Tips and tricks for phenomenal email marketing to nurses
Email remains an affordable, efficient and effective tool for reaching and communicating in business—whether you’re a healthcare recruiter helping organizations find top nursing talent or a marketing professional selling a much-needed product or service. Even for some savvy recruiters, email marketing to nurses can be a tricky endeavor.
“Many businesses today overlook email as a marketing tool despite its status as the quiet but humming engine of online audience growth,” writes Amith Nagarajan in a May 2020 article for Forbes. “That’s a mistake. A thorough and continuous email strategy remains essential to connecting your brand with the audience you want to reach. Failing to invest in email means missing out on a channel that allows you to build long-term trust with customers in a direct way.”
Ready to transform the way to reach your audience’s inboxes? Below are five tips and best practices to master email marketing.
1. Prioritize your platform
These days, it’s common to see people reading, shopping and even watching their favorite shows on the go. Research has shown 81% of people prefer reading their emails on their smartphones. When designing an email or e-newsletter, consider the mobile format first and plan ahead so your message will stand out and be seen. Single column design, avoiding JavaScript, Flash, PHP or SQL and keeping file specs to under KB in size and a maximum of 600 px wide for an html file all can ensure a clean, easy to read message and a successful email campaign. Fonts should also be mobile friendly, with 14 to 16 points for the body text. Mobile friendly, or email safe fonts include Serif, Sans-Serif, Arial, Arial Black, Courier New, Lucida, Georgia, Impact, Times New Roman, Trebuchet MS, Verdana and Century Gothic
2. Create a clear Call to Action
A powerful call to action has the ability to generate clicks—increasing your conversion rate. Place your call to action in that coveted spot at the top of the email and use enticing words and phrases—apply now, hurry and expires. Be careful not to bury the call to action in the body of the email. Review the content closely for broken links and double check tags for accuracy. Images should be clickable.
“Ultimately, the goal of any marketing campaign is to guide your audience in the buyer’s journey so they eventually make a purchase,” writes Brittany Leaning for HubSpot. “However, each marketing campaign might have a different action for the audience to carry out because there are several tactics you can use to guide your audience in their journey.”
3. Say it with the right subject line
You’ve carefully written, designed and curated the perfect content, packaging it into an email sure to receive thousands of clicks. But what if no one ever gets past the subject line?
When it comes to crafting subject lines—the shorter the better. Subject lines should be no more than 50 characters—35 for mobile readers, with a 100-character limit for preheater text.
Among words and phrases to avoid—“free,” “100%,” “guaranteed,” “earn,” “money,,” “opportunity,” “affordable,” “make,” “online degree,” “success,” “apply online” and “get.” When it comes to nurse recruitment, recommended phrases include “sign-on bonus,” “loan forgiveness” and “relocation bonus.” Experts also recommend action words such as “join,” “earn,” “advance” and “expand.” Think of feeding the reader little bites of information to draw them in word by word.
4. Testing. Testing. Testing.
In addition to testing your email campaign among various platforms, including multiple desktop and mobile clients, conducting AB testing can help increase your reach. The process is simple—divide your audience into two segments, sending one type of message to group A and another to group B. Measure the results to determine which types of emails are the most effective.
“You can just send it out to 10%, or some other percentage of the audience,” Robyn Herian Tran, senior channel marketing manager for Relias, told Nurse.com in 2018. “With AB testing you can test subject lines, content and the creative [photos] to determine what works for you.”
5. Dive into the data
As it does with AB testing, data can play a significant role in engaging your audience and reaching more people. When email marketing to nurses for example, you can segment the audience based on specialty, location and education level. If you have openings for ICU positions, tailor the message specifically for critical care nurses and send the email to nurses in your database who fit that description. According to HubSpot, sending targeted messages can increase open rates, improve email performance, increase revenue and reduce opt-out/unsubscribe rates.