CREATING AND NURTURING a meaningful relationship with the people who come to us for Reiki sessions and classes is key to the ongoing success of a professional Reiki practice. Emails, newsletters, and social media are 21st century methods of doing this. In this article, Karen and Colleen talk about the concept of business relationships and the technology available to help you share the positive benefits of Reiki with your clients and students that extends beyond your session space and classroom.

In addition to building a one-on-one relationship with their clients and students in sessions and classes, Colleen and Karen have found that the additional methods they use to increase communication creates a Reiki community; it unites people, and gives them a welcome sense of belonging. Reiki clients and students are a diverse group of people who share the common goal of creating wellness in the world. Uniting into a community provides a wonderful benefit for them by creating a greater sense of fulfillment and meaning to the work they do. In addition, it allows people to fulfill an important human need by providing a method of expressing the love each has for the others in their group. “We also love thinking about new ways to stay in touch with everyone. And we love that technology gives us the ability to do this efficiently.”

Why Communicate and How to Communicate

It is important that you continually communicate the ways in which you meet the needs of your clients and students from their first encounter with you and throughout your association with them as this will increase their appreciation of the service you provide for them. Like the recipients of any other type of business, a Reiki client or student will go through stages of relationship with you: the prospect, the first time client or student, the repeat client or student and finally the advocate. Effective communication will encourage the prospective client or student to become not only an ongoing client or student but eventually also your advocate with other prospective clients and students.

Methods of communication include your website, emails, newsletters, social media, Reiki circles, videos and more. For instance, Colleen develops prospects and stays in touch with her clients and students through her podcast ReikiChat.™1 “I include a monthly teleconference where people from all over the US and other countries call in at the same time, and we talk about Reiki.” Be creative. It is fun to consider and create new ways to stay in touch and develop and engage your Reiki community. “If necessary, we also hire people with more knowledge and ideas than we have to teach us how to use the technology available in today’s world.”

Your style of communication is also important. Be authentic, honest, transparent, consistent and informative in the content you write for your website, social media, newsletters, etc. Practice what the industry calls “Inbound Marketing.” Traditional “Outbound Marketing” focuses on going where clients live and interrupting their day to show them products and services. When you practice inbound marketing, clients come to you. It is commonly known as ‘“pull-marketing” as opposed to “push-marketing.” This can be achieved by creating really valuable content that solves your client’s real-world problems. 2 It keeps the conversation going by giving clients useful content as opposed to sales-oriented content. For example, people want to know about Reiki and how Reiki can help them in their lives—how Reiki will meet their needs as well as how to use Reiki and how to develop their Reiki practices. When your communications address these kinds of questions, people are more interested in your services and what you offer. They will more likely return to your website or Facebook page when you provide them with valuable information.

Effective Communication Methods

We are fortunate to have technology to help us create efficient methods of communicating with our Reiki students and clients. Email service providers (ESP) such as MailChimp and Constant Contact give us the ability to send emails to large number of clients at once to provide them with useful information. The email services provide list management to keep track of contacts in specialized lists, customized professional templates, the ability to schedule the time the email is sent automatically and the ability to track the success of emails through the provider’s analytics. Developing Clients and Students for Your Reiki Business

Email Services

Colleen uses MailChimp and Karen uses Constant Contact. Colleen uses her email service provider to separate her email lists into specific categories for the various points of information she wants to communicate. She has created templates for each purpose so that she only has to create them once and then simply tweak them for an individual situation. She has email templates that she sends before each class with the information the students need, such as time, location, parking, confirmation of their attendance, the name they want on their Reiki certificate and whether they need Contact Hours for the class. She also asks them to bring their lunch and to come to the class perfume free. In a follow-up email, she sends the class roster and music lists and links her Reiki resources as well as links to other things discussed in class such as the World Peace Grid meditation, articles, the NW Reiki Association, the ICRT, etc. Each of these is already created as a template so she only has to change a few things, and then there they are, ready to send.

Colleen and Karen have created a PowerPoint presentation which gives examples of what they have described here. You can see it on YouTube.com. Type Colleen Benelli Reiki Lifestyle or Karen Harrison Reiki on www.YouTube.com to see the PowerPoint. It will show you how easy the technology can be to use.

Karen has used Constant Contact for years for her Reiki circle and newsletters. They have great customer support, even designing a mobile-friendly template for her based on the images from her website to keep her brand consistent. The program is easy to use, and they also have tutorials and classes in places all around the US. After sending an email, there is an option to post the information directly to social media, which is a nice time-saving feature.

Karen has custom templates that she uses for various purposes and can modify as needed. Her email lists are divided by the states in which she teaches so that potential students only receive class information for their state. In her monthly newsletter, she shares an article she has written, a video she has made or questions and answers from students followed by a list of all her classes at the bottom. On her signup list, there is an option to only receive the monthly newsletter for students who have already had all the levels of classes. Similarly to Colleen, Karen sends out a welcome email for her classes and a follow-up email with the class roster, class pictures and information about the student Facebook page as well as how to sign up for it. In the student Facebook page, students can ask for Reiki, share experiences, ask questions and get answers from multiple people.

Karen also uses Constant Contact’s event registration program, called EventSpot, which seamlessly integrates her email and online class registration. When students sign up for a class online, they have the option to join her email list. EventSpot’s registration can be customized so that vital information is captured such as the name desired on the certificate, CEs needed, a need to use a payment plan or whether students have a massage table that they can bring to class, which is useful information for Karen when she is teaching in other cities.

Newsletters

Colleen also uses MailChimp for her newsletters, a communication tool that she feels is one of the best ways to develop and stay in touch with her students, clients and others in her Reiki community. Colleen and Karen wrote about the marketing benefits of newsletters in their article “Reiki Business Practices” in the September 2015 issue of Reiki News Magazine. 3 In this article they outlined the value of newsletters for maintaining contact and relationships with their Reiki community. When creating your emails and newsletters, consider them as a way to provide resources and information rather than as a way to increase “sales” of your services. They are not focused on sales. The marketing benefit comes from the ongoing relationship you create with your students and clients.

Sometimes, though, the purpose of an email is to inform previous students of future classes. These would be considered salesoriented emails and it is fine to send them (students do want to be informed of class dates and opportunities). In this case, you want to make sure that your subject line for the email is clear. Overall, just remember that the main purpose of your client/student correspondence is to create a meaningful relationship. So be mindful of the balance of communication between sales-directed and relationship building emailings with the far greater emphasis on relationship building ones.

To summarize, in online correspondence, think about how you can support your Reiki community, provide resources and offer relevant information on a regular basis.

Subject Lines When creating a subject line, make sure it is clear and to the point so the recipient immediately knows the purpose of the communication. In addition, whenever you are creating content, it is important to make sure that the content you send delivers the promise of the subject line. Remember, you are building relationships online and people need to trust you in order to be willing to open what you send.

Teleconference Calls

Colleen originally started her ReikiChat™ when she discovered that many people could be on the phone at the same time through teleconferencing.4 It is free for her and free for the callers (as long as they have free long distance). She thought it would be a great way to create an online Reiki Circle that could accommodate her students who live far away—to stay in touch and answer questions. It has turned into much more than she imagined! People join the call from all over the US and other countries in the
world. They talk about all things Reiki, and she has guests who share their information. Over 4,500 people are registered for her ReikiChat™. She ended up turning it into a podcast on iTunes, and they are archived on her website. She is currently working with her daughter, Robyn Benelli, to offer more podcasts. Robyn is an example of someone she hired because Robyn is tech savvy, knows the current trends and is a Holy Fire III Reiki Master who has grown up with Reiki. She has all of the skills Colleen needs to provide the information she wants to share with her readers, listeners and viewers.

Using Teleconferencing

• Set up the conference at www.freeconferencing.com
• Establish an email list for those who want to participate
• Create an email template to send a request for Reiki questions
• Create an email template to send follow-up information after the call
• Set the dates and times
• Send an email with the information about the call and request questions
• Start the call on the scheduled date
• Record the call
• Send a follow-up email including the recording and links to the information covered

Colleen says, that ReikiChat™ truly warms my heart every time I use it. I love this ability to connect with the Reiki community. I often have people tell me that it is the only way they can be together with other Reiki people. I offer a meditation/invocation at the beginning of every call in order to unite our circle
and then we talk about Reiki! I often have guest speakers on who have unique information to provide for us all. Other times we just have Q & A sessions and people ask questions and offer solutions and suggestions.

I encourage you to try this with your students. You can offer it to your students alone or allow anyone to join. I allow anyone who wants to join to do so and encourage it. It is so much fun when we introduce ourselves at the beginning of the call and see where everyone is from. Find a unique name for your teleconferences that suits you and that distinguishes yours from anyone else’s to avoid confusion. The teleconference call is very rewarding and an excellent way to build relationships with your students and other Reiki practitioners.

You can create your own teleconference calls that enable you to talk with groups of your clients at once. You may choose to use this technology for your clients and students or you may do as Colleen did and open it up to the public and anyone who wants to join. Again, Karen and Colleen have created a PowerPoint that describes in detail how to use the technology available so you can create your own teleconference calls with your Reiki clients.

Where to From Here?

We hope that we have given you many ideas that will help you establish or increase your efforts to create better and even more meaningful communication opportunities with your Reiki clients and students through the use of emails, newsletters and online conversations. In Part 2, we will expand these possibilities with a discussion of how to make use of social media applications such as YouTube. Look for Part 2 in the Winter 2016 issue of Reiki News Magazine. 1
Part II: Facebook and YouTube Marketing will appear in the winter issue.

Colleen Benelli is a Usui/Holy Fire III Licensed Reiki Master Teacher for the ICRT in Portland, Oregon and can be contacted by email at colleen@reikilifestyle.com or through her website at www.ReikiLifestyle.com. Colleen’s ReikiChat™ podcast is found on iTunes under Reiki Lifestyle
and on her website.

Karen Harrison is a Usui/Holy Fire III Licensed Reiki Master Teacher for the ICRT in Leawood, Kansas and can be contacted by email at Karen@karenharrison.net or through her website at www.karenharrison.net.

Karen and Colleen are Co-Directors of the Licensed Teacher Training Program for the ICRT. Go to Colleen’s YouTube channel Reiki Lifestyle and/or Karen’s at Karen Harrison – Reiki to see the PowerPoint Presentation for this article.

Part 1: ReikiChat™ https://reikilifestyle.wpengine.com/reikichat/. 2 http://blog.clientheartbeat.com/building-customer-relationships/. 3 https://reikilifestyle.wpengine.com/reiki-business-practices/

© Reiki News Magazine • Fall 2016 • www.reiki.org
Build and Maintain your Reiki Client Relationships

Colleen is the founder of Reiki Lifestyle and a Senior Licensed Reiki Master Teacher for the ICRT. She teaches all levels of Usui/Holy Fire Reiki including Holy Fire Karuna Reiki®. She is also an Associate Teacher for the LightSong School of Shamanic Studies. Colleen lives in Portland, Oregon. Join her on ReikiChat™, a free, monthly Q & A teleconference call, by going to www.ReikiChat.com. For all other information, Colleen can be reached by email at colleen@reikilifestyle.com, through her website at www.reikilifestyle.wpengine.com or by phone at  (503) 912-0664.