Talkiatry patient newsletter
Boosting open rates with the right balance of digestibility and depth
Role
Strategy and creative lead
Services
Editorial strategy
Content creation
Year
2026
Results
A 20% relative lift in open rates for existing patients and a ~30% relative lift for prospective ones
Talkiatry’s patient newsletter is a key nurture tool that keeps existing patients engaged and prospective patients connected until they’re ready to book. It started strong, but open rates dropped sharply several months in.
After addressing deliverability and list hygiene issues, open rates rebounded, but the content still needed work. Each issue was a single long-form article on a general wellness topic, treating readers as one audience despite their varied relationships with mental health.
The challenge
We surveyed subscribers about what would make them look forward to the newsletters. Their answers pointed toward different directions: practical tips on one side, and longer-form content on niche mental health topics on the other.
What readers told us
A modular format could balance digestible takeaways with deeper, condition-specific content, letting readers engage at the level that made sense for them.
The hypothesis
A new strategy and format
A mockup of the new newsletter format
We designed and launched a modular template with several recurring features:
A quick mental health tip for immediate takeaways
“Three things a psychiatrist wants you to know about…” to turn clinical expertise into accessible guidance
Condition-specific deep dives on topics such as ADHD across gender and age, LGBTQ+ mental health, PMDD, bipolar disorder, and health anxiety
Clinician book recommendations
We also began testing subject lines with every send to improve open rates.
Open rates improved after the redesign and have stayed up.
Existing patients: 20% relative lift in open rates in the first six months
Prospective patients: ~30% relative lift in open rates in the first six months
The results
The first two sections of the August 2026 issue of From the Armchair
“Deep Dives” from past newsletter issues
