Segment before you send
One message to everybody is a broadcast; four messages to four groups is a recall programme. Split by what they came for and when: routine check-ups due, treatment plans that stalled halfway, procedures with a natural follow-up window, and patients who came once and never returned.
The fourth group is the most valuable and the most neglected. A short, personal message asking whether everything settled after their visit brings people back who assumed you had forgotten them.
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Send something useful, not a discount
A discount tells a patient that your normal price was negotiable, and it attracts exactly the people who will leave for the next discount. Useful beats cheap: the seasonal reminder that matters for their condition, the follow-up window they should not miss, the new option that did not exist when they came.
Keep it short, name the doctor, and make replying easy. Two lines and a question outperform a designed newsletter every time.
Stay inside consent
Only contact patients who agreed to be contacted, keep a record of that agreement, and include a simple way to opt out of future messages. Clinical records exist for care; using them for marketing without consent is both a privacy problem and a trust problem.
Practically, add the consent question to your intake form now. Six months from now you will have a list you can actually use, built the right way.