Email lists have served as the foundational marketing tactic for healthcare lead generation. But with modernization taking over every aspect of marketing, how well does having a doctors email list hold up?
Today, social media enables healthcare businesses to connect with their potential customers, including various types of physicians. So, does this mean having an email list is currently pointless in healthcare marketing? Are traditional doctors email lists dead?
The answer to these questions solely depends on the context of what ‘traditional’ means.
Let’s get one thing out of the way: the doctors email list isn’t obsolete. An email list, regardless of category, will always help marketers find leads. With the changing dynamics of digital marketing and stricter regulations, the quality of the email list determines the impact it creates.
If you refer to email lists with generic email contacts as traditional, then yes, you are probably right. But if the usage of a doctors email address list is considered traditional, that’s far from the truth.
This article digs into the importance of having physicians email list, why some think these lists are ineffective, and what the future looks like. However, if you are looking for a quick answer, here it is: email lists are not dead, they’re evolving.
Why Doctors Email Lists are Still Valuable
Doctors or general physicians are not easy to reach and are often skeptical of a sales pitch. B2B healthcare marketing is way more complex and can never be underestimated.
So, businesses and marketers implement multiple outreach strategies to attract healthcare prospects into the sales funnel.
Among those strategies, having an email list remains the most effective one even today. This is because healthcare campaigns truly deserve high-quality contact data for better results, including lead generation and effective engagement with ideal customers.
Here’s a detailed explanation of why a physician email list is more useful than other marketing strategies:
Emails are still the most effective channel for healthcare marketing
Despite the rise of flashy and new digital marketing strategies, email remains the most trusted communication channel for healthcare prospecting. 81% of companies still rely on emails as their primary strategy for lead generation. This includes the healthcare businesses as well.
According to industry research, a substantial percentage of physicians prefer using emails to receive updates, reports, and information through email rather than through other channels.
Therefore, emails are the best shot for medical sales representatives to promote their offers and engage physicians. So, to acquire the email addresses of top physicians, the presence of a doctors email list is important.
Emails are the present and will remain the future of healthcare marketing as long as the decision-making HCPs prefer to use them. In that case, doctors email lists are an essential resource for outreach and lead acquisition.
Physicians mailing lists for targeted marketing strategies
The key to engaging physicians is having an email list that is accurate and segmented. Marketers and healthcare solution providers can effectively target physicians across various specialties, locations, and practice types.
Email lists give access to the email addresses of potential customers and ensure personalized marketing approaches. This means that you can reach doctors with a specific email drafted with relevant messages. Moreover, email lists also provide predictive insights and a chance to implement GTM (go-to-market) strategies.
Ultimately, targeted email marketing campaigns are more impactful and result-oriented compared to scattered and mass marketing campaigns.
Secure maximum ROI by using the doctors email address list
Email marketing is the most cost-effective strategy ever created. B2B healthcare campaigns are expensive; thus, businesses that are looking to pique the interest of healthcare professionals can promote their products and services through emails.
The process is quite simple: Through precision targeting, direct communication, high engagement, and a faster sales cycle, a doctors email database eliminates wasted resources.
Moreover, the average cost per email is extremely low compared to any other form of marketing channel. This means email lists can help you secure maximum ROI, with some sources citing 30-40% higher returns for every $1 spent.
Why Some Consider Traditional Doctors Email Lists Are Dead
Even with an abundance of benefits to using an email list, some do believe there are simpler ways to reach a physician for business propositions. This is simply because of notions like:
- The presence of stale data in an email list
This can certainly be true, depending on the source of the doctors email list. Traditional databases, i.e., generic ones, are often not updated with the latest contact data.
Physicians email lists are value-based resources. Stale or outdated physician data is a major problem and can quickly reduce the value of an email list.
Doctors may change practices, get a new contact info, retire, or move to a different location. If the same isn’t available and updated in an email list, then it will lose its value.
This data decay leads to poor or no engagement at all, along with higher bounce rates and increasing customer acquisition cost.
- Email fatigue is a modern marketing problem
Healthcare professionals (HCPs), especially physicians’ inboxes, are often flooded with emails.
Apart from marketers, physicians receive emails from colleagues, pharma companies, insurance providers, colleges, etc. This sums up the fact that email fatigue is a real concept, and it can be an issue in engaging with doctors.
Having an email list alone does not help your target audience in the healthcare industry to notice your presence. Moreover, if you’re messages are irrelevant, poorly targeted, and overly generic, then your emails are less likely to be noticed by physicians and can make you feel like email lists aren’t working anymore.
- Better channels do exist
This is a subjective statement – it can be true for some and false for others.
Social media platforms and healthcare apps are providing numerous beneficial features to enhance healthcare campaigns. This has, in fact, grabbed the attention of many marketers.
Some platforms are outreach intended, allowing users to contact medical professionals who are more engaged and active. This shift in preference has led some to question the role of traditional physician email lists in future marketing strategies.
Overcoming Challenges
Similar to every business strategy, the physicians email list has its share of challenges. But, assuming email lists are not effective anymore is a bit of a stretch.
Email lists are the safest, cheapest, and easiest marketing tactic. By assessing some of the obstacles, marketers can easily overcome them.
- Regular List Updates
Refresh your email list frequently. Set quarterly reviews or use automated data cleansing tools and service providers to remove invalid email addresses of physicians.
- Hyper-Personalization
Make your emails stand out. As mentioned, physicians are inundated with emails, and the best strategy to overcome that is to hyper-personalize your email drafts with engaging and interactive content.
- Email List Provider
Businesses and marketers can overcome almost every marketing challenge by partnering with a reputable data provider. Choose a provider that offers accurate, verified, and privacy-compliant data. This way, your healthcare campaigns can secure high-quality leads and sales.
- Compliance Policies
Healthcare marketing is subject to strict data privacy laws like HIPAA & GDPR. Ensure that the doctors email lists comply with regulatory standards. Also, before sending marketing emails, make sure you’ve obtained opt-in consent from all contacts.
- Monitor Your Metrics
Regularly track metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates. Low engagement or high bounce rates could signal that your list needs attention and needs to be updated.
What the Future Looks Like for Doctors Email Lists
Email lists aren’t dead; they’re evolving. The future of physicians mailing lists depends on how well they can be integrated and adapted into emerging technologies.
The way marketers build a doctors email list will decide how it can sustain as a dominating resource in B2B healthcare marketing.
Here’s why we think doctors email databases will remain relevant even in the distant future:
- Integration with EHRs
The association of electronic health records (EHRs) with email list providers will ensure that data is accurate, updated, and directly sourced from trusted healthcare systems. This will be a huge step forward in maintaining the integrity of email lists and improving the effectiveness of outreach in the future.
- AI-Powered Segmentation
AI will play a key and dominant role in the future for healthcare email lists. AI will not only create hyper-targeted campaigns to connect with the right physicians for your business, but it will also help draft personalized emails as per the behavioral data available in the doctors email address list.
- Omnichannel Outreach
A professionally tailored email list can already provide various contact info of doctors, including phone numbers, social media profiles, mailing addresses, etc. With that, the future also holds possibilities for the physicians mailing list to be integrated into healthcare apps and platforms.
- Predictive Analytics
In the future, predictive analytics derived from email list data will help marketers make smarter business decisions and target potential customers based on engagement patterns.
To Conclude
Doctor email lists are far from dead. Yes, marketers do face some challenges, but that does not overshadow the benefits provided by a doctors email list. To reign victorious among competitors and achieve brand recognition in the healthcare industry, leveraging doctors email address lists is a no-brainer.
No matter if you are a marketer or decision-maker from pharma companies, insurance firms, healthcare tech providers, or medical device manufacturers, the key to marketing success lies in having a dependable resource.
By following best practices and embracing new technologies, you can achieve long-term success with physician email lists.
