If you’re a therapist, financial advisor, coach, or other credentialed professional, you probably didn’t earn those degrees to become a marketer. And yet, here we are, talking about newsletters.
Many of my email marketing consulting clients are what I call “accidental business owners”.
They’re smart, capable people who are super knowledgeable in their craft and decided to build a business based on that expertise. And if it were up to them, that’s all they would do.
Unfortunately when it comes to running a successful business, you have to do some sort of marketing: relationship marketing, email marketing, search engine and AI optimization, social media marketing.
Obviously I’m biased, but a newsletter is one of the simplest, most reliable ways to stay visible and nurture relationships with the people who matter to your practice, including past clients, prospective clients, referral partners, and your professional network.
What exactly is an email newsletter?
Before we go further, let’s clarify what we’re talking about, especially the difference between newsletters vs. email marketing. Email marketing – which encompasses newsletters – is educational and/or promotional email messages sent via an email service provider or newsletter platform to a group of people who have given you permission to receive those emails (and can revoke that permission at any time).
It’s not BCCing a list of email addresses you’ve collected over the years. And It’s not scraping emails from LinkedIn, or buying lists of people who have never heard of you.
Why small business practices overlook newsletters
Here are the most common reasons I hear from credentialed professionals about why they’re not sending regular emails:
“I hate receiving marketing emails” Fair enough. But your newsletter doesn’t have to look or feel like the aggressive marketing emails filling your inbox.
“I don’t have time for this.” I hear you. Between client sessions, documentation, and continuing education, who has time to write? But if you were to take a look at your business development and marketing efforts, how might you find a way to use your time more effectively to include one of the highest-value marketing activities?
“I already have enough clients.” Great! But what happens when your practice ebbs? Or when a former client needs you again but you haven’t stayed in touch?
“It’s another platform to learn.” True. But it doesn’t have to be complicated.
“I’m worried about annoying people or spamming them.” This is probably the biggest concern I hear, and it’s a valid one, because most of us have been on the receiving end of it. But if you’re mindful about not want to spam people, then odds are you aren’t. And if people are annoyed by receiving your emails, then they can easily unsubscribe!
“I don’t know what to write.” This one we’ll tackle in a minute.
Here’s what I want you to know: as a small practice owner, you have a competitive edge that big companies and corporate practices can’t match: your humanity.
You don’t need approval from a marketing team to send an email. You don’t need to run your newsletter through compliance (as long as you’re following the professional guidelines that govern your certification).
You can show up as yourself, with your actual voice and perspective. That’s incredibly powerful!
How newsletters and email marketing can support your practice
A newsletter helps you:
Stay in touch with past and prospective clients, your network, and collaboration partners.
For example, with my own business, when someone books a call with me, I ask if they want to be added to my newsletter. If they say yes, they automatically get added. So even if someone books a call with me and it doesn’t end up working out, I still have a way to nurture that relationship – whether they end up hiring me later, or they go on to refer me, or it turns into some collaboration opportunity.
Develop your unique viewpoint.
Regular writing helps you clarify your thinking and establish your unique perspective in your field.
Be seen as an expert.
Even when you’re curating links to others’ content, you’re positioning yourself as someone who knows what’s worth paying attention to.
Better understand what resonates.
You’ll learn what topics your audience cares about based on what emails people open, click, and reply to. This in turn can help you hone in your messaging, how you talk about your offers, and how you position your expertise.
In my opinion, there are very few businesses that won’t benefit from this kind of direct access to their audience, especially given the vast majority of people check their email every day. That being said, your approach will vary quite differently depending on your business model, your market, and your capacity.
Getting started with a newsletter for your small business
Once you’ve decided that a newsletter makes sense for your practice, and you’ve selected your platform, the next thing to do is to get a few things in place.
For now, just know this: You don’t need a fancy welcome sequence, custom branding, or complex automations to start. You just need:
- A way for someone to sign up for your newsletter (known as a form or a landing page)
- A simple email template (or no template – plain text works great!)
- At least one automated email welcoming in new subscribers
- A commitment to show up consistently
The hardest part is starting. But once you do, you’ll find that your newsletter becomes one of the most valuable tools in your practice. Not necessarily because it’s driving immediate sales – in fact, it could take months or even years to see the payoff, especially now that we’re in an trust recession – but because it’s keeping you connected to the people who matter most to your work.
And unlike social media, where algorithms change constantly and you’re at the mercy of whatever platform decides to show your content, email shows up reliably in people’s inboxes. There’s no weird algorithm to fight.
As long as you’re doing it correctly – getting permission, writing about what you said you’d write about – you will show up in people’s inboxes.
What to write about in your newsletter
Okay, so you’re convinced and you’ve picked a platform. Now comes the part that stops most people: what do I actually say? Here are some starting points that work well for credentialed professionals:
Share stories from your practice (with client permission, of course, or fictionalized composites). Share the wins, the breakthroughs, the challenges you’re helping people navigate.
Curate helpful links. That includes yours and others people’s work. You don’t need to create new content every time. Link back to a blog post you wrote two years ago that new subscribers haven’t seen. Share an article you found helpful. I know someone who shares job postings in the social impact space in her weekly newsletter.
It’s not her own content, but it still positions her as an expert, as someone who’s paying attention to that world.
Answer a question you get asked frequently. Maybe someone emailed you with a question or something came up on a client call. Use that as a topic to write about because chances are if one person has that question, other people have it too.
For example, I’m so often asked about whether or not they should use Kit (formerly ConvertKit) vs. Substack that I’ve written multiple pieces of content about it.
Poll your audience about what they want to learn about, their current challenges, or where they are in their journey as it relates to the work you do. Just don’t do this too frequently or people will get annoyed if all you’re doing is asking for their opinions.
Share observations about your industry or field.
Respond to something you read or heard that got you thinking.
The key is to lead with humanity – your humanity as the person trying to both market and do the work, and the humanity of the people receiving your emails.
How often should you send a newsletter for your practice?
This is one of the first questions people ask, and honestly?
I’m generally of the opinion that once a month or less is too infrequent and weekly is ideal, but it depends on your business model, and who your audience is.
If you’re in a more B2B space where your clients are organizations rather than individuals, something like a monthly newsletter focused on what’s happening in the industry might be more ideal. For example, one of my client was an executive coach to founders. As part of building out his email marketing strategy, we decided on a twice-monthly cadence. It’s not overly promotional, just valuable industry observations and insights.
For service-based businesses, like the advisors, coaches, therapists and consultants I work with, I generally recommend showing up 2-4 times a month. You’re building relationships, sharing insights, and staying top of mind with people who might be considering working with you.
But again, it depends, and I don’t like to give blanket recommendations.
For example, one of my clients runs a professional licensure exam prep business. Their newsletter goes out monthly because once people are in their world and have already purchased one of their test prep courses, they don’t need constant “selling”.
Their customers need the prep each time the exam comes around. However, for people earlier in their exam-taking journey, they need a bit more nurturing, and that happens at a slightly more frequent cadence through an automated series of emails that they start receiving when they sign up for something – like my client’s newsletter or a trial of the course.
The point is is pick a cadence that works for your business model and that you can sustain. Consistency matters more than frequency, especially when you’re first getting started.
Do you need a “lead magnet” for your newsletter?
For most service providers offering 1:1 services, I’m of the opinion that lead magnet – otherwise known as an “opt-in” or a freebie – are not necessary for your business.
In fact, they could actually be hurting your business.
As Dr. Michelle Mazur shares about why business owners’ marketing isn’t working:
- “Corporate buyers don’t want another newsletter clogging up their busy inbox
- Professionals don’t have time to consume “free content” just to talk to you or figure out what you offer
- They want a real conversation with a credible expert, not a download of tips they won’t read or implement.”
Instead, a well-positioned newsletter opt-in or a services guides (hat-tip to Kendall Cherry of the Candid Collective for this idea!)
Email marketing best practices for your service-based business
Regardless of which platform you choose, here are the practices that will make your emails actually work:
Set clear expectations.
Tell people upfront how often you’ll email and what kind of content they’ll get. When people sign up, make it clear what’s going to happen next. “Go check your email for this email with this subject line.” Almost over-explain it—you just want it to be very clear for people what is happening.
Deliver on your promise.
If you say you’re going to send someone a free guide, send them the free guide. If you say you’re going to email weekly, to the best of your ability, show up weekly. If you say you’re newsletter will go out on Tuesdays, it’s ok to miss a week, but don’t then start sending it at random days of the week. If you say you’re going to share information to help you financial plan as a business owner, don’t start sending newsletters about astrology (unless that’s the vibe of your financial planning!)
Be consistent.
This doesn’t mean perfect. It means showing up regularly, even if it’s just once a month. Don’t let too much time lapse, because if too much time goes by and people haven’t heard from you, they’ll forget who you are. I’ve had this happen where I’ve suddenly been getting newsletters from people I think I subscribed to, but it’s been so long I forgot who they were, and I unsubscribed. You don’t want to accidentally ghost people.
I’m not saying this to push people to do things when life is stretched thin. Writing a newsletter is not more important than taking care of yourself. But if you’re going to commit to doing a newsletter, it’s important to commit to doing it consistently.
And remember, consistent content doesn’t have to be a consistent deep thought piece. It can be consistent event announcements, curated links, things like that.
Give your subscribers options.
Let them know they can pause emails, skip certain types of announcements, or unsubscribe anytime. If you’re running a launch for something, give people the option to say, “I want to stay on your email list, but I don’t want to hear about this particular launch.” Ironically, giving people permission to leave often makes them want to stay.
Keep it simple and sustainable for you.
The goal of this is not to make your weekly to-do list that much longer. It’s to enable you to build up those relationships without it feeling like this really big daunting thing.
Someone signs up for your newsletter, they get one welcome email (or a short sequence), and then you just email them on your regular schedule. Or you can set up what’s called an evergreen newsletter, where when the mood strikes, you pre-schedule a bunch of emails, and then when people sign up, they’re automatically getting these emails from you.
Personally, I like the routine of writing my weekly newsletter and it’s something I genuinely look forward to, but it also took me a long time to get there.
Keep your list clean and healthy.
From a technical standpoint, it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re only emailing engaged subscribers. If you have people who’ve been on your email list for a while and have not been engaging, that can impact what’s called deliverability, which means whether or not your emails show up in people’s inboxes (versus their spam folders, or not at all).
You want to make sure you’re checking in with people first. “Hey, looks like you haven’t opened in a while. I want to make sure you still want to hear from me. Click here if you want to stay on.” Give them some options. Don’t just flat-out delete people, but do keep your list healthy with people who are actually engaging.
Remember, you have a competitive edge over those bigger businesses with marketing teams and marketing budgets. Your humanity. You’re allowed to use your voice, your ideas. You don’t need to get permission from anyone about what to write or how to say it.
Lead with that! And if you need support with this, learn more about how we can work together!