One of the best ways to get new and existing clients to come in to your practice is through the use of a newsletter sent by e-mail known as Ezine. An Ezine can be a basic text format or it can be more elaborate using HTML with color and graphics.

You can offer your newsletter as often as you like but I recommend mailing to your massage clients about once per month. It’s frequent enough to not be considered an annoyance by most people.

Why Use An Ezine?

First, an Ezine is a great way to continue to educate your clients. Besides educational articles or stories, you can include any special offers or deals that you are offering.

Second, your ezine also allows prospects to learn more about your practice over time. It’s a safe non-threatening way for them to learn about you without having to “take a risk” and ask for more info.

Why do I say “take a risk”?

Well, many people have gotten risk-shy about asking for more information from businesses. They have been conditionally trained that by asking for more info, it opens the door to unwanted phone calls, email, or even in-person conversions.

But an ezine is a gentle way to show people that you aren’t going to be a pest.

Third, studies have shown that people are only ready to buy immediately 5% of the time. Some people will take several months to make a decision. An Ezine is a great way to stay in touch with clients and help them decide to call and schedule an appointment sooner rather than later.

(Note: Based on current U.S. and Canadian anti-spam laws, you do have to allow people the opportunity to unsubscribe if they no longer want to receive your mailings. You can handle unsubscribe requests manually or use a paid service instead.)

What Do I Recommend For An Ezine?

Always have some type of special offer in your Ezine. You need to teach your subscribers that you have an offer available in each email.

If you don’t, then you will experience a large amount of spam complaints and unsubscribes when you finally send out a special offer.

Keep your offer non-confrontational. You want to make the offer easy to read—or for the reader to note while they continue to read. You don’t want to anger them and have them quickly unsubscribe.

Your offer could be something like a one-time $10 discount for an hour massage. If you tie your offer to something that you’ve written about in the Ezine, it will help boost your response rate.

For example, if you write an article on prenatal massage, you can include an offer for $10.00 off a prenatal massage.

In my massage marketing manual, Help Your MASSAGE Practice, I go into this topic in more depth and cover some additional things like 3 ways to build your email list.

Here’s the bottom line: If you aren’t already using an ezine to promote your massage business, then do it. It’s a great way to start 2008 off on the right note.

To Your Success,

Michael Humphreys