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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 >> 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 |