Email marketing is one of the most reliable ways for healthcare providers to reach patients where they already are: their inbox. Whether on mobile or desktop, prospects always check their messages, making it a powerful channel for timely communication.
Through healthcare automation you can create triggered, well-timed messages that attract new patients to your clinic or keep existing ones engaged between visits. Appointment reminders, post-visit follow-ups and educational newsletters all help maintain patient relationships.
Email marketing is also a convenient way to share your practice's updates in a format patients can save and reference, such as holiday hours, new services, telehealth options, or policy changes.
At the same time, healthcare email marketing has a higher bar than typical email marketing. You’re working with sensitive data, so compliance with HIPAA and GDPR, consent management and secure handling of patient information are non-negotiable.
Learn how to simplify your practice workflow and free up more time for patients with Medesk.
Open the detailed description >>What to look for in a healthcare marketing automation platform
Email marketing and marketing automation platforms are built to accommodate a variety of niches, including SaaS, tourism, agencies, and, of course, healthcare. When choosing the right email newsletter software for your practice, it's important to balance compliance requirements with usability and features like beautiful ready-made email templates, an easy-to-use interface, and automation capabilities.
Here are the key factors to consider.
Compliance and security
Healthcare email communication must align with HIPAA in the U.S. or GDPR in Europe, depending on where you operate, or both, if your healthcare operation is global. This means ensuring secure data handling, encrypted transmissions, and clear opt-in/opt-out processes to protect patient privacy and sensitive data.
Ease of use
Your staff should be able to create and send campaigns without needing advanced technical knowledge. A user-friendly platform with plug-and-play email templates, ready-made automation recipes, and a short learning curve can help you focus on patient communication rather than campaign creation.
Automation workflows
Healthcare automation can help you set important but repetitive tasks like appointment reminders, post-visit follow-ups, prescription refill notices, and patient onboarding emails on autopilot. By setting up trigger-based sequences, practices ensure patients get timely, relevant communication without manual effort. This not only reduces no-shows but also keeps patients consistently engaged and informed.
Accessible templates and design
Apart from plug-and-play, templates specifically should be accessible and mobile friendly. Look for platforms that can provide such templates. Additionally, your email newsletter tool should provide layouts with clear text, visuals, and call-to-action buttons to help ensure patients of all ages can read and act on your messages
Segmentation and personalization
Different patients have different needs. A good platform allows you to group recipients into segments. For example, chronic care patients would care a lot about medical advances in their condition's field, as opposed to those who visit your practice for regular wellness checkups. Since email marketing can be a great PR tool, your communication needs to reflect that, while being relevant and timely.
Analytics and reporting
Metrics like open rates, click-throughs, and response trends give insight into how patients engage with your emails. This helps you improve communication strategies and identify what resonates most.
Integration options
To maximize efficiency, choose a tool that integrates with your practice management system or customer relationship management (CRM) platform. This ensures smooth data flow, easier list management, and better alignment between appointments, records, and outreach.
To put these strategies into action, let’s look at the best email marketing platforms for healthcare businesses.
Medesk helps automate scheduling and record-keeping, allowing you to recreate an individual approach to each patient, providing them with maximum attention.
Learn more >>The best email marketing platforms for healthcare
The following section will help you choose a tool based on your individual healthcare email marketing needs, considering various factors like list size, goals, and the tasks you need to simplify or automate.
#1. Moosend
Pricing: $9/month, offers a free 30-day trial
Best feature: Advanced segmentation, no-code email designer
Downside: Limited native integrations with healthcare systems compared to competitors
Moosend is a great fit for practices and clinics that want clean, professional, patient-centered emails without spending a lot of time or effort on design. The platform offers full GDPR compliance, making it a well-rounded and affordable email tool that you can use to send newsletters. It also has a third-party HIPAA attestation from EY that works best for non-protected health information (PHI) campaigns.
Clinics can craft segments easily and group patients based on the criteria of their choosing, like condition, age, treatment plan, or even past activity, and send tailored reminders. For example, the “senior age” segment can receive your latest flu shot campaign, while the "recent visit” one can receive a consultation follow-up.
The template builder also makes building emails from scratch or using one of the ready-made templates effortless, as it requires no previous coding knowledge. You and your staff won’t need any design expertise either, as email layouts are straightforward and easy to use.
Moosend is best for small and medium-sized practices and clinics that want powerful features without compromising their budget.
#2. Constant Contact
Pricing: $12/month, offers a free 14-day trial
Best feature: Reliable scheduling and built-in event management
Downside: Personalization is basic compared to competitors
Constant Contact is a feature-rich email marketing platform that allows healthcare providers to remain visible in patients’ inboxes.
With list segmentation and various contact management features, this platform allows healthcare providers to send perfectly segmented wellness newsletters. Its drag-and-drop email editor allows users to design emails easily, while the event management feature helps track RSVPs and attendance directly.
Also, the tool supports GDPR-compliant workflows like opt-in/opt-out and secure data handling, making it safe for communications that don't involve protected health information. For clinics who sign the platform’s standard Business Associate Agreement, Constant Contact supports HIPAA-compliant use cases.
Constant Contact is a great tool for healthcare professionals who focus on newsletters, community outreach, and events like free screening days, as it lets users manage their event data and their email marketing campaigns in one place without third-party tools.
#3. Mailchimp
Pricing: $13/month, a free plan is available
Best feature: Large template library with flexible design options.
Downside: Pricing escalates quickly for larger contact lists or advanced features
Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing and marketing automation tools in the market. As a platform, it’s versatile, giving users access to a wide range of polished email templates. A clinic or healthcare provider might use it to send branded health campaigns, or urgent updates, like seasonal office closure, or appointment reminders.
The reporting dashboard makes it easy to trace your metrics, see whether patients are acting on messages, and make data-driven decisions.
If you need design flexibility and detailed reporting, and have a generous marketing budget, Mailchimp could be a solid choice.
On the other hand, if you craft campaigns focused on PHI, then maybe Mailchimp isn’t the tool for you. The platform doesn’t support HIPAA-compliant use cases and there is no Business Associate Agreement option.
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Explore now >>#4. ActiveCampaign
Pricing: $15/month for the email marketing platform, offers a free 14-day trial
Best feature: Robust segmentation and follow-up capabilities
Downside: The automation setup can feel overwhelming for beginners
ActiveCampaign is an email marketing tool that goes beyond simple email marketing by allowing practices to map out more complex patient journeys with powerful automation tools. For example, a dental office can set up a six-month cleaning reminder flow so that no appointment goes amiss.
At the same time, practices like physiotherapy clinics can write content and craft messages that go beyond a simple thank-you, like exercise tips personalized for each patient after each visit, to keep recipients informed and engaged over time.
The CRM-specific features also help track patient interactions over time, allow for automatic lead scoring, and minimizes the need for manual tasks, keeping sales procedures automated and moving smoothly.
ActiveCampaign is a good option for larger practices that need long-term patient engagement.
Lastly, the platform is advertised as HIPAA-compliant and suitable for healthcare providers, but this is true only for Enterprise businesses with a signed Business Associate Agreement.
#5. Brevo
Pricing: $9/month, a free plan is available
Best feature: Reliable transactional email delivery
Downside: The template library is less extensive than competitors’
Brevo is one of the email tools that stands out for practices in need of transactional messages as well as marketing campaigns. It's well-suited for appointment confirmations, password resets for patient portals, or quick test result notifications.
The platform carries an intuitive template builder that makes it easy to design professional newsletters or seasonal health campaigns without design expertise due to its fully customizable templates. The template library, albeit small, is just the thing for practices that want to prioritize affordability and functionality.
Analytics help track engagement, and transactional emails cover confirmations and notifications, while its multilingual support makes it quite valuable for clinics that operate globally and carry diverse employee profiles.
It's great for practices that need dependable transactional emails alongside email marketing campaigns. However, Brevo is not HIPAA-compliant, making it a not-so-ideal choice for healthcare practices that want to create PHI-oriented campaigns.
Benefits of healthcare email marketing
When managing resources, professionals see that email is quite profitable, provided it is used strategically. It can improve communication, strengthen relationships, build trust and streamline operations between you and your patients.
Unlike traditional methods, such as phone calls, which can be costly or disruptive, email reaches large patient groups at a fraction of the cost. Traditional methods are also manual, leaving room for wasted time and human errors. Email marketing is an efficient way to maintain ongoing communication without adding pressure to staff or budgets.
As far as a clinic's appointments are concerned, missed appointments cost both patients and providers.
Email reminders and follow-ups:
- Reduce no-shows
- Encourage patients to rebook when they cancel
- Provide pre-visit instructions so patients arrive prepared
However, healthcare email marketing benefits go beyond serving the clinic, and right into the heart of patient-provider communication and trust. Consistent, thoughtful campaigns help patients feel cared for beyond the walls of your practice. Receiving tailor-made updates or check-ins builds trust and encourages loyalty, making it more likely patients will return for future care.
Providers can use email to share seasonal health tips, prevention advice, or updates on new treatments and services. For example, a clinic might send out reminders about flu season, lifestyle guides for managing chronic conditions, or information on wellness programs.
Ready to take advantage of healthcare automation for your practice?
Choosing the right email marketing and automations platform ultimately comes down to compliance, usability, and the ability to connect with patients. The right tool helps providers share education, reduce no-shows, and build stronger relationships, all while keeping costs manageable.
This is where Medesk adds value. As a secure private practice management solution, Medesk centralizes patient data, so your communications are accurate and targeted. By analyzing workflows, it highlights opportunities to improve the timing and effectiveness of your outreach. And when paired with an email marketing platform, Medesk becomes the reliable foundation that ensures patient communications are not only effective, but also fully integrated into everyday practice operations.
At its best, healthcare automation isn’t just about sending messages. It’s about improving patient care, education, and long-term retention. By combining the right email platform with Medesk’s secure management tools, practices can build a well-rounded digital ecosystem that strengthens communication and supports growth.