Email campaigns have become an essential tool in marketing practices across industries — and dental practices are no exception. Sharing quality email content with the right target audience can transform your marketing strategy by re-engaging past patients and interested potential new patients. Don’t know where to start? Don’t worry; we have the tools and tips to help you.

Step up your dental marketing with Dental Intelligence and the perfect email marketing schedule, and watch your patients multiply! Don’t let this vital resource slip through your fingers. Creating a schedule for your email campaigns is the first step.

What Is an Email Marketing Schedule?

Let’s start by defining what an email marketing schedule really is. This term refers to the calendar you keep of marketing emails going out and the content in each of them. The calendar keeps everything organized, so you always know what content to send and when. You can also track response rates, so you know what changes to make to your emails to boost engagement.

Your email marketing schedule should only contain important campaigns you’re sending out, not simple everyday emails. If you have automated email reminders or responses to certain types of emails or reactions, for example, those will only clutter your calendar.  

1. Plan Your Email Campaigns

 Before you create a calendar in Google Sheets and dive in, take a step back and evaluate: 

• What do you want to include on your calendar?
• What are your goals for each campaign?
• Who are you targeting with your emails?

When you’re setting up your content calendar, you should always include all of the key details: campaign name, email owner, target email list, send time, and status.

But how do you know all of this? First, you need to decide what kind of email campaign you’re setting up. Are you advertising a new product? Announcing an update to your practice policy? Regardless, you’ll need to determine what your goal is. 

Then, you should narrow down your audience. Are you sending this email to your existing patients? Are you looking to expand? Making these decisions before you add a campaign to your email marketing schedule is essential to a smooth email campaign. 

2. Determine Your Strategy

Now that you know your goal and your audience, you can form your strategy. Take that audience you have in mind and narrow it down further. This is segmentation or choosing a segment of your audience to target for more effective results. You can segment your audience based on gender, patient status, location, and pretty much any other quality! 

Knowing this patient profile well will help when it comes to the strategy you’re using. That being said, knowing who you’re sending the email to is only part of crafting your email marketing calendar. Next, decide when to send it. 

Effective marketing is about timing. Pay attention to your audience’s time zones. When are they most likely to see and open your email? When are email campaigns from competitors likely to spam them?

This might take trial and error. Send out email campaigns at different times and use the results to determine the best time to send. Once you’ve established this, make sure to mark it in your email schedule! 

3. Craft Your Emails and Schedule Them

With all the necessary planning done, it’s time to work on the actual content! Your email contains three main components: 

• The subject line: This is the first thing your audience sees, so it should grab them right away. Avoid spammy language, or their eyes will likely avoid the email altogether.
• The email body: The email should engage your audience. Avoid long, dense paragraphs. Instead, use short phrases and easy-to-glance lists. Bold any text that you want to stand out to make it easier for your reader to absorb information! 
• The call to action (CTA): Your language here will depend on what you want readers to do. Asking them to call to book an appointment, click a link to look at a new product, or sign up for a newsletter are all examples of CTAs. 

Streamline Dental Email Marketing with Dental Intelligence

Once you’ve sent out your email campaign, remember to track the open and click-through rates. Doing this will help you set up your email marketing schedule for success in the future! Track the success of each campaign with dental practice email campaign KPIs, and once you have a schedule, stick to it. Consistency is key. 

If you want to learn more about how best to market your dental practice, schedule a demo with Dental Intelligence today.