5.04 Newsletters, mailing lists, site updates and vaccination reminders

Do you post reminders to your clients as their animals come due for their annual booster, how much does that cost and how much could you save by sending reminders by e-mail?
If you could communicate with your clients between annual visits could you encourage better animal care and usefully promote your products and services.

Collecting e-mail addresses
You can collect e-mail addresses with a form on your web site, with a printed form in your waiting room and you can get your staff to ask clients for an e-mail address at reception.

Double opt in
It is essential to avoid accusations of sending spam. You must ensure that every e-mail address on your list has made a positive choice to join. The process is known as “double opt in”. First, a client provides you with an e-mail address either online or in the surgery. Before adding them to your list you send them an e-mail asking them to confirm that they want to be included. You only add them to your list if they reply in the affirmative.

Newsletter
Like a printed newsletter, you collect up snippets of news and create seasonal articles and publish them all together periodically. This could be weekly, monthly or quarterly depending on the available resources.
You'll need three versions of your newsletter. One to be printed on paper for use in the waiting room, one as a web page for your web site and one to send as an e-mail.

Mailing lists
A mailing list can be thought of as a short newsletter. Instead of having to collect enough material to fill a couple of pages, interesting news or a special offer can be sent to your clients by e-mail straight away. With a bit of additional effort you can focus your mailings – send special deals on cat food just to cat owners, important information about cattle heath only to the appropriate farms.

Site updates
You may be updating your web site regularly but your clients are probably forgetting to come along to take a look. If you can sign them up for notification of site updates then, every time you put new material online you can let them all know by e-mail.

Vaccination reminders
This is the only facility that we have found that actually guarantees you real savings on post, stationery and staff time. Each client that opts for e-mailed vaccination reminders will need details of their pets and the relevant dates entered into the database – though the information can be extracted from most practice management systems. You still need to maintain a watch for deceased animals. Once set up vaccination reminders an be sent at the click of a mouse.

We welcome your comments, criticism and questions. Click here to e-mail us