Email marketing and recall
Email Marketing for Allied Health Practices
Your next booking might already be sitting in your patient list.
Email marketing for allied health practices is the planned use of recall, re-engagement, welcome and newsletter emails to keep past and current patients connected to your practice. The Practice Engine builds these emails and automations for allied health practices across Australia, within the Spam Act, privacy law and advertising requirements for regulated health services.
This service is part of our allied health marketing support for Australian practices.
Email marketing and recall
Thousands of past patients. Zero emails since 2022.
Open your practice software and look at the patient list. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of people who already know and trust you.
Now think about the last time you emailed them. Maybe a Christmas closure notice. Maybe a newsletter someone started with great intentions and abandoned after issue two. it's on the list, right under "fix the printer"
Meanwhile you're spending money on ads to find brand new patients. That's fine. But a patient who stopped coming after four sessions, with a plan they never finished, is often easier to bring back than a stranger is to win.
It keeps slipping because email feels small and fiddly. Exports, consent questions, privacy worries. So patients drift to whoever reminds them first.
Email marketing and recall
What is email marketing for allied health practices?
It's a set of planned emails and automations that keep patients informed, bring lapsed patients back and welcome new ones properly.
Most of the value sits in automations that run in the background. A welcome sequence fires when someone books for the first time. A recall email goes out when a patient is due for a review. A re-engagement series reaches people who haven't been in for months. A monthly newsletter adds useful patient education between visits.
Done well, email marketing for allied health practices feels like good patient care. Done badly, it's a discount blast that trains people to unsubscribe.
Email marketing and recall
Who it's for
Email works for most practices with an existing patient base. It's especially useful for:
- Physiotherapy clinics with patients who stop before their treatment plan ends. A newsletter for a physiotherapy clinic is also a natural home for exercise tips. See our physiotherapy marketing page.
- Podiatry practices with patients due for regular reviews, orthotic checks or nail care. More on podiatry marketing.
- Chiropractic and exercise physiology practices running ongoing care or group programs.
- Dental and optometry practices with routine check-up cycles. See dental marketing.
- Practices with leads that never booked, such as enquiry forms and lead magnet downloads.
- Multi-location groups and franchise networks that want consistent emails with local details for each clinic.
Email marketing and recall
What's included
| Deliverable | What it means for your practice |
|---|---|
| Email audit and plan | We review your list, consent records and software, then map the sequences to build first. |
| Patient recall emails | Reminders for patients due for a review or check-up, timed to your services. |
| Re-engagement emails | A short series for patients who haven't booked in a while, with a simple way back. |
| New-patient welcome sequence | What to expect, what to bring, where to park and who they'll see. |
| Monthly newsletter | Patient education, practice news and seasonal reminders, written in your voice. |
| Segmentation by service | Physio patients get physio content. Pilates clients get class updates. |
| Software and tool integration | Patient data flows from Cliniko, Nookal, Halaxy, Splose or Coreplus into your email tool, with consent fields kept. |
| Compliance checks | Every email checked against the Spam Act, privacy principles and relevant advertising requirements before it sends. |
| Monthly plain-English report | Opens, clicks, bookings where trackable and unsubscribes, plus what we're changing. |
Email marketing and recall
How it works: your first 90 days
Days 1-30: Audit, consent and connection. We review your patient list and how consent was collected. Then we connect your practice software to an email tool like Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign or a CRM such as GoHighLevel, and set up segments by service.
Days 31-60: Build the core automations. We build the welcome sequence and patient recall emails first, because they run daily without anyone touching them. You approve every email.
Days 61-90: Re-engagement and newsletter. We launch the re-engagement series to lapsed patients and send your first newsletter. We check results and tidy the segments.
Ongoing: A monthly newsletter, new sequences for new services or programs, regular list clean-ups and a monthly report.
Email marketing and recall
Email rules: Spam Act, privacy and AHPRA
Email has three sets of rules, and all three apply at once.
The Spam Act 2003. Marketing emails need consent, either express (they ticked the box) or inferred from an existing relationship in limited cases. Every email must clearly identify your practice as the sender and include contact details. Each one needs a working unsubscribe link, and requests must be honoured within five working days.
Privacy. The Australian Privacy Principles cover how you collect and use patient information, and health information is treated as sensitive. In practice, that means no clinical details in emails. "Time for your next knee rehab session after your ACL surgery" says too much. "You're due for a review with your practice" says enough. We segment by service, not by diagnosis, and keep subject lines neutral.
AHPRA. Promotional emails for a regulated health service are advertising. So no testimonials, no unreasonable expectation of benefit, and any discount or offer must state its terms. Recall emails also shouldn't push people toward care they don't need. We draft and flag. Your practice remains responsible for final approval.
Email marketing and recall
Why a focused practice approach matters
| Generalist agency | The Practice Engine |
|---|---|
| Sends generic discount blasts | Builds recall, welcome and re-engagement sequences around patient care |
| Ignores where consent came from | Checks consent and Spam Act requirements first |
| Segments by "everyone" | Segments by service, never by diagnosis |
| Writes health details into subject lines | Keeps clinical information out of emails |
| Quotes patient reviews in newsletters | Writes within relevant advertising requirements on testimonials and offers |
| Lock-in contracts | No lock-in contracts |
The work is scope-led, by a team with years of experience marketing a multi-location allied health settings. Read more about how we work.
Pricing and scope
Pricing
Plans follow our three tiers. Starter suits a solo or single-location practice. Growth suits a growing multi-service practice. Scale suits multi-location and group practices. Your free Growth Brief includes a recommended tier. No lock-in contract. Just 30 days' notice.
Confirm the scope before any work begins.
Pricing, practical delivery milestones and any third-party software costs are confirmed in writing after the current practice context has been reviewed. This keeps the scope useful and avoids assumptions about integrations or workflow requirements.
Written scope, first
90 Day Delivery Commitment
Before work starts, we document the agreed work, milestones and review points for the first 90 days. If an agreed item within our control is incomplete at day 90, we continue that agreed work at no management charge until it is complete. The commitment covers work we control. It does not guarantee patient volume, appointments, rankings, revenue or advertising platform outcomes.
Read the commitment termsFrequently asked
Straight answers before any scope.
How much does email marketing cost for a physio clinic?+
Pricing follows our Starter, Growth and Scale tiers, shown in the pricing section above. Your email tool subscription is usually a separate cost paid to the provider. The right tier depends on your list size, number of services and how many sequences you need. We'll recommend one in your free Growth Brief.
Can I email my patients without asking for consent?+
Generally, no. Under the Spam Act 2003, marketing emails need consent. Express consent is clearest, such as a tick box on your intake form. Inferred consent can apply in limited cases where there's an existing relationship. Every email must identify your practice and include a working unsubscribe. We check your consent setup before anything sends.
How long does it take to set up patient recall emails?+
Most practices have recall and welcome emails running within 60 days. The first month covers the audit, consent checks and connecting your practice software to an email tool. The second month is writing, building and testing. Re-engagement emails and the first newsletter usually follow in the third month.
Can I include patient testimonials in my clinic newsletter?+
Not if the newsletter promotes a regulated health service. advertising requirements for regulated health services ban testimonials in advertising, and a promotional newsletter counts. Offers also need their terms stated. You can share practice news, team updates, patient education and service information. Self-regulated professions still need to follow Australian Consumer Law.
What should a patient retention email say?+
A good patient retention email is short, personal and useful. It reminds the patient who they saw, says they're due for a review where that's clinically appropriate, and gives one clear way to book. It shouldn't mention their condition or pressure them. Think of it as a friendly reminder from reception, not a sales pitch.
Do re-engagement emails actually work for allied health?+
They can bring back patients who simply forgot or got busy, though results vary by practice. The key is timing, relevance and a clear next step. We send a short series to patients who haven't booked in a while, then remove anyone who doesn't respond so your list stays healthy.
Can you connect our emails to Cliniko or Nookal?+
Yes. We set up patient data to flow from Cliniko, Nookal, Halaxy, Splose or Coreplus into your email tool, either through available integrations or regular exports. We keep consent fields intact and bring across only what's needed. No clinical notes leave your practice software.
Email marketing and recall
Related services
A useful next step starts with clarity.
Your patients haven't forgotten you. Remind them you're still here.
Book a free Growth Brief and we'll look at your list, consent setup and the emails you're not sending yet. Or grab a free AI Practice Growth Report.