Counseling Practice Marketing: 8 Vital Strategies You Need to Know

counseling practice marketing
 
Looking to start or improve your counseling private practice? Here are some key strategies to take home (or to the office) with you!
 
1. Create your vision: Decide what wealthy means to you.
 
For some people being wealthy means having 5 clients you adore working with. For others, it means having a huge practice with interns and a long waiting list. You get to decide and then make your plan to get there!
 
2. Resolve those old issues of money and worth quickly.
 
I hear all the time that therapists feel guilty for charging a good fee for "helping people." Sometimes it is old beliefs about money that keep our practice stalled. Sometimes we wonder if it is really okay to charge for doing something we love. The answer is simple! Come to a firm belief that you deserve to make a great living!
 
3. Determine your unique wisdom and gifts to clients.
 
Each one of us has had many jobs and experiences. In each one, we brought a little of ourselves to the table. What is that thread of wisdom for you? Do you know how to help people understand the pain of others? Have you taught people to see the beauty in their lives? Look for the thread. Find what you have to offer others.
 
4. Please specialize: Go deep into the magic of a niche.
 
I went to a networking meeting recently and heard 35 therapists introduce themselves. At least 30 (it seemed) said they worked with adults abused as children. How would I know which one to refer a client to?
 
Go deeper. "I help people who struggled with a mother's mental illness." Or "I help people who are tired of going from relationship to relationship and not finding happiness." Or "I work with executives who have used the pain of their childhood to encourage them and spur them on and make them wildly successful in business."
 
Your goal is to have people say "Hey, that's me" or "Hey, that's my sister" when they hear who you work with. Out of the 35 people at that meeting, I can remember 4 people who specialized.
 
5. Talk about your wisdom so that people say, "I want that!"
 
This is the biggie! Okay so now we know your unique wisdom and whom you help. What do you help them with? At that meeting, only ONE person said what they helped their "well-chosen" clients with!
 
Let's go back to the previous point. "I work with executives who have used the pain of their childhood to encourage them and spur them on and make them wildly successful in business. I help them have that same kind of success and satisfaction in their marriages." Wow! I can see someone saying both "Hey, that's me and I want that!"
 
6. Create a marketing plan that uses your gifts and that works!
 
There are marketing strategies to market your practice. The best ways are speaking, writing and building strategic alliances with others. Don't keep your wisdom a secret! Discover your innate marketing strengths and then put together the plan. How many speeches do you want to give a year? How many articles do you want to write? As you do this, you become known as "the expert." And whom do we all want to send our friends to but "the expert!" I take one day a week to work on my business rather than in my business. That includes working on my marketing efforts, following up with colleagues, planning, and doing my finances.
 
7. Track your efforts and your money.
 
It is important to know how your marketing efforts are working. Did you get a new business card made? (Don't even get me started on this! It is a class in itself.) Do you believe more people are calling for appointments due to the new card that helps people know what you do? Was it that talk at the rehab center or the meeting where you met that smart psychiatrist who works with your same clients? Track how much money comes in as a result of these efforts and how much money you spend on them. Then you know what works and you can get more clients using that strategy!
 
8. Take time off and love your life.
 
We tell our clients this all the time. It is so important. Recent studies show that taking a day off actually improves productivity. Get rid of what you are tolerating. Find joy. Love your life. You are a precious and special, wonderful and unique, unrepeatable miracle of God. Live your life with that knowledge and get support when you forget!