Email marketing campaigns are an effective and efficient method of communication and consistently offer significantly higher returns on investment than many other more traditional communication mediums such as direct mail outs.
Below are a few of the major benefits of using an email campaign to speak to your contacts.
- Low cost – the relatively small set up and monthly cost for utilising a professional email platform means email marketing offers a cost effective way of reaching a huge number of prospects.
- Easy to create and track – most email platforms now have easy-touse interfaces that don’t require you to have significant technical expertise and therefore allow you to create engaging and powerful emails in next to no time. Unlike other mediums, results can be tracked directly through your email provider and Google Analytics which means improvements can easily be identified and implemented. Find out more about Google Analytics and how you can get started – www.numarknet.com/9011
- Instant results – emails are delivered whenever you schedule them and you can see results within minutes of the send. Adding clear calls to action can mean the recipient is only a few clicks away from potentially booking an appointment with you.
Build your email list
You may already have a small list of customer emails, however you should still put processes in place to ensure you are continually building and adding to that email contact list. This will serve to increase your reach and therefore effectiveness of future email marketing campaigns.
Top tip – at the point of sign up you could try and capture some details around the characteristics of the subscriber, eg male or female, smoker or non smoker. This will help you to better target and tailor your
communications going forward.
Try and concisely communicate to your customers why they should sign up to your email campaigns, what are the benefits to them eg, access to exclusive savings.
Your pharmacy website is an ideal place to capture subscriptions. Include a link to sign up to your emails on your homepage, within your website footer and as a subtle pop-up message on relevant pages within your website (if you have this facility).
If you are producing any other marketing materials such as leaflets to promote a particular service, why not include a small reference to your email campaigns that details the benefits and how customers can subscribe.
Remember – with new GDPR legislation you must ensure you gain specific permission to send marketing emails to your customers. A simple opt in tick box on your sign up form will suffice. Find out more about the rules and regulations of email marketing (via ICO)
Creat the right subject lines
Your subject line is critical in driving engagement with your emails. If your customers or prospective customers don’t open your email the content within becomes irrelevant.
Take time and think about what type of subject line will resonate with your contacts and entice them to open your email.
Top tip – keep it concise and get straight to the point. A typical email inbox will show around 60 characters of your subject line, on a mobile this is even less at around 25 to 30 characters. Therefore you should try and make the start of the subject line as compelling as possible to ensure your email stands out in a potentially busy inbox.
For example:
Too long - We have launched a new blood screening service – now available in pharmacy
Ideal – New blood screening service now available
Not sure what works for your subscribers? Try subject line testing.
The vast majority of email platforms now offer an easy to use tool that allows you to utilise multiple subject lines within one campaign.
The purpose of this is to allow you to build up intelligence as to what your customers tend to react best to eg, do the majority of your customers open emails with a simple informative subject line or maybe one that poses a question. Once you find what works for you, use this to ensure you maximise open rates and therefore reach more of your customer base.
Top tip – keep testing as your subscriber’s behaviour will change over time and your email list will evolve, meaning your audience’s characteristics will change.
Top tip – try personalising your subject line. It is proven to significantly increase open rates as it appears more sincere and makes the recipient feel valued. A simple example is to include a name eg, ‘(Add recipient’s first name) John, 50% off our Christmas gifting sets’.
Compose engaging email content
Once your contacts open your email you need to make sure the content is presented in an appropriate manner that engages with the reader. If the layout and structure doesn’t spark the interest of your recipient, they will likely close the email and eventually unsubscribe.
Here are a few key considerations to help you create compelling content.
Readable content – use short paragraphs and bullet points to help maintain the interest of your reader. A long drawn out block of text will only serve to lose their attention and see them move on to the next email in their inbox. Making keywords and particularly relevant points stand out by using bold text can help also.
Top tip – add social media links in your email footer to promote any social media accounts you use. This can help increase engagement on these platforms and as such increase the effectiveness in reaching prospective customers.
Calls to action – the aim of the majority of your emails will be to direct customers to your website, whether that be to access your online store, to fill out a form where they can book a service appointment or visit other relevant web pages.
With this in mind you need to make sure you include clear calls to action in your emails. Try adding distinctive buttons with very clear indications of what readers can expect from clicking, such as ‘Book now’ or ‘Find out more’ in multiple locations within your email.
Not got a pharmacy website? – see our guidance in getting started: www.numarknet.com/9011
Mobile friendly – up to 77%* of emails are now opened on a mobile device or tablet. That means if your emails are not optimised for the device they are opened on, you could immediately be alienating up to 77% of your target audience. The good news is many email providers offer easy to use templates that are mobile friendly so it’s simple to create a mobile-optimised email.
Top tip – keep the content relevant. For example, if you are launching a new offering such as a smoking cessation service utilise the data you have to target those that have told you they are smokers or have shown a vested interest in similar services or products.
Personalised content – as with subject lines most email platforms offer the facility to efficiently personalise your email content. An email that starts dear sir/madam appears very impersonal and will cause the reader to lose confidence in the rest of the email content. As well as personalising the forename or surname try using personalisation in the body of the email eg, (Add recipient’s first name) John, it’s been a while since you had your last (Add service name) Cholesterol check, why not book yourself an appointment now via our website.
Top tip - If the subject matter is more light hearted such as Christmas gifting ideas, you have more flexibility to introduce humour or a more creative approach. Where the content is more clinical, such as an appointment reminder, keep the language and design professional.
Engaging images – visuals in your email will serve to grab the attention of the reader and help make the content more appealing. Try adding a few images in your emails to help support the key messages and encourage users to interact. Don’t go overboard however, one or two images will often suffice.
Top tip – don’t email the same contacts too much as it has the potential to annoy and increase the likelihood of them unsubscribing. Try sending one email every couple of weeks to begin with and then gradually increase the frequency. Make sure you monitor the number of unsubscribes to ensure the volume of emails isn’t having a detrimental effect.
Plan your campaigns
Your email campaigns should be a mix of messages that not only promote services or products in your pharmacy but also showcase the depth and value your pharmacy has to offer eg, minor ailment service, discreet health advice. Avoid sending too many emails that focus on making sales as you will find it devalues the relationship with your subscribers and may result in them unsubscribing.
Suggested email campaigns
- Highlight the range of services you can supply and communicate the ease at which prospective customers can access these.
- Tailor messages around key health awareness dates, so a few weeks before No Smoking Day 2020 why not send an email that communicates all the benefits of your smoking cessation service and let potential customers know exactly how they can make the most of this.
- A welcome campaign that is triggered when a new contact is added to your mailing list. This could be a series of two or three emails that showcase what your pharmacy is all about and why the recipient should visit your website or pharmacy. You could try including an introductory coupon code to drive customers onto your website shop.
Make sure you measure the performance of your emails to identify areas for improvement. Your key performance indicators are email open rate and email click through rate.
Open rate – % of recipients who opened your email (of those successfully delivered to).
Click through rate – % of those who opened your email that click any link.
You can also link your email campaigns to your Google Analytics account to help measure referrals through to your website.
Find out more about Google Analytics
Glossary
Subscriber - someone who has agreed to receive email campaigns from you.
Unsubscribe - the process by which a recipient makes a request to be removed from future mailing lists.
Google Analytics - a web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic.
Subject line - the short message that subscribers see when an email appears in their inbox.
Email platform - a company that helps you send email messages via a specific email system or tool. These are often designed so the user can create and send emails by themselves without assistance.
Mobile friendly - a website that is designed to offer the user an experience that is optimised for the device they are using. All features on a website will be easily accessible from mobile phones and tablets, as well as on a desktop computer eg, drop down menus are not effective on mobile devices and as such the design is adapted. A mobile friendly website is often referred to as a ‘responsive website’.
Getting started
There are plenty of email platforms out there, many of which offer cost effective solutions to get you started with email marketing. Mailchimp for example offer a completely free service where you can trial sending emails to your mailing list.
The system will allow you to create emails using your own style and branding or adapt existing pre-set templates to make it even easier.
To find out more, search ‘mailchimp’ on Google.
Please note – data protection laws dictate that you must have prior permission to send marketing emails to any of your database of contacts and must offer an easily accessible rout to opt out from further emails (this must be managed to ensure any future lists are updated accordingly). Also any customers that receive any unexpected emails from your email address are more likely to mark your email as spam which will have a detrimental effect on deliverability of future emails.
Find out more about the rules and regulations of email marketing (via ICO)
*Depending on your target audience, product and email type. Source - eMailmonday “the Ultimate mobile email stats” (2019).