(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Welcome to Ask Allison. Y'all ask the questions about having a fun and thriving practice and I answer them. We have a worksheet for you today so you can bring this answer into your life. You can access that at abundancepracticebuilding.com slash links where you'll also be able to ask any questions you have for Ask Allison. If you want more support, we've got some free trainings in there too.
If you can't get enough Ask Allison, check out our YouTube channel for our entire Ask Allison library. Welcome back to Ask Allison. Here's today's question. I'm considering starting an email list and newsletter. I'm on email lists, including yours, but I don't see a lot in the therapy space. Should therapists use email lists to connect with potential clients? So spoiler alert, my opinion may surprise you.
It kind of goes against the grain of what a lot of the practice builders recommend, but hear me out. And before I get to it, I would like to thank Therapy Notes for sponsoring Ask Allison. I've talked about Therapy Notes for years and I know their features by heart, but here's what truly sets them apart. First, they genuinely care about your experience. It's not just about troubleshooting.
They actively implement user-suggested features like therapy search, secure messaging, clinical outcome tracking, real-time insurance checks, and smooth super bill process. Everybody at Therapy Notes believes in the product and wants you to love it too. Plus they're independently owned, which means no venture capital and no pressure to prioritize investors over customers. This independence allows them to keep prices fair, focus on innovation, and prioritize customer experience.
With over 100,000 therapists already on board, they've proven you don't have to compromise success for quality. Ready to see for yourself? Try Therapy Notes free for two months with code ABUNDANT at therapynotes.com. Okay, so for those who are unfamiliar, an email list is a collection of email addresses from people who sign up to receive content from you.
It's really common in the business world where it's used to build rapport, share valuable information, and eventually encourage people to buy a product or service. You've probably experienced this when you sign up for a checklist, a workbook, a training, a coupon. You give your email address, you got the freebie, it's called a lead magnet typically, and then you start receiving follow-up emails from people.
So before you start figuring out what kind of content to include in like a five email autoresponder series for potential clients, I want you to hear me out. I don't like an email list for potential therapy clients. Imagine this, your potential client signs up for your freebie. Let's say it's 10 steps to accepting your body. It is helpful, it's inspiring, it's exactly what they need. To kind of get started on that journey, certainly it's not therapy.
But then two days later, they get an email titled how to avoid a binge that lights up their phone in the middle of a date and the phone is sitting in between them on the table. So even if you mentioned in the fine print that they're going to receive follow-up emails, and people are accustomed to getting follow -up emails from getting on email addresses, it doesn't necessarily mean they're prepared for your emails to come through with subject lines that need to get them to open them, right?
They need to be compelling subject lines, but our subject lines are going to hit harder than like 25% off sale from your favorite clothing store. Surprise emails, even with the best intentions, might feel intrusive. And I want to be really clear. I do not think an email list is unethical or bad in any way. I just personally don't like it.
If you're using an email list to remind potential clients that you're available for therapy, how do you balance genuinely helping them with marketing your services? So for me, therapy isn't about persuading someone to come back or encouraging them to schedule a session necessarily. I want clients to find me through intentional research and trust that I'm the right fit, not because I stayed in their inbox. I want them to be like, okay, let's go. I'm ready and make an appointment.
My ideal clients are very motivated and they probably aren't going to sit on an email list for months or years before getting the help they want. I also think there's something really sacred about the work we do in therapy. It is raw, it's intimate, it's built on trust and sending regular emails like seven ways to set boundaries can kind of blur the lines between the therapeutic relationship and marketing. As therapists, it is our job to keep that space safe and protected.
I think that seven ways to set boundaries, these are better suited to things like blogs, vlogs, social media. It's not as personal as landing in their inbox. They have to have sought you out to receive the information or see it. If you're emailing potential clients frequently, how do you communicate with them? That emailing you back regularly isn't appropriate. With email marketing, we want people to email us back.
We want to engage with them, but I can imagine a potential client hitting reply and saying, oh, I totally, this is so me. I'm struggling with X, Y, and Z in my relationship right now. What do you think about that? Without clear boundaries, this approach can lead to misunderstandings about the client-therapist relationship, about how to effectively use HIPAA compliant email about these kinds of things. This person isn't your client and here they are engaging with you over clinical things.
Emailless can also feel a lot more like a coaching approach than therapy. Coaching is amazing. It's helped me in my own life, but therapy holds a really different level of responsibility. Our clients often come to us with significant emotional needs and the boundaries that we maintain reflect that. If you're really eager to share valuable content with potential clients, blog about it instead. Vlog about it instead.
This allows people to access your insights on their own terms without feeling like you're intruding. If you're planning to create an information product like an ebook or a course, an email list can make sense for sure. Just make sure it's really clearly tied to a specific product. At the end of the day, this is about what feels right for you.
I just want to put my concerns in your head for you to consider if they fit for you or not instead of just blindly creating an email list because that's what somebody else told you to do. If an email list fits your practice, it aligns with your values, go for it. But if you're like me and it doesn't sit as well clinically or personally, know that it's okay to skip it. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to building a successful practice.
I certainly use an email list for abundance in a coaching or consulting capacity. I'm definitely not anti-email list in general. I'm curious about your thoughts. Are email lists the future for therapists? Do you share my concerns? I would love to hear your perspectives in the chat. If you're navigating questions about marketing or practice building, I've got a worksheet to help you out that's for free.
Just DM me the word sheets to get this week's worksheet, which is Common Marketing Strategies for Therapists. So you can see some other options outside of that. All right, let's keep building our practice the way that feels great for you. I'll talk to you later. If you're ready for a much easier practice, TherapyNotes is the way to go. Go to therapynotes.com and use the promo code ABUNDANT for two months free. I hope that helped.
If you have questions for Ask Allison or you want to get your hands on the worksheet for this episode, go to abundancepracticebuilding.com links. If you're listening, you probably need some support building your practice. If you're a super newbie, grab our free checklist using the link in the show notes. I'd love for you to follow, rate, and review, but I really want you to share this episode with a therapist friend. Let's help all our colleagues build what they want.