The average email lead-to-schedule rate for the elective healthcare industry is 35% to 45%, which means you should be scheduling an average of 40 out of every 100 email leads.
"Eighty percent of your new appointments will be scheduled on the same day you receive the lead."
The process of successfully converting email marketing leads to new patient appointments boils down to speed and automation.
- Speed – Your response time after receiving an email lead should be immediate. Not a few hours later. Not a few minutes later.
- Automation – Leverage email marketing automation in a fashion that reduces the workload on your staff. There are programs available for less than $100 a month that automatically send emails at designated intervals to leads in your system who have not yet scheduled appointments.
Email Lead Follow-Up Process
Eighty percent of your new appointments will be scheduled on the same day you receive the lead. However, if you are unable to connect with the patient, you should follow-up for the following two days to maximize your conversion potential.
- First Response – Reach out via phone (actual person) and email (automatic) immediately.
- Second Attempt to Reach Patient – Reach out via phone (actual person) and email (automatic) within three hours of the initial inquiry on the same day (day 1).
- Third Attempt to Reach Patient – Reach out the next day (day 2) in the morning via phone (actual person) and email (automatic).
- Fourth Attempt to Reach Patient –- Reach out on day 2 in the afternoon via phone (actual person) and email (automatic).
- Fifth/Final Attempt – Reach out on day 3 via email (automatic).
If you get to the fifth attempt and are unable to successfully make an appointment you will have at least gathered a new contact in your lead funnel to receive marketing information for future events and promotions.
Things to Keep in Mind
When creating your email follow up guidelines, keep these important points in mind.
- It doesn’t matter who in the office reaches out via phone, just as long as it is done quickly. (It doesn’t even have to be the same person every time.)
- Using an automatic email system will alleviate the amount of work your office staff has to do, reducing the likelihood of errors and allowing them to spend their time more profitably.
- Your email leads should be tracked, just like your phone calls, to measure return on investment.
