As a doctor you probably understand the various growth opportunities that the internet provides, but you probably don’t have the time or money to invest in growing your business as you would like. The perceived cost and obstacles are what keeps many business owners on the sidelines as opposed to in the game.

But, what if I told you, that as a local business there is an opportunity to take advantage of the marketing power of the Internet with little to now cost, and you don’t even need a website? How is this possible? Through email marketing for small business.

Email marketing allows you to have a direct line of communication right to your customers. You may have the misconception that email marketing is complicated or too much for you to handle. But the fact is, if you use email now, then you can do email marketing. Are you aware that email marketing is one of the most cost effective forms of marketing out there?

PERMISSION BASED EMAILING ONLY

You must be sure that you always get a customer’s permission to add them to your email list. It’s imperative that you respect them and their privacy. Breaking that trust could cause significant damage to the customer-client relationship that may be irreparable.

1. Collecting Emails

You first need to start collecting emails from your customers. This is very easily done by simply asking for an email at the point of sale or when handing them the invoice. You simply ask. A retail business could have a clipboard with a sign up form, or perhaps a fishbowl with blank cards they could write their email address on, and put in the fishbowl for a drawing. A service business ideally could ask for an email address when writing up a quote, just be sure to let them know that you may occasionally send out helpful information about your services, or possibly discounts in the future.

If you have a website, you can ask for customers to sign up in exchange for free information. I do that on this website by directing customers to different webpages on my site as well as having an option to opt in for a free report.

2. Give, Don’t Sell

People are always looking for a discount, or special deal for services that they may purchase in the future. Customer will see this as an added value if you have a name to the list, such as a loyalty club, or rewards club. Make them feel as if they are part of an exclusive group.

3. Is it difficult?

Not really. It depends on how you go. If you email friends or family, you are quite capable of marketing through email. I recommend signing up for an email program online such as MailChimp. MailChimp will let you upload your clients’ emails that you have collected from them. It is a free service up to 2,000 subscribers. It will then allow you to track email opens, bounces, and clicks on links. By knowing this information, you can split test effectiveness of email communications.

MailChimp allows you to choose templates and send the message in HTML (with images and graphics) or in Plain Text, that is how I send my emails. I think they deliver cleaner and look better on a phone, and that way there is no compatibility issues with a handset or email program.

If you want to get more advanced, you can set up an auto responder within MailChimp. There is a charge to the auto responder service, but it quite cool how it works. Basically, everybody that signs up will get the emails in the same order. This is done because you have went ahead of time and created a series of emails for everybody to receive. This is a bit more complicated, but can be very effective.

4. What kind of results can I expect?

There is definitely potential profit from simply keeping your customers informed. Remember these customer specifically asked you to send them information. It is almost as if they are saying: “Please allow me to spend more money with your business.” Since email marketing is so cheap, and often doesn’t take a lot of time, from a cost perspective it can generate the highest return on investment out there.

With marketing, you always want to focus on targeted marketing. You can’t get any more targeted than email marketing from people that have signed up. They have either bought from you or were interested in buying from you in the past. And as I mentioned, your advertising costs are insignificant. A perfect example is a local consignment store owner who works her list twice a week with special promotions. She makes a killing, and often sells out her promotional inventory through email alone.

As a doctor there are simply opportunities and then there are golden opportunities. This one is GOLDEN. It’s simple, it’s direct, it’s targeted, and it’s
profitable. Yet few healthcare professionals are taking advantage of it. Be a leader and start today.