5 Biggest Mistakes Chiropractors Make with Their Patient Newsletters

If you have been in business for awhile, you’ve probably heard the saying, “The money is in the list.” If the value of an email list is gold, publishing an email newsletter would have to fall into the platinum category.

Naturally, you can keep in touch with your current and past patients without an email newsletter, but why pass up the opportunity to stay “top of mind” with them on a regular basis? If you contact your former patients on a random basis, you risk the possibility that will forget who you are. You know how it is  — we’re all busy with any number of daily activities that distract us and keep us occupied.

However, with an email newsletter, you have the perfect opportunity to step into the privacy of your patients’ homes or tablets or phones on any given day of any given week or month. You decide when the timing is best. Once you take and your newsletter arrives in their inbox, you have their undivided attention.

At least, that’s what you’re hoping for. their undivided attention.

The first thing you have to do, of course, is to develop an email newsletter that your patients will be hungry to devour, from top to bottom.

Here are the four biggest mistakes chiropractors make when creating their patient email newsletter:

Mistake #1:  Subject matter isn’t relevant and topical.

For example, in the fall you want your newsletter content to relate to what’s happening in their lives of your patients.  During the back-to-school season, many parents need to get physical exams for their children to play on various sports teams. In your newsletter, you could publish a series of tips on how parents can keep their children safe on the field. Make sure that your newsletter content is relevant and topical to your reader.

Mistake #2: Newsletter content has no actionable information.

In the newsletter example above, as a part of keeping young athletes safe on the field, you can discuss how a player can practice self-care for best performance in a game, or a list of symptoms of a concussion, an event that frequently happens to student-athletes. Be an educator and advocate for your patients by helping educate them on life issues with which they may encounter.

Mistake #3: Educating your reader about your business rather than helping them.

This is the most common mistake I see chiropractors make.  Rather than educating their readers about an issue, like sports concussions, for example, they spend they time extolling the virtues of the newest machine they purchased or treatment they have begun to offer.  No one cares what your new machine can do — they want to be able to come to you with a specific issue and have you treat them for that issue.

Mistake #4: The “Call to Action” at the end is too pushy.

Each newsletter should have a call to action.  However, the call to action should relate to the topic discussed in the newsletter. For example, in the newsletter example above, the call to action could be to call for an appointment for your child to come in for an athletic physical. For the biggest impact, your message and your market must match.

Mistake #5: Promotional/special offer emails are the only emails clients receive from you.

Don’t get in the habit of sending out special offer emails. By doing this, you train your readers to only come and see you when you have a special deal to offer. This creates a climate of bargain hunting and deal-seekers.  It’s fine to send out a promotional email occasionally, but don’t let that kind of email be the only communication clients receive from you.

When you create the right kind of patient newsletter, the recipients will open it and immediately have a “good feeling” about the person who sent it – YOU – who they already like because they are existing customers. Avoid these mistakes in your patient newsletter so that you create raving fans who want to come back in and do business with you again and again!

Chiropractors, if you want to discover how writing one email newsletter per month can drive 20-50 additional patient visits, check out my case study at http://www.KeepYourWaitingRoomFull.com.