Why Write a Newsletter for your Therapy or Healing Practice?
Writing an email newsletter can be one of the key methods of marketing your private practice that will propel it towards success. There are many reasons why this is the case, but the most significant one is that, the more people who know about your services, the more clients you will have. A newsletter allows you to continually add potential clients to your database, as well as remind them about your services and products on a regular basis.
Often helping and healing professionals are resistant to the idea of writing a newsletter. Their initial reaction is something like; “That’s a lot of work,” or ” I don’t have enough to say,” or ” I don’t write well.”
Yes, it can take a fair chunk of time to write a newsletter, but marketing a private practice does take time and energy regardless of the methods you use.
As far as fears of not knowing what to write about are concerned, if you know your target market well and pay attention to what their needs and desires are, you shouldn’t have any difficulty coming up with ideas.
Finally, if you have difficulty with writing, get help. Hire an editor, or solicit help from someone who writes well.
There really aren’t any good excuses for not writing a newsletter. So, now that we have established that writing a newsletter is a must, the ten points below should help you become successful with yours.
How to Write a Successful Newsletter
1. Focus your Newsletter on a Specific Target Market
If you want your newsletter to be read, focus it on a narrow target market, or it likely won’t get read at all. As with everything in marketing your therapy or healing practice, you must stand out if you want to attract attention. If you try to meet everyone’s needs, you likely won’t meet anyone’s.
2. Allow your Subscribers to Opt-in
With the amount of spam we all receive on a daily basis, it has become essential to have an opt-in, or permission-based, newsletter. This means that you always give people the option of whether or not they wish to subscribe, while also making it easy for them to unsubscribe when they want to.
3. Offer a Freebie as a Bonus for Subscribing
There is nothing like adding a valuable bonus offer to entice your website visitors to subscribe to your newsletter. A common bonus item is often a free article or report. This provides your subscribers with something immediate to read which gives them one more reason to subscribe.
4. Write Interesting and Useful Material
Find a way to pass on interesting, useful, and novel information. Think about the problems your clients come to you with, and what they are looking for. Write about these things offering help and suggestions.
5. Ensure That your Newsletter is Easy to Read.
Your newsletter should be well written and easy to read. Write simply so that a 12-year-old will be able to easily understand it. Use headlines and subheadings to allow for easy scanning of the material, as many people won’t read the entire newsletter.
6. Don’t Be Overly Concerned About the Length
There is a lot of debate about what is the best length for a newsletter. Generally speaking, the length of your newsletter isn’t as important as having quality information. Write enough information so that your subscribers will feel they have gained something from reading it, and if it does happen to be long, make sure it is concise and interesting enough to keep them engaged.
7. Publish your Newsletter on a Regular Basis
It’s best to write your newsletter on a regular basis so that your readers know when to expect it. While you don’t want to write too often and bombard your subscribers with emails, if you don’t write often enough, they can easily forget about you. Anywhere from once a month to once weekly is optimum.
8. Select a Consistent Format for your Newsletter
There are various ways to structure your newsletter. Take a look at some of the many newsletters offered on the web to get some ideas. Your main article should appear early on in the newsletter, and generally, all Promotional offers are best left to the end. If you do want to mention them early on, it’s best to stick with the highlights of the offer and then alert subscribers to where in the newsletter they can get the full details.
9. Promote your Newsletter Online
Once you have decided on the structure, content, frequency of publication, etc., your next step will be to find ways to promote your newsletter. There are numerous ways to promote it online, including publishing your feature articles in article directories, newsletter directories, and other relevant websites.
10. Promote your Newsletter Offline
Promoting your newsletter offline is just as important as marketing it online. Ask people to subscribe to your newsletter in any promotional materials you develop, and let everyone you meet know about your newsletter, finding ways to entice them to subscribe.
Writing a regular newsletter will take some time and effort, but it can also be one of the most rewarding things that you do to market your practice. It is incredibly satisfying to get feedback from your subscribers telling you how helpful your information is to them.
So, if you have not yet started your newsletter, I encourage you to get on it as soon as you can. I know you won’t regret it once you start seeing your subscribers increasingly turn into clients!
