questions that would help to inform your patient care and/or marketing strategies and help the patient to feel heard and valued
Example: A patient satisfaction survey after an appointment visit
Example: Asking patients what their biggest concern is about a particular imaging exam
Emails that ask the patient to review your center online (e.g., on Yelp, etc.)
Although positive reviews will help you to engage new patients, writing reviews on your behalf may also help your patients to be even more committed to your center!
Newsletter emails
Example: Patient stories about how your center has helped them, news about how the center is improving and growing, information about how your center helps the local community
These strategies for diagnostic patient retention will lead your facility to success
There are a wealth of strategies for diagnostic patient retention, both human-centered and technology-assisted, that can help you make sure you keep your patients happy.
These retention tools require some investment or training up front but can become an automatic part of your imaging center’s daily routines. Not only will they help you with patient retention, but they also help to foster a positive workplace culture at your radiology center!
Growing your imaging center doesn’t have to be hard!
Great strategy guides have been created for increasing patient referrals to new and growing diagnostic imaging centers, but much less is written about strategies for diagnostic patient retention.
Focusing only on marketing your imaging center to gain new patients may mean failing to nurture existing patients, which can hinder your efforts to build your imaging center’s reputation. And a good reputation is key to gaining new diagnostics patients and growing your imaging center overall.
Patients who slip through the cracks may suffer negative consequences of disrupted care, while your center loses the rewards of all the hard work that has gone into your outreach and reputation-building efforts.
Thankfully, there are many ways to keep your patients engaged with your imaging center, and they won’t break your bank. If you set them up carefully, many can even be automated!
Increase your patient retention by staying connected.
Asking patients for feedback is a great way to stay connected, get more online reviews, and pinpoint how to improve your patient experience.
Quality Care is the first step to increase patient retention for an imaging center
This one may seem obvious, but are you going about this with the right mindset?
You take pride in your staff’s training and dedication to current best practices, as well as the safety and rigor of the technologies they use. However, other metrics of quality may be an even more effective method to increase patient retention for an imaging center.
The patient’s understanding of their care and active engagement in decision making, the perceived goodwill of the staff, and ease of appointment making are just a few facets of patient experience that can make or break a patient’s relationship with your center.
Ensure that your diagnostic patients understand their exams
Although it is easy to assume that smiling, nodding patients understand what your staff is telling them, this is often not the case.
How can you help imaging patients play an active role in decisions about their health?
Consider asking the patient open-ended questions to encourage them to describe in their own words what you have discussed so that you can check for understanding.
Motivational Interviewing is a well-researched set of principles and tools that can help healthcare providers to avoid taking a paternalistic role with their patients, as this can result in the power struggles and ambivalence that lead to no-show’s as well as poor adherence to recommendations and follow-ups. Instead, these simple but powerful techniques help you to take on a collaborative partnership with your patients to keep them engaged.
Empowering your imaging patients to understand and take part in their health care will result in positive outcomes, including patient satisfaction and an increase in patient retention for an imaging center.
Retaining imaging patients by training your staff in rapport-building
Every staff member has an impact on how patients will perceive any outpatient imaging center as a whole. We also know that patients who think the staff and providers are “nice” will be more likely to come back. What might not be so obvious is how, exactly, to accomplish this, particularly in the face of time limitations or patient complaints.
Integrating warmth and continued connection with the patient into your center’s processes is one of the best ideas for patient retention. It turns out it’s the little things that make a big difference. Multiple studies have shown that small touches such as mailing patients postcards and letters can actually reduce suicide attempts. This highlights just how powerful small kindnesses can be.
Keep in touch with your patients, for example by mailing birthday or holiday cards. Not only does keeping in touch with your patients show them that you care, it can also help remind them to take stock of their health, which could mean coming in for a follow-up.
Many times it’s the little things that people remember. If you’re struggling with how to keep radiology patients happy, don’t overlook the details.
Retaining imaging patients means giving your patients resources that matter to them
When considering strategies for patient retention, providing valueto your patients is crucial. And we’re not just talking about a low price here. Help your patients make the most of their time with you, as well as the interactions you have with them outside your imaging facility.
Schedule quickly to help your patients to keep their appointments.
A large study of 54,652 radiology exam appointments showed that no-shows were more frequent if there were more days between the appointment and the day it was scheduled. Not surprisingly, patients who had missed appointments in the past were also at higher risk for missing them again. Get patients scheduled as quickly as possible, and use reminders to help patients remember their appointments. If a patient has no-showed previously, consider using multiple reminders to assist them.
Stay connected with your patients through radiology email marketing
Radiology patient retention can benefit from some of the same automated email strategies that help other businesses. These may include:
Emails welcoming them to the imaging center
Emails providing requested content
Example: A potential patient enters their email address into your center’s website so that they can receive an e-brochure on screening recommendations for their age group
Emails that invite the patient to get to know the center better. This could be an invitation to like or follow your facility on social media, or an invitation to a community event the center is hosting or sponsoring.
Emails that ask the patient questions that would help to inform your patient care and/or marketing strategies and help the patient to feel heard and valued
Example: A patient satisfaction survey after an appointment visit
Example: Asking patients what their biggest concern is about a particular imaging exam
Emails that ask the patient to review your center online (e.g., on Yelp, etc.)
Although positive reviews will help you to engage new patients, writing reviews on your behalf may also help your patients to be even more committed to your center!
Newsletter emails
Example: Patient stories about how your center has helped them, news about how the center is improving and growing, information about how your center helps the local community
These strategies for diagnostic patient retention will lead your facility to success
There are a wealth of strategies for diagnostic patient retention, both human-centered and technology-assisted, that can help you make sure you keep your patients happy.
These retention tools require some investment or training up front but can become an automatic part of your imaging center’s daily routines. Not only will they help you with patient retention, but they also help to foster a positive workplace culture at your radiology center!
Growing your imaging center doesn’t have to be hard!
A Good Email Signature Is an Easily Accessible Tool in Your Diagnostic Imaging Marketing Strategy Toolkit
According to Sumo, the average person receives 124 business related emails per day. That’s a lot of competition. When it comes to diagnostic imaging marketing, there are several tactics to get you noticed. One of the simplest, yet often overlooked, is having a good email signature.
Below we will show you how an effective email signature can be created in a matter of minutes.
Looking for a better way to send out more effective emails from your diagnostic center?
How a Simple Addition to Your Email Signature Can Generate Sustained Interest and More Patient Referrals
Radiology Marketing Strategy: All aspects of marketing your diagnostic center should aim to be memorable. If your signature doesn’t stand out and provide useful information to your reader, you could be missing out on connecting with your community and getting new patient referrals.
So, what does a memorable email signature need?
Most imaging centers have the minimum. This includes:
Your Full Name
Your Diagnostic & Imaging Center’s Address
Your Diagnostic & Imaging Center’s Website
That’s a great start, but here’ what you really need for radiology marketing strategy:
Here are 3 key email steps below to pique the interest of a Referring Physician
1. Add Your Email Address to Your Email Signature
It’s funny how a little thing like this can have such an impact. Most people feel that it is redundant to add your email address to your signature. Actually, you are making it easier for your referring physician to save your information and remember who you are.
This technique sets you apart from those other 123 emails your reader is getting today.
2. Make Sure Your Email Signature is Branded In Line Your Other Radiology Marketing Efforts
Your email signature is a form of branding which is key to any diagnostic imaging marketing strategy. Just as you would take into consideration font size, type, and color on a piece of marketing collateral, use the same principle here too. Color plays a big part. Change the font color of your name to match the branding of your facility. This helps it stand out and adds consistency to your overall marketing.
Go a step further and change the font color of your title and email address to match your name. This helps your referring physicians quickly identify what they need in a well-organized signature. Another benefit of adding color to portions of your signature is that it will break up your name, title, and website from the middle portion featuring your business address.
Remember to test your color on multiple devices to be sure it is clearly visible.
3. Get Creative With Your Layout
Who says your email signature has to read like a standard line-by-line paragraph? Actually, you can get your referring physician’s attention by being creative in unique ways. For example, add your facility’s logo to your signature and move it out to the right of your contact information. Enlarge your logo to cover ⅔ of the signature. Since we read from left to right, your contact information is the first that is read and your logo is the last. Embed a link to your website within your logo for an interesting Call to Action.
Want To Kick Your Diagnostics Imaging Marketing Into High Gear?
The tips above cover a lot. But there is so much more you can do! Incorporating effective emails into your diagnostic imaging marketing plan means using what you have to your advantage.
Use Your Radiology Blog in Your Email Signature to Generate Added Interest.
It’s the little things that matter is a phrase that holds true in many instances. Your mail signature is one of them. By making just a few small adjustments, you will set yourself apart from your diagnostic imaging marketing competition, increasing the chances of your diagnostic and imaging facility being remembered, thus creating an increased chance of new business with referring physicians.
A Good Email Signature Is an Easily Accessible Tool in Your Diagnostic Imaging Marketing Strategy Toolkit
According to Sumo, the average person receives 124 business related emails per day. That’s a lot of competition. When it comes to diagnostic imaging marketing, there are several tactics to get you noticed. One of the simplest, yet often overlooked, is having a good email signature.
Below we will show you how an effective email signature can be created in a matter of minutes.
Looking for a better way to send out more effective emails from your diagnostic center?
How a Simple Addition to Your Email Signature Can Generate Sustained Interest and More Patient Referrals
Radiology Marketing Strategy: All aspects of marketing your diagnostic center should aim to be memorable. If your signature doesn’t stand out and provide useful information to your reader, you could be missing out on connecting with your community and getting new patient referrals.
So, what does a memorable email signature need?
Most imaging centers have the minimum. This includes:
Your Full Name
Your Diagnostic & Imaging Center’s Address
Your Diagnostic & Imaging Center’s Website
That’s a great start, but here’ what you really need for radiology marketing strategy:
Here are 3 key email steps below to pique the interest of a Referring Physician
1. Add Your Email Address to Your Email Signature
It’s funny how a little thing like this can have such an impact. Most people feel that it is redundant to add your email address to your signature. Actually, you are making it easier for your referring physician to save your information and remember who you are.
This technique sets you apart from those other 123 emails your reader is getting today.
2. Make Sure Your Email Signature is Branded In Line Your Other Radiology Marketing Efforts
Your email signature is a form of branding which is key to any diagnostic imaging marketing strategy. Just as you would take into consideration font size, type, and color on a piece of marketing collateral, use the same principle here too. Color plays a big part. Change the font color of your name to match the branding of your facility. This helps it stand out and adds consistency to your overall marketing.
Go a step further and change the font color of your title and email address to match your name. This helps your referring physicians quickly identify what they need in a well-organized signature. Another benefit of adding color to portions of your signature is that it will break up your name, title, and website from the middle portion featuring your business address.
Remember to test your color on multiple devices to be sure it is clearly visible.
3. Get Creative With Your Layout
Who says your email signature has to read like a standard line-by-line paragraph? Actually, you can get your referring physician’s attention by being creative in unique ways. For example, add your facility’s logo to your signature and move it out to the right of your contact information. Enlarge your logo to cover ⅔ of the signature. Since we read from left to right, your contact information is the first that is read and your logo is the last. Embed a link to your website within your logo for an interesting Call to Action.
Want To Kick Your Diagnostics Imaging Marketing Into High Gear?
The tips above cover a lot. But there is so much more you can do! Incorporating effective emails into your diagnostic imaging marketing plan means using what you have to your advantage.
Use Your Radiology Blog in Your Email Signature to Generate Added Interest.
It’s the little things that matter is a phrase that holds true in many instances. Your mail signature is one of them. By making just a few small adjustments, you will set yourself apart from your diagnostic imaging marketing competition, increasing the chances of your diagnostic and imaging facility being remembered, thus creating an increased chance of new business with referring physicians.
Marketing to physicians should be a cornerstone of any imaging center’s overall strategy.
Effectively marketing to physicians comes down to professional relationships. Building and maintaining relationships with both current and prospective referring physicians is the name of the game. Email is an effective and surprisingly personal method for doing just that.
But what should your radiology email marketing convey? When should you send them? And how do you determine what’s working and what’s not?
Needless to say, setting up automated email funnels for various groups can be tricky. Today we are here to help you build your roadmap to email success.
But before we dive in, remember, your marketing is only as good as your reputation.
If your reviews are less than stellar, not only will patients look elsewhere for care, physicians will look elsewhere when sending referrals.
Writing physician emails to increase patient referrals
First and foremost, your focus should be on your physician emails. Since doctors are the ones referring patients to your facility for diagnostic tests, they need to be your focus. As a diagnostic center, one of your most valuable relationships is with referring physicians.
There are three groups of physicians to consider here.
Potential relationships: Doctors who have not referred anyone to you, but that you would like to build a relationship with. (Cold leads)
Previous relationships:Doctors who have referred patients in the past, but not within the last few months. (Warm leads)
Current relationships:Doctors that have recently referred patients. (Hot leads)
Each of these groups needs to have their own automation funnel which we will go over next.
New Physicians: Using a radiology newsletter to build relationships
Gaining traction with a provider that has never referred to your center is the most difficult group to engage so it’s very important that you are selective with the content you include in your radiology newsletters to these offices.
For radiology email marketing, the most important question you can ask yourself here is:
How can I best provide value to the person I am reaching out to?
Here are some proven tactics to use:
Personalize each email by medical specialization. By targeting the physician’s specialty you can provide information that is specific and therefore most useful to that office.
Let them know you researched them. If you’re sending cold emails you don’t want people to think you’re emailing every doctor this side of the Mississippi, but that you chose to reach out to them for a reason (which should be the truth anyway). Tell the referring provider exactly why you chose to reach out to them. These reasons could be:
You have a relationship with one of their partners
Introduce your facility. Let them know who you are and why they may be interested in building a relationship with your radiology center. This is your chance to focus on your strengths.
Ask them a question. Give them an opportunity to tell you what they are looking for or what they are having trouble with. You can send out a survey asking things like:
What difficulties do you face when referring patients to a diagnostic facility?
What are the biggest factors you consider when choosing a facility to refer patients to?
Important note: Always be respectful and courteous of their time. When marketing to physicians that you have not worked with previously, make it very clear that they can choose to stop receiving your radiology emails marketing at any time and make it easy for them to do so.
Winning back physicians who have referred patients to you previously
There could be a number of reasons that a physician who has previously referred patients to your imaging center is no longer doing so. Marketing to doctors in this category means striving to understand what caused them to stop referring and what you can do to make them interested in sending patients once more.
Here are some strategies to use when reaching out to this group:
Update them on what’s new with your facility. If they haven’t talked to you in a while, they likely aren’t up to speed on any new equipment, software, and referring guidelines you may have. Letting them know what they missed could mean you’ve already resolved the thing that made them leave in the first place.
Remind them of your referral process. Sometimes reminding people of how easy it is to work with you makes a big difference.
Let them get to know your staff better. Did you hire a new office manager? Let people know who to contact to get in touch with you. Giving everyone the chance to learn who’s who on your team will help strengthen relationships with physicians. Putting faces to names also helps make your business memorable.
Maintaining relationships with physicians who are currently referring patients
Making sure you’re fostering strong relationships with currently referring physicians is vital. The content you send to this group is highly dependent on the nature of your current relationship. So, always be sure you’re only sending emails to these doctors if and when they are wanting to receive them. If you have determined that these providers are interested in getting emails from your imaging center, here are some tips:
Tell them something they don’t know. Do some research so they don’t have to. Maybe there is a new imaging technology that is being developed for their specialty or maybe there are some new findings in how to interpret the results of a scan. Find the information that is most valuable to show them you care about their interests.
Make every email personalized. Maybe you have a doctor that is interested in hearing about new medical technology, and another doctor that is interested in hearing about upcoming community events. Ask people not only if they are interested in getting your emails, but also, what they are interested hearing about.
Learn how you can help them. It may be that there are ways you could help your referring providers out that you don’t know they need. So why not ask them? Finding out how you can best help people means you will understand what you can do to provide value to them.
Effective email marketing to referring physicians takes time
Maintaining mutually beneficial relationships doesn’t have to be hard, but it does take work. With these tactics, you can write effective radiology email marketing to your referring physicians that provide value to your referring partners. Every physician’s office is unique and research is an ongoing process. Measure your progress often to find what emails are best for your diagnostic imaging center.
In need of effective and professional email marketing centered on increasing provider referrals?
Marketing to physicians should be a cornerstone of any imaging center’s overall strategy.
Effectively marketing to physicians comes down to professional relationships. Building and maintaining relationships with both current and prospective referring physicians is the name of the game. Email is an effective and surprisingly personal method for doing just that.
But what should your radiology email marketing convey? When should you send them? And how do you determine what’s working and what’s not?
Needless to say, setting up automated email funnels for various groups can be tricky. Today we are here to help you build your roadmap to email success.
But before we dive in, remember, your marketing is only as good as your reputation.
If your reviews are less than stellar, not only will patients look elsewhere for care, physicians will look elsewhere when sending referrals.
Writing physician emails to increase patient referrals
First and foremost, your focus should be on your physician emails. Since doctors are the ones referring patients to your facility for diagnostic tests, they need to be your focus. As a diagnostic center, one of your most valuable relationships is with referring physicians.
There are three groups of physicians to consider here.
Potential relationships: Doctors who have not referred anyone to you, but that you would like to build a relationship with. (Cold leads)
Previous relationships:Doctors who have referred patients in the past, but not within the last few months. (Warm leads)
Current relationships:Doctors that have recently referred patients. (Hot leads)
Each of these groups needs to have their own automation funnel which we will go over next.
New Physicians: Using a radiology newsletter to build relationships
Gaining traction with a provider that has never referred to your center is the most difficult group to engage so it’s very important that you are selective with the content you include in your radiology newsletters to these offices.
For radiology email marketing, the most important question you can ask yourself here is:
How can I best provide value to the person I am reaching out to?
Here are some proven tactics to use:
Personalize each email by medical specialization. By targeting the physician’s specialty you can provide information that is specific and therefore most useful to that office.
Let them know you researched them. If you’re sending cold emails you don’t want people to think you’re emailing every doctor this side of the Mississippi, but that you chose to reach out to them for a reason (which should be the truth anyway). Tell the referring provider exactly why you chose to reach out to them. These reasons could be:
You have a relationship with one of their partners
Introduce your facility. Let them know who you are and why they may be interested in building a relationship with your radiology center. This is your chance to focus on your strengths.
Ask them a question. Give them an opportunity to tell you what they are looking for or what they are having trouble with. You can send out a survey asking things like:
What difficulties do you face when referring patients to a diagnostic facility?
What are the biggest factors you consider when choosing a facility to refer patients to?
Important note: Always be respectful and courteous of their time. When marketing to physicians that you have not worked with previously, make it very clear that they can choose to stop receiving your radiology emails marketing at any time and make it easy for them to do so.
Winning back physicians who have referred patients to you previously
There could be a number of reasons that a physician who has previously referred patients to your imaging center is no longer doing so. Marketing to doctors in this category means striving to understand what caused them to stop referring and what you can do to make them interested in sending patients once more.
Here are some strategies to use when reaching out to this group:
Update them on what’s new with your facility. If they haven’t talked to you in a while, they likely aren’t up to speed on any new equipment, software, and referring guidelines you may have. Letting them know what they missed could mean you’ve already resolved the thing that made them leave in the first place.
Remind them of your referral process. Sometimes reminding people of how easy it is to work with you makes a big difference.
Let them get to know your staff better. Did you hire a new office manager? Let people know who to contact to get in touch with you. Giving everyone the chance to learn who’s who on your team will help strengthen relationships with physicians. Putting faces to names also helps make your business memorable.
Maintaining relationships with physicians who are currently referring patients
Making sure you’re fostering strong relationships with currently referring physicians is vital. The content you send to this group is highly dependent on the nature of your current relationship. So, always be sure you’re only sending emails to these doctors if and when they are wanting to receive them. If you have determined that these providers are interested in getting emails from your imaging center, here are some tips:
Tell them something they don’t know. Do some research so they don’t have to. Maybe there is a new imaging technology that is being developed for their specialty or maybe there are some new findings in how to interpret the results of a scan. Find the information that is most valuable to show them you care about their interests.
Make every email personalized. Maybe you have a doctor that is interested in hearing about new medical technology, and another doctor that is interested in hearing about upcoming community events. Ask people not only if they are interested in getting your emails, but also, what they are interested hearing about.
Learn how you can help them. It may be that there are ways you could help your referring providers out that you don’t know they need. So why not ask them? Finding out how you can best help people means you will understand what you can do to provide value to them.
Effective email marketing to referring physicians takes time
Maintaining mutually beneficial relationships doesn’t have to be hard, but it does take work. With these tactics, you can write effective radiology email marketing to your referring physicians that provide value to your referring partners. Every physician’s office is unique and research is an ongoing process. Measure your progress often to find what emails are best for your diagnostic imaging center.
In need of effective and professional email marketing centered on increasing provider referrals?
Effective Email Marketing to Doctors Starts With a Solid Radiology Marketing Plan
Promoting a diagnostic imaging center using email marketing to doctors can be a great way to increase patient referrals and build partnerships with referring physicians. That is if it’s done right.
Like virtually everyone else in the working world, physicians open emails and check social media during their workday too. It can be a means of brief distraction or a need to research something specific for a patient. So how can your emails be the ones they open so you are opened up to get more referring physicians?
The fact is, 55% of people don’t read their emails regularly, but that doesn’t mean your emails need to be of those that instantly get dumped in the digital trash.
You can break out of that group by:
Determining the best time of day to send
Personalizing your emails based on physician specialization
Educating the physicians AND the front office about topics that matter to them
Most importantly, your main focus should be providing valuable content to the medical provider that sets you apart from your competition
Looking to improve your imaging center’s marketing to referring providers?
Doing some research is the first step, and should not be overlooked. Let’s start by asking …
How many medical providers open emails anyway?
You’ll want to have a clear benchmark for how many medical providers open emails in order to set goals and see where you can make effective changes to your email marketing tactics as you go. Well, there’s a metric for everything and email open rates are no different. Here’s the formula:
Open Rate = # emails opened / (the number of emails sent – # emails that bounced)
Take a look at the medical industry’s average open rate are in the chart below.
Industry
Open
Click
Soft Bounce
Hard Bounce
Abuse
Unsub
Medical, Dental, and Healthcare
22.43%
2.42%
0.72%
0.72%
0.03%
0.30%
That means less than a quarter of emails are opened in the healthcare industry. That isn’t as bad as it might sound. It is just the industry norm.
Now, let’s talk about how to increase your open rate to get more referring physicians
The timing of your email matters
When you choose to send your emails can mean the difference between your imaging center getting more referring physicians, and the “Delete” button.
What day is best?
This can be tricky as schedules vary among medical providers. Having said that, knowing the day and time of an email impacts the likelihood of it being opened is valuable information that can be tracked and analyzed.
Like many of us, potential referring physicians are generally busiest on Mondays and Fridays, so the chances they’ll be opening emails is much lower.
If they are a Monday thru Friday practice, then Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are your best days to send.
If the practice is open on weekends, then Saturday and Sunday may be an effective time to reach out.
Avoiding sending emails on the most exhausting work days of a targeted practice is essential to improving your open rate. That may be as simple as a conversation your sales rep has with the front desk receptionist.
What time is best?
While the specific days are important, the time of day is almost as impactful.
The good news is you don’t have to guess, at least not for long. Start off by testing these broad guidelines with a sample set of emails. Then analyze the data to find the day and time that had the highest open rate. Most email marketing systems have reports built in just for this purpose. Additionally, you may want to send out an A/B or Split Testemail to compare day or time. Once you have the data, you can find the sweet spot.
Personalize Your Emails to Doctors by Creating Segments
When sending emails to doctors it’s important to remember that not all doctors are the same. Consider the specific interests and business practices of each recipient. One of the fastest ways to get people to delete your email is to send everyone the same content. So segmenting is key!
Are you trying to reach an orthopedics office, a neurologist, or any other specialist? A brilliant and simple way to get more referring doctors is by sending them content that is useful and valuable to what they specialize in. One study found that email open rates increasedby almost 15% from segmenting alone.
Partnerships with medical providers occur because of the level of trust you have built together. Even though your email funnel may be a part of your radiology marketing plan, your aim should always be to provide value to those you reach out to. Gaining patient referrals takes more than marketing to physicians in the traditional way.
Plan out which emails should go to orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, ENTs, primary care physicians, and even the front office managers. And yes, they should all be different.
By segmenting your emails to a more specific target audience, you can drive down unsubscribe rates, build trust between the medical providers, and increase medical provider referrals.
Like in any relationship, you need to take the time to get to know someone
When setting up your email marketing to doctors, do your research. Maybe you know a medical office that is struggling in a specific area. Perhaps you have the expertise to help them out with the emails you provide. When you care enough to find out what their pain points are and what topics are directly applicable to what they are doing you can save them time, money, and improving their practice. If you can do that, you’ll certainly be on their good side which makes it much easier to approach doctors for referrals.
Make sure your valuable content is actually getting to them!
When marketing to doctors online it’s certainly imperative that your message has the opportunity to be seen. You put in the time to do this email thing right. It would be a shame if all of your hard work never got to your recipient’s inbox, or worse, never even got to their spam folder.
Why wouldn’t your emails end up in the inbox?
When you send out emails through a third party system like MailChimp or Constant Contact, your message has to pass more checkpoints to get to its destination. Spam filters are finicky and email delivery is complicated. But all you need to know is that if you’re worried your emails aren’t getting to people, your first step should be to setup Custom Domain Authentication which means altering your DNS records.
If you’ve already done that, and your recipients are still not getting your emails, it could be an issue on the receiving side. For new prospects, your email address may not be whitelisted in their system. What’s more, many providers may not know how to whitelist your email address.
This is not something that is done automatically and the front desk receptionist will be your best point of contact. Two ways this can be accomplished are by adding instructions to your Thank You page or by adding a pop-up feature from the email in which they can whitelist instantly. The pop-up feature is going to be your simplest and most realistic way of getting this done.
Give the medical provider a heads up on the content coming in
The physician’s office is more likely to welcome your “Welcome” email if it is well crafted. The email should be personal, actionable, practical, but also concise. If they are new to your campaign, pay them a visit in person and provide a quick explanation of what information is included in the emails. If they know what to expect, they’ll be less likely to delete and more likely to send your imaging center new patient referrals.
Let them know:
How often they can expect to receive emails from you
How your emails are going to be helpful to them
How they can help you understand their needs (and therefore send the most relevant emails)
Email Marketing to Doctors Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated
Remember, email is a fantastic option to get more referring doctors – if you can get them to open! Determine the optimal time to send, segment your emails to make them more personable. Always make sure you’re providing value in your messages. Follow these tips in your email marketing to doctors and you will find building relationships with physicians is easy.
Looking to boost your 5-star reviews to get the attention of patients and providers?
Effective Email Marketing to Doctors Starts With a Solid Radiology Marketing Plan
Promoting a diagnostic imaging center using email marketing to doctors can be a great way to increase patient referrals and build partnerships with referring physicians. That is if it’s done right.
Like virtually everyone else in the working world, physicians open emails and check social media during their workday too. It can be a means of brief distraction or a need to research something specific for a patient. So how can your emails be the ones they open so you are opened up to get more referring physicians?
The fact is, 55% of people don’t read their emails regularly, but that doesn’t mean your emails need to be of those that instantly get dumped in the digital trash.
You can break out of that group by:
Determining the best time of day to send
Personalizing your emails based on physician specialization
Educating the physicians AND the front office about topics that matter to them
Most importantly, your main focus should be providing valuable content to the medical provider that sets you apart from your competition
Looking to improve your imaging center’s marketing to referring providers?
Doing some research is the first step, and should not be overlooked. Let’s start by asking …
How many medical providers open emails anyway?
You’ll want to have a clear benchmark for how many medical providers open emails in order to set goals and see where you can make effective changes to your email marketing tactics as you go. Well, there’s a metric for everything and email open rates are no different. Here’s the formula:
Open Rate = # emails opened / (the number of emails sent – # emails that bounced)
Take a look at the medical industry’s average open rate are in the chart below.
Industry
Open
Click
Soft Bounce
Hard Bounce
Abuse
Unsub
Medical, Dental, and Healthcare
22.43%
2.42%
0.72%
0.72%
0.03%
0.30%
That means less than a quarter of emails are opened in the healthcare industry. That isn’t as bad as it might sound. It is just the industry norm.
Now, let’s talk about how to increase your open rate to get more referring physicians
The timing of your email matters
When you choose to send your emails can mean the difference between your imaging center getting more referring physicians, and the “Delete” button.
What day is best?
This can be tricky as schedules vary among medical providers. Having said that, knowing the day and time of an email impacts the likelihood of it being opened is valuable information that can be tracked and analyzed.
Like many of us, potential referring physicians are generally busiest on Mondays and Fridays, so the chances they’ll be opening emails is much lower.
If they are a Monday thru Friday practice, then Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are your best days to send.
If the practice is open on weekends, then Saturday and Sunday may be an effective time to reach out.
Avoiding sending emails on the most exhausting work days of a targeted practice is essential to improving your open rate. That may be as simple as a conversation your sales rep has with the front desk receptionist.
What time is best?
While the specific days are important, the time of day is almost as impactful.
The good news is you don’t have to guess, at least not for long. Start off by testing these broad guidelines with a sample set of emails. Then analyze the data to find the day and time that had the highest open rate. Most email marketing systems have reports built in just for this purpose. Additionally, you may want to send out an A/B or Split Testemail to compare day or time. Once you have the data, you can find the sweet spot.
Personalize Your Emails to Doctors by Creating Segments
When sending emails to doctors it’s important to remember that not all doctors are the same. Consider the specific interests and business practices of each recipient. One of the fastest ways to get people to delete your email is to send everyone the same content. So segmenting is key!
Are you trying to reach an orthopedics office, a neurologist, or any other specialist? A brilliant and simple way to get more referring doctors is by sending them content that is useful and valuable to what they specialize in. One study found that email open rates increasedby almost 15% from segmenting alone.
Partnerships with medical providers occur because of the level of trust you have built together. Even though your email funnel may be a part of your radiology marketing plan, your aim should always be to provide value to those you reach out to. Gaining patient referrals takes more than marketing to physicians in the traditional way.
Plan out which emails should go to orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, ENTs, primary care physicians, and even the front office managers. And yes, they should all be different.
By segmenting your emails to a more specific target audience, you can drive down unsubscribe rates, build trust between the medical providers, and increase medical provider referrals.
Like in any relationship, you need to take the time to get to know someone
When setting up your email marketing to doctors, do your research. Maybe you know a medical office that is struggling in a specific area. Perhaps you have the expertise to help them out with the emails you provide. When you care enough to find out what their pain points are and what topics are directly applicable to what they are doing you can save them time, money, and improving their practice. If you can do that, you’ll certainly be on their good side which makes it much easier to approach doctors for referrals.
Make sure your valuable content is actually getting to them!
When marketing to doctors online it’s certainly imperative that your message has the opportunity to be seen. You put in the time to do this email thing right. It would be a shame if all of your hard work never got to your recipient’s inbox, or worse, never even got to their spam folder.
Why wouldn’t your emails end up in the inbox?
When you send out emails through a third party system like MailChimp or Constant Contact, your message has to pass more checkpoints to get to its destination. Spam filters are finicky and email delivery is complicated. But all you need to know is that if you’re worried your emails aren’t getting to people, your first step should be to setup Custom Domain Authentication which means altering your DNS records.
If you’ve already done that, and your recipients are still not getting your emails, it could be an issue on the receiving side. For new prospects, your email address may not be whitelisted in their system. What’s more, many providers may not know how to whitelist your email address.
This is not something that is done automatically and the front desk receptionist will be your best point of contact. Two ways this can be accomplished are by adding instructions to your Thank You page or by adding a pop-up feature from the email in which they can whitelist instantly. The pop-up feature is going to be your simplest and most realistic way of getting this done.
Give the medical provider a heads up on the content coming in
The physician’s office is more likely to welcome your “Welcome” email if it is well crafted. The email should be personal, actionable, practical, but also concise. If they are new to your campaign, pay them a visit in person and provide a quick explanation of what information is included in the emails. If they know what to expect, they’ll be less likely to delete and more likely to send your imaging center new patient referrals.
Let them know:
How often they can expect to receive emails from you
How your emails are going to be helpful to them
How they can help you understand their needs (and therefore send the most relevant emails)
Email Marketing to Doctors Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated
Remember, email is a fantastic option to get more referring doctors – if you can get them to open! Determine the optimal time to send, segment your emails to make them more personable. Always make sure you’re providing value in your messages. Follow these tips in your email marketing to doctors and you will find building relationships with physicians is easy.
Looking to boost your 5-star reviews to get the attention of patients and providers?
Healthcare providers are obviously people you want on your side. If you have a designated Physician Liaison they have likely delved into this to some degree. However, marketing to physicians for referrals is a tricky business. Monetarily, it seems providers offices wouldn’t have much to gain by sending patients to any particular imaging center since it doesn’t directly impact their bottom line. Upon closer inspection, however, it’s clear that when patients are happy with an imaging center, and their doctor, everyone benefits.
Like most of us, doctors don’t have time or patience for emails that are generic and salesy. People want to open emails that are chock full of useful information that is specific to the problems they are facing. This is important to keep in mind when incorporating emails into your diagnostic imaging marketing plan for gaining new referrals. Here are a few ways you can provide valuable information in your emails to referring providers.
When people read about something interesting, have a great experience, or save a ton of money, they tend to tell their friend, family, and coworkers about it. Here are a few ways to encourage your patients to spread the word.
Email is not only a great marketing tool, it can also help you nurture your existing relationships with physicians and patients. Maintaining and increasing patient retention should always be a top priority and paying attention to what your patient need and want is key.
Sending out emails without a clearly defined strategy is like cooking for dinner guests without a recipe. It might start out great, but once you get going you’re bound to run into some problems. And serving a burnt casserole at your party is not so impressive.
Patients who slip through the cracks may suffer negative consequences of disrupted care, while your center loses the rewards of all the hard work that has gone into your outreach and reputation-building efforts.
You take pride in your staff’s training and dedication to current best practices, as well as the safety and rigor of the technologies they use. However, other metrics of quality may be an even more effective method to 
Taking the time to help a patient understand the choices and services that they are being offered may help them to not only 
Empowering your imaging patients to understand and take part in their health care will result in positive outcomes, including patient satisfaction and an 
Integrating warmth and continued connection with the patient into your center’s processes 
A large study of 54,652 radiology exam appointments
Tip:
First and foremost, your focus should be on your physician emails. Since doctors are the ones referring patients to your facility for diagnostic tests, they need to be your focus. As a diagnostic center, one of your most valuable relationships is with referring physicians. 
Important note:
Making sure you’re fostering strong relationships with currently referring physicians is vital. The content you send to this group is highly dependent on the nature of your current relationship. So, always be sure you’re only sending emails to these doctors if and when they are wanting to receive them. If you have determined that these providers are interested in getting emails from your imaging center, here are some tips:
