Patient Newsletters

Are you sending patient newsletters? No? You should be. All doctors offices should be sending a physical newsletter to all of their patients. Lets talk more about it.

Email Newsletters:
Go ahead and send it. However, open rates are terrible. If you are getting 20 percent, your doing great. That is one in five. If you don’t know how to craft good emails, you will probably get 10 percent or less. Of those 10-20 percent who open it, many just open it quick, and then delete it or close it quickly without reading. Who knows what percentage actually read it, i would guess less than five. Although email is free, it isn’t. You have to keep an email database, someone needs to enter it, you need to pay the email company (constant contact), and the biggest time suck is writing the email. A decent email with a few pictures and links will take at least an hour to set up. I don’t have anything against emails, we send a lot, just cant be your only newsletter.

Quarterly Newsletters
Some offices will do them quarterly. This is good, better than not doing. But i think for many of you, that is too long apart. They say the more patients get in the mail from you the better. Newsletters are also like ads, if you sending an ad to someone whose back doeskin hurt that month, they don’t care, but the next month if there back is hurting, they may call. So, if your sending the newsletter on the month they aren’t in pain, but next month they are, they may go elsewhere.

Monthly Newsletters
I would recommend you do it monthly. It is more work and more cost, but it will pay off. It depends on your specialty, but for most of us, monthly is best. Like i said before.. The more patients hear from you the better. If they hear from you 5 times a year, versus 10, it will make a difference in your bottom line. Also, like i previously mentioned, if they are hurting that month, they get a newsletter, they will call. Also, if there friend needs someone that week, or month, and they get the newsletter, they will call!.

Pre-fab or Custom
Well, i have tried both. Doing a full custom, unique to you newsletter is best for you. However, almost none of you are going to do it monthly. If you have a full time person who can do this, great. It is time consuming and more expensive. But like i said its the best. If you do custom, put personal stuff in there, about your family, kids, staff, etc.

I use a pre-fab newsletter company. I get to customize the back page, they do the front 3 pages. Its a good compromise, and since they do so many, the printing costs are so inexpensive. I use stony brook publishing. Call and ask for Sheri (800) 736-3632 Ext. 217, and she can tell you what we do. There are other companies in other fields, stony brook does dentist and chiropractors, you cannot beat the price.

Who do you send them to?
Well, it depends on how big your mailing list is, and how long you have been in practice. If your smaller and want to keep the budget down, start with your most active patients, say patients that have been in for the past few months. However, i have found, the more patients you mail the better! WE send 3000 patient newsletters a month, basically our active database. But, start small and go up!

Good luck!!!

UPDATE!!!! 9/11/15
I have spoken to my contacts at Stony Brook Publishing and for my clients and readers of this blog, they will wave the usual setup fee!! Just mention Dr James Fedich sent you and contact Sheri at
Sheri Needham
16772 West Bernardo Drive
San Diego, CA 92127
Phone: (800) 736-3632 Ext. 217
Fax: (858) 673-8300
Sheri@stoneybrookpublishing.com

Mention My name and they will wave your setup fee!!!