Building a Thriving Practice--Part IX

Advertising: Building a newsletter

Hi Everyone,

More common sense. Business is really quite simple.

Remember the essence of our last installment. The more someone hears your name in a favorable light the more you become an "old and trusted friend." This is true even for those who have never met you. It is the core idea behind all of advertising and is essential for success in the healing professions (or any profession, for that matter). Until your name becomes favorably recognized, you will be forever wondering why it is so hard to have a steady stream of clients. After your name becomes favorably recognized, you will be wondering how to handle your waiting list.

I'm serious!

The question is, how do you do this? How do you get your name recognized without spending b'zillions for advertising? For starters, let’s try a newsletter.

A newsletter puts your name in front of many people and does so as often as you send it. How simple. This is the essence of advertising in a single sentence. I’ll say it again…

"A newsletter puts your name in front of many people and does so as often as you send it."

So long as your message is a compelling one, you will develop name recognition after just 3 or 4 issues. By the time you get to the 20th or 50th issue, your name will be a household word to each and every person who receives it. Your name and newsletter articles will be passed around and discussed with others.

Now let me pause a moment and emphasize that your message must be a compelling one. It must be well written, informative and fun to read. Otherwise, you will bore people. You will turn them off and create a negative form of name recognition that will work against you. Tell stories (people love stories) with a message. Have a humor column. Include inspirational sayings. Spend time writing and rewriting your messages (I rewrite some of mine 3 or 4 times). Start with a small list of friends and ask for feedback. Write and rewrite. Keep asking the marketplace how you are doing. Remember one of our previous lessons--namely--the marketplace is your best friend.

Here’s another interesting insight. Many people who use newsletters screw them up by pushing their goods or services too hard. This is OK to a point but it is often overdone and becomes a MAJOR turnoff. When this happens, newsletters lose their subscribers and dwindle off into non-existence. Please remember that the primary purpose of a newsletter is NOT to sell your goods and services. It is for favorable name recognition. That’s all.

Discuss your professional successes, of course. But do so without pounding the table for yourself or your services. Deliver your message as you might to a dear friend over dinner. Discuss your disappointments and limitations as well. What readers get from this is a sense of your genuineness. You become easy to talk to. Believable. Easy to know. This is what you want--favorable name recognition. Be human. When appropriate, write from your tear ducts and let your tears fall onto your keyboard. I’ve done that many times--especially when writing about our Vietnam veterans and our prisoners. At other times, spill your joy into the hearts and souls of your readers. You radiate your thoughts and they come through your words. Everyone benefits, particularly you.

Sometimes just relate an inspirational story or a humorous event that has nothing to do with your profession. Your purpose here is favorable name recognition. Inspiration and tasteful humor will do it every time. Your purpose is also to connect, to love, to spread healing. Properly done, you have an opportunity to connect in a way that the advertising profession can only wish for. The opportunities involved go well beyond financial abundance.

You are certain to stub your toe as you start. This is common. It happens with just about every human endeavor. It happens with marriages, parenting, new employment, therapy sessions and so on. This is how we learn. This is how we improve. This is how we approach perfection. God bless toe stubbing. It’s purpose is to guide us in the right direction and, if we are paying attention, it does a superb job.

Let’s also dip into our common sense sack and not call it a newsletter. That borders on boring. Make up a more inviting name. Perhaps something like, Carol’s Comments....Robert’s Reports….The Healing High Rise….The Next Level….The Inspiration Equation…The Personal Performance Place….Peace in Your Time…..Touching One Another….Touching Others….Fun Ways to Feel Free…..Making a MasterPeace of Ourselves…..

So develop an inviting name for your newsletter and send it to your friends. Do some trial and error on it for awhile until you get it the way you want it. Actually, that’s wrong. It should not be the way YOU want it. It should be the way your READERS want it. Most advertisers fail to understand this fundamental lesson. They put together an ad that is pleasing to them and think that’s good enough for the marketplace. When the marketplace shuns it, the advertiser blames the silly public out there who doesn’t know a good ad when they see it. Absurd thinking. Expensive. Useless.

There’s a great ad writer in Florida by the name of Gary Halbert. After Gary writes an ad, he takes it down to his local bar and hands it out to his beer drinking buddies for their comments. Often they will say....

“Gary, that’s a great ad. Very clever. I love the headline. Real catchy. Great humor. Good points. You’ll sell a million of them.”

When he hears that, Gary tears up the ad and starts over. Why? Because the world is full of clever, catchy ads that don’t sell a thing. Gary Halbert is not satisfied with his ad until his beer drinking buddies ask….

“Where can I get one of those?”

Totally different response, eh? And much more useful. Then, and only then, does he consider his advertisement worthy of print. Otherwise, it is just expensive entertainment.

The same principle holds true for your newsletter. When your friends and family compliment you on it, just say thank you and keep revising your style, your messages, etc. UNTIL YOUR READERSHIP ASKS YOU TO SEND YOUR NEWSLETTER TO THEIR FRIENDS. When you have reached that place, you are ready to expand. Then, and only then, is your “advertisement” truly effective. If your newsletter doesn’t have the power to grow on its own by word of mouth, then you need to keep revising it until it does.

Here are some other ways to expand your newsletter (assuming it is compelling)…..

• Give talks at your local service clubs (Rotary, Soroptimists, etc.) and hand out free copies with an invitation to subscribe.
  
• Find other people who do newsletters and agree to include their newsletter in with one of yours (assuming you approve of their content). Then ask them to include a copy of your newsletter within their mailing. This is good promotion for both of you.
  
• Include others in the healing professions on your newsletters. This can be a first class source of referrals for those “difficult” clients that other professionals can’t seem to handle.
  
• If you are using an email newsletter (by far the most cost effective), nose around some of the newsgroups in your field (they are endless) and enter into helpful discussions with some of the members. Often, there are thousands of onlookers. After awhile, include a copy of your email newsletter and invite people to subscribe. If your messages are compelling, you will have no trouble developing a following.
  
• Join other email discussion lists and become a prominent contributor on them. Very easy to do. Just write your messages and press the send button. Suddenly, your name becomes known and, in time, you build respect (assuming your messages are helpful and compelling). Later, you can announce your newsletter and invite interested people to subscribe.

This is just a start. If you want to do a local newsletter then you will get clients from your home town. If you want to do a statewide, national or international email list, then you can draw clients from wider areas. Remember, EFT can be done VERY effectively over the phone. No need to be limited to your own back yard.

So, is there a drawback? Sure, it will take time to write and rewrite your newsletter. If you already have a lengthy client waiting list then, presumably, you don’t have the time to do it. So don’t. If, on the other hand, your waiting room is a little light on people, then get out your keyboard and start typing. Apparently, you have some time on your hands and could use a little favorable name recognition.

More next time.

Hugs, Gary

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