Experts estimate that by the year 2023, over 333 billion emails will be sent every day.
As a personal trainer, health coach, or nutritionist, you’ve probably heard about the importance of using an email newsletter as part of your business’s marketing strategy. How do you ensure that your email newsletter doesn’t get lost in the shuffle, though?
If you’ve been on the fence about sending out an email newsletter because you’re not confident people will read it, you’ve come to the right place. Listed below are some tips that will help you create a great email newsletter that your clients actually want to read.
Why Do You Need an Email Newsletter?
Let’s start with the basics. What makes an email newsletter so important? How can email marketing help you attract more personal training or nutrition clients? There are lots of benefits to sending an email newsletter, including the following:
Create Connection
These days, people are looking to foster connections more than ever before. A strong sense of connection is especially important for those looking to improve their personal training marketing or nutritionist marketing strategies.
When people hire you to help them reach their fitness or health goals, they’re putting a lot of trust in you. If they feel that they can connect with you on a deeper level, they’re going to be more inclined to work with you when they decide they’re ready to make a change in their lives.
Stay Relevant
Sending out regular email newsletters makes it easier for you to stay at the forefront of your clients’ minds, too. People get bombarded with tons of information on social media every day, and it can be easy to tune it out and stop hearing what people have to say.
An email newsletter gives you an opportunity to access your clients in a more direct way, though, and it increases the chances that they’ll actually read your content, connect with your message, and engage with you in the future when they need personal training, nutritionist, or health coaching services.
Increase Website Traffic and Sales
A well-written, engaging email newsletter increases the likelihood that people will travel from their email inbox over to your website. This, in turn, also increases the likelihood that they’ll invest in personal training, health coaching, or nutrition plans from you.
When people like the content you send them and feel they have a connection with you, they’ll do the extra work to get over to your website and learn more from you.
Even if they’re not ready to make a purchase just yet, they’ll still spend time on your website reading your blog or checking out your other resources. Then, when they do decide to invest in their health, you’ll be the first person who comes to mind for them.
Build a Community
You can also use an email newsletter to build a community for the folks who follow you on social media.
Maybe you can create a Facebook group, for example, where you bring together like-minded people all in one place. This will make it easier for you to promote products and services in the future and have a greater chance of selling them.
Use your email newsletter as a tool to invite people into this community. Let them know that it exists, talk about how many people are already part of it, and promote the benefits of joining (access to free nutrition information, form checks for difficult exercises, etc.).
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Tips for Starting an Email Newsletter
Okay, you can see the benefits of sending out regular email newsletters. How do you make sure people actually open and read your newsletter, though? Here are some email marketing secrets and guidelines to keep in mind that will help you write newsletter content your clients enjoy and are eager to read:
Think About Your Content
When you first get started creating an email newsletter, it helps to get clear on the type of content you want to send to your clients and those who have subscribed to the newsletter.
Do you want to send them sample workout plans? Healthy recipes? Tips on eating healthfully during the holiday season?
Think about your audience and what kind of information will provide them with the most value. What interests them? What problems can you solve through your email newsletter content?
It helps to also clarify how much information you want to include in each email newsletter.
Keep in mind that most people aren’t going to spend a ton of time reading a lengthy newsletter, so it’s generally in your best interest to keep things short and sweet. At the same time, though, if it’s too short, people are going to decide that it’s not worth reading and might choose not to open your emails at all. Find what works best for your voice and your business.
Choose Your Frequency
Once you’ve nailed down the type of content you want to include in your email newsletter, the next step is to figure out how often you’re going to send a newsletter out. It’s easy for personal trainers, nutritionists, and health coaches to fall into the trap of thinking more is always better. After all, don’t you want to stay relevant and have your clients keep you in mind for their nutrition and fitness needs?
It’s true that you’ll need to send newsletters out on a consistent basis if you want to remain relevant and see great results. Remember, though, that people don’t want to be spammed. If you send a newsletter every single day, not only will you likely get burned out creating that much content, but your clients might also start to ignore your emails altogether.
Consider starting with sending an email newsletter once or twice per month. This can help you infuse new life into your health coach marketing strategy, but you’ll be less likely to overwhelm yourself or your clients. If in the future, you learn that your clients want to hear more from you, you can always consider increasing the frequency, too.
Inform More Than You Promote
There’s nothing wrong with advertising your health coaching or personal training services in your email newsletter. At the end of the day, this is a marketing and promotional tool, after all.
However, make sure that this is not the only purpose these emails serve. If you want to retain clients and get them to open your emails consistently, you need to strike a balance between promotion and information.
In general, it’s best to inform more than you promote. If you provide enough value, your clients won’t mind a bit of self-promotion. If you’re mostly promoting, though, they’ll get irritated and won’t want to continue reading your newsletter.
Tell People What They’re Getting
If you’re having a hard time getting people to sign up for your email newsletter, let alone read it, make sure you provide clarity right from the beginning when telling them what they’ll get.
When people reach your opt-in landing page, or when you’re inviting clients to sign up for the newsletter via social media, let them know what kind of content you’ll be sending them. If you can make this pitch exciting and interesting to your clients, they’ll be more inclined to sign up and read what arrives in their inbox.
Write Creative Subject Lines
Think about the types of email newsletters you’re most inclined to open. What is it that encourages you to read the content?
For many people, the subject line plays a big role in helping them decide what to read and what to delete.
Writing creative, unique subject lines can make a big difference to your clients. Make sure they don’t have a spammy look to them, though.
If you use tons of exclamation points or write in all caps, people might be less inclined to check out what you have to say. It could end up getting sent straight to their spam folder, too.
Include One Call-to-Action
Your personal training or health coaching marketing strategy will be much more effective if you have a specific call-to-action at the end of your newsletter.
When crafting this call-to-action, go back to the intention behind the content. What do you want people to do? Should they go to your website to read another blog post? Should they join your Facebook group? Take advantage of an upcoming sale you have on personal training plans?
Limit yourself to one call-to-action per newsletter to minimize confusion and decision fatigue.
Keep the Design Simple
As with other health coaching or nutritionist marketing tools, keep the design of your newsletter simple and easy-to-read. Make use of white space and try not to overwhelm your clients with a huge wall of tiny text.
The simpler the layout is, the more likely people will be to read it. They’ll also be more inclined to follow through with your call-to-action.
Be Legally Compliant
Many people forget to consider the legal aspect of their email newsletters. It’s imperative that you take this into account, though. There are two primary laws you need to keep in mind:
- CAN-SPAM: This law requires you to include a footer in your emails that features your address, as well as an easy way for people to unsubscribe if they want to stop receiving messages from you.
- GDPR: This European law requires you to only send marketing emails to people who have manually opted in to your email list.
Make sure you comply with these laws so your business isn’t penalized and your reputation doesn’t suffer (that definitely won’t be good for your email open rates).
Assess and Adjust as Needed
As with anything related to nutritionist marketing or personal training marketing, you probably won’t get your email newsletter 100 percent perfect the first time you send it out.
It’s okay if you need to make adjustments to the type of content you send or the frequency with which you send it. Just like you wouldn’t let your clients give up after one day of unhealthy eating, don’t let yourself give up after one email newsletter that has a low open rate.
Evaluate the performance of your newsletters on a regular basis and figure out what’s working and what isn’t. Consider A/B testing, too, so you can try out different formats side-by-side to see which one performs better.
Create Your Newsletter Today
Now that you know more about why an email newsletter is an important part of your personal training, health coaching, or nutritionist marketing plan, are you ready to get started? Follow the tips outlined above and you’ll have no trouble putting together an effective, well-written email newsletter that your clients will look forward to reading whenever it hits their inbox!
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