Marketing for therapists: the three

In many ways marketing for practitioners is no different to promotion other service that's depending on close up personal relationships. This means you'll be able to make use of the detailed and substantial research that has been done by others and then use this to you and the business.

Below would be the three fundamental elements which, if you take account of them in your entire advertising and marketing efforts, will significantly improve your returns. They are determined by building trust between you and your potential clients.

Therapy advertising and marketing takes time and effort, so let's ensure that effort is as productive as possible and is aligned with the values of you being a person and like a therapist.

That you are marketing you

In the end the clients will have a long-lasting relationship with you determined by trust and respect. Make sure from the start they can identify you as an individual. By way of example, make sure you have a good picture of you on your web-site and other marketing materials. Ensure that photograph is adequately prominent for it to be obvious that it is you.

Let's take a look at other factors, especially some mistakes I have seen.

Generally you will end up a sole trader, that's, both you and your practice are one and also the same. Sometimes I see therapists running combined practices, unless access to other therapists is an important part of the service, the connection remains one-to-one between the client and also the therapist.

An error I usually see, and more frequently with coaches, is when they want to appear being a huge international organisation. The language of their promotion material is all around we will do this, we're also this, we're that and so on, when in reality there is just one person. I have even seen websites where there are lists of coaches - the implication being here is the coaching team. Well it's not. Other coaches had probably been approached with a simple question such as "if we can find you well paid do the job will you be interested?" And of course they say yes.

Therefore, the big takeaway from me is until you have a very strong compelling practice reason to do otherwise, it's about you.

Ok now what do you say about you? The more you say about you the better they'll get to know you; nevertheless, you don't need to tell them everything you did on your fifth birthday. Write your story in a way that leads them through your decision-making to become a therapist and why you could be the right person for them. It's still about you, but you're just talking about the bits that are going to be meant for your new clients.

It's all about your customers

This could sound like it contradicts the very first point about being about you. Let me explain.

Persons are exploring for a therapist given that they want to solve problems. They want to feel better, happier, more at peace.

For various people this will mean something more important. After getting identified the group of people you feel you are able to best serve, then your advertising and marketing material, flyers, adverts and websites, should be about the issues that this group has, and speaking to them in their language.

For example, somebody who has a chronic illness and has not worked for years would tend to use different language to a senior executive having relationship problems with their teenage children.

Sure, sometimes a person goes out to find a therapist, but more frequently people have problems and issues that they're seeking to solve. If the primary thing they read when they come to your marketing material is about solving that problem then you will have their attention.

So let's see what we should avoid saying. I have read so many websites where the therapist goes on about all their certification, the many various techniques they use and so forth. Yes, there's a place for that buried deep within the web site, however, upfront why should your customer particularly care? Can you solve their problems, yes or no?

What's helpful to write about is how the particular skills and training you have will help you help them solve their problems.

And finally, consistency

I do believe most people have deep within their minds some form of lie detector that alerts them to inconsistency. You know, those little alarm bells go off deep inside us when we hear something that doesn't sound quite right.

So first off with consistency is the message you're putting out. Once you've decided on the group you intend to help, in the event you keep promotion to different groups then that can generate inconsistency in the minds of your audience. This inconsistency at best leads to confusion and at worst wrecks trust.

Take the time to craft the words, sentences and paragraphs that convey your message well and use those throughout your whole advertising and marketing materials.

The next part of consistency is frequency of putting the message out. So, as an example, should you decide that business networking functions could be the right strategy for you, then make sure you go regularly. If you're seen as one of those people that only come on occasion, it does start sowing the seeds of doubt about how exactly consistent you are.

The same thing goes for all other promotion messages. For example, in the event you decide to use newspaper adverts, yes they still do the trick, then you need to run the advertisement for a few weeks before you start to discover the actual return on it. You personaly might have checked out ads from the newspaper and followed alike advertisement for a number of weeks just before opting to do something. Is the advertiser a fly by night operator or will they be here for reasonable length of time?

In conclusion

Marketing and advertising is remarkably similar for therapists and other experts who build long-term personal relationships. If your entire learning about marketing and advertising comes from other practitioners, that you are restricting the total amount you will know about successfully promotion your practice. Also, by seeking outside of the healing community you will probably find strategies that other therapists don't know about, which then offers you an edge.