Building a Simple Marketing Strategy for Therapists and Psychologists

Marketing can be a thorny issue for private practice owners. There is a vast amount of information available on marketing for mental health and private practices, but it can be challenging to navigate and implement.

However, marketing is core to what psychologists and therapists do, and it is vital to help them reach out to as many people as possible while still thriving. In this article, we'll explore a simplified and stripped-back version of marketing for private practice owners, called A Simple Marketing Rhythm.

The Intersection of Marketing and Psychologist Skill Development

As private practice owners, we end up playing several roles including therapist, coach, consultant, supervisor, accountant, and bookkeeper. Visibility is just one of the roles we play in our practice.

Traditional marketing doesn't gel well with creating a thriving, innovative private practice, which is based on building a transformational relationship with clients. We're trying to rely on connection-building, understanding, and creating a safe container where people feel comfortable doing their work. Triggers, manipulation, and scarcity tactics used in traditional marketing can become barriers to working with us. We need to rethink marketing to focus on creating a sense of safety and connection between us and clients.

Negative messages around visibility for psychologists and therapists can make it challenging to implement marketing activities. Some practitioners view marketing as diametrically opposed to psychology and have received messages in training about being careful about what clients might think.

However, staying invisible is not neutral. Our voice and presence need to be out there, so people get the opportunity to connect with someone who is informed and experienced.

Juggling Multiple Roles in Private Practice

Private practice can be emotionally and energetically demanding, with psychologists and therapists juggling multiple roles throughout the day. Role-switching frequently takes a toll on energy levels, and visibility and marketing can feel challenging as it means putting oneself out there.

Being in the ivory tower of our expertise can feel safer for psychologists and therapists, whilst connecting with the online world can make us feel vulnerable. Psychologists and therapists deal with a lot of vulnerabilities and traumas in their private practices anyway, adding to this burden and making visibility even more challenging. 

Creating A Simple Marketing Rhythm.

In Episode 7 of our podcast, Inspiring Psychologists: Breaking the Mould of Private Practice, Wendy Kendall, our principal coach, discusses how to create a natural and simple marketing rhythm for therapists and psychologists.

We believe that marketing should feel like an extension of our skills in building relationships and trust. The acronym for a simple marketing rhythm is ASMR, with Conversations, Sharing, and Connecting at its core:

Conversations at the Heart of Marketing Your Practice

So many people think that conversations are the least important part of their social media presence when they're actually the most important! 

To implement a simple marketing rhythm, you need to find conversations that interest you.  Gary Vaynerchuk recommends the $1.80 strategy of connecting with the top ten conversations in your niche and adding value to the top nine people in each conversation, whilst platforms like LinkedIn are much more forgiving where a few comments a day will reap rewards. 

Conversations involve having conversations online at scale and asynchronously. We can search for conversation topics in the search bar on platforms like LinkedIn or follow influencers and interesting people on other platforms like Instagram.

Getting involved in conversations and sharing prompts can be transformative for your relationship with social media marketing. Conversations lead to connections and creativity that inform your practice. The key to this strategy is developing a sense of safety and handling the rough and tumble of online conversations, building comfort with marketing.

Sharing Content that Resonates and Builds Safety

Sharing involves creating and sharing content on social media. Five prompts can help create conversations on social media:

•    Common issues/questions for clients as a coach
•    Burnout in the workplace as a common topic for executive coaches
•    Sharing opinions, expertise, and insights on social media
•    Practical tips for easy ways to share knowledge
•    Demystifying psychology and explaining myths and misunderstandings

Connecting Beyond Social Media Platforms is the Basis for Working Together.

Connecting involves inviting people to take the next step in building a relationship. You can make the next steps obvious by creating invitations to connect in places like your social media bio and about sections. However, a surprised number of websites make it harder than necessary for clients to connect with them through their websites. Having a section on the homepage of your website 

The Importance of Having a Marketing Strategy for Psychologists and Therapists

The podcast episode discusses how the foundation of marketing is building safety and comfort.

Whilst it is essential to have a marketing strategy for therapy or psychology private practice, it's not the case that marketing our services is all about selling and being pushy.

The idea of a simple marketing rhythm involves regular, purposeful outreach and building connections with potential clients. Examples of other marketing tactics involving proactive connecting with clients include sending newsletters, calls-to-connection on our social media posts, hosting webinars or events, and reaching out to potential referral sources and partnerships.

You Don't Have to Hide from Marketing - it's Your Secret Superpower!

Implementing a simple marketing rhythm can be healing and powerful for practitioners, helping them feel safe while building their practices. 

Many psychologists struggle with marketing and visibility, which is why we created the Psychologist Marketing Academy to teach you how to use your skills as a psychologist or therapist to market your practice.

Having A Simple Marketing Rhythm will help you to feel more comfortable with being visible and connecting with clients.

Success in building connections and growing a private practice requires a willingness to be seen, to be vulnerable, and to take a stand for the kinds of conversations we want to be having with our clients.