A Step-by-Step Guide to Chiropractic Email Marketing

If you aren’t already engaging in email marketing for your chiropractic practice, you’re missing out.

Research has shown, time and again, the massive ROI of email marketing: $38 for every $1 you spend.

Email marketing has been around for over 25 years, so it’s not the newest marketing strategy on the block, but it’s the most consistent and reliable.

Instead of jumping from Snapchat to TikTok, you spend your time more wisely by focusing on chiropractic email marketing.

With email, you’re not at the whim of some crazy algorithm that can push you from thousands of views to just a few dozen overnight. YOU control your email marketing.

It’s a controllable marketing asset (assets are resources that GENERATE revenue) that allows you to communicate with your audience and health tribe directly, no middle man required.

For chiropractors, regular emails can help strengthen your relationship with your patients, enhance your SEO, warm up cold prospects, and generate a consistent stream of patient appointments to your calendar.

But if you’re new to the idea of chiropractic email marketing, where should you start?

We’ve got you covered.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to kickstart your email marketing strategy from start to finish.

Creating an Email Marketing Plan

As with any marketing strategy, you’ll need to create a plan first.

Your email newsletters should provide value to your subscribers (teach) and have a strong call to action (invite).

We call this strategy “Teach & Invite Consistently”.

Every week deliver an email newsletter that provides engaging content to your list.

Then, please take the opportunity to invite them to take the next step with a strong and compelling call to action.

In our experience of sending over 400,000 emails per month for The Smart Chiropractor members, we’ve discovered that a call to action of “Schedule an Appointment” that links directly to your online scheduling tool is a great way to generate consistent patient appointments week after week through email.

Weekly newsletters are just one of the many email campaigns you can have in your practice.

The best part about automated email campaigns is that they work all day and all night.

Automated email campaigns run while you sleep and don’t require any paid time off!

Other email campaigns you can include are referral campaigns, event campaigns, review campaigns, product campaigns, and many others.

One word of caution- creating and running email campaigns is a skill.

Don’t merely delegate it to a random staff member and hope for the best.

We speak to practices all the time that tell us they have a team member who “does their email”.

But suppose that team member is not an expert on deliverability, subject line creation, body copy, image placement, and crafting compelling calls to action.

In that case, you are leaving a ton of opportunity on the table.

After you start your campaigns, don’t forget to track your results to see how your strategy measures up as you go.

Not sure what stats to track? Grab our Ultimate Email Marketing Guide here!

Define Your Email Audience(s)

Hopefully, you already have a pretty good idea of your target audience from your work with SEO or other content marketing strategies.

However, if you haven’t thought it over, now is an excellent time to define yours!

In ChiroEmails by The Smart Chiropractor, you can define your audience by segment or subscriber list.

Having a few different subscriber lists is a great way to maximize your open rates, click-through rates, and results!

By having different subscriber lists, you can tailor your emails based upon the subscribers’ interests.

The more specific your messaging is, the better your results will be.

For instance, you may have a subscriber list of new patients who receive your new patient onboarding email campaign.

After completing that campaign, these patients may start receiving your weekly newsletter.

But you probably would not want everyone who receives your weekly newsletter to all of a sudden start receiving your new patient onboarding sequence.

Subscriber lists help you keep each audience separate and your messaging on point.

Personalize Your Emails

You probably already have a few ideas about how you can start using chiropractic email marketing in your practice.

As you begin sending emails, also keep in mind the importance of personalization.

An example of personalization is using someone’s first name in the email.

Personalization has been shown to improve email engagement dramatically and can directly lead to improved results from your campaigns.

Now, don’t get nervous – you don’t need to go in and write out each email individually!

Merge fields is the technical term used for personalization.

Almost every email system in the world has it, and if yours doesn’t, it’s time to look for a new email system!

Merge fields take commonly stored information such as first name, last name, etc., and allow you to place it into all of your emails at scale. Below is an example of what a merge field might look like.

What you would see creating the email-

Email Subject Line: [merge the first name], we’ve reserved your appointment

What the recipient would see:

Email Subject Line: Jeff, we’ve reserved your appointment.

If you don’t have the first name of every patient in your system, it’s ok. You can easily set a default of “friend” or something similar to insert when the first name is missing.

Pretty cool, right?

Reach Out to Prospects to Generate More New Patients with Email

With today’s automated email marketing solutions, it’s easier than ever to connect with new patients.

You can create a sequence of autoresponder emails that engage with potential new patients.

With a series of educational and helpful emails that provide genuine value, you may be able to convert them with little effort on your end!

Two of our favorite examples include exit-intent popups and lead magnets.

Both are currently available in ChiroEmails by The Smart Chiropractor.

Exit Intent Popups are the boxes that pop up on your screen when your cursor moves toward the “back” button.

It’s designed to pop up on the screen when a website visitor is getting ready to leave your website.

These are incredibly effective at list building.

On an optimized page, up to 10% of your website, visitors could potentially enter their information in as they leave.

That means if you have 1,000 people visiting your website each month, an exit-intent popup could add 100 of those people to your email list.

If you have a great campaign set up for them, it’s not unheard of for 25% to become patients.

That’s 25 new patients each month to your practice by adding a great exit intent pop up and follow up sequence!

Lead magnets are also a great way to build your list and show patients the benefits of your care.

A lead magnet is a piece of content (video, PDF, etc.) that you provide in exchange for the visitor’s email address—the more compelling your lead magnet, the better your conversions.

Lead magnets are great because you get a laser-focused picture of that person’s interest. For instance, if they download a “How to Get Rid of Low Back Pain” PDF, then you have a pretty good idea they are struggling with low back pain!

By understanding the patient’s specific interest based on the lead magnets they’ve downloaded, you can craft a super impactful follow-up sequence that provides value and invites them to take the next step with your practice.

Don’t write like a corporate stiff

No one said you have to send out stuffy, formal emails.

Instead, find the approach that works best for your practices’ brand personality.

You’ll also want to try offering different types of content.

For example, emails with educational resources and information provide value to your patients.

Other emails might include updates on events, your practice, or your team.

Whatever you decide to write, don’t be afraid to engage in a little testing to see what works better with your audience!

Make the Most of Your Chiropractic Email Marketing

Remember that your chiropractic email marketing will always be a work in progress.

Even as you learn new methods and try new strategies, you should regularly revisit your plan to see what’s working best and what’s not.

Continue evolving and amplifying your content and tailoring your newsletter messaging to create genuine connections and long-term relationships.

If you’re just getting started with chiropractic email marketing, don’t forget to check out our helpful free chiropractic marketing tools, reports, and guides.

Each guide is packed with useful tips and resources to help your healthcare practice move the needle.