Podiatry Email Marketing – How to Nurture Leads and Retain Patients

By Austin Lovvorn
Read Time: 6.41 mins

Email is one of the most cost-effective and powerful ways to connect with patients, build relationships and grow your podiatry practice. Most people check their email multiple times a day. So it’s a direct and personal way to communicate with both current and prospective patients. But to stand out in a crowded inbox, your email campaigns need to be strategic, engaging and relevant to your audience.

In this blog, we discuss the most important podiatry email marketing tips. Follow these and you’ll improve patient retention and new drive appointments, while keeping it professional.

1. Build and Keep a Clean Email List

Imagine sending this email to a prospective lead instead of your patient?

Your email campaigns are only as good as your email list. A clean and up-to-date list means that your messages are sent to the right people based on their interests; rather than being all over the place.

How to Build a Strong Email List?

Collect Emails During Appointments: Have patients give their email address when they fill out intake forms or check in for appointments. Communicate clearly as to whether these emails will be part of your newsletter or not. More like taking a consent - which is very important for email marketing.
Offer Incentives: Provide valuable insights such as foot care tips, how-tos or discounts on orthotics for subscribing to your list.
Use Your Website: Put a simple and prominent sign-up form on your website with a clear call to action like “Subscribe for Foot Health Tips” or “Get Exclusive Offers.”
Ask for Referrals: Ask existing patients to refer friends and family by sharing a referral email. Offer a small incentive for both parties.

List Maintenance & Optimization:

Maintaining a well-organized email list ensures that your marketing efforts reach the right audience while improving engagement and deliverability. Here’s how:

Use double opt-in to confirm patients want to receive emails
Clean your list regularly by removing inactive subscribers (those who didn’t interact with a single email in 6 months for example)
Re-engage with them once more before removing them by addressing the situation directly. Ask them if they would continue to be in the list or not
Segment the subscribers into the right groups once they become patients
Further segment the lists by patient needs such as diabetic foot care, sports injuries or general foot health

2. Write and Send Valuable Content

No one wants to open an email that feels spammy or irrelevant. Focus on delivering value to your patients by addressing their concerns, educating them and offering solutions to common foot problems.

Connect with us to get a customized content marketing plan for your podiatry clinic practice.

Email Content Ideas for Podiatrists:

Educational Newsletters: You can send articles on topics like how to prevent bunions, choosing the right shoes, tips for managing plantar fasciitis etc
Seasonal Foot Care: This content is relevant to a specific time of year like summer footwear tips, winter foot care or back to school shoe advice for kids etc
Patient Testimonials: Share real patient experiences with your treatments (with their consent) to build trust and authority. People love to hear stories. This is a great way to inspire prospects to book a consultation
Service Spotlights: Promote specific services time to time; like 3D orthotics fittings, sports medicine treatments or diabetic foot care
Appointment Reminders and Promos: Send reminders for existing and upcoming appointments. And also promotional offers for regular checkups

The key is to keep the subscribers engaged and encourage interactions with your clinic brand.

Relevance is also important. When sending the email, ask yourself: “how does this help my patients?” Providing genuine value builds loyalty and gets your patients opening your emails regularly.

3. Personalize Your Emails

Personalized emails are way more effective than generic emails. Addressing patients by name and tailoring content to their needs shows that you care about them as an individual.

Here’s How to Personalize Your Emails:

Use Patient Names - Start your email with a greeting like “Hi John” to make it feel more personal
Segment Your Lists - Group your subscribers by demographics, conditions, behaviour or choices. For example, try to create separate email campaigns for diabetic patients versus athletes
Targeted Offers - Send discount offers or reminders based on a patient’s last appointment or treatment history. An example of this would be chronic foot conditions. A patient required more than one consultation to completely be treated. These hyper targeted emails convert more than the generic emails
Anniversary Emails - Celebrate milestones like the anniversary of their first appointment and appreciate the effort they put to recover. Boosting patients’ morale after recovery helps to leave a lasting positive impression and strengthens their trust in your practice.

Why is this important?

Personalized emails have higher open rates, engagement and conversion rates because they make recipients feel seen and heard.

4. Write Clear and Compelling Subject Lines

In the example below, which of the two emails are you likely to click if you were a prospect patient yourself?

Your subject line determines whether your email gets opened or deleted. A good subject line is clear, interesting and communicates the value of opening the email.

Subject Line Tips:

Keep it short and sweet (under 50 characters)
Use action oriented language like “Book Your Foot Check-Up Today” or “5 Easy Tips for Happy Feet”
Generate curiosity: “Are Your Shoes Causing Foot Pain?”
Be specific: “10% Off Orthotics – Limited Time!”
Test different subject lines to see what works best for your target audience

A/B testing different subject lines will help you figure out what works and improve future campaigns.

5. Have the Emails Mobile-Friendly

Over 50% of all the emails are opened on mobiles so make sure your emails look good and work on smartphones and tablets.

Here are Some Mobile Optimization Tips You Can Implement Right Away:

Use a responsive design that adapts to different mobile screen sizes
Keep it short and simple
Have a single column layout for better readability
Write clear CTA buttons that are easy to tap (more about this in the next blog section)
Don't add tiny fonts or large images that load slowly

When emails are mobile friendly you improve the patient experience and increase the chances of your message being read and acted on.

6. Write Clear Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

Every email should have a purpose and a CTA.

The link between an interesting email and a patient taking the next action is a powerful call-to-action (CTA). Whether you’re sharing educational content, promoting a particular foot treatment, or reminding someone of an appointment, your emails should always be clear and intentional calls-to-action.

Even the best-written message can fail if the CTA is not clear and confusing. CTAs are important for medical practices because they encourage appointments, raise service awareness, and keep patients engaged with their foot health.

Examples of good CTAs for Podiatrists are:

Your CTA should stand out (use buttons or bold text) and clearly tell the reader what to do next.

Let us do the marketing while you concentrate on your podiatry practice. Book a free strategy call with us.

7. Send Emails Regularly

Consistency is the key to keeping your audience engaged without overwhelming them. Create a schedule that works for your practice and stick to it.

Tips for Scheduling Proper Emails:

Regular communication keeps your practice on top of their mind and helps to increase word-of-mouth while encouraging rebookings for consultations.

8. Measure, Track and Report The Data

Monitoring basic email metrics helps you to improve performance and achieve desired results. You can make strategic refinements and boost engagement by analyzing email performance data such:

Open Rate: Percentage of recipients who opened the email
Click-Through Rate (CTR): Percentage of recipients who clicked on a link or CTA
Conversion Rate: Percentage of recipients who took the desired action (e.g. booked an appointment)
Unsubscribe Rate: Percentage of recipients who unsubscribed

Improve based on data – let’s say the open rates are low, then the immediate step would be to test different subject lines. Once you find a winning set of subject lines and the hook associated with them, optimize for better CTR within the email. Click Through Rates are usually associated with the email copy and the CTAs so it’s good to split these as well.

By continually improving your campaigns you can improve their performance over time.

9. Comply with Email Regulations

Compliance is a big part of email marketing. Not following email regulations can result in fines and damage to your reputation.

Email Marketing Regulations:

Always include an unsubscribe link, respect patient preferences and keep data private to build trust.

Overall Effectiveness of an Email Campaign

Email marketing is a powerful way for podiatrists to educate patients, build long term relationships and grow their practice. Build a quality list, create personal and valuable content and optimize your campaigns and you’ll stand out in your patients inboxes and be seen as the authority in foot care.

Start small, be consistent and always think about how your emails benefit your patients. Over time you’ll see increased engagement, loyalty and bookings that will contribute to the success of your podiatry practice.