The first question I need to ask you; are you collecting your clients’ email addresses? If you said no, then you better start right now. Add it to your forms somewhere. You absolutely need to start collecting them. If you answered “yes” what are you doing with them?

You see, having a client’s email is better than giving them a business card. You don’t have to have a website (although I highly recommend it – read more here). Collecting and utilizing your clients’ email will allow you to communicate with them on a completely different level. But most importantly, it will keep your name and business in their mind. They are much more likely to come see you when they have aches and pains when they are consistently seeing your name in their in-box.

Now, that doesn’t mean you should be sending them an email everyday. On the contrary, you should send them something every week at the most, and maybe even just once a month. The more important thing is the content of those emails.

That is where an ezine, or email newsletter comes in; basically I’m talking about any publication that is regularly delivered via email. These can be incredibly effective forms of marketing at a very small cost.

Please note: I am not talking about spam here. These ezines only go out to people who have given you their email. Please, don’t buy lists or send these to unsuspecting people. No one appreciates spam and you will do your business harm by doing so.

The purpose of these ezines are many, but here are the top reasons:

1. Instead of using traditional advertising to tell people how great you are, you can use an ezine to SHOW how great you are by giving them a taste of what you have to offer through your experiences. This vehicle allows you to educate your clients (and prospective clients) on why THEY need your services.

2. Publishing an ezine positions you as an expert. By sharing your knowledge and experiences in a conversational, educating way (as opposed to pushy, sales-hype advertising) you are saying to your prospects that you are knowledgeable and skilled enough to take care of their issues. By sharing and educating you give credence to your skills and this gives the prospect much more confidence.

3. Publishing an ezine allows you to keep in constant contact with your clients. This goes back to the 7-to-10 rule (go here if you haven’t read about it yet). Ezines are a non-threatening form of communication that won’t be putting pressure on your clients, and yet they are much more likely to pick up the phone and make an appointment when that low back pain comes back because they have been reminded of your services every couple of weeks. Remember, it isn’t your client’s job to remember you are in business, you need to regularly remind them you are available to take care of them…but in a low-pressure way.

4. Ezines allow you to spread the word about your practice effortlessly. Encourage clients to forward your ezines to friends and relatives. This is key when you are educating them on specific conditions that you treat. If you have a story on the negative effects of stress, make sure you recommend clients forwarding the email to any friends or family who may be suffering from stress. This is a great way to pick up new clients without any effort on your part.

5. An ezine is a cheap and easy way to publish. Compared to printed newsletters, ezines are considerably less expensive. The cost is almost nil – no printing, mailing or other costs. Just the time writing (or paying someone else to write it), and the time to build, manage and mail to your list. Printed newsletters and postcards still have their place, but for cost-effective marketing, nothing beats an ezine.

Finally, an important key to making ezines successful is to give great information. Don’t send garbage that won’t help your clients. Educate them, help them to eat better, exercise better, stretch better, basically give them information to help them be healthier and happier. Whatever you want really, just make it quality, unique, beneficial information. This will make you a valued source of information and build trust in you as a person, which will translate into trust as a therapist and make it easier for your clients to say “Yes” to getting a massage from you, as well as refer people to you, which in the end is what the entire purpose of an ezine really is.

So get started on your weekly, bi-monthly, monthly, quarterly, whatever-time-frame-you-want ezine, but get it going now. Build your email list and start educating your clients. It may take time to build up that list, but it will grow if you are persistent. With that persistence your ezine will become an important part of your practice building marketing machine.

Best of luck and happy palpating!

By the way, I would love for you to take my survey. Click Here to take survey. Thanks