Using Constant Contact - a Therapist's Guide to Email Marketing<title> <meta name="Description" content="Marketing help, just for therapists. We offer online and in-person CE classes as well as individual coaching and copywriting help."> <meta name="KeyWords" content="marketing, copywriting, coaching, ce classes, mft, lcsw, psychologist">  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META name="Copyright" content="Copyright AllWebCo Design http://allwebco-templates.com"> <META http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en"> <META name="Rating" content="General">  <link rel="StyleSheet" href="coolstyle.css" type="text/css"> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="javascripts.js"></script> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="pop-closeup.js"></script> </head> <BODY BGCOLOR="#9BA8C3" TEXT="#000000">  <div id="table-layer"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%" height="100%" id="MainTable"><tr><td align="left" valign="top" background="picts/menu-background.gif" rowspan="2" class="menutrans"> <img src="picts/spacer.gif" height="2" width="135" alt="image" class="menuwidth"><br> </td><td align="right" valign="top"> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="header.js"></script><br> <br><br>  <center> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="20" border="0" width="620"> <tr><td ALIGN="CENTER" VALIGN="TOP" width="150">  <table cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr><td class="borders"> <img src="picts/resources-1.jpg" border="0" width="100" height="67" alt="image"><br> </td></tr></table> <br>  <table cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr><td class="borders"> <img src="picts/resources-2.jpg" border="0" width="100" height="67" alt="image"><br> </td></tr></table> <br>  <table cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr><td class="borders"> <img src="picts/resources-3.jpg" border="0" width="100" height="67" alt="image"><br> </td></tr></table> <br> </td><td valign="top" class="just">  <span class="title">Using Constant Contact - a Therapist's Guide to Email Marketing</span><br><BR> <ul> <li>Have you ever wanted to stay connected to former clients, but felt it hard to do so in a boundaried and ethical way?<br><br> <li>Would it be useful to announce groups, workshops or new services to your referral sources without the cost and low returns of direct mail?<br><br> <li>Have you wondered whether a newsletter or email marketing plan could be effective in your practice, but weren't sure how to implement such a tool?</UL> As with most forms of marketing, therapists need to be creative in order to maintain ethical, legal and theoretical boundaries. Yet there are ways of using an e-newsletter to help grow your practice. Here are but a few ways that therapists are using e-newsletters successfully.<br><br> <OL> <LI><b>Stay in contact with former clients</b><br> If you work within a strict psychodynamic frame, you may not want to go this route. But if you are open to seeing clients again after termination, this can become a powerful resource in your practice. Clients who know you and trust you are going to be the best source of repeat business as well as referrals. Recieving your newsletter may be just the nudge they needed to stop thinking, "I should call for some support right now," and actually pick up the phone.<br><br> <LI><b>Send out e-flyers and announcements without the cost and pain of direct mail</b><br> If you teach, run groups, or like to stay connected to referral sources like MDs, teachers, lawyers or other collaborative service providers, email invitations and announcements like the ones available through Constant Contact can be a great alternative to direct mail. Statistically, the response rate for email solicitations is 2 to 3 times higher than you get with traditional mailings. And, of course, the cost is significantly less.<br><br> </ol> <span class="subtitle">Tips for Maximizing Your e-Newsletter Results</span><br><BR> <UL> <LI>Don't just sell your wares. Provide information that immediately helps the reader. If you're writing a newsletter for couple clients, remind them about non-defensive communication skills. Then tell them about your new group or the summer discount you're offering to former clients. <Li>If you have a website, use the newsletter to drive more traffic to your site. Post the full article on your website and then include just the first few paragraphs in your e-newsletter. This allows the reader to click over when he or she has more time. And it allows them to explore the rest of your site (especially if there is more useful information there). <li>Give e-newsletter subscribers priority service. If you are offering a class or group, give your subscribers a special discount. <li>Use a call-to-action. Tell the reader what to do next. Invite other service providers to call you for a phone consultation. Invite former clients to share your article or information with friends and loved ones. <li>Respect people's limited time. You know personally how annoying it is to get slammed with emails. If you get too many, you just stop reading. Send your e-newsletter monthly, quarterly or even semi-annually so that when people get it, they WANT to read it. </ul> <span class="subtitle">Use a Program like Constant Contact to Maintain Your Ethics and Your Sanity</span><br><BR> One of the best features of Constant Contact is that they really stress the concept of "permission marketing." People who join your mailing list WANT to hear from you. And it's easy to "opt out" if they don't want to hear from you. Constant Contact also makes it easy for your readers to forward your emails to friends. This, in turn, will grow your mailing list. When you create your Constant Contact account, you can copy their code to create a newsletter sign-up form on your website. This way, people who already resonate with your work and want to know more will have a way to stay in touch.<br><BR> Using a program like Constant Contact is easy too. This is a huge bonus for most of us. After all, we're therapists, not web-designers or programmers. They have lots of attractive templates. And they maintain your mailing list for you. When you send out a mailing, they also provide statistics so you can see how many people opened the email, how many followed a link to your website, and how many forwarded your email to someone else. This is invaluable information that can help you determine the effectiveness of your effort.<br><BR> You can sign up for a free trial of Constant Contact here:<BR> <a href="http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-3788650-10594130" target="_top"> <img src="http://www.ftjcfx.com/image-3788650-10594130" width="120" height="90" alt="Emails for Small Business with Constant Contact" border="0"/></a> <br><br>  <br><br> </td></tr></table> </center>  <br> </td></tr><tr><td valign="bottom">  <table cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%" class="footertext"><tr><td align="left" valign="top"> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="copyright.js"></script> </td><td align="right" valign="top"> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="copyright-allwebco.js"></script> </td></tr></table>  </td></tr></table> </div>  <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="menu.js"></script>  <div id="back-ground-img"> <table border="0" width="100%" height="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="printhide"> <tr><td><img width="100%" height="100%" src="picts/background-resources.jpg"><br> </td></tr></table> </div> <!-- FULL IMAGE BACKGROUND AREA