Therapist Marketing Tips, Ideas & Strategies

Key Takeaways

hello everybody I'm Scott this is Jeff and today we're going to talk a little bit about how you can Market a therapy practice uh on online and using digital marketing and uh Jeff here is one of the Marketing Executives and also has some back personal backgrounds uh as a life coach and uh working in kind of the therapy field so he's got some expertise with that and of course with therapy there's there are some particular issues to address in terms of of who you're trying to reach and confidentiality and so forth so we'll talk a little bit about that and how you can bring this together to help build your practice still with some online marketing so Jeff uh kind of upfront what are some of the things in terms of dealing with the your your target audience people who having touchy perhaps personal issues um what are you kind of thinking about in terms of how you want to reach them while at the same time you're kind of doing promotional content in a way way to promote your practice right yeah well one of the things you have to consider is that traditionally this has been more of a referral based type um program for marketing or or for just new client acquisition um but with the anonymity of the the internet and people can go in and and spend more time on your site to try to see if they're going to trust you if they resonate with something about your practice or about your expertise and so I think one of the first things to take into consideration is that this isn't just a brochure a glorified brochure um but it's it's a way of expressing who you are your uniqueness to help earn their trust and get them to at least reach out and make contact with you what is some of the kind of information obviously for digital marketing the website is kind of the backbone of it what are some of the kind of prime areas of content that therapists are going to want to include on their website to build that trust and start to make that connection yeah yeah since since obviously you can't put testimonials from your clients on there or nor can you really go into detail about the type of um people that you've helped um you want to provide a place that someone could go and if they come to your site uh offer ideas and tips and uh maybe references to books that may uh provide some help or some insight cuz a lot of people are are asking do I need a counselor MH uh or can I figure this out myself and if it and if you come across as a bit of a thought leader and maybe provide some resources for them that that can help a little to get them maybe moving in the right direction in my experience they're more apt to reach out and and contact you uh because they they've resonated with what you've offered them for free and they they are responding because they they feel that they you know you you you've connected with them even without actually meeting met down in person so obviously this might include something like blog articles correct on various types of um issues mental health issues and so forth that people might be looking at and just providing some baseline information for people yes um that's that's got to be key for one blog articles um uh keeping up to date with the latest research on if you're if you do more relational type counseling and research on you know what keeps couples together what sort of things are driving couples apart um you know there's a lot of talk about I think in fact there's a book called sleeping with a smartphone or something you know just references to that that show that you're kind of at the Forefront of what's going on with couples in today's you know 21st 21st century type relational environment right so you got to show a lot that you know upfront you you obviously care about solving people's problems that really needs to come through yes um and at the same time you are creating awareness that you're a resource and that you you're a practice that's available and other steps can be taken so that this this person ultimately uh would maybe choose to become a patient to seek further help for them yeah exactly and you know if you have um if you are on any of the insurance boards or um you know can take insurance you want to you know let people know that um you're you know that you're affordable um and that there are you know and in some cases you may offer a sliding scale for people that may be in a a tight spot or maybe you don't cover or your insurance their insurance doesn't cover your services um and so any way that you can provide this you know I'm willing to work with you because obviously money matters but what really matters to me is that that we're taking care of you and you're you're getting these problems solved and moving close to some sort of whatever resolution it is that they are trying to seek through your services you have to establish trust yes that's a big part of promoting any kind of business really online but for a therapist it's just absolutely critical yeah definitely do you uh or would you recommend that therapists use any type of video maybe just a video of themselves kind of introducing themselves that type of thing yeah I think a video is really because then they can hear your voice they can get a sense of your tone and it you know not everybody is a good fit to work with with every counselor and so it could be that you remind them of their second grade teacher and they love their second grade teacher and so they that that they may not even read anything else on your site but the fact that they connected with you in a non kind of a nonlinear way I think could be a really you know positive way of kind of building that trust and finding that intangible because if somebody doesn't feel comfortable maybe asking a friend or a coworker for a referral you know the internet's going to be the place that they go and anything that you can do to differentiate yourself or provide that little sort of glue that makes them stick um it's that that's going to be on videos a really powerful way of of communicating that as well as giving them kind of a picture of who you are that's a good point also that it may kind of vet potential patients and for people who wouldn't really be a fit at all you don't have to take the time to figure that out your website can in a certain way kind of maybe give them a feel yeah definitely that's really good so in online marketing of course we think a lot about search marketing Google and people go on and they're they Google information they're looking for information about you know therapy and whatever kind of troubles they may be having uh they may actually also be looking for somebody local what are some of the ways in in kind of that uh sense of marketing and advertising that therapists need to use that tool to to make sure they're findable yeah well I think I think you know whatever your bread and butter is you have to be either writing blog articles or posting content that's relevant to that uh as well as you know depending on what your budget is running some some search ads so that you're showing up you know in your area for your services or for the keywords that are most related to your services um but but then that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to make contact with you right away um and so that's where the power of remarketing comes in if they've come and they've been interested enough to to come to your site and read about you a little bit if you've got a retargeting ad um that may go out uh just it might remind somebody that they need to get back in touch with you um and so just utilizing those resources um and then another thing that a lot of therapists do is they network with other therapists and if if you are seen as a thought leader you know other counselors May refer a client to your website or or a potential client to your website it's like wow you know I don't I'm not an expert in that field but you know that person over there is here's their URL check out their website and see if they may be a better fit for you than me CU you know obviously you know there are certain types of of P of clients that that you know a particular counselor may may you know it just may not be in their expertise to to work with them and so so as you network could kind of provide that information for people or create you know that that valued content for folks that could be a great way of of you not just reaching potential clients but potential referral sources and if you do say You author a blog post that's something that really is got some useful information it's got some unique Insight it gets some attention from other therapists from associations from patients maybe it gets some links coming into your site that can be a powerful way to expose your uh yourself as a as a therapy practice and just get a little bit more attention and brings in potential their clients what about social media is there are there possibilities there again I know that confidential and stuff confidentiality can affect that but are there ways that therapy uh practices can use social media well yeah definitely that's that's another way another place for your content to get out in front of an audience that may not be searching exactly for that at this time but if they see a a a SP spored article or a post that you have on there that may spark their interest enough to get them to come and say wow I've been meaning to talk to somebody about this issue and this article right here you know really points out that I need to do that um and so that's that's probably you know in terms of broadening your you know just kind of your your influence that's probably the best way for it to happen um you're probably not going to want to invite your clients to come and you know make make referrals or or give testimonials on the site but they can like your Facebook page for no you know completely anonymously um and I think if people see that you're you don't you know you you have a good website but also that you have um you know an engaging looking Facebook or Twitter presence that that provides some value for people I think it's it can be a really valuable tool again to push people over that whatever that part of the fence that they're on to make them make cont gotcha and also that can become kind of an extension of a therapy session itself in a way where you're you're providing ongoing information and tips and things that for your existing clientele um that can help them in their ongoing process of growth and healing yeah definitely because again I think one of the things that I hear constantly from different counselors that I work with is that that someone came to the site and they said they found me through Google they came to the site and they really resonated with what I had to say about a particular topic or that my experience resonated with them as they read through the bio and that's that's what you're looking for is to to find that resonance to get them to the place where they want to make contact or maybe have a an initial try out session or whatever they call okay good so um we have a platform that provides a lot of data and information on what's going on with all of this website traffic and part of your job is to look at all of that talk a little bit about what you do as a marketing executive and how the the marketing 360 platform helps your clients understand this process and kind of grow it uh in a beneficial way yeah definitely yeah so so my job is to kind of help the the the my clients reach a larger audience than they can on their own and there are a million different ways you can do it but we're only concerned with the kind that work and so as we understand a website is a powerful tool if you can get people there you know my job is to make sure number one that when people do arrive on on the site that it's easily navigable that the call to actions and the and information on there is relevant to what Searchers are looking for and then we are able through the marketing 360 platform form to look at how many visits came in to look at how many of those visitors made contact look at how they got there um and then to determine like wow are there certain things certain tools that we're using that are working better than others and then to kind of take and optimize those things to ensure that more people that are looking for that service find either the the the keywords in the Google search or in the the types of topics and content that we're putting on the site um and then I go over the the data with the counselor and then we can talk back and forth about wow this this article really stood out what what can we do to enhance that and and maybe expand our reach with that uh because if something helps you know when I mean I I myself I share blog articles all the time to family members who are struggling with issues and you know if it turns into a situation where they you know contact this person to be a client you know I'm I feel great about you know being a part of that process good so in a way that it's kind of like a therapy unto itself you you yeah you well for a marketing process you're looking for things that work better and you want to grow off of those exactly exactly yeah literally uh therapy marketing 360 is is what we do here that's right yeah and and as well you know another thing that I offer is that marketing and more you know just I mean youve spent years honing your craft getting the degrees the certifications um and marketing and websites is not something that you study in your master's program it's not something that's required um and so what I am able to provide is more time for you to to get out of network to meet with clients to uh and and you can rest easy that someone with that with the experience in in that field is able to take care of that for you and also so of course the digital landscape changes it evolves right and so what worked a few years ago and it probably won't be working today necessarily you've got to be able to adapt to those changes and someone like yourself here at marketing 360 can help a therapist stay on top of that uh that changing environment and make sure it continues to work for you yeah definitely we've got a whole team of people that are keeping their finger on the pulse of what's going on with the different Trends with Google Facebook and and uh just you know digital marketing as a whole super great Jeff uh that's a lot of really useful information and I hope that helps you and understanding a little bit more about how you can use the internet to um kind of Reach people who need your help and grow your practice please check out our website um there's some videos and more information on what marketing 360 is you can contact one of our consultants and get a free demo from them and we'd love to be able to help you out thanks so much thanks Jeff thank you thank you