EMAIL MARKETING
Email is now the most popular activity carried out on the internet in Ireland - 93% of internet users surveyed in 2022 used email, according to the CSO.
For Psychotherapists, email can be used to great effect for a couple of key functions. This is particularly beneficial for clients who are not social media users or appreciate the privacy that direct email affords.
IMPROVING CLIENT EXPERIENCE
With booking confirmations, follow-on information and information articles.
INCREASING CLIENT NUMBERS BY DEMONSTRATING YOUR EXPERTISE
If you are experienced or specialise in certain areas, you can use emails to share this information. By adding a simple email subscription box on your website, you will develop a mailing list of people who are genuinely interested in your topics. You can then use a branded email to write short form articles, tips or share resources, demonstrating your expertise - see image right.
Alternatively you can use your website blogs, by including a few lines from the article on the email and linking back to the full piece on your website (read more about creating content in the Messaging Section of this kit).
DESIGN & SETUP
You may already have an email system in place but are you using it to its full potential? We advise using a dedicated email platform and your website may have this built in. If you are comfortable with the Content Management System (control centre) of your website, check to see if you have one and if it provides emails that display and function well.
If you do not have an email platform (or yours doesn’t work very well) we recommend a platform called Mailchimp (many are available). The sample on the previous page was created using this platform. It manages your email communications, is free to use (up to 500 contacts), provides professional looking branded templates, and handles all of the privacy & legalities needed - unsubscribe links etc. You can also monitor the performance of your emails, how many people opened your emails, clicked on your articles etc to see if your subscribers were interested in what you wrote about. And importantly you can include or link back to your website contact details to make it easier for readers to reach out and book a session or allow them to send it on to a friend who may need your services.
SETUP
Please note that platforms tweak their processes regularly but will follow a similar process. To set up a Mailchimp account you simply need an email address, contact details and a website. There is a lot to the account, so the following section shows you the basics around setting up an account, creating an email and sending. We recommend that you take some time to go through all of the functions of the platform as there are many things you can do with your account.
Go to www.mailchimp.com and click the Start Free Trial button, then opt for the Free plan.
