/blog/a-physician-recruiters-guide-to-email-part-3-inspire-action
In college, my favorite professor gave an example of an advertising campaign gone wrong. It’s a slogan you’ve likely heard: “Where’s the beef?”
But even if you remember the catchphrase, how many of you can remember which fast food chain ran the campaign?
For those of you who don’t recall, you’re not alone! (It was Wendy’s.) The campaign was considered to be a failure because although it was a memorable skit, it ended there.An advertising slogan is similar to a physician recruiter’s email subject line or the headline of a job. Just like a slogan for an ad, those pieces need to catch a physician’s attention, and inspire an action: opening the email, reading the email, responding to you, and applying to your jobs.
Of course, in order for physicians to take any action, your emails first have to make it past their spam filters and into their inboxes.
Part 1: Get your recruitment email delivered
If that’s not enough of a challenge, before your email can even get to the physicians, you have to avoid the dreaded spam filters. Spam filters are rules created to protect email users from receiving unwanted or potentially harmful emails. These rules are put in place with trigger words that, if used, will send your email straight to the spam folder. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200.
What you say in your email (and how you say it) plays a large role in how well your email will reach physicians. I have created a list based on known spam filter rules, years of marketing experience and trial and error.
7 ways to avoid becoming spam
1. DON’T PUT YOUR SUBJECT LINE IN ALL CAPS.
2. Don't use one-word subject lines, like "Hi."
3. Don’t deceive the recipient, such as putting “Re:” in the subject line on a cold email to make it appear you’ve emailed before; marking an email as high importance when it’s not; or offering false promises that aren’t fulfilled in the actual email.
4. Don’t add an attachment if you haven’t emailed the recipient before.
5. Avoid generic personalization (“Dear Physician,” “Dear Sir or Ma’am,” “Hi there”). Use merge tags instead, to make your email say “Dear Dr. Jones.”
6. Avoid using spam trigger words in your subject lines. Try swapping out these words instead:
At the end of the day, getting your email to show up in the physician’s inbox is just a part of the battle. In Part 2 of this series on physician recruitment emails, we’ll discuss how to get physicians to open your email after it has landed in their inbox successfully.
Part 2 of this series: Getting your email opened
Part 3 of this series: Inspiring Action in your emails
Part 4 of this series: Cooking up a Killer CTA (Call-to-Action)
