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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. 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. 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. 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. 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 |