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 - a list of people from your Cliniko database that can be opted out of - used for Campaigns and other Marketing emails.
In this article we are talking about the Cliniko email marketing list - this is what we refer to when we say '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 email marketing 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'.
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 selected to honour the email opt in setting in Cliniko.
This setting is not commonly used as the email opt in setting in Cliniko is not well managed from within Cliniko. Most users will just opt in everyone to Peptalkr then manually import unsubscribes from Mailchimp or another email marketing platform.
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.
What about sending non-marketing emails?
Non-marketing emails are called Transactional emails. 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 - they will receive the email. You cannot 'see' this database - it's simply everyone in your Cliniko account - so you can just look at Cliniko to see that database 😊
How do I segment my marketing list into groups?
We have an article all about that right here:
Why is my 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.
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.