Research into digital marketing highlights that email marketing is one of the most used and most successful means of marketing online, and it is a strategy that dentists seeking to expand their business should be using. It may get some negative press due to spam, but email remains one of the best ways to communicate with both existing and potential clients.

Firstly, we are not suggesting that dentists start emailing either their current patients or local prospects randomly and indiscriminately. Apart from the fact that this will never work, it is also the fastest way to have an email account closed down. These are the tactics of spammers and nefarious entities, so avoid this.

Instead, if you want email marketing to create positive outcomes you must approach it strategically, and have it set up properly from the outset. First, you need an autoresponder service that you can use to manage your email marketing. Autoresponder services are what you use to store and manage all your email subscribers, create email campaigns, write your emails in advance, and set the times for those emails to be sent.

Your choice of an autoresponder is important because its reputation can influence the level at which your emails avoid going directly into a subscriber’s spam folder. Some examples of autoresponder services that are popular and reputable include:

• Aweber
• GetResponse
• Mail Chimp
• Active Campaign
• Hubspot
• Convertkit
• Constant Contact

In each case you will pay either an annual or monthly fee, however, do not let put you off. Whilst there are differences in the price of each autoresponder service, whatever it is will be but a fraction of the return on that investment that a successful email marketing strategy can produce.

One of the most important aims you should have for your email marketing is to build a relationship with those you are emailing. This brings us to a technical facet of email marketing and that is segmentation. What this does is allocate subscribers into sub-groups and it allows you to create email messages to each sub-group.

A prime example of this is an email campaign for your existing patients offering them discounts on dental treatment if they introduce a new patient to your practice. It will seem strange to a subscriber who is not an existing patient to receive these emails, but using segmentation they would not as you can send different messages to each subgroup for maximum effect. This is one way to build relationships as it means the emails received by subscribers are applicable only to them.

Another email marketing tactic to build a strong relationship with subscribers stems from the content which you include in your emails. If you simply send promotion after promotion the relationship will never exist. However, if you send all your subscribers useful information, advice on dental care, and answer questions sent to you, the relationship builds. Those receiving your emails feel that you are helping them and not just out to sell your latest service or treatment.

The point is, when you DO wish to promote your latest services and treatments, your subscribers will be more open to receiving those messages due to you having first created the relationship with them. Not only will your promotional emails be opened and read at a higher rate, but the number of subscribers who opt to use and pay for those treatments will also be greater, as will your revenue, all thanks to email marketing.