How to Design a Counseling Brochure For Local Mailings That Brings in New Clients

Mailing a counseling brochure will reel in new business from your community.

Did you know that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) offers a mailing program where you can get your counseling brochure in front of the perfect clientele? You don’t need a marketing degree (in addition to those years of schooling for your counseling degree!) to attract new clients in a way that doesn’t feel pushy or too advertorial, but you do need a well-designed counseling brochure and an idea of what demographic or area you want to target. Then, you can sit back, practice some self-care  and let the U.S. Postal Office do the work for you. (Or, you can spend your time working on other counseling marketing efforts!)

Quick tips for designing a counseling brochure

Choose colors that are calming and evoke trust.

While no one color has a universal emotion linked to it, marketers have studied how colors influence branding for decades. The journal Management Decision  found that “People make up their minds within 90 seconds of their initial interactions with either people or products. About 62‐90 percent of the assessment is based on colors alone.” The Logo Company suggests blues to symbolize trust and yellow for clarity and warmth.

Be precise with your word choice.

Similar to choosing colors, your words make a statement about your practice. Be inclusive. Boast about your flexible and convenient hours. List your many specialties. Use your counseling brochure to welcome people to your practice.

Include all forms of contact information.

Some clients won’t be ready to commit to therapy just after reading your counseling brochure, but it might spark something in them to keep it for future reference. Then, at a later date, they’ll feel comfortable enough to explore your website to get to know more about you or even call to schedule an appointment.

Design is important.

Hire a graphic designer for this one-time project. If you’re creative, make it a DIY project by using free tools like Canva for a professionally designed brochure.

The most simple way to send your couseling brochure

There’s no need to buy mailing lists when instead you can focus your marketing efforts on a radius around your counseling practice. The Every Door Direct Mailing program from the USPS allows businesses to send direct mailings – at a price lower than the cost of a postage stamp – to their local neighbors.

Still thinking of stuffing envelopes in between client appointments? Stop that train of thought immediately.

Using the Every Door Direct Mailing tool from the USPS is straightforward and easy. Try their mapping tool to plan out which routes to tailor your advertising efforts. There are many different options to “map” who will receive your mailing efforts in their mailbox.

First, you can search solely on location – either choose specific mailing routes or send to a radius of up to five miles from your practice. If you want to dive deeper, you can send based on demographics, such as age range or annual income.

Then, print your counseling brochure and drop it off at the post office. That’s it! If you want to make your mailings even easier (and let’s be honest, this is pretty easy already!) you can hire a printer or mailing service to do the entire thing for you. Many will even deliver the final product to the post office for you.

Targeting the right people for your counseling brochure mailing

Now that you know more about direct mailing, consider who it is that you want to send your mailing. With demographic selection options, it’s smart to pick specific routes that best identify with your target audience. If you only provide services to adolescents, don’t choose a route with mostly seniors.

Remember, with the Every Door Direct Mailing program you’re picking mail routes, not particular households. However, you can quickly identify family size, income, and age range overviews (based on the most recent Census report) for the mail routes near your practice. Choose wisely!

With all these new clients you’ll attract, you’re going to need organized and efficient systems for managing your practice. Here’s some excellent news – SimplePractice is a complete EHR system for counselors. Plus, we can help with your marketing efforts.

So, what are you waiting for? Join today.