A Proven Framework for Effectively Marketing Your Mental Health Practice

As a therapist, do you know how to market yourself and keep things simple enough so prospective clients can understand what you do and how you can help them? Marketing your mental health practice can challenging for most therapists, but it doesn’t have to be and we want to help.

In a recent webinar, Cory and I spent time breaking down a proven marketing framework that you can use to reach and connect with new clients.

What’s Cory secret weapon? He breaks it down into two simple rules:

1. Use your website as the hub for everything you do online, but keep it simple and focused on what you do and who you help.
2. Use directory profiles and social media to funnel people back to your website.

That’s it. That is our secret for success and the one we’ve been using for decades. 

Rule 1: Your Website is Your Hub

Website design, build out, and management can be challenging for the everyday person. The key to having a great therapy website is to keep things simple.

Your website is the hub for everything you do. It’s a brochure that’s going to be out there 24/7, 365 days a week working for you. You need to put time and effort into making it great but stress not. You’ll soon discover if you do it right, it won’t be as much effort as you think.

Our top recommendations for making your therapist website a success:

• Make sure the business name or practice name is easy to remember
• Don’t misspell things or be super creative
• Make sure your domain name (website address) matches your company name
• Make sure you use software that allows you to easily make changes
• Don’t make people think. Make everything easy for them to read, scan, and digest
• Use a professional email service with an address that matches your domain name

Tip: You can still use Gmail, but make sure the email address matches the domain.

Here’s what content we recommend you include on your website:

• Clearly state the geographic location of your practice
• Talk about who you serve (couples, children teens, etc.)
• Talk about the specialties you focus on (addiction, divorce, trauma)
• Talk about the modalities or therapies you use
• Have a complete contact page with an address, map, directions, and a contact form
• Include FAQs so people can self-service and proactively answer important questions they have

Our tips for populating your FAQ section:

• Think about the common questions you receive from inquiries or new patients
• If you’ve been asked the same question three or more times, it warrants an FAQ
• Discuss fees and insurance
• Discuss your method of delivery (in person or remote, telehealth, virtual)

Mistakes we’d like to help you avoid:

• People are sometimes silly and put a search term like “therapy near me” on their website, but Google is smart and you don’t need that
• Don’t assume people know a lot about therapy
• Remember therapy is probably a new activity and it’s very intimidating to a lot of people
• Don’t use industry jargon, because it will confuse and intimidate prospective clients
• Don’t forget about ease of use
• Don’t forget about creating conversational blog posts, which can serve as a powerful in educating visitors and making them feel comfortable with you and your style of therapy

Tip: Make it easy for people to ask you questions on your website and make sure they can see your address very clearly on your website. This is both for the humans and the search implements.

Rule 2: Social Profiles and Directories Are Important

Part two of our marketing framework focuses on profiles and social channels that funnel back to your website.

Chances are you’ll have profiles on other websites around the web. You’ll want these profiles to link back to your website. This will help prospective clients to find your website, interact with you, get their questions answered, and hopefully schedule a therapy session and start getting your help and support.

Here is our list of must have profiles:

• Google Business Profile – This was previously called Google My Business and a lot of us still refer to it as that today. This is free, and it’s tremendously impactful. This profile will help Google knows that you’re a therapist and it helps you show up in Google Maps.
• Directory Sites like Psychology Today or All Counseling – Get your profile on those therapy profile websites, because they help you find prospective clients and they’ll route them over to your website. All Counseling is free and you just need to claim your profile.
• Social Media Websites like Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn – I see a lot of therapists using Instagram and having success. LinkedIn could also be an opportunity to reach a working professional audience. Facebook is popular with middle age and older women, so if that is who you help, you’ll want to consider this social network.

You might be asking yourself what would you do with those social media websites. What would you post? Don’t worry, we have suggestions.

Our suggested content for posting to social media:

• FAQs – If you look back on what we discussed for FAQs. Spend 15 minutes writing down all the questions you commonly get and this could be your first three to six months of social content.
• Quotes – If you find yourself saying something a lot, use that as a quote.
• Tools – Exercises and tools you share with clients would be excellent for sharing on social media.
• Modalities You Use – We want to obliterate the stigma of mental health professionals and create a world where people can access the help they need. Therapists can use social media to share how they use EMDR and other modalities to help people.

Tip: If you only have time, resources, and energy for one thing, use Google Business Profile!

Wrapping it Up

In this webinar and blog post, Cory and I have provided a marketing framework for therapists to effectively reach and connect with new clients. We use it and we believe it and we know it works!

We’ve stressed that the key to successful marketing is to keep it simple and focused. And I say that again here because it is so important.

Once you’ve nailed down your website content, we encourage you to make it the hub for everything you do online. All roads should link back to your website, so you can connect with visitors in your tone and voice.

Don’t be intimidated by digital marketing. By following this marketing framework, you can effectively and easily market your mental health practice and connect with new clients!