Growing your private practice is one of the hardest things about being an independent psychologist or therapist. Your patients likely won’t need your services forever, so it’s important to have a strategy in place to get a steady stream of new patients. Choosing the right private practice marketing strategy focus upfront is crucial to long-term success.
Here’s the problem for many psychologists and therapists: Traditional marketing practices aren’t going to cut it anymore. Gone are the days of opening the Yellow Pages to search for a local business.
If your private practice marketing strategy isn’t primarily online, it’s time for a digital marketing overhaul for your practice. Here are some reasons why:
- 97% of all consumers go online to find a local business (BrightLocal)
- 93% of all online experiences start on a search engine (SearchEngineJournal)
- 63% of consumers primarily use a company’s website to find and engage with businesses (Local Search Association)
- 30% of consumers won’t consider a business without a website (SearchEngineLand)
But here’s the good news: We’ve cracked the code on what it takes to get a consistent inflow of new patients for your private practice online.
The benefits of digital marketing for a private practice are many. In this section, we’ll discuss 4 reasons why your practice should invest in digital marketing. Below are reasons why your private practice marketing strategy should be focused on digital channels.
Extremely Targeted Campaigns
Getting in front of your patients can be very challenging with traditional marketing, like radio, billboards, and tv. The problem is you waste money on the viewers and listeners who don’t want your product.
The beautiful thing about digital marketing for a private practice is that only your potential patients with intent or interest will find your practice. With SEO and Google Ads, your practice can reach potential patients who are searching for services just like yours.
It Costs Less Than Traditional Marketing
The main reason digital marketing is less expensive is because you’re only reaching people interested in your services. This type of marketing is called “inbound”, that is, your patients searching for your business. “Outbound” marketing, for example, could involve you purchasing a magazine ad or billboard. Most of the people who see your ad on these traditional mediums most likely don’t have any interest in being your patient. To be blunt, you’re wasting your advertising dollars when you advertise to everyone.
Trackable Campaign Metrics in Real-Time
One of the biggest benefits of digital marketing for a private practice like yours is the real-time campaign metrics. With digital marketing, you can set up analytics on Google to see exactly which medium is driving the most people to your business. This is especially useful when you’re not quite sure which digital marketing channel to be on.
Proven Strategies to Grow Your Private Practice
The final benefit of digital marketing for a psychologist’s private practice is that we have a proven process that produces results for our clients.
Finding a marketing strategy that works can take a lot of time and resources. Fortunately for you, we’ve already done that and have built a system to grow your private practice! Our strategies typically can include the following:
- Online audit – We’ll review how your website strategy is doing compared to your fiercest local competitors
- Website build or overhaul – To be successful online, your website needs to be both beautiful and strategic
- Search Engine Optimization – Our SEO strategies will drive quality patients to your practice each month from Google maps and Google search
- Google Ads – To compliment our SEO strategies, our Google ads will only target patients who want your services
- Social Media Marketing – Our social media marketing strategies will further enhance our SEO strategies and position your company in front of your patients and potential patients
Whether we incorporate just a few or all of the above strategies, we can build a patient-generating machine for your private practice.
Grow Your Private Practice
TherapyByPro is an online mental health directory that connects mental health pros with clients in need. If you’re a mental health professional, you can Join our community and add your practice listing here. We have assessments, practice forms, and worksheet templates mental health professionals can use to streamline their practice. View all of our mental health forms, worksheet, and assessments here.
Author: Anthony Bart
Anthony Bart is a huge mental health advocate. He has primarily positioned his marketing expertise to work with mental health professionals so that they can help as many patients as possible. He is currently the owner of BartX, TherapistX, and TherapyByPro.
