How to Grow Your Therapy Practice - Complete Guide

Finding ways to market your private therapy practice can be difficult, not only because your expertise isn't in marketing, but because much of your time is dedicated to your existing clientele.

Even more, for those in the infancy stages of their business trying to capture first-time clients, you not only lack the reputation for word-of-mouth marketing, but you likely lack the capital necessary for effective advertising.

So, how do you begin to grow your private therapy business, get referrals, and ultimately grow your clientele base? In this article, we’ll be sharing several simple but effective marketing tactics for therapists that you can apply today to grow your private therapy practice and reach more people.

Marketing Tips for Growing Your Therapy Business

Upon first deciding to invest in marketing for your private therapy practice, it’s important not to get too eager or too risk-averse. Instead, sticking to the basics and finding a middle ground is likely optimal. Here’s why;

For starters, it’s the assumption that you have zero experience in formal marketing. As such, you’re likely to make more mistakes and partake in less-than-effective strategies in the beginning. By being too eager, you may fall trapped and end up spending too much time and money on strategies that won’t work.

On the flip side, by being too risk-averse, you put a limit on growth, potentially missing out on opportunities that are right in front of you.

With that said, by sticking to the basics, following the marketing tips outlined below, and pursuing more of what works and less of what doesn’t, you not only maximize ROI but you can save a heck of a lot of time, money, and headaches.

The name of the game when it comes to growing a therapy business is referrals, referrals, referrals. In what follows, we’ll explain how.

Below are five (5) therapist marketing tips, tactics, and strategies that you can employ as a therapist to grow your private therapy practice:

• Create a professional website
• Network, network, network!
• Invest in advertising
• Establish a social media presence
• Have you heard of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

Create a Professional Website

Almost all digital marketing strategies revert to your website as a launch pad, whether via ads, email newsletters, business cards, networking opportunities, or self-marketing tactics. Without a professional website, you’re all but non-existent in today’s digital world.

Outside of this, a professional website is also what allows you to build authority in the space, simultaneously helping build your reputation in the process.

Finally, and at its most basic, it’s what houses your contact information and appointment scheduling software; the crucial and final step needed to ultimately capture the leads and referrals that visit your website from your marketing efforts.

Network, Network, Network!

Networking shouldn’t be a novel idea as a private therapist. It’s been used as a means of staying in contact with the right people, meeting more of the right people, further educating oneself, and staying informed about the latest therapy and psychology-related news for some time now.

As a therapist trying to grow their practice, networking should remain a top priority. Whether it’s visiting conferences regularly, contacting doctors in your area, or visiting relevant businesses and healthcare providers to familiarise yourself with them, networking is arguably more effective than traditional marketing tactics when it comes to your industry; it’s where much of the referrals tend to come from.

Avoid overselling yourself, keep the conversations casual, and provide the necessary information to those interested, and networking will pay dividends for your professional reputation and your business at large.

Invest in Advertising

Remember, this doesn’t have to be a large investment; in fact, as little as $20 can go a long way in increasing web traffic, capturing leads, and converting those leads into paying clients.

Advertising comes in many forms, however, in this instance we would look into digital ads, newsletters, and flyers.

The idea behind advertising is to get in front of as many eyes as possible, and more specifically, as many relevant eyes as possible; i.e. your target audience. Whether you choose to send physical flyers to relevant businesses such as doctors’ offices, hospitals, and schools, send newsletters to an email list, or launch paid ads via social media, it’s all but imperative to advertise your business.

You can start off by doing things yourself, or finding a local freelancer who can take care of it for you. Either way, advertising is a must for all therapy business owners.

Establish a Social Media Presence

While it might sound youthful and silly to create a social media profile for a therapy and counselling business, social media is an extremely effective marketing strategy in today’s digital age.

Although social media apps such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or anything in between, were primarily used to share images and content with one another, it’s now a hub for business operations and marketing, with audiences of all ages eager to consume and convert.

As a therapy business, you can follow relevant accounts, share informative and valuable content, gain a relevant following, further earn authority in the space, and house digital ads straight from your social media profile.

By getting in front of more eyes, you increase the likelihood of traffic to your website, thus increasing conversion rates and turning those referrals into paying clients.

Have You Heard of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Do you remember tip #1 that suggested you create a professional website? Well, what’s a professional website if no one ever sees or visits it?! That’s where search engine optimization (SEO) comes into play.

The primary goal of improving SEO is to get your website in front of more eyes without needing to regularly pay for digital marketing - this is known as organic traffic. How do you do that? By having Google list it atop the search results (i.e. on the first page) based on relevant search terms (i.e. keywords).

To improve your website’s SEO score, you need to optimise your website copy, share frequent and valuable blog posts, and ensure the content posted on your website is relevant to your local target audience. By doing so, you increase the chances of search engines identifying your website as authoritative, giving it the best shot at being ranked number 1 on Google search results.

On top of these tips, it's always important as a business owner to protect yourself. There's no point bringing more traffic to your website and booking more clients if one claim makes that all go away (ouch!). Here at upcover, you can buy insurance that combines Public Liability, Products Liability & Professional Indemnity, perfect for those in Allied Health. Check out our instant quote generator where you can get an estimate on market leading insurance in seconds!