More people are seeking mental health services than ever before, which means now is the time to revamp your mental health marketing strategy and build your client base. With the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen immense growth in the field of mental health, to the point that some mental health professionals are spending more time on the phone with potential clients than they are in sessions. However, just because your phone is ringing doesn’t mean your practice is seeing substantial growth or bringing in the right clients.
If you’re seeing an influx in unqualified leads reaching out to you (and by unqualified we mean people reaching out who are unfamiliar with your services or generally a poor fit for your practice), it means that your current marketing efforts aren’t targeting the right people. For example, if you’re a therapist located in New York that specializes in treating women’s mental health concerns but you’re consistently getting calls from men in Delaware asking if you’re accepting new clients, there’s probably something askew with your marketing.
Creating a mental health marketing strategy that targets your ideal client is the key to experiencing true growth and finding your happy spot as a therapist. In this blog, we’ll discuss how you can identify your ideal client, if you don’t already know who they are, and what you need to do to target them more effectively.
Ready to make your mental health marketing strategy? Tell us how we can help.
Who Is Your Ideal Client? Narrowing Down Your Mental Health Niche
Whether you’re just getting started as a therapist or you have several years of running your own practice under your belt, you likely have a type of client you like to work with best. Your ideal client will be unique to you, your specialties, and your passions.
You may assume being a generalist and accepting anyone who needs mental health services is the best way to build a client base. After all, if you’re struggling to get new clients and are desperate for new leads, it’s hard to rationalize not marketing to anyone and everyone who is looking for therapy.
However, many therapists experience more growth by narrowing down their services. When you choose a niche and stick with it, you may actually see an increase in clients. Specializing in a specific area allows you to establish yourself as an expert in that subject. This lets you build credibility with your target audience and focus on what you’re most passionate about. And narrowing down your focus means you’re narrowing down your competition.
Questions for Discovering Your Ideal Client
If you don’t already have a clear idea of who your ideal client is, ask yourself these questions:
- What fills you with passion and gives you purpose as a therapist?
- What subject do you know so much about you could teach on it?
- What clients have you had the most success with in the past?
- Do you prefer providing one-on-one, couple, or group sessions?
- What is the gender, age range, characteristics, and background of your ideal client?
- Do you plan to accept insurance or only accept out-of-pocket payments?
- What is your service area?
- Will you be offering in-person therapy, teletherapy, or both?
These questions will help you narrow down what kind of clients you want to draw to your practice. You’ll also begin to discern some of the characteristics of your ideal client, which will be useful when you start to market to them.
How Mental Health Marketing Draws in Your Ideal Client
Once you have a clear idea of who your ideal client is, you can get laser-focused in your marketing. Marketing takes a lot of time and money, so the key to success is identifying the exact kind of client you want to draw to your practice and only putting effort into attracting those people. This is a much more productive use of your time and resources as you can spend less time weeding out unqualified leads (or answering phone calls that lead nowhere) and instead focus your energy toward fulfilling your passions and helping people that are a good fit for your practice.
Establishing Your Brand
Now, what goes into a great mental health marketing strategy? At the foundation of your marketing strategy is your brand, which ties in closely with your niche. Your mental health brand is what sets you apart from your competitors and gives clients a reason to visit you. This means developing a strong brand story, creating your missions and value statements, understanding your messaging and purpose, and designing logos, colors, and other visual elements that people can associate with your brand.
Making Your Website Accessible
Once you’ve clearly developed your brand, you need an accessible website that is easy to navigate so your ideal client can quickly identify that your practice is exactly what they’re searching for. This mental health website should be visually appealing. It should have a clear goal and purpose. And website visitors must be able to quickly find your services and know how to get in touch. The fewer barriers to access the better. Clear, eye-catching call-to-actions should be on every page of your website.
Learn about Google E-A-T and its impact on your SEO strategy
Creating Content That Matters
Next, you need content. Blogs, videos, and social media content serve several essential purposes in your mental health marketing strategy:
- Create brand awareness
- Educate your audience
- Generate new leads
- Convert leads into new clients
Mental health is a very personal topic. People put a lot more thought into choosing a mental health provider than they do when deciding what they want to eat for lunch. Your ideal client is out there, but they need to know you exist and trust you enough to reach out. Good content helps fulfill both of these needs.
What’s the key to putting out content that converts your ideal client into an actual client? Creating content that matters. People can often tell when you’re just trying to sell them something. Instead, aim to make a real connection with the person on the other end of your content. Your goal is to start a conversation with your audience and to offer them something of value.
Getting the Word Out
When you create content, the hope, of course, is that people will see it. With a strong SEO strategy and distribution plan in place, you can push this content into the world where your ideal client can see it. With SEO, your goal is to get your content on the first page of Google when people search specific keywords. A well-optimized blog ensures your ideal audience can find you when to search terms related to your services.
A content distribution strategy is another way to take the same piece of content and maximize its reach. Let’s say you’ve written a high-quality, educational blog. You can distribute this blog by posting a link to it on social media, creating a press release, converting it into a visual slideshow, making a podcast, or repackaging it into a white paper or e-book. Not only does this get as many eyes as possible on your content, it also saves you time by getting the most from every piece of content you produce instead of just focusing your strategy on creating more content that only a few people see.
Start Reaching Your Ideal Client
Concentrating your mental health marketing on your ideal client brings motivation and joy to what you do. You can focus on treating the issues you are most qualified to address and connecting with people that are the perfect fit for your practice. If you’re ready to make every phone call count, we can help you create a mental health marketing strategy that checks all the boxes.
Ready to get laser-focused in your marketing? Schedule your free consultation now.
