Peptalkr automatically creates two separate databases for you:
Your entire Cliniko database (absolutely everyone in Cliniko) - when you need to send important non-marketing email (👀 see: Transactional email)
Your Cliniko email marketing list (the one we are talking about in this article!) - a list of people from your Cliniko database that can be opted out of - used for Campaigns, Automations and Transactional emails that are set to Marketing.
In this article we are talking about the Cliniko email marketing list - this is what we refer to when we say the 'Patient list'.
🔄 Both of the above databases above are kept up to date in 5 minute intervals. So if something changes in Cliniko - it will be reflected in both your marketing list, and your entire patient database within 5 minutes.
The number of patients in your list
Your Patient list is simply a list of all the patients you can send marketing emails to.
You can find this list by going to the Send Email tab then click on 'Lists & Subscribers' - you'll then see a list called 'Patients'.
What affects this number?
The number of patients you see in here is directly impacted by:
Whether you are on a free trial
Users on a free trial are limited to importing a maximum of 250 patients.What setting you have selected for your Active Patient Limit
When your free trial ends, you'll be able to select how many months worth of patients to import into your marketing list. You can choose from 6, 12, 18 or 24 months - or you can select 'All'.Whether you have enabled the checkbox for two-way sync
This checkbox enforces your Peptalkr account to to honour Cliniko's email marketing opt-in settings. This setting is rarely recommended. Refer to this article for details.Whether you have imported unsubscribes from Mailchimp or another system
If you have imported unsubscribes, they'll be excluded from your Patient list.
Why would I limit the patients I import?
As this is your marketing list - it might not make sense to import patients who have not visited in more than 24 months.
Another reason you might want to apply a limit is to control your costs - the number of people in your marketing list impacts the price you pay per month for Peptalkr.
Can I send non-marketing emails to the patient list?
Not your Patient marketing list, no. Only Peptalkr transactional emails can send non-marketing email.
Are non-marketing emails affected by the Active Patient Limit?
No, transactional emails are integral to a functioning clinic - so we don't think it'd be fair to limit who receives them. If a patient meets the conditions of your Transactional email trigger - they will receive the email. You cannot 'see' the transactional email database - it's simply everyone in your Cliniko account - so you can just look at Cliniko to see that database 😊
How do I group my patients into segments?
You can segment your marketing list of patients by loads of things! The practitioner they see, the business they visit, the appointments they attend, the treatment modalities they receive. We have an article all about that right here:
Why is my Patient list so small?
Your marketing list will always be smaller than your entire database. There are several reasons for this:
If you have ticked the checkbox shown below on the Settings page
This means that if patient is not opted-in for marketing in Cliniko - we will not add them to your Peptalkr marketing list.
If the 'Active patient limit' on the Settings page is set to anything other than 'All'
If you have selected a limit (e.g 12 months, 24 months) then we will not import anyone from before that limit. You can change this limit at any time, just be mindful it can change the price you pay for Peptalkr. Refer to the pricing page for details.You are still in free trial mode
During the free trial, you are limited to a max of 250 people in the marketing list. This is to reduce the risk of people using Peptalkr for spam purposes (sadly, some shifty people have done this before). Once you are a paying user, the world is your oyster and you can import whoever you please. Just head to the Settings page and change your Active Patient Limit to your choice. You'll even see an estimate of how many subscribers this will import in brackets next to each option so you know how this change will impact your pricing.
Other reasons are:
People unsubscribe.
You have imported unsubscribes to your suppression list.
People are archived in Cliniko.
Some of your clients have invalid email addresses (we automatically exclude them).
Some of your recipients have an email address which keeps 'bouncing'. We automatically remove emails that 'hard bounce' (email no longer exists) or 'soft bounce' 5 times (email is full or unavailable). This protects the quality of your list. Lists with a lot of low quality emails can impact your email deliverability so we keep it 'clean' automatically. Plus you wouldn't want to be paying for subscribers you can't reach.
You have patients who share email address in Cliniko. We'll only store the email address once in the marketing list. This ensures you don't send multiple of the same email to a single email address.
People have fallen outside of the active patient limit set on the Settings page of your account. i.e. if someone was on the list, then 12 months pass and your active patient limit is set to 12 months - we'll remove them automatically into the 'Deleted' tab.