Explain Therapist Marketing Like I’m a 5th Grader

Here’s a short story before I begin… and at the end of this article there will be a free gift, a cheat sheet for do it yourself therapist marketing.

short story time…

I reached out to a few of my therapist friends when I started building Therapist Profile. I wanted their feedback.

Me: “Hey, so I’m building this thing I think you will love or at least get some killer benefits from… will you click this link and give me honest feedback”

Freddy: “Bro man, this is legit…. been trying to do it myself. One piece of feedback, explain it like I’m 5… didn’t know I needed all the things”

Alynne: “J, this is beautiful… i’m so excited for you but I’m not sure every therapist will know & understand everything… please explain it more…”

Carla: “Why are you showing me this now, you dork! I just hired a company… they explained it to me like a 5th grader.”

Unanimously, they all came back and said, “explain it like I’m a 5th grader”. I wasn’t exactly surprised. So, that’s the purpose of this post. I’m going to explain marketing for therapists like you’re in the 5th grade.

Please stick with me. I will keep it easy to understand and brief as possible. I’ll teach you about marketing for therapists, how to leverage it to increase your rates, and do less work. Expect the article to be about 10 minutes long and do not forget about the cheat sheet at the end.

Kindly, Jason.

Table of Contents

Therapist marketing 101
What are therapist marketing services
Simplifying marketing for therapists
Defining therapist marketing goals
How much does therapist marketing cost
DIY Cheat Sheet

Therapist Marketing 101

Define therapist marketing: “the activity of promoting your therapy business.“

Seems simple, right? So, how do you promote your therapy practice today? I want you to pause and think about it…

• Do you post things on social media?
• Do you have your own website?
• Do you create online profiles?
• Do you make videos & images?
• Do you join local directories?
• Do you stand on the sidewalk spinning signs in a chicken suit?
• Do you reach out to family & friends?
• Do you create , run, and manage advertising campaigns?
• Do you pay premiums for therapist directories?
• Do you write captivating and well-researched blog posts
• Do you spend time optimizing everything to maximize it’s potential?
• Do you evaluate your presence and rankings daily?
• Do you run analytics on how your brand is performing?
• Do you tweak and A/B test to find your ideal messaging?
• OR do you practice therapy and let the pro’s work for you?

If you’re doing them yourself and they’re working well, bravo! But PLEASE do me a favor and comment below how much there is to learn and how time consuming it can be, and any pointers you might have for everyone. Oh, & remind us where to pick up a fly chicken suit 😉

Puk Puk Pukaaak!!!

Credit: Chickens everywhere.

For the rest of you dancing chickens… there isn’t enough time or energy AND you’re a licensed therapists, not a professional marketer.

The above list is a great start but it’s by no means an exhaustive list and you’ll notice I didn’t give instructions. That would take me weeks to write and it would take you months to figure it out on your own.

You have to ask yourself, “at what point do I want to be an internet marketer instead of practicing therapy with my clients”? You do you, boo, but I’m over here trying to wave my flag of help and prosperity ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ because I wear the proverbial chickens suits for you.

Therapist Marketing Services

This link navigates to a different page and automatically scrolls to a page section that lists some of the marketing services for therapists that I offer.

If you haven’t already read them, click that link then click back in your browser so we can continue, class is still in session.

Define the why: “to increase visibility in hopes to attract new clients“

You read that right… in “hopes” because nothing you do online is guaranteed to get you the results to succeed.

• You can overspend your ad dollars on Facebook & Google.
• You can write 5000 word posts claiming your practice is the best.
• You can make your website overly colorful, using cute fonts.
• You can post the new couch you bought for you office on IG.
• You can spend the next two years reading how to become a marketer.
• You can spend days joining every therapist directory.
• You can make super fancy business cards with the perfect messaging.
• And you can wear a chicken suit jumping on a street corner but people might think you need therapy.

After you do all that work, spend all the money, invest all that time, there is still no guarantee to get results your therapy practice needs. Here’s why and read this aloud…

“I am a therapist, not an internet marketer”

Listen, I already know how bright you are. 6-8 years of college proves this. So, I want to be sensitive and avoid insulting your intelligence because you are capable of a lot.

However, I’ve been doing this for 15 years and made all the mistakes so you don’t have to. I failed and failed and failed until things began sticking. I refined and refined, tested and refined more until I had solid strategies in place. I’m offering that experience and expertise to you.

you need to market your practice…

It helps you attract new clients and that alone will begin building your brand. Yes, you are a brand. Your therapy practice is a brand. And good brands need good marketing to sustain. You need the minimum to grow.

Allow me to simplify therapist marketing

Everything you do online is monitored. Social media giants and search engines use bots, referred to as spiders. These spiders crawl websites reading the code and content to determine what a website is about, what the content is about, if it can be trusted, if it’s valuable, it it’s fast and performative, and if their audiences (that’s you and I) will benefit.

The greater the value, the greater the relevancy, the greater the trust, the greater the performance, the greater the chance social media and search engines will elevate that website or website content for it’s audiences.

This means your brand, your content, your contact information rises to the top. It becomes visible to broader audiences. Which means you get more emails and phone calls for your services.

Getting visibility on Google.

In the example below I used google and searched for “ADHD therapist in Houston Texas” and I outlined in yellow every place your information can surface on the front page of Google, if you were marketing.

To achieve the results above you need

• Search engine optimization
• Profile optimization
• Google Maps optimization
• Website optimization
• Copywriting
• Link Building
• Images & videos
• On website FAQ schema
• and lots of time

Yeah, I’d be Mad Cat too. 6-8 years of college of hundreds of clients in Houston Texas later and you still aren’t very visible online. Rawr!

That’s where therapist marketing comes in. Do you have time, energy, and the skillsets to do all this? If you do, by all means go for it. I support it and I will help/guide you. If you don’t… consider joining here.

What are your therapist marketing goals?

Discovering and understanding your goals will save you hours, weeks, months and even years of wasted time and money.

Maybe you’re tired of low pay and want to increase your prices.

Maybe you feel stuck, getting a steady flow of Anxiety clients but you really want to focus on Trauma & PTSD.

Maybe you want to go private practice OR want to focus on private pay and slowly back away from the insurance machine.

Maybe you want to build a new website, build up social followings, and learn how to manage them on your own.

Maybe you have a new service offering like Groups for divorced men or you want to launch a new specialized therapy course.

whatever your goal, there is a solution

Whatever your goal, there is a whole suite of marketing services for therapists, marketing toolsets, and marketing guides to help you accomplish your goals.

TherapistProfile.com is one of many solutions for therapist marketing. I do everything you can think of for marketing. I only work with a handful of therapists at a time but I provide the full toolbox and services you need.

By defining what your goals you are dictating what kinds of therapist marketing to do and where to do it. Without that, it’s like throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks. Please, call me if you do, It’s lunchtime on a Sunday and I’m suddenly in the mood for Spaghetti.

How much does therapist marketing cost?

That all depends on where you’re at, where you’re trying to go, and what level of investment you can make.

You can hire large firms to do this for you. You’ll pay somewhere between $3,000 per month to $6,000 per month. I’m not even kidding.

Some outfits will try and charge you $10,000-$15,000 for a website.

Or, you can hire your brother’s friends ex wife’s little brother. I bet it’s cheap too. He’s probably just looking for weed, so $250 he’s your man!

I operate differently. I might be able to help you make some tweaks and you’ll see results in days. Or I might outline 3 months of work. My concierge services range from $20 and reach $5,000+ or more depending on needs, timeline, and goals.

The average client of mine pays for articles, advertising, and analytics. The minimum you need to grow. They already have websites that work well, they already have larger followings, I just build their brand awareness. If you don’t have those I’ve got you covered.

Okay, so here’s your DIY marketing cheat sheet

Therapist directory websites
These are not free. Most free therapist directory websites that are free aren’t great or worthy of your time. However… Tally up all of the directories below and that’s a lot of money every year.

Psychology today ($300+ per year)
Good therapy ($300+ per year)
Theravive ($300+ per year)
Therapy den ($300+ per year)
Better Help (I refuse to link to them)
Therapy Tribe ($300 per year)
Find-a-therapist ($100 per year)
Inclusive Therapists ($300 per year)
Therapy for black girls ($300 per year)
Are you seeing a trend here?

Local directory websites
These are a mix of local businesses. It’s not just about therapy or therapists and most are free and that’s good!!!

Google
Yelp
Bark
Angi
Four Square
Moz
SuperPages
YellowPages
Yahoo
BBB

Rich media websites every therapist must use
Okay, I know you’re a therapist and not a TV personality but these websites are vital for brand awareness.

Youtube. It’s a must and you can create videos you aren’t in that are just as effective.

Unsplash. You have an amazing camera attached to your smart phone that takes high resolution photos. Trust me it works.

Medium. You write articles here. There’s an engaging community. It ranks and builds more awareness.

I don’t need to link to these but Facebook Business, Twitter Business, Pinterest Business. Instagram Business. Sign up for pages for your practice using the same name for your business.

If you use your business name (ex. Terry Smith Therapy PLLC ) on every single on of these websites. Then you add your content and optimize the accounts, profiles, and content. And you have a matching domain name and high performing website…. You will OWN the front page of google for your brand name. Give it 6 months but when anyone types in Terry Smith Therapy PLLC or Terry Smith Therapist or Therapist Terry Smith or Terry Smith Houston Texas into Google, Terry Smith’s and associated links will be plastered all over the page.

Ranking for more generic terms is a harder job and requires search engine optimization services. But, the first thing you want to do is own your own brand. There is nothing more annoying than typing in any of those keywords for your brand and seeing random results and competitors. TherapistProfile.com is your resource if you want it done for you.