SMS within the health sector is still in its initial stages of maturity. In places where SMS has started to make its mark, for many companies and businesses, including the United Kingdom’s NHS, SMS marketing is beginning to play a bigger part in their marketing and communications strategies. Direct marketing with SMS has the potential to provide complete communicational clarity between a business and its patients through special offers or promotions, product updates, regular health tips, as well as improved internal communications.

Within the health care sector immediate communication is essential between the provider and the patient, especially when sensitive topics are involved. What better way to communicate with your patients than through mobile messaging? This is a personal and effective practice that allows you to build long-term relationships with your patients, while at the same time keeping patient satisfaction levels high.  

It is often complicated and time-consuming to communicate with every single patient regarding clinic opening hours, promotions, etc., especially through direct mail and this is where SMS comes into the limelight. Implementing SMS as a form of marketing communication will help save your staff time and your clinic money, getting the message directly into your patients’ hands in real-time.  

Why SMS for Healthcare?

Patient communication needs to be fast and sent in an accessible way. SMS is one of the best ways of doing this. An SMS can be sent over mobile, and it reaches the recipient instantly with a more effective open rate than email. 

 SMS does not need internet connectivity and can be used by anyone with a mobile phone. An SMS message can even be sent to regular phones, meaning a smartphone is not needed. 

Studies show some interesting facts which explain why text messaging is used in the healthcare sector to communicate with patients: 

  1. 98% of all recipients are likely to open a text message, making it ideal for communicating. In contrast, only 20% of your email recipients may read them.
  2. 95% of text messages are opened – and responded to – within three minutes of being received. 3. The response rate to SMS is higher than in emails and other modes of communication.
  3. Patients prefer getting SMS as they can be seen immediately. It is a non-intrusive communication method that customers prefer over phone calls.

If your brand isn’t already utilizing SMS marketing, you might now be interested in doing so. Here are a four things to keep in mind when getting started: 

How to Build Patient Relationship with SMS in the Health Sector

Here’s some of the many ways SMS can be used in a health care environment:

Reaching Out to Patients 

You can reach out to patients with mass text messages. A healthcare organization can send a text message introducing the organization, its activities, and services offered in the healthcare field. This kind of introductory message can be helpful in marketing to popularize the brand and build trust. These messages can even include a link that leads to more detailed information about the company’s services.  

Notify Patients about Test Results via SMS 

Aside from highly sensitive information, results and other forms of updates can be sent by SMS, opening up more time for staff to see patients face-to-face and clearing phone lines.  Mobile messaging is far less complex by nature, and administrative and communication costs could be cut using it. For example, patients can be notified to let them know that their test results are in and also provided with a link to log into a specific platform to access these documents.  

Special Offers / Promotions 

If your healthcare clinic offers services such as physiotherapy or orthodontist, etc., any special offers or promotions can be sent to ensure all your patients are aware of this. How do you do this? In this knowledge base article you can find the step-by-step guide to send bulk text messages to one or multiple marketing lists.  

It’s easy to send a message to all patients informing them of your special offer/promotion. The main advantage of doing this is that these people want to hear from you, and you are sure you are targeting the right audience within minutes. SMS marketing also allows you to attract new customers to your business by offering something of value to them, and this will ensure that they will opt into your SMS marketing list.  

General Wellness Tips 

Sending health tips to your patients on a regular basis is a great way to help build a strong relationship and create a deeper connection. SMS messages are a personal form of communication and using them keeps your business in the minds of your patients and customers. 

If most of your clients are generally healthy, their primary focus is on maintaining their health through the combination of complete and balanced nutrition, exercise, a good sleeping routine and keeping stress levels low. Your audience will appreciate wellness tips you can share on a regular basis. These can range from links to blog posts, videos or other content you’d like to distribute.  

You can take this strategy one step further by defining several client types and creating a series of messages that contain wellness tips related to their specific condition. Adjusting the content based on their special health needs is an easy way to show you care about them, their health and their well-being. 

Improve Internal Communications 

SMS isn’t just beneficiary for your customers, your internal teams also reap its benefits. Given the 24/7 nature of the healthcare industry, communication within the organization can be spotty. SMS alerts can keep internal communication infrastructure together. Notify healthcare staff of timetable changes, staff meetings, employee birthdays, urgent notifications, and so much more. 

SMS messaging is an ideal way to communicate with patients in real-time, with the potential to help save time and cut back on costs for the clinic. 

This channel also helps generate word of mouth and create awareness within the community. The main advantage of using SMS messaging is that you can guarantee that the message will reach your patients no matter where they are. This method will save you money as well as time. Reach out to us and we can help you make SMS marketing meaningful and impactful or read more about ClickDimensions’ SMS Marketing feature here.