When it comes to building your therapist or counselor website, the ever-changing online environment can make marketing feel like a frustrating challenge. Just like following evidence-based processes are key to being a great therapist, making strategic, data-informed decisions can help you integrate optimal digital marketing best practices for efficient and less time-consuming results that help grow your practice.
1. Connect with your ideal clients using empathetic, easy-to-understand copywriting
- Use short, concise chunks of text rather than long, run-on sentences that are difficult to read. Generally speaking, people’s attention spans have shortened significantly over the last decade. When you’re creating content for your website, aim to write at a seventh-grade level.
- Clarify psychological terminology. When it comes to your therapeutic orientation, it may feel like second nature to use “jargon”. But the truth is, your clients may not don’t understand these terms. It’s important to clarify any psychology terminology or provide links for more information. Be sure to tell your prospective clients what working with you will be like.
- Share small parts of your personal story. One of the best ways to connect with clients, readers, or your audience, is by using storytelling. Storytelling is a personalized approach that can help make people seeking therapy feel more comfortable reaching out to you. It’s also an authentic marketing approach and compelling to read. Offering potential clients information to help them understand who you are, why you’re passionate about what you do. Ask yourself, “how would my colleagues describe me and my work?”
2. Use consistent branding
Branding is researching, refining, and implementing distinctive features to your business so that potential clients can associate your brand with your services. As a therapist, the word branding may feel very “corporate” or “business-like.” However, branding plays an important role in connecting with clients. A lack of intention, unmemorable marketing materials, or an unclear identity will ultimately result in a struggle to attract clients.
Building your brand identity requires a few things:
- Identifying your ideal client(s)
- Understanding their pain points
- Clarifying your value proposition. How do you provide a solution to your clients’ pain points?
Once you have identified these concepts, consider the following:
- Make a list of keywords that resonate with your ideal clients and would be things they are searching for in search engines like google.
- How do you want them to remember you and your practice? What feelings and thoughts do you want to evoke?
- What kind of message do you want your clients to receive? Think about what inspires your work, and infuse it in your website through copyrighting and imagery.
- A color palette that reflects the feelings you want to evoke in your clients. Pick a few colors to use on your branding images, like logos, business cards, and your website.
3. Incorporate easy-to-use navigation
It can be easy to forget that people don’t always visit your website on their computers. Making your website mobile-friendly is one of the best things you can do for your practice. Fortunately, it’s simple to do. A “responsive” website, or in other words, mobile-friendly, is good to keep in mind. So whatever template you decide to use, make sure it’s responsive (most are these days). This also helps maintain consistency and gives a boost to your search engine rankings.
4. Clear and easy-to-use call to action (CTA)
A core piece of your online marketing is your “call to action.” This is where you encourage your website visitors and potential clients to take action, whether it be to contact you or book an appointment. When you provide them with an easy-to-use and find button to take that action, you help your prospective clients easily connect with you. This in itself helps simplify your clients’ lives by making it easy to book their appointment or get in touch. You can also weave this welcome invitation throughout your website’s messaging.
Example: “Ready to take the first step in your healing journey? Book a free 15-minute phone consultation”.
Then, include a link to your therapist scheduling service (such as SimplePractice or Jane) or your contact page. Make it as easy as possible to reach you. If it’s unclear or frustrating to schedule a session, many clients will leave your website without contacting you.
5. Include links to your professional profiles
If you’re not incorporating links to your professional profiles yet, now is the time. This allows your readers to connect with you and get a better understanding of who you are. Consider including links to your:
- Social media pages (which should also reflect your brand)
- Professional profiles, like your Psychology Today profile
- Any professional organizations you’re a part of
- Any other therapist directories you’re in
Don’t forget to add a link to your website on these profiles as well! This is an easy-peasy search engine ranking boost.
6. Use a professional headshot that reflects your personality and approach
If you don’t have a professional headshot, consider hiring a photographer. Once you have a good quality photo, it’s time to put it on your site. Whether you decide to put it on your “about” page or your landing page, ensure it’s professional quality. People are much more likely to connect with a genuine photo of you or your office space.
7. Include a strong “about” page
Your readers and potential clients need to feel like they know you before doing any business with you. Having a strong about page is essential in building trust. However, it’s important to remember that your about page isn’t “about you”. While it’s a space for you to provide info about yourself, it should be written in a way that serves your potential clients. Take the time to establish that you understand their challenges and struggles they’re facing, and make it crystal clear that you have the solution.
8. Maintenance & security
It’s essential to take the steps necessary to keep your WordPress website secure and working as intended. The WordPress Maintenance & Security Package is for therapists and counselors who currently use WordPress as their website platform and provides additional security measures to protect their websites from hacks, malware, and server intrusions. It takes care of these routine tasks so that you can focus on what matters to you most.
Therapist and counselor website design with WordPress
Day is New Creative works with both new and established practitioners to create custom therapy and wellness websites. We have options for every budget that will help you become more “findable” online and grow your business. Your website will be custom designed to reflect your signature strengths and specialties. We help reduce the stress of online technologies and put your website to work for you! To learn more, Request a Quote or get in touch.
