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Happy Friday, it’s time to wrap up our Incubation Email Series. But first, how did we get here?

We started by revealing the waiting room nobody talks about. Then we got into how incubators aren’t just for chickens anymore.

From there, I outlined the hidden benefits of email, the resilient and ubiquitous marketing platform nobody brags about using. Then I gave you the 5 secret incubation email “ingredients” so you could cook your own.

And finally I showed you the common Incubation Email mistakes and how to avoid them so you can close distance between you and your leads.

“WE WANT MORE! WE WANT MORE!”

Alright, I hear ya. Let’s hit a few final FAQs about Incubation Emails.

“Do people have the attention spans to read emails?” Well… you do. You’re reading this and you probably read a number of my emails. Why?

Because Incubation Emails work well when done properly. Sure, attention spans are shorter than they were 50 years ago.

But consider shows like Stranger Things and Squid Games, some of the most watched programs on Netflix. You’re talking 8-10 hours worth of shows in a season, and people will binge them back-to-back on a single Saturday.

So it’s less about ‘attention span’ and more about ‘are we giving people something worth paying attention to?’

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“Does this replace my practice newsletter?” Nope. Newsletters are broad blasts for awareness (events, new tech, tips for everyone). Incubator emails are laser-focused on non-converted leads, educating them toward booking. Run both: newsletters build community, incubators support you in closing more deals.

Now, you will have some crossover in content. But your Incubator Emails are narrative-based, and look and feel like an email someone might send a friend. So there are key differences.

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“What if people feel like I’m bugging them?” Think of this as helpful leadership, not chasing them for their business. (That’s what ALL followup should be, btw).

Your weekly cadence with stories and value (like my egg incubator tale) keeps it fresh. People want the solution you have to offer, and until they make that decision, they still need to be educated.

Include a clear “unsubscribe if this isn’t for you” footer (which is pretty standard in all email softwares these days) so people can easily opt-out if the way.

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“What do I need to know about subject lines?” Think of your subject line as the headline of the email. People read a headline of an article and decide “Do I want to get into this? Is this relevant to me?” Then they either read or they don’t. Your subject line serves the same purpose.

So to be clear – the goal of the subject line is to get them to open the email.

Keep ’em short (ideally under 50 characters). And you want them curiosity-driven and personal.

For example, my ‘big picture’ content focus is how to book more surgeries without being salesy. But to get you to open my messages and devour my expertise, I use subject lines like “Dove season (and THIS season) open today in Texas” and “Pool Shopping vs. Personality Styles” and “My wife ‘OK boomer’d me (was she right?)”

And part of you is like “what the heck is he talking about” or “this sounds juicy.” And you open to get the pay-off from the subject line curiosity / tease.

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“What if I haven’t mailed my list in a while?” Start with anyone who’s inquired in the last 12 months (clean it first), scrap anything older. Even just a few hundred names works.

Once you get rocking, if you’re marketing heavily to 2 different avatars (younger refractive patients and older RLE patients, for example) you can send different weekly Incubation Emails to each avatar.

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“Can I personalize without a ton of extra work?” Yes, just use merge tags for first name, procedure interest, etc (e.g., “Hey Sarah, still thinking LASIK?”). CRMs auto-pull this, and it makes it feel 1:1 without manual tweaks.

“I don’t have a CRM.” OK, hit me up and I’ll steer you in the right direction.

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“What kind of metrics should I be looking at?” Tag links in emails to track clicks/opens/books from this list. We’re looking for 15-30% open rates, 3-6% clicks.

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“Should I still follow-up with these leads manually?” Yes, you should. Over the long-term reach out to all leads manually at least once a month by call or SMS. That should happen in tandem with the Incubation Emails doing their job of keeping you top of mind and building your authority on your behalf. 1-2 punch.

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“Should I ‘sell’ in every email?” The goal here is not to push people to make a move, but every email SHOULD have a subtle (or not-so-subtle) call to action.

Mix these up – book a consult, reply to this email with a question, schedule a call with me, text me, go to our webinar, reply if you want XYZ new resource. Ultimately we want to create some kind of conversation, because conversations lead to conversions.

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“How long does the Incubation Emails need to be?” Lean on the shorter side – 250-350 words – BUT some will be longer depending on the topic.

Short answer is they should be as long as they need to be. Take one page out of War and Peace and it’s too short. Add 1 word to Nike’s “Just Do It” tagline and it’s too long.

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“This sounds like a lot, can you just do this for me?”

Great question. Short answer is yes. Here’s what we’re doing…

As you probably know, we have an unbelievable coaching system where we teach practices how to build value, establish their authority, and book more surgeries without feeling like or coming across in a salesy way.

We cover everything from how to connect with and book leads on the phone, scheduling more refractive surgeries, increasing cataract upgrades, managing and leading teams, persuasive marketing, and even strategies / tools to maximize your efforts on the OD liaison/co- management side.

And we do it via masterclasses, intensives, courses, live group coaching, and of course 1-on-1 coaching.

It kicks butt, and we’re always working on making our programs better.

And so for anyone at the VIP tier in our coaching program, here’s what we’re doing:

We will now be providing weekly incubation email templates as a value-add.

So we do the topics, the seasonality component, the actual copywriting, the curiosity-injected subject lines, almost everything soup to nuts. Just add in your practice info, drop it in your email software and you’re good to go.

It’s like a dot-to-dot where we’ve connected 98% of the dots for you.

So get excited about that. It’s our pleasure to serve you and your team, and equip you with everything you need to maximize your success and conversions in 2026.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the Incubation Email series, and got some good nuggets out of it.

Have a great weekend, plenty more to come next week as we get into month 2 of the first quarter in what I’m confident will be an amazing 2026.

— Coach Troy

Not-so-fun fact: the average person gets hit with 121 emails a day. Erf.

Most of them look like they were designed by a committee of robots who’ve never had a human interaction. Bold headers screaming at you, buttons everywhere. Stock photos of impossibly happy people sitting in non-descript medical settings. “Yay! Weee! Humans Happy!” The whole nine yards of corporate nonsense.

Quick marketing lesson for you before I continue – legendary copywriter Gary Halbert once explained how people sort their mail into two piles. There’s the “looks important, might be from a real person” pile. And there’s the “junk mail” pile that goes straight to the trash without a second glance.

And your email is making that same split-second journey in someone’s inbox right now.

When you’re trying to incubate leads and turn them into booked consults, making your emails look like slick marketing pieces is a fast way to land in that mental junk pile. Delete. Gone. Opportunity wasted.

Because the second someone opens your email and sees all that corporate jazz, their brain immediately goes into “oh great, another sales pitch” mode.

But it’s not just the flashy design that kills these emails. There are a handful of other sneaky mistakes that practices make without even realizing they’re shooting themselves in the foot.

In my last message, I gave you the 5 secret ingredients to persuasive Incubation Emails, and I told you I’d get into the common pitfalls to avoid. As promised, I’ll walk you through these so you can dodge them like a champion.

First up, who’s actually sending the email? If your “from” name is something like “ABC Vision Center” or “Downtown Eye Clinic,” you’re already starting off cold.

People don’t connect with buildings or logos. They connect with other people. When someone sees an email from “Dr. Sarah Martinez” or even just “Sarah,” it feels more like an actual human is reaching out to them. That tiny change makes a massive difference in whether someone bothers opening your email or just scrolls right past it.

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Next mistake is trying to cram everything and the kitchen sink into every email. I see this all the time. Practices want to tell leads about their technology AND their financing options AND their patient reviews AND their special offer AND their surgeon’s credentials all in one shot.

It’s easy to do because YES, there are so many awesome aspects to your practice! But throwing it all together is like making your prospects try to drink from a fire hose. They can’t absorb any of it.

Instead, focus on one topic per email. One story. One FAQ. One feature. Think rifle shot, not shotgun blast. Over time, these focused emails work together like a mosaic, building a complete picture piece by piece.

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On a related note: being too general. When you write stuff like “we use advanced technology” or “we provide excellent care,” it sounds nice but it doesn’t stick. Specifics bring emails to life.

Rather than saying you have “experienced staff,” tell them about Jenny at the front desk who’s been answering patient questions for 12 years and knows exactly what to say when someone’s nervous about their consult because she had the surgery herself. Details make it real.

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And here’s maybe the biggest mistake of all – sounding too official and buttoned-up. Look, I get it. You’re medical professionals. But when your emails read like they were written by a lawyer for a hospital brochure, they feel cold and sterile.

That’s great in the surgical suite, terrible in the inbox. Am I saying you need to be super casual or use a bunch of slang? Of course not.

There’s a balance to strike – “formal” is on one end of the line, and “casual” is on the other. You want to be right in the middle – “conversational.” Like you’re explaining something to a friend over coffee, not presenting a paper at a medical conference.

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​All these mistakes have one thing in common: they put distance between you and the person reading. And distance is the enemy when you’re trying to build trust with someone who’s trying to figure out who to trust to perform their surgery.

The good news is avoiding these pitfalls isn’t complicated. It’s actually probably easier than what you’re doing now.

It just requires thinking differently about what your Incubator Emails are supposed to do. They’re not marketing blasts. They’re conversations at scale. It’s all about you showing up as a real person who genuinely wants to help someone make a smart decision about their improving their life.

Alright, a few final FAQs on Incubation Emails tomorrow, and I’ll also share a way you can get these done for you if you’re interested in that.

Until then,

Troy “No More Robot Emails” Cole

So it’s still like 7 degrees here in Fort Worth, and there’s a thick layer of snow sleet adorning the ground. Looking like a winter wonderland Texas Tundra over here. (Quite beautiful, just don’t freaking slip on it….)

But enough about the cold. Let’s talk about piping HOT, fresh-from-the-oven, delicious Incubation Emails that your non-converted leads are ready to scarf like a slice of NY style pizza.

What are the ingredients necessary to bake such a persuasive masterpiece? (Picking up where we left off in my last message before I was so rudely interrupted by this 5-alarm freeze-out)

Because you’re spending thousands to get leads into your CRM. Some are ready to book a consult, most are not.

And here’s what’s wild – so many practices inadvertently end up treating that list of non-bookers like the proverbial “junk drawer” in the kitchen. Random stuff gets tossed in there, nobody ever looks at it… and half the time you forget it even exists.

Those individuals treat you the same way in return. When you send boring newsletters or random promotional blasts… people glance at them for half a second, delete them, then forget you exist until they see your next promo email that gets the same treatment.

I’m here to help you NOT get Junk Drawer’d.

So what actually makes an email worth reading? What turns your inbox from a graveyard of ignored messages into a place where people actually (gasp!) look forward to hearing from you? Or at the very least are curious what you have to say.

Let me break down 5 of the key ingredients that separate emails people delete immediately from emails people actually open, read and act on.

1. Create urgency and relevance with seasonal hooks. Obviously writing about LASIK benefits in January when everyone’s making New Year’s resolutions hits different than writing about it in July. But this applies year-round. Timing matters. When your email connects to what’s already happening in someone’s life right now, it feels relevant. (Which means it doesn’t feel like a marketing blast)

2. Leverage stories that actually entertain while they educate. Yes, entertain AND educate. Nobody wants to read a medical textbook in their inbox. But if you can wrap an important lesson about choosing a surgeon inside a story that makes them smile or think differently, suddenly they’re learning without feeling like they’re in a lecture hall. (Which builds affinity AND knowledge retention, double-bonus!)

3. Integrate analogies into your messaging. Remember, the vast majority of prospects are coming into your world having never faced a decision like this before. How can we help them understand how it works? The benefits? The ways to assess their options? That it’s an investment, not a cost? Analogies are a weapons-grade persuasion tool to do just that.

4. Weave trust signals naturally into the conversation. Mention your experience, your technology, your patient results, your reviews/testimonials – but do it in a way that doesn’t scream “PLEASE BOOK WITH ME.” It’s the difference between showing up and showing off. It’s gotta be done naturally (and yes there are specific ways to do this very thing).

5. Teach them how to make smart buying decisions even if they don’t choose you. Erf, that last part makes you squirm a little, yeah? Sounds backwards but it works. When you genuinely help someone understand what questions to ask and what really matters in choosing a surgeon, you build authority that no competitor can touch. Authority that’s worth the $$ they invest with you, and establishes the trust necessary to move forward with surgery.

Now, do you need ALL of these ingredients in EVERY Incubation Email? Nah. But at least 2-3 of them make for a strong, educational, entertaining, easily consumable piece of content.

OK, forward this along to your marketing person (who should also be on this list) so they can apply this in your Incubation Email strategy. And next time I’ll give you the common missteps practices make when emailing non-converted leads, and what to AVOID so you don’t end up in email graveyard.

Until next time,

Troy “Secret Ingredients” Cole

Wanna know the dirty little secret about the gurus and online companies posting dance videos and TikTok shorts?

They’re making their real money through email.

Here’s the thing – social media is incredible at what it does. You can reach thousands of people for pennies on the dollar. A few hundred bucks in ad spend and boom, you’ve got a pipeline full of leads who saw your video and said “Yeah, maybe someday I’ll do something about these contacts.”

Social media is a great marketing channel that we love. And you can look at social media as a tool that fills your funnel. While email helps convert that funnel into patients.

“Email, Troy? Still? It’s so…. Old.”

Yup! But let’s look at the data:

>> Almost 90% of Americans over the age 15 have email
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>> 99% of email users check their email every day, some up to 20 times a day or more
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>> 59% of people say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions

>> For every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $36-40

>> Email has an average click-through rate of 3.71% compared to social media’s 0.07%. That’s not a typo. Email performs 53x better at getting people to actually do something

So even with all the other fancy schmancy social media slack video streaming snap tik gram going on, email is STILL the dominant player.

Email is the platform nobody brags about using (except I guess yours truly, ha). Virtual everyone STILL uses it every day. And for the companies doing it right, email is a high ROI activity that’s super cost-effective.

Why does this matter for practices like yours? Because when someone is considering a procedure that’s thousands of dollars and involves their eyes or their vision or their face or their teeth or even their hearing, they need more than a 60-second video of you pointing at text overlays.

They need depth. Education. They need to feel like they ultimately trust you before they sign off on your surgery or treatment.

Email gives you room to actually explain things. You can walk someone through why premium lenses matter. You can address the specific fears holding them back. You can tell stories that build real connection over time instead of hoping they remember your username after scrolling past 47 other videos.

Email also meets people where they are in their decision process. Someone might not be ready today (not everyone is, that’s OK), but if you’re showing up every week with helpful information, you’re the first practice they think of when they finally decide to move forward. (Because NONE of your competitors are doing email at max effectiveness, I can promise you that)

Staying top of mind is crucial, it’s marketing 101. And Incubation Emails allow you to do that at scale, with personality, in a way that matches your practice’s brand with the info your surgeons find important. And that’s a powerful combo.

I’ve told you this has been a killer marketing channel for our consultancy. A few real-world examples that still surprise me:

I’ll be at a conference, and someone on my email list will come up to me and ask me about stories in my emails (my kid’s sports team, a trip I took, etc). And they will talk to me like we’re best buds, even though I’ve never even had a convo with them. Because they feel connected from being on my list.

Or someone will reach out – sometimes after being on my list 4 weeks, sometimes 4 years – and say, “Hey, I know you help with XYZ. We need it.” And they’re ready to go. Why?

Because I took the time to educate them, teach them, build rapport with them, tell them what to look for and INCUBATE THEM to turn them into buyers. At scale.

I don’t say any of this to brag. I am humbled and honored that we have the opportunity to serve our amazing clients, and I’m always appreciative of meeting new people and helping new clients get their comms / sales / onboarding processes in order.

I’m simply showing you how a properly executed Incubation Email Playbook can translate into business and collaboration opportunities and even friendships.

So that’s the case for email. Beyond my personal success with it, the data supports it being a critical component of your conversion ecosystem.

Tomorrow I’m going to tell you about the key “ingredients” of a proper Incubation Email. Just like a good meal, certain ingredients can really make it pop, while others can make it fall flat.

We’ll get into all that tomorrow…

Talk soon,

Troy “Email Still Rocks” Cole

Remember that plan of attack I promised you last week? The one about converting your open leads into consults? Let’s get into it (it’s simpler than you might think).

Growing up on a ranch in East Texas, we raised a number of farm animals, including chickens. And I remember when my mom would come back from the feed store with a new batch of fertile, chicken-hatching eggs. They’d go right into the egg incubator in the garage.

And 3 weeks later, we’d watch in awe as the fuzzy yellow chicks started to emerge from their shells. The incubator did its job.

Now, there’s another kind of “incubator” in the business world. Business Incubators are where startups go to get the resources and guidance they need to actually survive and thrive. They don’t just sit there passively hoping things work out. Business Incubators accelerate a start-up’s growth so they can achieve their desired level of success.

And that’s exactly what we want to do with your open leads. We want to incubate them.

So how do you actually create this effect?

Incubator Emails.

“Emails, Troy?” I know that may sound almost too simple. But hear me out, because email is the perfect medium for this process. Let me count the ways weekly Incubator Emails do the heavy lifting for you…

1. It scales like crazy. Your scheduling team is already slammed. They can’t personally call every non-converted lead every week. But email? Send it once, and it reaches hundreds or thousands of people without adding a single minute to your team’s workload.

2. Automation means it happens whether you remember or not. Set it up right, and these incubator emails go out every single week like clockwork. No forgetting. No “we’ll get to it next month.” It just runs.

3. You stay top of mind without being annoying. “Do you wanna book? Do you wanna book? Are you ready to book?” Constantly chasing leads and begging for business can feel like a chicken pecking on your prospects’ foreheads. Not attractive, definitely annoying.

But a helpful, entertaining email that shows up in your prospects inbox every week? That keeps you front and center when they’re finally ready to book… without feeling like you’re begging or being pushy to try to get their business.

4. You can teach without being salesy. By far the #1 concern teams have when they jump into one of our coaching programs – “I don’t want to be salesy, Troy!”

Yeah, I don’t want you to be either! Which is why we teach teams our unique process of sales that is rooted in education and leadership, NOT being pushy or convincing. We do the same thing with Incubator Emails.

Patients need to be taught / coached how to make decisions. A proper series of Incubator Emails educates prospects on how to make a smart buying decision, what questions to ask, what really matters in choosing a surgeon. You’re building authority while they’re just enjoying a good read.

5. You build trust over time. Not EVERYONE is ready to buy today. Trust typically isn’t built in one conversation. It’s built through consistent, valuable touch points that prove you actually care about helping them make the right choice. Which is what Incubator Emails do.

I can attest to the effectiveness of this approach because I can personally trace multiple 7 figures in revenue back to my email list, sending Incubator Emails in a specific way. Not promotional blasts. Not boring newsletters. Just consistent, valuable emails that moved people closer to buying over time.

This week, we’re going to dive into how to write killer incubator emails for your practice. We’re not talking about generic templates or ChatGPT garbage. They’re carefully crafted, story-based emails that people actually want to read while secretly teaching them how to become your ideal patient.

Talk soon,

Troy “Incubator” Cole