Creating Mailing List for Email or Postal

ChiroSUITE has the ability to turn almost any report into an email or postal mail list, so you can reach out to your patients for promotional or informational purposes.  Active patients with an email or mailing address will be included on the mailing list.  SMS are excluded from mailing list, as there are word limitations when sending text messages.  These limits can vary by provider and change without notice, so to eliminate any confusion they are exempted.  When you collect a patient's email or mailing address, it is important to make sure you are asking their permission to be included in mailing lists, so if they do not want this you are selecting the option to exclude them from any mailing list.  Email or SMS reminders are not affected, so they will still get their reminders even if they choose to be excluded from the mailing list.  Also, it is extremely important to flag patients 'Inactive' or 'Deceased' to avoid email/postal mail outs being sent in error.  To learn how to exclude patients from an email or postal list click here: Exclude Patient From Mailing Lists.
If you plan to send a specific email on a regular basis, you can create email templates to use in your mailing list.  To learn more on email templates click here: Email Template Setup.  

What to consider BEFORE sending out a mailing list:
  • How many months or years back do you want to run the report for to bring up the patients for your mailing list?
  • If you send the email through your provider, do you know how many emails you can send before you are blocked for spam?
  • If you do not use your provider, you have the option to use the premium email service for $25/month.  The additional cost is what this provider charges to use this service.  ChiroSUITE is not charging any additional fees on top of that.  Some advantages to using this service:
    • There are no limits to how many emails you can send, which means you will not be blocked for spam.
    • Daily report of failed emails are included.  This is helpful for when you are sending mailing lists, as some providers make you deal with failed emails when you are sending them.  Example: if you have 1,000 emails to send, it will stop every time there is a failed email for you to deal with, before it sends the next one.  On the premium email service all would send and the next day any failed emails will be on your report.
    • You can sign up for just one month and cancel before next month's billing.
Contact support for additional questions or to sign up.
  • Lastly, if you are sending the mailing list from ChiroSUITE, the computer you are sending it from will be tied up for quite some time.  So for single computer clinics, you will need to determine when is the best time to send the mailing list.  For multi computer clinics, we recommend sending from a secondary computer (not on wifi preferably).  The number of patients on the list, the internet speed, the computer speed, or dealing with failed emails, all play a factor in how long the process will take.  We recommend jotting down the number of emails and the time it took to send yours, so you have an approximate idea for how long it will take your clinic next time.

1. Determining Which Report to Use to Generate Your Patient List

Reports -> Appointment Reports:
  • Appointment History - For ALL patients who have been in recently.  Used to reach out to active patients who have visited your office over the past 1, 2, or 3 years, for marketing, newsletters, & holiday greetings.
  • Lapsed Visit History - For patients who have not been in for a period of time. Used to recall patients who have fallen out of care.
  • Patient Recare List (by Clinic) - For patients whose last visit is in a certain date range. Used to recall patients who have fallen out of care, typically date ranges for 3, 6, 9 etc. months are used. 
  • New Patient Visit List (completed appts only) - For NEW patients to your office. Used when exporting to a marketing program like MailChimp. 

Reports -> Sales Reports:
  • Sales by ItemFor patients who purchased a particular product (like orthotics). Used to market to patients who have purchased a specific product/service in the past.

2. Using The Report to Create The Mailing List

1. Select Report.
2. Select Criteria.
3. [Preview] Report if you need to verify if it is the report you need, but *NOT necessary for creating the mailing list. 
4. [Create Mailing List].
 
Click [Create List for Email] or [Create List for Postal] 

 
  • A few pop ups will appear indicating the patients that were removed because they chose to be exempt. NOTE: This number will include all SMS records that were exempt, and if applicable, inactive/deceased next.
  • The last pop up will confirm that a mailing list has been created.  The name for this mailing list will always be the report name along with the current date.
  • To go directly to the mailing list from this screen (report screen), click on the [ML] button:
  • For patients that were not on the email list (possibly they were exempt or do not have an email address), you can still reach out to them via postal.  Click [Create List for Postal Only (NOT in Email List)] if you want a mailing list created for these patients.
 
3. Accessing the Mailing List In the Mailing List Setup Screen
  • By clicking the [ML] button in the report screen where the mailing list was created, takes you directly to the Mailing List Setup screen. The List currently displayed on the screen will be the one you just created.
  • To view other lists, click the drop down in the Quick Search: section.
  • To get back to the Mailing List Setup screen without creating another mailing list, click the same [ML] button on the menu bar OR under the menu option Patients -> Mailing List Setup.
1. This is the name of the mailing list.  Rename the list to a more suitable name to make searching it up easier.
2. If necessary [Delete] or [Add/Edit] list.  Edit if you want to remove a specific name off the list.  Note: If families are on the list, when it is sent they are combined so only ONE email goes to that family.
3. The various options to send your mailing list.  See section below screenshot.

 
3a. [Send Emails *recommended* (personalized)].
  • This option will send each person their own email, so in the 'To' email address line, only their email is listed, which makes it more personalized.
  • Will take longer to send since it is sending one email at a time.
1. Subject: Type in your subject or choose an email template email from the drop down.
2. Add the codes specific to the mailing list screen to personalize the email, i.e., [PatnFirst] will populate their first name when they receive the email.  Note: Not all codes work on every email template. To ensure success, only select codes that are displayed in the 'Add Code' dropdown.
3. Message: Type in your message or if it is from an email template this will already be filled in. Edit if needed.
4. Delay between Emails: Choose time delay between emails, we recommend 5 seconds if you are using your provider.  Not required if you are on the premium email service.
5. Attachments: To add or remove attachments.  Note: If you used an email template that has an attachment it will be added automatically.
5. Spell check and send a test email to yourself first. Check attachments as well if one was included.  If you make any changes send another test email.  Once you are satisfied with the email, [Send emails].  As it sends through the list, you will see where it is at.  Make sure to monitor it on a regular basis.  If an email is not valid, depending on your provider, you may get a pop up message which you have to deal with as it will stop sending the rest.  Or if it stops for other reasons, i.e. internet connection, computer issues etc... you can see where it left off on the list.  Note this information so you can remove the other patients off the list and send your mailing list again.


 
3b. [Send Emails (as bulk BCC send)].
  • This will send ONE email to all the patients on the list, but their email addresses will not be visible as it will be in the blind carbon copy (BCC) line.
  • Due to email restrictions from your provider, only a certain number of email addresses can be listed in this section.  If you get an error when clicking this button, this means you have too many email addresses to use this option.
  • There are no options to send a test email in this section, so make sure you have reviewed and edited your email to your satisfaction and sent any test emails outside of ChiroSUITE.
1. Ensure ONLY the clinic emails appears in the 'To' field. All other emails should fall under the 'BCC' field.
2. Type in Subject and body of  Message or select an email template from the Subject drop down.
3. Attach documents if desired.
4. [Spell Check].
5. [Send Email].
 

 
3c. [Export Email Addresses].
  • Used to obtain a list of emails, which can be used for an outside vendor to send your mailouts.
  • Due to security restrictions from Microsoft Office, we cannot export it into excel so the only file type is Tab Delimited, which can import into excel.
1. Type: Can only be 'Tab Delimited'.  Headings & Include DOB?: default is No but toggle to Yes if required.
2. Filename: defaults to mailing list name, change if required.  Folder: if you need to change the default listed, click on the magnifying glass button to navigate to a new folder.
3. Click [Export] or [Export & Launch].

 
3d. [Copy Email Addresses to Clipboard (to use in your own email program].
  • A quick way to copy the email addresses directly into your email program you use to send it from there.
  • You can change how many are grouped together so when you copy it will copy that many.
  • Make sure you are copying the email addresses into the BCC (blind carbon copy) field of the email NOT the To line or the patient's email address will be visible to everyone in that group.
1. Select the Total Email Address number to be included in each clip.
2. As per the button, [Click Here to Copy to Your Clipboard then go to your Email Program and Ctrl +V to Paste in the BCC Field] will automatically copy that group, so then you can paste into the BCC field of your email address.
 
 
There is also a video on mailing list -> You can access the videos directly through ChiroSUITE by going to Help -> ChiroSUITE Help Videos -> Mailing Lists.

 

 Email Help@chirosuite.ca or Call toll free at 855.509.1111 

 

Training video's and webinars can be accessed directly through ChiroSUITE!

Help->ChiroSUITE Help Videos 

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