ℹ️ Who this tutorial is for
If you want to automatically prompt clients without bookings to schedule their next visit, this guide will walk you through creating targeted, personalised reactivations.
Reactivation emails are a powerful way to bring clients back who haven’t booked for a set period. Here are some common use cases for reactivation emails:
Send a catch-all reactivation to any client who hasn’t had a booking in your chosen number of weeks or months.
Send a series of reactivations spread out over a year.
Send a more targeted reactivation to a client who hasn’t booked a particular appointment type, or appointment category in your chosen amount of time.
Send a practitioner-specific reactivation that appears to have been sent by their treating practitioner themself.
You can completely customise your reactivations based on the specific treatment type received, whether they are a new or existing patient or even whether you've tagged them for reactivation.
✋ We have different instructions if you want to reactivate patients that cancelled or missed an appointment.
📋 What you'll need to do
💌 Create a Transactional email
⚡️ Connect an Email trigger to it
💌 Transactional Emails | ⚡ Email Triggers |
Automated emails sent in relation to specific Cliniko appointments or invoices. Can be marketing OR non-marketing content. | Specify the who, what, and when of your transactional email, giving you complete control over patient targeting. Only used for Transactional email. |
📱 Wanting to send this as an SMS? Just skip ahead to Step Two - these instructions are applicable to both email and SMS.
🎨 The email template
Peptalkr provides several pre-built appointment templates, including various templates suitable for reactivations:
A "personal letter" template from their treating practitioner
A plain email appearing to come from reception
A simple reminder to book template
A convincing longer style email from the business
When you create a transactional email, you can use any of these as a starting point for your follow up email, customising the subject line, sender details, email content and design to suit your needs - or create your own from scratch or any other template.
💡 We recommend changing the email style up for each interval you have decided to attempt reactivation at, to keep it fresh for the patient.
⏱️ The timing
The timing of your reactivations are flexible. It can be sent:
✔️ Shortly after the appointment – Ideal for regular, ongoing treatment
✔️ 2-3 months after last appointment – Ideal for maintenance-based services
✔️ 6 months after last appointment – Great for anyone
✔️ 12 months after last appointment – Best for annual reviews, or the "final push" if a patient hasn't responded to previous reactivation attempts.
Example 1: For new patients
1 week after their first appointment – Send a friendly reminder to book a 2nd
1 month after their first appointment – Reinforce the benefits of returning
Example 2: For returning patients:
2 months after last visit – Ask how they are going (Practitioner)
6 months after last visit – Gentle reminder it's been a while (Reception)
12 months after last visit – Let them know it's been a whole year (Standard)
👉 Remember - timing, content and intervals can be totally unique to specific appointment types, categories or even practitioners.
🚨 Important: Each interval requires its own 💌 Transactional Email and ⚡ Trigger.
💌 Step One: Create a transactional email
Go to the Email manager tab > Transactional Emails to create your follow-up email.
🔗 Check out our guide to creating a transactional email if you have never done this before, or need a refresher on this this process.
Once you have created and pressed Finish on your Transactional Email and you see the Ready to start triggering message - it’s time to connect a trigger.
→ Reactivation subject line examples
Here are some subject lines for common intervals:
Subject Line | |
Email #1 | How are you going, |
Email #2 | Can I book you in with |
Email #3 | It’s been 6 months – let’s get you back on track! |
Email #3 | Time flies - it's been a year since we saw you |
→ Sender name and email
You can choose the Name and Email address that sends each email.
Reactivations are powerful when sent by the treating practitioner or admin/reception! But change it up for best results.
🔗 Check out our guide to setting a sender name and email here.
⚡️Step Two: Connect a trigger
Go to the Email triggers tab to complete this step (or the Send SMS tab if doing as an SMS).
🔗 Check out our guide to creating an email trigger if you have never done this before, or need a refresher on this this process.
→ Trigger settings
When you create a trigger, you'll be walked through the steps to configure your trigger to your specific needs.
To demonstrate, here are some examples of settings:
Example 1: Standard 2 month reactivation
Setting | Value |
Trigger Name | Reactivation – 2 Months (Standard) |
Trigger Type | Automated Recurring |
Marketing Type | Non-marketing OR marketing (depends on the content) |
Triggering Event & Timing | After an appointment; 60 days later |
Filters | Select relevant filters if you want to narrow your targeting. Leave filters blank to target everyone. |
Frequency | Every time the conditions are met |
Template | Select the email you created in Step One |
Example 2: Orthotics 12 month follow up
Setting | Value |
Trigger Name | Reactivation – 12 Months (Orthotics) |
Trigger Type | Automated Recurring |
Marketing Type | Non-marketing |
Triggering Event & Timing | After an appointment, 365 days later ✅ Tick the recall box |
Filters | Select relevant appointment types (e.g. 'Orthotic Fitting') |
Frequency | Every time the conditions are met |
Template | Select the email you created in Step One |
✅ Ready to turn on
💡 Helpful Tips:
Start simple - by doing a general reactivation series as a 'catch all' for any patient who hasn't visited in a while.
Add more versions for different circumstances at need (e.g. new patients, orthotic patients, surgery patients) - ensuring you exclude these specific cases from the 'General' version as you go.
If you want to exclude discharged patients from recalls, you can use medical alerts to marker patients as discharged - here's how.
Use [variables] to personalise the sender name, subject line and the content inside your emails to make them feel "not so automated".
🎯 Final Checks:
✔️ Test your email before enabling automation
✔️ Ensure your trigger is correctly targeting the right patients
✔️ Check delivery reports to monitor email success
🚀 That’s it! Repeat this process as many times as needed until you cover all scenarios where you wish to send a follow up.
Check out our Blueprint for Patient Recalls for ideas about timing and wording.
🙋🏻♀️ FAQs
How can I make more intervals of my reactivations?
How can I make more intervals of my reactivations?
Easy! Just duplicate your trigger and change the timing. For each email to have different wording/subject lines - just create another transactional email by following step one again. You can even choose a recent email as the starting point to save time in designing/building the email.
What option do I select in the dropdown under the 'Is this a recall?' checkbox?
What option do I select in the dropdown under the 'Is this a recall?' checkbox?
You should choose to tick the 'is this a recall?' box - this will ensure we only send the reminder if they have not got an upcoming appointment (or attended one - if they attend one, the reactivation timing will be reset from the date of most recent visit - assuming you have a reactivation targeting the subsequent appointment type they have since had).
Each option has a slightly different function. Most people select 'Of any kind', but if you need to recall some appointments independently of the patient's other appointment activity, use another option:
Of any kind - as long as they have attended/have upcoming any appointment, do not send the recall.
Of the same category - as long as they have attended/have upcoming an appointment in the same category as the appointment that triggered this message, do not send the recall (great for multi-modality clinics).
Of the same type - as long as they have attended/have upcoming an appointment of the same exact type as the appointment that triggered this message, do not send the recall (great for highly specific appointment types that need recalling - such as an 'Annual review' or a surgery).
Are reactivations considered marketing or non-marketing?
Are reactivations considered marketing or non-marketing?
Reactivation recalls may be considered non-marketing in some cases, but please use your discretion to ensure you are following the applicable privacy laws in your region. If you prefer only those opted in for marketing receive it, you can select 'marketing'. But you must ensure you add an unsubscribe link to the email if you select the marketing option.