With email inboxes clogged, and digital channels saturated with promotions that are easily ignored, smart healthcare practices have turned to direct mail – a marketing strategy that has always been effective, perhaps more so now than ever before.
Direct mail has proven to be more effective in capturing attention. Just imagine your potential patient sorting through their mail and looking at each mail piece. Touching your postcard and reading through it creates a powerful experience that isn’t easily forgotten. On the contrary, it’s memorable, tangible, and effective because it involves multiple senses and creates a unique (and distraction-free) moment.
Direct mail is a versatile strategy, benefiting all niches alike, especially within the healthcare industry. The US healthcare system is rapidly expanding, leading to an increase in budget for the year 2023. Thus, the competition is growing, making it tough to be seen and heard. This has become one of the main reasons for marketers to invest in direct mail for healthcare and medical practices.
Keep reading to discover more benefits you can achieve with direct mail.
What Is Direct Mail Healthcare Marketing?
A direct mail strategy is based on sending physical mail to a target audience. Physical mail can take the form of a postcard, brochure, flyer, and more. Most mail contains brief information about your company and an ad promoting your practice, special offers, and incentives.
Direct mail marketing resembles email marketing, where you send a message - a tangible one in this case - directly to the prospective patient and encourage them to take action.
Although traditional, the strategy excels in the industry, allowing healthcare providers to approach marketing in a highly personal, trustworthy, and appealing manner.
Why Should You Switch to Direct Mail Healthcare Marketing?
In a highly competitive and heavily regulated market like healthcare, enormous efforts are required to earn the trust of prospects, not to mention the time needed to turn them into loyal patients. However, this doesn’t mean there aren’t any effective strategies that can overcome such challenges. Some of them just take longer to yield results. Fortunately, this is not the case with direct marketing.
To support this claim, have a look at the statistics:
- 70% of consumers consider direct mail more personal than an online ad;
- almost 90% of direct mail is opened (while emails can be deleted without even glimpsing at them);
- about 40% of recipients open and read their mail compared with the average email open rate of 19.7%;
- 37% of recipients respond positively to direct mail, especially when their name is printed on it.
Let’s look past statistics and discuss more reasons why it is time to integrate direct mail into your healthcare campaign.
Get Ahead of the Competition
One of the biggest mistakes healthcare companies make is to deem direct marketing as an outdated strategy that is not worth exploring. Their dismissal can easily work to your advantage.
When a potential patient receives thousands of digital ad impressions daily, and only three to ten by U.S. Mail, naturally, most of the digital ads will be ignored while the physical mail will make a bigger impact.
It's just simple math at this point.
Integrate with Digital Channels
Direct mail healthcare marketing isn’t as old-fashioned as some think. On the contrary, your audience can easily connect with you using PURLs (personal links), one-time-use codes, or QR codes. You can even send new patients directly to your website where they can book an appointment online.
Direct healthcare mail goes hand-in-hand with technology, allowing you to reach people in the target area and encourage them to interact with you through the internet.
By integrating your direct mail, you launch a campaign that isn’t limited to one channel but entails both traditional and modern practices.
Tailor a Data-Driven Campaign
You can set a detailed targeted search when launching a campaign on any social media platform, be it Facebook or Instagram. The same can be said about direct mail campaigns. Sending brochures to the whole neighborhood won’t yield the desired result unless you take a data-driven approach.
Advantages of Direct Mail for Healthcare and Medical Practices
Your business may skyrocket faster than you anticipate with direct marketing. At Taradel, you can design attractive brochures or postcards to send to your target audience. And you don’t need to pay for anything: the design templates and stock photos are free of charge (with your campaign), and our platform is easy to use with no prior marketing experience.
Establish Trust with Clients
Phishing and data breaches have tainted the reputation of digital ads. Consumers sometimes approach email advertisements with suspicion in fear of sharing private information that could be used against them.
Printed ads, on the other hand, are considered to have more value. Therefore, consumers are more prone to trust direct mail than email and digital ads. There are no links to click, and no information has to be shared. Consumers decide for themselves whether to give the service a try whenever they want.
This approach to marketing can be a suitable one for healthcare providers as they’re obliged to protect patients’ information at all costs.
One study done by Marketing Sherpa shows that 82% of Americans trust printed ads over email advertisements. So, if you haven’t incorporated direct mail into your campaign, it’s high time to get started.
Get Recognized by Your Target Audience
Email marketing is aimed at thousands of people, but only a small percentage of them respond positively. Direct mailing is more inclusive, targeting only those people who fit your audience criteria. Of course, many practices use a "blanket coverage" approach to reach entire local neighborhoods - this is a great strategy, too (depending on your local market and ideal client).
Taradel helps you identify your target audience with an interactive map. You start by entering your practice's physical address, and then refine your audience targeting from there.
Some factors that will determine your target audience are:
- Location (you can choose a radius that is close to your medical practice)
- Household income range of your target audience
- Median age range
- Homeownership (renters or homeowners)
- Length of residence (anything from 1 to 15+ years)
You will end up with a map and a summary of how many mailboxes can be reached. If there is an area that you think is worth adding, you can do so by clicking on the map.
Thanks to Taradel, you can save money and time by targeting potential customers that are relevant to your practice.
Reach Out to People of All Ages
As you may know, older generations may struggle with modern technology, especially when it comes to receiving emails and booking a doctor’s visit online.
A direct mail healthcare campaign is the means that is effective across ages. Your postcard may contain a QR code or a PURL for the younger generation while keeping the address and phone number for less tech-savvy people.
People aged 18-24 claim they prefer paper-based communication over email. This can be caused by overflowing emails full of advertisements. In fact, 59% of Millennials say the information received via direct mail has more value to them compared to digital ads.
Communicate with Clients in a Reliable Way
It’s easier to sell a healthcare product or service when meeting face-to-face with a patient. However, the journeys often start at home when they receive an ad. The way you present your offer and practice will be reflected in the clients’ further actions and their perception of you.
Direct mail assists many healthcare professionals in adding physical touch points and supporting contactless communication with their patients and new leads. The more your patients receive promotional materials from you, the more influence you will have in their decision-making process.
Get Started with Taradel
If you are looking for ways to launch your direct mail marketing campaign, Taradel has established a proven way to skyrocket your healthcare business. Your medical practice can use secure, effective, and affordable ways of reaching a target audience. Moreover, you can integrate traditional and digital marketing to reap the most benefits.