Email Newsletter Ideas for Private Practice Owners
Updated March 2024
How many times have you, private practice therapist, sat down to write your newsletter or email and been stumped. You are out of inspirational quotes to share, funny stories, or a-has from the therapy room. And yet? You've gotta get that email out.
Email is one of the best ways to get in front of potential clients. Since only 3-7% of your social media followers see any given post, a 25-30% open rate on emails is a pretty smart return on your time investment.
The next time you are sick of staring at that blinking cursor, check out this list of prompts just for therapists.
Get Personal. Tell the story of why you went into therapy. Make sure to include more than just which school you attended and what specialty you studied; paint a picture for your readers about why therapy called to you.
Think about what you did recently. Share what you did over the weekend. Whether it was good, bad, or exciting, there has to be a story there you can use.
How do you relax, unwind, or restore? Offer your three favorite self-care practices, and invite email subscribers to respond back with their favorites.
Look out the window for inspiration. Is there a funny bird outside, somebody walking their dog, or terrible weather that piques your memory or inspires some words?
Jot down five things you did yesterday. Can any of them become an email (this could be everything from the creamer you put into your coffee to the 90 minutes you spent on the phone arguing with insurance)?
Look to your bookshelf or nightstand for inspiration. Share what you are currently reading and why. Extra points if it’s not therapy or self-growth related. Model for your readers the importance of reading for fun!
Make a list! People LOVE lists! Top 5 movies for getting out of a funk, top 5 songs for self-care, top 5 walks in your town to get grounded, top 5 tea shops in your neighborhood, etc (also, how meta is this idea?).
Share your favorites. Do a roundup of your favorite mental health bloggers, podcast hosts, or authors for your readers. It’s another window into your style and also offers insight to your readers about what excites you.
Invite them to connect with you. Reminders for them to follow you on other social media platforms, such as Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, or Facebook, and tell them what value they’ll get out of following you there. For example, do you go live weekly on Instagram talking about anxiety management? Do you share new mindfulness quotes each day on Pinterest? Give them a reason to click through and follow.
Spill your tea. Talk about an embarrassing moment of yours in the therapy room. Nothing gets people to click open emails like “the time it looked like I peed my pants in therapy” (don’t worry, I just got caught in a rainstorm, but still . . .)
Continuing Education. Offer information about a training you completed, or a certificate you earned. Talk about why that training or certificate was of interest to you, and how you use those skills in the therapy room.
Get inspiration and ideas from others. Subscribe to a mindfulness app or follow an inspirational account on Instagram. Find inspiration in their musings and quotes, and riff off of them. This is one of my favorite ways to generate consistent content. Even if a quote rubs you the wrong way, talk about it! Potential clients and email subscribers love to see that their therapist is indeed human and has their own opinions.
There you have it! A dozen different ideas to get those creative juices flowing! Bookmark this page for the next time you have a brain freeze when you need to write an email for your therapy-based newsletter.
If you want help assessing your current marketing efforts, including email marketing, I’ve got a suite of self-paced mini-courses for therapists, designed to help you build a sustainable and profitable business. Check them out here!