This is the first post in a series of articles which is going to address the topic of how a therapist can promote their practice and get more clients. I’m diving into this issue due to the fact that marketing oneself is something that many mental health professionals feel like they struggle with. The good news is that the industry is a land of huge opportunity since so many practitioners don’t actively promote themselves; there is simply not a lot of competition if you want to get your business’ name out there to the world. If you want to take your practice to the next level, then this amount of opportunity means that you can wind up looking like this:
While others in the profession continue to sit around, with no clients, like this:
Assuming you want to look like the former, and not the latter, then stay tuned for our upcoming articles. If you prefer to look like the latter of the two people above, and are opposed to prosperity, then…ok.
The topics which I’m going to cover in this series are going to be different than what you may have read in the bazillion articles on the internet about “how to get more clients.” This is because the goal here isn’t to provide you with some generic list – it’s to help you actually grow your practice. To that end, topics I’ll be covering over the course of this series include:
- Why the best way to grow your practice is to focus on your existing customers and leads first
- Why therapists who want to grow their practice must own their online presence, instead of renting it
- Setting up your business’ local profiles and managing your online reputation
- Why therapists need their own website and how to build it out “the right way”
- Investing in your practice with ongoing content creation
- How to effectively leverage networking to grow your business
- Using psychologytoday.com and other online directories
- Why therapists should not spend time on social media trying to promote their practice
I’m going to be looking at these topics for a number of reasons. First, focusing on your existing clients is by far the most effective way to grow your practice. This is because a) it makes them more likely to be a long-term client (meaning you don’t have to get a new client just to replace one you lost) and b) it makes them more likely to become a referral source. This is how you get a call from one potential client and turn it into ten new customers over time. Second, many make the mistake of being entirely reliant on the renting of third-party ads. This can include directory listings, pay-per-click marketing, and more. The truth of the matter, however, is that you can substantially increase profitability by focusing on assets which you own (such as blog posts, videos, etc.) as opposed to renting ad space. Third, managing one’s online reputation can be difficult given that therapists typically shouldn’t (or can’t) ask for online reviews. It is possible, however, to remove negative reviews which people place online. Fourth, not all websites are created the same and I’ll be discussing how to increase the chances of your website bringing you business. This will include the creation of ongoing content. Fifth, many therapists spend a good deal of time at networking events and get minimal business as a result. We’ll look at how to leverage LinkedIn and the web to network in a more effective fashion. Sixth, while we are not fans of using online directories such as pscyhologytoday.com, we’ll look at some common mistakes to avoid if you do go down that road. Finally, we’ll show that it is a waste of resources to promote yourself through social media (and we’ll give numbers to back this up).
One point I’ll be stressing in each these rants discussions is that there is, again, a substantial amount of opportunity out there for therapists who want to “level up.” By this I mean having a large practice which includes support staff and other therapists working for you. If you already have employees, then you can also grow your practice far beyond what it is currently. Hopefully, your goal is to grow to the point that your practice has to be broken up in an antitrust lawsuit from the government after you achieve complete monopoly status over the industry. Stay tuned for our coming articles and contact us online or by telephone to inquire about our therapist web design and marketing services. Also, please subscribe to our newsletter through the form below to get tips delivered straight to your inbox.