8 Healthcare Direct Mail Best Practices to Boost Patient Responses
The healthcare industry is booming and rapidly growing worldwide. The number of private hospitals in Australia alone is 601, and there are also 746 public hospitals! Moreover, numerous other healthcare institutions are available, including nursing homes, dental offices, pharmacies, testing centres, etc.
So, how can you differentiate yourself from the competition and increase patient acquisition? Perhaps, healthcare direct mail can get you there, but you need to be creative and strategic to get the best out of it.
Direct mail is no longer traditional or outdated; it is data-driven, effective, and measurable. Also, you can automate the whole process using online healthcare mailing services like PostGrid.
You may employ several ways to improve your direct mailing efforts and get prospects to respond. This blog discussed these methods to help healthcare providers grow and achieve their marketing goals.
We will also discuss why medical direct mail marketing is still prevalent and how automation transforms this channel. Let’s begin!
What is Healthcare Direct Mail?
Direct mail is an offline marketing strategy that involves sending items, like postcards, letters, flyers, etc., to prospects. Though digital marketing is gaining more popularity, direct mail continues to thrive with up to an open rate of 66%.
It helps healthcare providers advertise their services to patients and form strong relationships. Moreover, healthcare direct mail improves brand images and boosts visibility.
Industries, like pharmaceuticals, healthcare technology, medical devices, etc., use direct mail to reach doctors and other crucial decision-makers in the healthcare field.
Why Should You Use Healthcare Direct Mail Marketing?
Offline mail is advantageous to your business in several ways, like:
People Trust Direct Mail
Many patients trust traditional marketing forms like mail the most to make their healthcare decisions. Naturally, selecting a physician is personal, and most people are anxious about making the right choice.
You connect with them emotionally and calm their fears using healthcare direct mail. Also, several data privacy issues have made people think online marketing channels are intrusive. Hence, they see direct mail as a simple and secure way to know brands and make informed decisions.
Healthcare Direct Mail Is Attention-Grabbing
74% of Australians pay full attention to direct mail. Thus, it has high open and read rates, making mail a crucial tool in your marketing kit.
You can communicate your offers, new services, latest accomplishments, announcements, etc., via medical direct mail. And there is a good chance that more than half of your recipients would read your message, increasing your conversion ratio.
You Can Narrow Down Your Audience
Direct mail marketing makes it possible to use data-driven demographics to reach out to relevant audiences. It allows you to cut costs and only connect with prospects most likely interested in your services.
Luckily, automated medical mailing services like PostGrid makes data segmentation and laser-focused targeting a breeze. You can compile top-quality lists focused on the following factors:
- Demographic: Gender, profession, annual income, age, number of children, etc.
- Geographic: Place of residence (to determine the medical situation in their locality and conduct location-based marketing)
- Psychographic: Lifestyle, habits, etc. (for example, are they smokers or have a specific medical treatment going on)
- Behavioural: Needs, preferences, and attitudes regarding healthcare services
Such targeted healthcare direct mail plans enable medical providers to generate awareness about their treatment plans and services among the intended groups of people.
Direct Mail Is Highly Trackable
You can add trackable features, like pURLs and QR codes for your mail healthcare items. Thus, you may track every respondent’s actions and measure your campaign performance.
Fortunately, direct mailing services like PostGrid make it quick and painless to work with such elements.
You Can Get More Responses With Healthcare Direct Mail
Direct mail has a response rate of up to 9% for house lists and 4.9% for prospect lists. This figure is much higher than email, paid search, social media, and other digital marketing channels.
Hence, investing in medical mailing services helps you attract the most responses.
Direct Mail Is Tangible and Memorable
It is a physical reminder of your business to patients. They can stick your postcards to their refrigerators or pin them on boards. Thus, direct mail is also long-lasting and shareable.
You can make it memorable by personalising your content and adding eye-catching graphics. There is no need to do something extravagant; even a few minor details that are out of the box can help you increase engagement.
Top 8 Healthcare Direct Mail Best Practices
Below, we have enlisted the best and most effective ways to increase your direct mailing effectiveness:
Choose the Ideal Format For Your Messaging
It is advisable to select mail types depending on your offer and message. Many medical direct mail formats fulfil different objectives, like:
- Postcards: They are small and intact, making them apt to deliver short messages
- Letters: Letters are your best choice if you want to send personalised and confidential mail
- Flyers: Flyers are excellent for increasing foot traffic to your clinic or hospital. But, ensure that you include your location details accurately
- Self-mailers: These items are foldable healthcare direct mail pieces you can mail without an envelope. Hence, they are affordable yet look attractive enough to entice your recipients
Focus On Your Copy and Design
Your headline is the first thing people read when they get your mail healthcare. Hence, make it responsive, attention-grabbing, and exciting. Further, ensure to use bullet points and short, skimmable paragraphs if your message is lengthy.
Along with your copy, also try making your design unique. These aspects make your mail more interactive, helping you boost engagement levels.
You may use images that reflect your message and match your healthcare direct mail colours with your logo. They allow you to increase brand recall and recognition.
Add Patient Testimonials and Reviews
Inserting reviews from your existing and long-term patients allows you to add a credible effect to your items. Hence, instead of making claims, you can produce a trustworthy portfolio of your services.
You can also add links to video testimonials in your medical direct mail items, increasing online traffic. Hence, you can increase engagement on all channels simultaneously.
Thank Your Current Patients
Sending thank-you letters and cards to your existing patients is always beneficial to healthcare providers. It strengthens the provider-patient relationship and opens new opportunities for patient retention.
Thus, it is better to use this practice regularly to help reduce patient churn every year. The best way of doing that is by using PostGrid’s medical mailing services to trigger campaigns. You can set specific dates or events when you want to launch a campaign and send items to a relevant audience.
Always Add Your Location and Contact Information
Adding the location details helps patients locate your hospital or place of practice effortlessly. People are more likely to visit a healthcare provider who is not hard to reach. Thus, try adding Google Maps links and other details to allow patients to find your location quickly.
Another thing you should add to your healthcare direct mail items is your contact information. You may add your phone number, email address, website link, social media handles, etc.
Showcase Your Industry Knowledge
Direct mail is an excellent channel to showcase your expertise in the industry. You can also share helpful lifestyle tips to keep your audience hooked. The trick is to find topics that interest your patients the most and talk about them via healthcare direct mail.
A good idea to start is sending out weekly or monthly newsletters. However, avoid jargon and break down healthcare terminology into simple words that anyone can understand.
Use Healthcare Direct Mail to Send Appointment Reminders
Along with marketing, you can do so much more with direct mail, like sending:
- Appointment reminders to remind patients to visit you
- Patient statements, bills, invoices, etc.
- Test reports
- Mental and physical health records
- Insurance claim letters to agencies
- Discharge summaries, etc.
Luckily, PostGrid’s automated healthcare mailing services help providers send all types of medical documents and letters easily.
Use a Compelling Offer and CTA
Using a CTA and offer for your medical direct mail is a standard practice all providers should employ. You can add sentences, like:
- Scan the QR code below and get 10% off your first appointment
- Click the link below to book a free consultation
- Pay for your invoice today to get 5% off your next visit, etc.
Make your CTA up front to help people complete it instantly. Also, insert your offer and CTA in bold letters to make them visible to the recipients. Hence, they can make a decision even if they don’t read your whole message.
Automation in the Medical Direct Mail Industry
Today, marketers use direct mail at par with digital channels. CRM integrations, cloud-based software, event triggers, and Restful APIs like PostGrid have given a technological twist to mail.
Healthcare marketers can now create medical direct mail in minutes by importing data directly from their CRM. They can automate everything from design and printing to mailing and tracking.
Hence, sending direct mail is as simple as conducting an email marketing campaign. You can complete all the steps online, and there is no need to drain your budget! However, healthcare direct mail automation is also helpful in other ways and helps you improve your ROI.
Let us see how online direct mail services like PostGrid can be advantageous to healthcare organisations:
Data Management and Address Verification
Address verification allows you to mail to standardised, correct delivery addresses. Hence, you don’t need to deal with lost mail or returns.
You may have thousands of prospect records in your database. But, it would be hard to use because it is incomplete or outdated. In these cases, medical mailing services like PostGrid help cleanse and update your data to increase the accuracy of your campaigns.
Design Templates
PostGrid also offers many professionally-built templates that you can use to design your mailers. You don’t need to hire a designer and pay extra for edits because you can do everything online.
Also, you can add customisations to your healthcare direct mail, like your brand logo, contact details, etc.
Variable Data Printing
VDP is a prime aspect of medical direct mail because you cannot mail the same pieces to everyone. For instance, you may need to discuss a person’s medical history to promote your services. Printing and sending highly-personalised mailers to recipients help catch their attention and get them talking to you.
Print and Mail Fulfilment
Most automated medical mailing services, including PostGrid, provide complete direct mail fulfilment. Hence, you can skip contacting different vendors for every step and get your work done under one roof.
Mail Tracking and Monitoring
You can also track your mail in real-time and see it moving toward your recipients. PostGrid helps you access your mail progress by logging into your account and navigating through your dashboard.
Furthermore, you may access the healthcare direct mail campaign analytics and insights to check the results. These reports are helpful to know what works best for your brand and plan the upcoming campaigns accordingly.
Wrapping Up
Healthcare providers may need to get in touch with patients to promote their brand and improve brand reputation. With increasing competition in this sector, medical direct mail helps hospitals, clinics, etc., set themselves apart and prove their credibility.
There are several marketing channels to fulfil these objectives. But, healthcare direct mail is the most cost-effective and result-driving form. Also, people like getting mail and are responsive to it, making it the first choice for most marketers.
PostGrid’s direct mail API makes it simpler and faster for healthcare providers to conduct a mailing campaign. They can integrate the API into their CRM and start sending out items directly from their system.
Also, PostGrid is compliant with the Privacy Act 1988 and certified by PCI DSS Level 1, SOC 2 – IRAP (Australia), ISAE 3402, ISO 9001, and ISO 27001. Therefore, you need not worry about your data security and confidentiality.
Also, our healthcare mailing services offer flexible pricing plans and 24 x 7 technical support. Thus, you can print and mail transactional and marketing items to patients affordably and conveniently.
Request a demo to understand more about how PostGrid can help you draft, print, and send healthcare direct mail in one go!
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The post Healthcare Direct Mail: Best Practices for Medical Mailing Services appeared first on PostGrid.
source https://www.postgrid.com.au/healthcare-direct-mail-best-practices/
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