Connecting with people through email newsletters takes a special kind of skill. Email newsletters create familiarity and comfort with your readers. When they are ready, they feel as if they already know you.

The main purpose of an email newsletter is to build a relationship with your subscribers.
REMEMBER: It’s not your readers’ job to remember you. It’s YOUR job to make sure they don’t forget you.

8. Be patient. You are building a relationship with your readers. It can take several months before you start seeing income. Once you get that first client, you will never look back.

Before the internet, there were limited choices for marketing.  Businesses used advertising, brochures, networking and cold calling to grow their clientele. Now, websites connect people. 

Consider these facts, cited in “The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson. Internet searching has recently overtaken television as our most time-consuming activity. In fact, the average person is watching record-setting lows of TV per week. Box office, radio, newspaper readership and magazine sales are all at their lowest levels. The 2006 Olympics, for instance, had its lowest rating in 20 years – after seeing its highest peak in 1994 – the start of public expansion of the internet. It is estimated that 6 billion people will be using the internet this year – it took television 50 years to get to this point.

What does this mean for you as a practitioner?

Developing an effective, professional web presence should be your #1 priority. 

Your potential clients are looking for you on the web. Are you findable? In the age of the internet, your website IS your brochure. It’s hard to imagine a business without one. Done well, websites can produce a steady stream of new clients. Done poorly, they can hurt your credibility. 

Your potential clients are looking to find someone with your skills online. They EXPECT to find you online. They expect you to answer certain questions on your website, such as “Can you help me?” before they contact you. It’s a bit of a screening process. They can search for and evaluate several practitioners in minutes. It’s easier, more efficient and less risky for your potential client to search the web than to call you right away. If they resonate with what’s on your website, and they are ready to take an action step, then they contact you. 

Your website is the front door of your business. It has a big job to do. It needs to reach off the page and speak clearly to the needs of your potential clients. You need to communicate a professional image through your site, and you need to do it quickly. Why? Consumers make decisions in a matter of seconds. If you don’t have a compelling web presence, your potential clients will be gone in 1 click. 

It’s even more important for EFT practitioners to have a professional online presence than other service professionals, because there are more potential objections to overcome. EFT is still fairly new and won’t be embraced immediately by everyone. 

You may even wonder if there are enough clients. As long as there are problems, there will always be plenty of people who need your help . . . and there is no shortage of problems. 

The only reason it can feel like there aren’t enough clients is that you don’t have a big enough reach. Maybe you are only looking in your local area. Or you do limited kinds of marketing that aren’t consistent enough. For instance, you may do a talk 3 times per year, or you tell all of your friends and colleagues what you are doing, and wonder why that’s not bringing you clients. 

That is simply not reaching enough people. There are lots of ways to connect with potential clients, but you need a big enough reach, and you need to reach out to clients consistently over time. 

With the internet, there are no boundaries. It’s just as easy to have a client halfway across the world as it is to have one next door. Having an international practice adds depth, variety and a constant flow of clients to your practice. It also helps people find you if you have a particular niche. 

We all know how transforming EFT can be. Your job is to connect to and communicate effectively to those who are looking for your help. They’ll thank you for it!

Develop a basic interactive presentation. Then, if you get asked to speak, you can adapt it to any audience without having to do a lot of work to prepare.

Don’t worry if you aren’t attending networking meetings. My colleagues like to tease me in saying that I built my coaching practice without ever attending a networking meeting or shaken anyone’s hand. 

In truth, I did attend one networking meeting – my first and last. If you think about leveraging your time, networking meetings are not very efficient.  I would prefer to spend the time writing an article that can potentially impact thousands of people. But if you enjoy networking meetings, be my guest, well, actually not MY guest, but you know what I mean . . .

Do look for like-minded people to affiliate with. These are the folks who are already serving your ideal clients. Find a way to work together. Ask them to post your articles. Offer valuable information on your website so they will want to list it as a resource. Or invite them to become an affiliate of your programs. Create a win-win!

Ask for referrals. There is nothing wrong with being direct. Let people know what you are doing, and ask if they know anyone you can help.

Create samples of your services. Record a teleclass and let people listen to it from your website, or on an audiopodium (like a long voicemail message). That way, they get a chance to hear what EFT is, and what you are all about. If they resonate with your style, they will contact you.

Build relationships with others in your field. Discuss openly your specialty areas and make agreements to refer to each other. To do this effectively, you need to be able to talk about how you can help people.

Get help – from people who know what they are doing. Going it alone is not efficient, so don’t try to figure everything out by yourself.

Leverage technology – Learning technical skills will pay for itself over and over again. Keep pushing the edge of technology. Just keep challenging yourself to keep learning.

The concept of working “on” your business versus “in” your business was developed by Michael Gerber, in his book “The E-Myth.” It’s the idea that we get so caught up working in our business – doing all the things that pay the bills and keep us busy, that we just keep doing the same things over and over again, without getting any further ahead, or building any equity.

When you are working a lot, it’s like running on a treadmill. As long as you are running, the treadmill keeps turning. But as soon as you get off, it stops turning and you are no further ahead.

To get off the treadmill, you have to make a conscious decision to set aside time to develop tools and systems that have lasting value, and build equity for your efforts.

If your goals include having clients easily find you, increasing your income, becoming an expert in your field, and/or making a difference in the lives of many people, then you have to learn to leverage your time.

One way to do this is to invest your time in creating marketing assets. Just like singers earn royalties from their recordings that generate income year after year, EFT practitioners can create marketing assets that continually build their businesses.

Here are some examples:

·         Websites that work 24/7

·         Content for blogs and email newsletters

·         Information products (ebooks, special reports, audio programs, etc.)

·         Strategic alliances

·         Data base

·         Testimonials

Here are some strategies to get you started:

Have a web presence. One of the best ways to leverage your time is to use the internet. But you do not need to spend a lot of money on a website and/or expensive logo. Look for designers that will give you a package price. It IS worth it to have a site professionally designed, but be sure to do your homework on costs. 

Research your ideal clients. You can never spend too much time learning about and understanding your ideal clients. What are their most urgent problems and challenges? 

Get a specialty. It helps your marketing efforts tremendously if you have a specialty area to focus on, even if you want to have a general practice. 

Start creating content. Chances are that you have enough information right now to write an ebook (or a print book) that addresses the most urgent needs of your potential clients. You can start with short articles for online publications, create special reports or start your own email newsletter. 

Start talking – into a tape recorder, that is. Recording audio products is a powerful way to leverage your time, since many people want to listen while they drive. Adding short audio clips to your website adds another dimension.  When people can “hear” your voice, you become more real, and more credible. 

Shift your focus to problem-solving and results – In your marketing, don’t focus on “what” you do, but what results people get from working with you. People are much more motivated to solve a problem than to simply work toward a better life in general. Let them know what specific problems you can help them solve.

I disagree.

Email newsletters establish you as an authority in your field, and you don’t even have to write a book! Although you will be able to if you write consistently for an email newsletter. And it doesn’t have to be hard.

In a few short years, my email newsletter has grown to over 16,000 subscribers. My coaching and EFT business has not only grown at warp speed, but I have connected with an incredibly FASCINATING group of people from all over the world — my clients.

I credit this phenomenal growth of my business to my email newsletter. It is clearly a marketing engine.

There has been a bit of learning curve, and sometimes I’ve had to hold my breath and click the “send” button. But the journey has been well worth it.

Here are some tips from what I have learned along the way for making it easy:

1. Show up as YOU. You really don’t need a lot of book knowledge to write an email newsletter. Your genuineness and sincerity in wanting to help people is your biggest asset.

2. Write about yourself and tell the hard truth. Stories about yourself and your own life are very compelling.

3. Make it about them. Stories about you help people identify with and trust you, but your readers are even more interested in what you can do for them. I try to write 1/3 about me and 2/3 about them.

4. Make it personal. Write as if you are writing to one person. Try to imagine a typical reader with a typical problem and help them solve it — you will have an instant fan club.

5. Take a strong stand. Your readers need you to have a strong opinion and speak from authority. You are not writing simply for self-expression.

6. Know your audience. You cannot spend enough time learning about your audience, so put your time in here. Your readers need to know that you can identify with their issues.  Where are they getting stuck? What are the missing pieces that they are overlooking? What are the misconceptions? How do they think?

7. Keep it short. People don’t have time to read long newsletters. Have the sections clearly labeled (as Gary does) so people can pick and choose, or keep it brief if you want it to be read.

8. Give people a specific focus to think about or make a few concise points. Numbered lists and bullet points have never been more useful.

Email newsletters are a great combination when partnered with blogs and websites. Start your fan club today!