Are you looking for some concrete tips to build your therapy or counseling practice and get more full fee clients? Are you confused why other therapists have full practices or waitlists, but your phone isn’t ringing often enough? Does the business and marketing aspect of private practice allude you?
In this article, I will cover the Top Tips To Build Your Therapy Practice.
What can you do to attract more best-fit full-fee clients to your private practice? Following are some top tips to fill your practice and generate more business:
- Invest in a professionally-designed therapist website
- Make connections with other therapists
- Join Psychology Today and optimize your PT profile
- Join other therapist directories
- Network with complementary providers
- Join local therapy groups
Let’s dive in to understand what specific steps you can take to fill your practice and your phone ringing.
1. Get a Professionally-Designed Therapist Website
The single best investment you can make in your practice is hiring a professional to design your therapist website. Your therapy website should be built to be your #1 marketing tool.
Your therapy website should capture your voice, showcase your brand, attract your ideal clients, and create the foundation for a powerful marketing strategy.
Here at Cris Roskelley, I design websites for therapists that are:
- HIGH-CONVERTING
- SEO-OPTIMIZED
- BUILT WITH MODERN AND BEAUTIFUL DESIGN
- WRITTEN WITH COPY THAT CONNECTS AND CONVERTS
If you already have a website, here’s an article that will help you make changes to your website to get more clients.
2. Make Connections with Other Therapists
Therapists are always looking for good therapists to add to their referral list. Practice an abundance mindset rather than a competitive mindset because there are enough clients for everyone.
How to network in an authentic way that doesn’t feel gross, desperate, or sales-y? Think about what you can do for THEM. Instead of approaching networking from the viewpoint of how they can help you, consider how you can help them. For example, if you are an anxiety therapist and are reaching out to a fellow anxiety therapist, you could put together a brief list of your favorite anxiety books that you have found especially helpful (either as a clinician or for your clients).
3. Improve Your Psychology Today Profile
Review your PT profile, and tweak as necessary. Your PT profile should speak to your ideal clients’ pain points rather than be full of “I’s” or resume items.
Start your PT listing with a specific question to grab the attention of the reader. Why are they searching for a therapist right this minute, and what do they need to hear to know that you understand and can help?
To effectively stand out and write an attention-grabbing PT listing, you need to understand your ideal client avatar. This article will help you define your ideal client avatar so you can craft the specific language needed to connect and convert the person skimming through hundreds of PT listings.
Limit your expertise to 2-3 areas rather than listing the kitchen sink. People want a specialist, not a generalist.
4. Join Other Therapist Directories
In addition to Psychology Today, many therapists receive regular referrals from other directories such as:
5. Network with Complementary Providers
What other providers is your ideal client seeing? For example, if you are an anxiety therapist, your ideal client might regularly visit a massage studio, psychiatrist, tea house, primary physician, or exercise studio. Make a commitment to connect with these businesses in your community either virtually or in person.
Build your reputation and referral network by thinking about what you can do for THEM rather than what they can do for you. For example, if you are a therapist specializing in postpartum depression and are reaching out to an OB-GYN, you could put together a brief list of your favorite books that you recommend for this clientele.
6. Join Local Therapy Groups
Many cities have specific therapist groups which you can often find on Facebook or through your local professional association such as the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT). These groups can be a great source of referrals.
Growing Your Private Practice Reach
I hope today’s post showed you specific actions you can take to get more clients in your therapy practice. If you want a beautiful website that converts, branding that attracts your best-fit clients, SEO-optimized website copy that connects with your ideal client, a strategic lead generation system to create a steady flow of clients, or SEO to drive more traffic to your website, contact me today. I have helped hundreds of private practices just like yours attract full-fee best-fit clients with less effort.
