Best Practices in Healthcare Campaigns

Fold recommends these best practices for sending patient campaigns—designed to drive engagement while maintaining trust, compliance, and clinical appropriateness.

1. Start with a clear call to action

Every campaign should answer one question: what action do we want the patient to take?
Examples:

• Complete a form or consent

• Read this information

• Schedule or confirm an appointment

• Enroll in a program (APCM, Diabetes Care)

• Provide feedback or a review

2. Segment your audience

Use Fold population groups to address the exact group of patients your message is designed for. When appropriate, segment by:

• Visit status (new, established, post-visit)
• Clinical criteria (chronic conditions, eligibility)
• Timing (recent appointment, overdue follow-up)
• Engagement level (active vs. dormant)

Targeted campaigns feel personal and reduce opt-outs.

3. Use the right channel(s)

Different messages work better on different channels. 

• SMS → urgent, short, action-oriented (confirmations, reminders)
• Email → longer-form education, onboarding, summaries
• Fold Care patient app → tasks, forms, ongoing program engagement

Best practice: meet patients where they already engage, not everywhere at once.

4. Keep messages short, clear, and human

Patients skim. Use:

• Plain language (avoid jargon)
• One primary call to action
• Friendly, reassuring tone

5. Use graphic design and videos to increase engagement

• Leverage Fold's content suite to configure emails and forms with professional headers & footers, logos, media, and your organization's brand colors
  
• Share educational videos from reputable sources. Ensure videos are polished, linked from your own website, with professional and clear titles
• Use media, such as images and infographics, to enhance your emails
• Use emojis when appropriate to make messaging more eye-catching and personable

6. Time it thoughtfully

• Send reminders close to the call to action (24–72 hours)
• Space multi-touch campaigns so they don’t feel like spam
• Avoid early mornings, late nights, and weekends (unless urgent). Leverage this checkbox in Fold's automation delay nodes:

Cadence matters as much as content.

7. Automate but keep it context-aware

Automation works best when it’s:

• Triggered by real events (appointment booked, form submitted)
• Personalized with patient-specific details. Use Fold merge tags to personalize messaging with names, appointment details, etc.
• Able to hand off to staff when needed

Patients should feel supported, not “processed.”

8. Be Explicit About Why You’re Reaching Out

Trust increases when patients understand the “why”:

• “Because you recently visited…”
• “Since you’re eligible for…”
• “To prepare for your upcoming appointment…”

Context reduces confusion and increases response rates.

9. Respect Consent, Preferences, and Compliance

• Send only to patients who have opted in - talk to your Fold Customer Success Manager to learn more about Fold's integration with your EHR's consent to communicate fields. 
• Honor communication preferences
• Exclude PHI from SMS
• Include opt-out instructions where required

10. Measure and improve

Use Fold analytics to track form completion rates, communication success, and opt-outs. Use results to refine timing, wording, and segmentation over time.

11. Make it feel like care—not marketing

The best patient campaigns feel like an extension of care delivery:

• Helpful
• Timely
• Relevant
• Respectful

If a message wouldn’t make sense coming from a clinician or care team, rethink it.