In this post, I’ll be looking at how you can get people to sign up for your newsletter. Once again, it’s important to know what your aim is. Are you looking for new clients, referrals, or repeat business? Is your newsletter a way to say thank you to your current clients? Your goals for your newsletter, will help you decide how to distribute it.

Reaching current clients

Start off by asking your current clients if they’d like to receive a newsletter from you. Make it a habit to ask new clients when you take down their personal details at the first appointment - or add it as a question on your client history form. Launching a newsletter can also be a great way to rekindle a relationship with old clients. If you’ve been neglecting those follow up calls, a newsletter can provide the excuse you need to give them a call or send them a letter.

Helping your website visitors to become clients

If you have a website and are sending an email newsletter, make sure you include a sign up form on your website. On a first visit, people will often gladly hand over their email address in return for receiving a useful newsletter, but they might baulk at booking an appointment straight away. Once they’re on your list they’ll start to trust you, and then they’re much more likely to become a client.

Be very careful not to spam people

A word of warning, don’t just add everyone you contact to your newsletter subscriber list. In many countries it’s now illegal to add people to an email list without asking them first, not to mention impolite!

You need to make it easy for people to get off your list as well - just a simple line in each newsletter explaining how to unsubscribe is enough. In addition, it is best practice to add your contact details in each email, so they know the email is from a genuine source.

Reaching other prospects

A paper newsletter can be distributed around town in shops and related businesses. I’ve seen this idea used well by a massage therapist in Katoomba in Australia’s Blue Mountains. Visitors to the town who’re interested in health are very likely to see this lady’s newsletter and pick up a copy. They start to trust her because they’ve heard of her through the newsletter, and if they want to book a massage whilst in town, guess who they’ll go to?

Asking people to pass it on

If you’re looking for new clients, then it’s always worth explicitly asking people to pass on your newsletter. A personal recommendation like this counts for a lot. Make sure to tell the final recipients how they can get their own copy in future. Something like “Please feel free to pass this newsletter on to your friends and family. Drop me an email to me@myclinic.com if you’d like to receive your own copy,” works well and provides a way for people to add themselves to your list. There’s more about what to write in your newsletter in my last post.

Summary

We’ve discussed how to find subscribers for your newsletter. If you’re looking for referrals and repeat business then you need to reach current clients first and foremost. If you’re trying to attract new clients, then you should also look at using your website or asking local businesses to distribute your newsletter; and don’t forget to ask people to pass on your newsletter.

By now you should have an idea of whether a paper-based newsletter or an email newsletter is more suitable for you. Next time we’ll look at how to set up an email newsletter.

Happy marketing!

Catherine Doyle

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Founder, Soothed - web design & online marketing for natural therapists
Editor, natural bloom - sharing the inside story on holistic health

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In my last post I took you through planning your newsletter - deciding how much time and money you want to invest, and what you’re hoping to get out of the whole thing. This time we consider what to write.

Promoting your special offers and practice news

It’s a good idea to include a section in your newsletter promoting your services. You might want to simply list your specialities and prices; or if you have a current special offer, you can include that. Give special offers an expiry date to encourage people to pick up the phone and book right now. Open days and other special events also fit here.

Some therapists include only this section in their newsletter, but I’d highly recommend including something educational as well. This gives people a good reason to read your newsletter, and to keep on receiving it.

Educating your clients

As I’ve mentioned before, you can use your newsletter to educate people about what you do, thereby increasing referrals and repeat business. To do this, you’ll need to include a piece in each newsletter on one aspect of your work. It works best if you write from the perspective of solving your clients’ problems, rather than blowing your own trumpet. For example, you could include an exercise to prevent back pain, share tips for healthy knees, or explain how to avoid headaches. Stress relief tips always go down well, and are easy to write. Tailor the content to suit the areas you work in.

Write it yourself, or reuse other content?

If you’re good at writing and have the time, then it makes perfect sense to create your own unique content. If not, then there are other options:

• Are there other therapists you could team up with? You might be able to take it in turns to write something, and share the costs of sending a joint newsletter.
• I’m thinking about setting up an e-group for therapists to share newsletter content. To join you’d need to contribute an article of your own every so often, and you’d get access to all the other articles contributed by other therapists. If you’re interested, send me an email, and if there’s enough interest I’ll set something up.
• You can republish content created by others; much as Angela does in her superb monthly roundup of health articles. Your clients will still appreciate the useful information you’re sending them even if you’re not writing it all yourself. Make sure you seek permission to republish articles so as not to violate copyright, and always quote the original source of the article.
• You can also buy pre-written articles which you can publish as is, or modify them before use. These are called private-label-rights (PLR) articles. You can search for PLR articles related to your field on Google. Client Education Newsletters for Massage are available through BodyworkBiz.

How much should you write?

How much to write depends on your format. Reading from a screen is hard on the eyes, so email newsletters should be kept brief (whilst still containing useful content). With paper, you can write a bit more, but considering how busy people are these days, I’d still try and keep things fairly short. Busy readers will also appreciate being able to quickly skim-read your newsletter to pick out the most relevant pieces to them. There’s an article on skim-reading on my web site (while it’s aimed at writing for your web site, the tips apply equally well to writing newsletters).

Summary

We’ve discussed the different types of content you can include in your newsletter, as well as options for creating it.

Next time, we’ll look at how to get people to sign up.

Happy Marketing!

Catherine Doyle

………………………………………………………………………………….
Founder, Soothed - web design & online marketing for natural therapists
Editor, natural bloom - sharing the inside story on holistic health

Benefits

Newsletters are a great way to keep in touch with your clients. Sending a regular newsletter reminds people about your existence, and encourages them to call up for that long overdue treatment. Even better, a newsletter can also educate people about what conditions you treat. You’ll be amazed at how few of your clients know and understand the full scope of your work. As well as repeat bookings, a piece in your newsletter might result in a client booking for relief from headaches (as well as their usual relaxation massage); or they might recommend you to a friend with sciatica.

Planning your newsletter

So you’re convinced - a newsletter sounds like a great idea! Let’s take a few minutes to think about what you hope to achieve, and how you might do it.

• What are you hoping to achieve by sending a newsletter? Are you looking for repeat business, new clients, more referrals, or something else? The content of your newsletter will be guided by your aims. If you start out with clear goals then you can measure how well it is performing, and take steps to improve performance later if you need to.
• How often can you commit to creating and sending your newsletter? Monthly is probably ideal, but quarterly is more realistic for many of us.
• Do you have the time and writing ability to create educational pieces in each newsletter? (If not, there are other options - I’ll be covering these in my next post.)
• Do you want to include special offers and news of upcoming events etc?
• What format will you use? Do most of your clients have email, or would a traditional paper based newsletter be more appropriate? Do you have time to address and mail a traditional newsletter?
• Do you want to use photos, graphics or fancy formatting? For paper formats, you need to consider whether your word processing software can handle it, or will you need to buy a desktop publishing package? With an email newsletter, you’ll need to send what’s known as HTML format if you want to include anything other than just plain text.
• How much money do you want to spend? For a paper newsletter you need to consider the paper itself, ink (plus a printer of course!), envelopes and postage. Email newsletters are usually cheaper than paper formats depending on how many people you have subscribing. It’s also possible to send email newsletters for free using your own email program if you don’t mind a bare bones solution.

Summary

A newsletter can be a great marketing tool for your practice, as long as you have the time and money to invest in it. If you can’t commit to writing and sending a newsletter regularly, then a newsletter is probably not for you, but if you do have the time to put into it, then a newsletter is well worth the effort.

In future posts, I’ll discuss who to send to, working out what to write, as well as how to set up an email newsletter.

You might also want to check out the sample massage newsletter that Alexander discussed before.

Catherine Doyle

………………………………………………………………………………….
Founder, Soothed - web design & online marketing for natural therapists
Editor, natural bloom - sharing the inside story on holistic health

I received an email last week from Angela one of my students. She has only been in business for 4 months, but is really taking a great professional approach. She allowed me to share what she does with you. Here is her email:

“I’ve purchased your training manual this week and am really looking forward to getting into it. As a massage therapist you’ve given me a more balanced outlook on my business so I’m ready to make some changes.

I send out an email and paper newsletter on a monthly basis to my clients and I was hoping that if you had some time you could have a look at it and possibly offer a few suggestions. If it’s not part of your service though then that’s OK.”

View the Smooth Massage massage newsletter sample.

It is fantastic how Angela uses informative and educational materials (that she does not all have to write herself). That gives the value to readers that should not be lost with any of these thoughts.

Focus on Results

My suggestions? That really depends on what you want your newsletter to do and what it is currently doing. Do you want to attract more clients? Do you want your existing clients to come back more often? Or is it more a thank-you for the clients that are coming to you anyway.

As with any marketing tool, you need to look at what you want from it and what it is delivering currently. Then it can be improved. What feedback are you getting from your clients? Are they commenting on it, on specific articles? Or don’t you ever hear anything about it?

Hooking the Readers’ Eyes

It is really well designed, stylish and simple. It might be worth adding a few more paragraph breaks and subheadings. Most people do not read from start to finish, but skip until something catches their interest. The more things you have in there to catch someone’s interest, the better.

Maybe you could subtly work in articles about the benefits of massage.

Build a Relationship

Or add something about you personally. People buy from people they like, trust and understand. You could build that relationship by sharing more about yourself. The things that are important to you, what is happening in your life, what is happening for clients (like testimonial stories).

Call to Action

Another possibility would be to add some special promotions. This does not have to be discounting. Instead you could package your massage with different things, possibly from other related businesses.

Or you could recommend other businesses and ask them to do the same for your, possibly pass on your newsletter.

It is absolutely fantastic that you are producing your newsletter and I am sure it will pay back for the time and money you put into it.