Like any other business, your private practice needs an ongoing flow of clients to keep it successfully running. But you may be wondering, “how do I attract more clients and keep them flowing?” This is all any therapist with their own practice can hope for. Luckily, there are a number of ways in which you can achieve this. In this article, we’ll talk about these ways so that we can help you get your business overflowing with clients! Let’s go.
- Know your ideal client
Knowing your ideal client is the first step to a great marketing strategy. Clients usually assume a specialist is a generalist, but they never assume a generalist to be a specialist – in other words, if you do everything, they will not put as much trust in you to deal with a particular issue.
You can specialize in one area or a few but refrain from being a jack of all trades. Do you specialize in couples therapy? Trauma? Anxiety & Depression? Once you figure out what you want to specialize in, it will be easy to figure out which type of client will be the best fit for you. Once you know who you want to work with, targeting them will become easier.
- Have a good website
When you decide who you want your ideal client to be, ensure that the copy on your website is specific to them. For instance, would they be able to know in five seconds that you do couples counselling? Or that you specialize in trauma therapy? Don’t have general messages or quotes, making your potential client work to have to find out if you’re right for them.
When visitors arrive on your website, they immediately ask themselves two questions:
- Am I in the right place?
- Can this person help me?
Once they have affirmed the above questions, they should then see that you have the necessary training and the proven results (testimonials) to help them.
- Write blogs regularly
Following the topic of websites, posting regular blogs on your website helps you build credibility and gain more clients. How does this help you get more clients? Three words: Search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is simply the process of making it easier for potential clients to find you on google when they do specific searches.
Once you know what your ideal clients are searching for, such as some of their issues/pain points, you can put those keywords in your titles and the content of the blog itself. This helps google to match what they are searching for with your blog post, and this in turn helps you to attract more visitors to your website once they click to read your blog.
- Make booking and payments easy
Imagine you have a great website with blogs that attract many interested visitors, but when visitors show interest and attempt to book an appointment, your booking process is difficult or tedious. If the booking process is unnecessarily complicated, it can drive potential clients away. You don’t want this!
You also want to make it easy for your existing clients to book. A successful practice is not only about obtaining new clients but retaining existing ones. According to industry reports, it costs 5 times more to attract a new client than it does to retain an existing one.
So, encourage both your future and current clients by providing them with easy access to your services.
- Have a social media presence
Having a social media presence can help you to get more clients for the following reasons:
- It can raise awareness about your practice.
- You can more easily connect with other local brands.
- It’s a great platform to share information and learn more about your potential clients.
- It creates a sense of trust in your potential clients and they get to know more about you and your practice.
- Creates credibility.
Provide valuable information. tips, and shared links to other resources on your website.
Always consider what your ideal client might want to see on their feed; consider what they may want to know from you. But be careful not to over-promote. Social media is all about building connections.
- Referrals
Don’t be afraid to ask your current clients for referrals. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that if you give great service they will automatically refer you. Of course, great service is part of it, but asking can go a long way.
Also, investing the time to network and make personal contacts can help boost your practice.
Create business cards and share them with others such as doctors, clergy people or other professionals, and even other therapists (if you specialize in an area they don’t).
- Connect with insurance and other service providers
Getting your practice registered with an insurance company or other service providers is a great way to gain more clients, quickly.
- Directories
Listing your practice on local online business directories or therapist-specific directories is a great way to market yourself and your practice, and a wonderful way to find new clients as well.
There are many paid options, as well as free options. Directories such as Psychology Today, Open Path, and Therapy Den are great options to get started.
- Utilize email marketing
Email marketing is another way to get more clients for your private practice by engaging with your current and potential clients, and referral networks.
There are plenty of free email marketing platforms to choose from such as Mailchimp or Mailerlite. Create the perfect lead magnet to attract your clients, and invite them to subscribe to your email list. Once they’ve subscribed, be sure to send regular emails that are filled with valuable content like tips and tricks or free resources that will benefit your potential clients.
Conclusion
Marketing for your business can be a headache for some, but it doesn’t have to be. There are many easy strategies you can put in place to attract more clients to your private practice. We suggest choosing a couple (or all) of the 9 ways we discussed in this article and start implementing them today.
Unsure of where to start? We’re a team of skilled virtual assistants ready to help you get started!