You know I love marketing and I sing the praises of how marketing will bring your clients! and money! and free time you never knew you had!

All true.

There also seem to be about 100 other people out there also telling you how to market your practice. I know some of these folks personally and they know their stuff.

But most of them won’t tell you the nitty gritty ,down and dirty insider secrets that I’m about to tell you now because they have filters and are appropriate in polite company and I just say stuff that comes to mind (because it’s my blog and I can do that).

The truth is, there are more than 5 things people aren’t telling you about marketing, but I’m going to share 5 here because I don’t want to scare you. I share because I care and don’t want you to make some of the same mistakes I’ve made along the way that have cost me time and money. Let my experience be a warning educate you about how to do the marketing right.

It’s Not Simple

The first thing no one will tell you is marketing is more complicated than people are telling you.

A lot of marketers sell “formulas” to market a practice. They offer templates and forms, strategies that you can cut and paste to market your practice. The problem with those approaches is that YOUR practice is unique. What works for them with their ideal clients, in their geographical location and within their specialty won’t necessarily work for you.

It is, however, easy to sell formulas with titles like, “The Marketing Magic Kit,” because people want an easy button, and no one will buy something called, “5 Ways to Do the Market Research Necessary to Fill Your Practice.”

Being Online is Great, but Not the “Answer”

The second marketing trap is the idea that being online is awesome and will be a magical path to success.  Honestly, it’s not enough to have a web site, a Twitter account and a Facebook business page. You need to customize these to speak to your ideal client.

People often read this blog and go forth to engage in social media. Once they get set up with a website, Twitter and Facebook they come back to me and say, “Hey, this online stuff doesn’t work!”  So, I go check out their online office and see all sorts of reasons why it doesn’t work for them.

If you’re website’s confusing, too wordy, all about you, has no call to action, or just looks amateurish, you won’t get as many clients if it is clean, clear, about the client, and has a strong call to action. (Pssst…if you think your site is awesome, but it isn’t bringing you clients you need to rethink the awesomeness. It’s only good if it brings results).

And if you tweet like you’re advertising, over and over again promoting yourself, your practice, or your products no one will do business with you. You need to converse, be real, promote others, share resources, be approachable and friendly, then people will want to work with you.

Just showing up online doesn’t guarantee you anything. Having a sophisticated, professional presence online gives you a much better chance of a health return on investment.

Marketing is Work (dang it!)

Third, you will get out of marketing what you put in to it. Often I hear this from therapists,

“I want to write a blog and out out a free report or e-book,Tweet and network but I can’t seem to find the energy/time/mojo to do it. But I really need more clients and I don’t want to take insurance. Do you have any ideas of how I can do that?”

No.  I have no idea how to answer that question.  I have all my clients because I write, post, Tweet, network, and publish.

The truth is, if you manage to put out only 2 blog posts, a few Tweets and occassionally get coffee with a colleague you will get very few (if any) clients from your efforts. But if you kick it into gear and consistently put your stuff out there, over time people notice and you stand out and eventually they want to do business with you.

You’ve Got to DO Stuff!

The fourth thing no one is telling you is that doing is more important than learning. At a certain point you will get diminishing returns from learning how to market and you just need to get out there and do it.

The other day someone asked me how to Tweet. Again, no answer here….just write 140 characters or less about a topic of interest. Read the 1 million other tweets on Twitter and get a feel for what people are doing.

Write. Send. Repeat Often.

Don’t waste your money on a book about how to tweet. Figure out the basics and take action.

The First Try Doesn’t Always Work

Finally, no one really wants to tell you that sometimes your marketing will fail. If we’re being really honest, often your marketing will fail until you get good at it. Getting good at it requires knowing your target audience, speaking to their pain, offering the support they want (not what you think they need), and doing it all while looking professional and polished.

When your marketing doesn’t get you the results you want, you have two choices.

1) Give up, or

2) Tweak and try again.

Good marketers are always tweaking and trying again. They know this isn’t an exact science. They understand that giving people what they want and need isn’t always easy.

I admire good marketing and a website that pulls me in and copy that speaks to me so clearly I want to buy what their selling, even if I have no logical reason to do so.

It’s a Process

Good marketing is an art. It takes time and thought to hit the “sweet spot” with your marketing message, but if you invest in the process it pays off in a major way.

And the real truth is, therapists have a much easier marketing journey than the guys that sell juice, tires or dry cleaning because our work inherently solves a pain. People want to invest in things that solve pain and offer solutions to problems. That’s what we do!!

But don’t let anyone tell you their marketing program will solve all your problems. That’s great marketing, but knowing what works and doing what works are two different things.

Developing a thriving private practice isn’t easy.  There’s lots of competition, many people don’t understand what therapists do, and insurance companies make it very difficult to make a decent income.

But I figured out a way to make it work, rise above my competition, explain what I do and why it’s valuable AND attract clients willing to pay me.

It took time and a focused effort on studying marketing.

Many of you have asked for a course on marketing and I’ve put that together in my new: “Market Your Private Practice Blueprint.”

I’m offering this program for a very limited time at a very low price point, just to give all of you an opportunity to learn the steps and skills  necessary to grow a busy practice on YOUR terms, making the money you deserve, without the hassle and humiliation of negotiating with insurance companies.

Click here to learn more.

Our profession can be so wonderful and healing when we can work within a business model of respect and care for our clients’ needs, rather than focused on getting authorizations for sessions or worrying if we will have enough clients so we can pay the bills this month.

I invite you to take a look at the Marketing Your Private Practice Blueprint and let me know what you think.  I hope you’ll join me !

You ask good questions!  So I took 20 minutes to answer some for you.

There is a lot of debate out there about therapists using social media. Of course, you know I am a huge fan of social media and this Q&A audio will give you insight into how I use it ethically and effectively.  Despite how it may appear, I am not out in the Twitterverse sharing intimate details about my life or information about my clients. Oh no, we can’t have that!

These are easy to adopt protocols for therapists to use in social media.

Please give a listen and let  me know your thoughts.

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Today’s Market Your Private Practice video is all about creating a marketing, or “opt-in” list.

Take a look to see why a marketing list is important and how to begin growing one for your practice.  Marketing to my list made me an additional $12,000 last year (on top of my paid clinical hours AND I only work 3 days a week), so this is a worthwhile process to understand and develop.

If you’re not on the Early Bird list for my Marketing Your Private Practice Blueprint yet, what are you waiting for?! You can sign up below to be the first to know when I open the program for registration.

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Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy,  was a master marketer.

Think about it.  Back in the early 1900′s, Freud starts talking to people about their hidden desires, psychosexual devel0pment, personality structures and the id, ego and superego. What did people think of him?  Can you imagine the reactions he got from people?  His ideas were revolutionary and probably were seen by many as a bit wacky.

Now we accept these as the foundations of our profession and much of our culture accepts variations of these concepts as standard psychology.  We talk about people being “defensive,” “passive aggressive,” or “in denial.” All concepts originated by Freud.

So how did Freud go from a doctor with odd ideas to the founder of modern psychology?

Marketing

Freud got out of his office and put his ideas into the hands of as many people he could.

His marketing plan  included:

• Book writing

• Correspondence with other thought leaders of the time (including Albert Einstein)

• Lecturing world-wide to spread the reach of his ideas

• Using the  newest technology of the time to share his concepts with as many people as possible (radio, video recordings of this speeches)

Freud understood that good ideas that stay at home don’t spread and can’t change the world.  So spread the word using all the tools available to him at the time.  Not only was he successful in changing our understanding of the human mind, he became very wealthy in the process.

[Side note:  Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays, was the founder of modern public relations, and taught American corporations to appeal to the public's unconscious desires to sell products and services. Told ya' Freud was a master marketer!]

So how can you develop a private practice marketing plan just like Freud’s?

• Write. A lot. At it’s very core, marketing is how businesses communicate with people about their products and services.  Despite what you hear about the slow death of books, newspapers, and magazines, people are reading more than ever.  They are reading online, text messages, emails. It’s said that kids today write and read more than they did a generation ago.  If you want to grow your practice, learn to be a decent writer and make time to write often.

The easiest place to write and share your ideas is on a blog that is a part of your website.  The blog is where you can share your ideas, communicate your expertise and archive all your writing in one place.

• Talk to many people. Reach out to colleagues, other professionals, community members, current and potential clients. Freud developed powerful relationships around the world.  Those people liked his ideas and shared them with their communities.  Through relationships and word of mouth, Freud’s innovations spread far beyond his local area.  It is so easy to build relationships and spread ideas now. Unlike Freud, you won’t need to mail letters, or get on a transatlantic cruise to talk to people all over the world.  You can use your blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Skype, or the good ol’ telephone to connect with others and build powerful practice-building relationships.

• Give information away. Freud shared his ideas widely for free via his lectures and letters.  The internet allows us to share so much information for free, that it is now expected by consumers/customers and clients. Utilizing free reports, newsletters and handouts, complimentary consult calls, and sharing links to relevant articles and blog posts are great ways to share your expertise for free.  This is an important step in helping people get to know, like and trust you so they feel you are the “go to” person when they need support.

• Use up-to-date technology to communicate. Freud used radio and there are a few video/movie clips of him speaking in public.  Today’s equivalent is a website/blog, Twitter, Facebook, online video.   When you want to attract people to a business, you need to go where the people are to communicate with them.  Did you know that every day more people visit Facebook than Google?  Yikes!  Use technology to your advantage.

Freud did not just wake up one day and become the Father of Psychotherapy. He utilized all the tools at his disposal to share his ideas and influence. His success was not a fluke.

If Freud was starting a private practice today, I bet he’d be on Twitter right now sharing his thoughts on dream analysis.

What ideas do you want to spread?

Ready to market your practice so you can  help people AND make more money? Sign up for email updates to get these  articles  sent directly to you. Or register for my free e-course: 7 Ways to Grow Your Practice this Spring!

Do yourself a big favor…when you set up your web site and blog, have an objective friend look at it.  This person should not be a therapist of any kind.

Ask your friend the following:

“Please look at this quickly and tell me the first word that comes to mind”.

It’s been said that people decide within 3-8 seconds whether a website is relevant or interesting to them. If they don’t get what you are trying to say in less than 8 seconds, they click away.

“If you were having personal difficulties would you find this site useful?”

People in distress don’t have the time, energy or personal resources to play hide and seek with your website content. It either speaks to them or not.

“Do you understand who I work with when you look at this site?”

If people don’t see themselves in your web site they will not stick around.  And, you know because you read this blog obsessively, that you do not work with everyone and a generalist website is a total waste of time and money.  If your site says all of these words: “individuals,” “couples,” “children,” “adolescents,” “families,” and has a list of more than 4 conditions you treat take the site down–it’s not going to help you and might make you look like a jack of all trades, master of none.

“Help me get rid of the jargon”.

I’ve looked at 3 random therapists web sites today and saw these words/phrases:

EMDR

Jungian Analysis

EFT

Family Systems

While you and I know what those words mean, the visitors to your web site do not.  Only use words and phrases that a non-therapist can understand and will relate to.  Jargon and psychobabble will only serve to scare of potential clients, who are stressed out enough with their life issues.

“Would you pick up the phone and call me based on this web site?”

Your web site is often the first impression people will get of you.  Make sure it is professional and presents you in the best light possible.  It is so inexpensive to put together a clean, simple website that not having a professional looking online presence can make you look like an amateur.  And I know many of you want to design your own site to save money…Unless you are a web designer on the side, don’t be short sighted. You may save a few bucks by doing your own site, but if it is unimpressive and clients don’t like it, click away and never call you, a few bucks saved could be many bucks lost.

“What can I improve if I want this site to attract new clients?”

All web sites can be improved.  An unbiased analysis from a friend who has your best interests at heart will be a priceless gift. They can point out weaknesses before your potential clients see them.

If your friends need clarification about ANYTHING on your site, you need to change it. Remember, potential clients won’t have you standing next to them explaining any details.

A great web site needs to stand on its own.  People need to understand who you are, what you do and why it’s valuable immediately or they will drift away and find another site that makes sense to them.

Photo credit: alistair_uk

Ready to build an effective web site to help people AND promote your practice? Sign up for email updates to get these  articles  sent directly to you. Or register for my free e-course: 7 Ways to Grow Your Practice this Spring!

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you should now have a blog of your very own. (If you don’t, take an hour and get one set up.)

But now you’re wondering, “What do I do with this blog? What do I say? Why would anyone read this? How will it help grow my practice? Will it make me any MONEY?”

Good questions!  Let’s answer a few with my 10 Blogging Rules for Therapists:

Rule 1:  Post to the blog. The blog does you no good if it looks pretty with no valuable content.  Post at minimum one new article a week.  Otherwise, the search engines ignore you and you get no benefit in SEO (search engine optimization).

Rule 2:  Moderate your  comments. You are a therapist. Your job is to build relationships with people.  Just like in “real life,” online relationships are built through conversations. You post an idea, people respond, you reply to them, repeat.  I know, you’re worried someone will divulge their deepest, darkest psychosis to you on your blog.  They won’t. But if they do, you will moderate them first before they are visible to the whole world and you can delete the comment and reply to them personally by email or phone.

Rule 3:  Write with your ideal client in mind. Don’t use jargon, psychobabble or big words. Those may get you an “A” in grad school, but will just send your readers for the “delete” button.    Be brief, direct, make your point quickly.

Rule 4:  Never use “real life” client examples. Not even if the identity is “disguised.” Your clients will read your blog. They don’t want to see their story in print.  You will destroy any sense of trust if people can see themselves in your stories. Potential clients will fear you will post their issues online and won’t want to become your client.

Rule 5:  Blog with integrity. Only write about topics you are familiar with. Don’t offer personal advice, therapy or diagnosis in your blog.  Your articles should be objective/factual at all times.  If you offer an opinion piece, be clear it is your opinion and not medical advice.  Be nice, kind and compassionate.

Rule 6: Use the 90/10 ratio. 90% of your blog’s content should be high quality, useful and free.  10% of your content can be to offer a product or service for a fee.  No one will read a blog that is full of sales pitches or veiled requests for clients.  The more you give, the easier it will be to find clients who are motivated to work with you, regardless of cost.

Rule 7:  Share others’ ideas. Use your blog as a forum to promote books, products, services, articles, other blogs that you think will be useful to your readers.  Be generous and others will give back to you.

Rule 8:  Be consistent. Starting a blog is a commitment to tend to it on a regular basis, like a garden or a relationship.  Your blog is one way to have a relationship with thousands of readers. They will come to count on you to be there in your online space.  While a new post once a week is fine. Make sure you are consistent with the posting schedule.

Rule 9: Respect your readers. Blog readers are generally a smart bunch.  They are curious and want to learn more (otherwise, they would not bother to read blogs).  Assume they care deeply about your topic and will try to apply your ideas to their life.  Honor their trust in you.

Rule 10: It’s OK to occasionally sell a product or service on your blog. Once readers know, like and trust you many will want more ways to benefit from your expertise. Don’t leave money on the table and do all this work for free 100% of the time.  Some people may get annoyed that you  are promoting a product, but the majority won’t and some will be ready to pay YOU for your ideas.

Ready to effectively blog to help people AND promote your practice? Sign up for email updates to get these  articles  sent directly to you. Or register for my free e-course: 7 Ways to Grow Your Practice this Spring!

You  know I think marketing your practice and your skills is extremely important.  But it’s not just because marketing psychotherapy helps you make more money.  Marketing is important because people need your  help.

If you don’t market, people have less of a chance to find you.  You could be literally the best damn therapist in town, but if no one knows you exist, your phone number and can’t find you online, you are invisible in their lives.  Ultimately, your avoiding marketing hurts those who can benefit from knowing you and from your services.

Why market online?

First, people are looking for you there. Second, a robust online presence is a great way to educate, inform and be of service to you clients.  An ad in a newspaper or magazine can’t inform the way a regularly updated blog can.  Online, people can access your information 24/7 (even in the middle of the night, when many people with mental health issues are up and desperate for support or hope to hang on to until they can call someone in the morning).

You also have a dynamic space online. It’s not static like an ad, nor is it fleeting like a workshop or speech.  You can update it regularly, communicate directly with readers, refer them to helpful resources.  You can be of service AND build a thriving business when you have your own little corner of the online world.

Imagine you meet someone at a workshop you are presenting and they ask for your card. On the card is your website url.  That person can go home, get on their computer and learn so much more about you, your specialty and begin the process of know, like and trust that everyone needs to make a purchasing decision (and keep in mind, if you are not taking insurance, you are asking people to make a large monetary investment in your services).

Marketing psychotherapy online is important because it helps others.  The benefits to you (a full practice, more income), while important, are secondary.  But remember, those who give, receive much in return.

Ready to effectively market your practice online? Sign up for email updates to get these  updates sent directly to you. Or register for my free e-course: 7 Ways to Grow Your Practice this Spring!

Let’s start a series!  For the next few days I will post about the first steps to marketing your psychotherapy practice online.

Step 1:  Set up a basic blog

Why a blog and not a website?  Blogs are more flexible and can function as a website and a place where you post regular articles on topics related to your practice.  BizSavvyTherapist.com is on a blog platform and so it ChildDevelopmentPartners.com.  If you look at each you’ll notice that, while both have a blog function, ChildDevelopmentPartners.com has more of a website feel with a static home page.  I love blogs for their flexibility and the ability for non-techy folks to learn a few basic tools and have the ability to go into their blog and make tweaks and changes depending on their needs.  A static website has none of those features.

You can get a free blog on WordPress.org (which I highly recommend). You will need to host the blog I use BlueHost.com (affiliate link).  Once you are hosted, you’re ready to get a template (many are free) and design a powerhouse blog.

Not a do-it-yourself-er?  Me neither!  I work with James at MenwithPens.ca to design my sites (and no one pays me to say that).

FAQ: Isn’t it easier to sign up with a therapist listing site? They offer me a web page with my basic information.

A therapist listing service does just that: lists your practice with a whole bunch of other practices.  You don’t stand out from the crowd.  Think about how someone looking for a therapist will use the internet to find support. They will head to a search engine (probably Google) and search  for a term like “psychotherapist for depression.”  IF they get directed to a therapist listing site they then have to surf, search and poke around to find someone who meets their needs. If you’re depressed, anxious or overwhelmed how much time do you think you’d search that site?  I know I wouldn’t stay too long.  Your listing gets found by chance. My biz savvy advice is never invest any money in something that you can’t control or measure.  I’d never give my money to someone else to do my marketing for me because they don’t personally care whether I succeed or not.

That is a long way of saying, you will get way more bang for your buck developing your own blog site that you can customize, optimize, control  and use to educate, inform and market your services and products.

My next post will be about what to put on your blog.  What pages you need and information clients find helpful.

Ready to effectively market your practice online? Sign up for my RSS feed to get these  updates sent directly to you. Or register for my free e-course: 7 Ways to Grow Your Practice this Spring!

I am living a bad dream of marketing overwhelm and confusion.  Maybe you are, too?  It seems there is a great deal of advice, experts and people ready to tell me the “right” way to market (for a price, of course).

Dan Kennedy tells me I need to know what my prospects want and offer those things if I want to make good money.  That makes sense.

The folks over at  Copyblogger suggest I need excellent, targeted copy and SEO (search engine optimization). That makes sense.

Over at the Third Tribe, they tell me to build a blog, affiliate market and “be cool,” which sort of makes sense.

Chris Brogan tells me he makes his money talking to Fortune 100 companies, but his blog speaks to small business folks. Um, OK.

Naomi Dunford at Itty Biz, just told me that connecting with others is  a great way to market until there are too many others to connect with.  That idea is not comforting.

And Seth Godin eloquently tells me to do my “emotional work,” “do my art” and “give gifts” to build my business. I love these ideas, but they don’t coordinate well with the other marketing experts I’m consulting.

My head hurts

I am living in marketing overwhelm and confusion. (Otherwise known as “marketing hell.”)

I need to get out of this place. I think I  a choice must be made. I need to do marketing that feels right to me.  No, I need to communicate with my clients and potential clients in an authentic way.  I’m starting to dislike the word “marketing,” because at this point it doesn’t mean anything.  It has all these loose definitions and so-called experts pulling me in different directions.

The thing is, I believe that ALL of their approaches work for them.  But I now know that paying attention to all of their voices leaves me confused and unable to find my OWN voice.

My voice is most similar to Seth Godin’s. I want to share my art and give gifts and trust that those people to get my vibe and want to do work with me will find me, start a conversation and we’ll build something together.

There is not one right way to build a business, a movement or change the world.  We each have a unique voice and we need to trust the right people will find us and say “hi.”

What this means to you

Enough about me, what about YOU?  My suggestion is you start to seek your own voice in your business and ultimately in how you tell people about what you do (or “marketing” as some call it).  As helping professionals we can’t be all sales-y and in people’s faces about the benefits of our services. We need to be genuine, helpful, compassionate, and a bit self-promotional to build a practice.  To me, this is part art and part science.  The science part is easy to learn, but it is the art of bringing yourself to the business-building that can be challenging.  There is a significant part of it that is confusing and overwhelming.  Which is OK and part of the process. I was able to figure that out with my practice a few years ago.  Once I pulled together the science of marketing and my art, my practice thrived.

I want that experience for EVERY helping professional because you need to make decent living and there are so many people who need your help.

Let’s find our voice, collectively and individually. Let’s call it something other than “marketing,” and move out of confused overwhelm.  The right people will find me and the right people will find you. And we will all be grateful to know each other.

If this post makes any sense to you, please leave a comment and say “hi.”  We  learn from each other best when we connect and share ideas.