Last week, I taught you how to start building your email marketing list, by utilizing a free report. Once you start to develop an email list, its important to nurture the relationship you have created. So, what exactly do you do with your email list once you start building it?

Make Contact With Your Email List

Each month, at least once, if not twice, you should reach out to the people on your list and make some sort of contact. This contact should be something that provides value to them, while also:

1. Reminding the potential client of their issue (which they will of course go in and out of denial about).
2. Reminding the potential client that you, the therapist, are the best choice for getting help with that issue.

The best way to reach out is by creating monthly newsletter for your therapy practice. The most time effective way to do this is blog! But why blogging, if we are talking about nurturing your list? Blogging provides valuable material to include in your monthly newsletters, while also adding content to your website. The best way to provide value to your potential clients is to blog on your site every month, and then simply utilize those blog posts in a monthly or bimonthly newsletter.

Creating a newsletter is easy – in fact, I filmed myself creating a newsletter in less than 5 minutes.

At some point, your email newsletter is going to arrive at just the right time… when your potential client is ready to do something about their issue. This is when your phone will ring.

Again, most people will not buy immediately – they need to hear from you between 5-12 times before they are ready to take action. Each month that you do this, you are moving this relationship one step closer to them calling you and engaging with you.

Fears Surrounding Reaching Out To Your List:

Sending out monthly emails to your list can cause anxiety for many. While you may be feeling some of the following things, I have given you reasons why you shouldn’t feel these things and how to navigate around your concerns.

1. Am I going to be bothering them too much? The answer is NO. They would not have opted in for your free report if the subject was not a big concern with them in their life. You not reaching out to share what you know about this issue could be called neglectful.
2. What if someone unsubscribes? Don’t fret. Usually if someone unsubscribes, it means they no longer need help, or they have chosen another therapist already. It is also likely that they could have moved to an entirely different city. If someone moves to San Francisco then they are probably no longer interested in hearing from a therapist in Boulder. Also, be sure to send your list only relevant information to them, and chances are they won’t unsubscribe.
3. I don’t know what to write about in my newsletters. Exactly! Make it easy on yourself by sending blog posts that are you have already written. This will not only cause more engagement with potential clients, but it will also increase traffic to your website. Write a short intro sentence, include the title of the blog, and call it a day. I teach you how to pull from blog posts in my video, Monthly Newsletters in 5 Minutes or Less.

What not do when Reaching Out To Your List:

1. Do NOT send out information that is not relevant to them. Sending irrelevant information, like a general newsletter for example, can cause a person to unsubscribe. If a person opts in for your free report on Eating Disorders, and each month you send them a general newsletter that contains stuff about parenting or couples counseling, they aren’t going to be interested in you clogging up their inbox with information unrelated to their problem. Send only relevant information, and chances are they will stay with you for years.
2. Don’t start building a list, and then wait. Even if you only have one person on your list, get into the monthly habit of sending out valuable information. Waiting until you have 100 people on your list, for example, to start sending them stuff is a bad idea. Even if its one person, that one person is interested in hearing from you, and their chances of becoming a client will increase by 90% if you send them relevant material. It may take months, but its more likely they will turn into a client.

Now that you know that sending out monthly newsletters for your therapy practice is beneficial, what email auto responder services should you use? Next week, we will cover the different options and which one we recommend.