4 Steps That Will Make Your Therapy brand Stand Out
If you want to attract private pay clients (or even insurance clients) to your private practice, you may need to consider how to stand out from other therapists. Knowing how you're different from your colleagues will help you build a strong therapy brand and reputation, and attract the clients who are the best fit for your practice.
To help you get started, I wrote a detailed article on the topic and broke down the process of therapy branding into 4 key steps to help you develop a unique therapy brand that reflects your professional identity, values, and strengths.
IN THIS ARTICLE
The Art of Building a Powerful Brand for Your Therapy Practice
Despite the demand for mental health services, the mental health professional field is still pretty competitive. Psychologists have competition from other psychologists as well as other licensed clinicians.
Additionally, there's an indirect competition from people who are not licensed, and who offer services that have something to do with mental health but don't require training and education.
I am not saying here that this type of competition is unfair, but it can definitely create confusion for the people looking for help with their mental health.
The trouble is that for the general public, all the nuances of training, expertise, and specific education are not really known or even matter that much.
So if you are thinking that the level of your education and training is enough to differentiate yourself from the competition, you may be unpleasantly surprised. The general public won't understand the difference between the various trainings and certifications. What they will note, however, is the language and messaging you use to talk to them.
You see, what makes a therapy brand powerful is the way it relates to its audience, a.k.a your future clients.
the importance of branding for your therapy practice
Simply put, a brand is your practice's reputation.
As a therapist, you are in full control of the type of reputation you want to establish. We know that without a stellar reputation you won't be able to generate referrals or attract clients who just found you online.
What's more, a bad reputation or no reputation at all can have a major impact on your caseload and bottom line. On the other hand, a well-defined brand can an help you stand out from the crowd, build trust and loyalty with your target audience, and ultimately, drive growth and profitability for your practice.
Specifically, here's why building a therapy brand is important:
It adds credibility to your practice. When you know the type of people you want to attract, you can create a message that builds trust.
It lets you command higher fees. When people trust your brand, thy are more likely to pay the fees you set without comparing them to the fees of other therapists.
It helps you connect with future clients faster. When you establish a reputation as an expert in your field, it shortens the decision process to work with you.
what makes you different?
I know what you are thinking right now. "My work is what makes me different". That's true. Your work, style, perspective, and method are the things that make you unique.
But this is not enough, because, for someone to recognize your distinctiveness, they need to know you already. They need to spend some time getting to know your style, method, and perspective. They need to be your client.
What I'm talking about, is standing out from the crowd of other therapists before your potential client even meets you.
How do you do that? By creating a strong therapy brand with clear goals and objectives.
Identifying your target audience and their needs
To start, we need to pinpoint the target audience for your brand.
Why? Because every successful brand has an "ideal client" persona. A population that is the best fit for the business.
But identifying this population is not enough. You also must deeply understand teh clients you want to serve. Who are they, what are their pain points, and what are their specific needs and preferences when it comes to therapy services?
Luckily for you its easier than for most brands out there. As a therapist, you have a unique insight into why your clients seek therapy and what they want most from life. In a way, your profession allows you to conduct your own market research without effort.
Once you have a clear understanding of whom you want to serve, it will be easier to put together a message that highlights the benefits of working with you in a brand "voice" that resonates with this population.
Crafting a compelling brand message
What is a brand message exactly?
It may sound like a vague marketing concept for you, but in reality it's simple. It's the main thing that you want the world to know about your practice. Your reputation will be built on something specific. What is the main thing you want to be known for?
the way to develop your brand message is through an exercise of putting together a "Unique Value Proposition" statement. This is one of the first exercises I do with my clients, before jumping into marketing strategies and tactics.
A Unique Value Proposition statement has several components that describe:
Who you work with
How you help them
Why you're the best choice for them
These elements should reflect the essence of your practice and the unique experience you provide to your clients.
After you put together your main brand message, it will become much easier to create content for your website, posts for your social media, and even listings on Psychology Today and other directories.
your brand on your website
One of the first marketing projects you'll tackle will be your website. Unfortunately, many therapists start this process before they have a clearly defined brand message. As a result, they end up with generic website with generic content.
But once you know who you want to attract to your practice and what you want to say to them (because you have a brand message!) you can easily create a tagline and content for all your web pages. With a strong brand, your website will become your best sales person that showcases your practice in the best possible way.
Moreover, you will be able to choose the visual representation like colors, fonts and images that align with your brand message and ideal client. You'll be able to tell stories through your blog that help with your SEO and connect with prospective clients.
building your brand on social media
Chances are that your digital presence will not be limited to your website only. Social media platforms, just like online directories allow you to reach a wider audience of potential clients.
When it comes to social media, it's important to choose the platforms that are most relevant to your ideal clients and where they are most active. This may include platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or even TikTok, depending on the demographics and preferences of your clients.
Once you determined which platform works best for your brand and audience, you can start posting and engaging. To stay "on brand" your posts should be closely aligned with your brand message and include informative and educational content, like as tips and insights related to mental health in your area of expertise.
You can also leverage social media platforms like LinkedIn for building connections with potential referral partners and networking. In short, social media should be aligned with your brand goals.
offline branding strategies
So far we've talked about communicating your brand through digital marketing. But you can also implement offline brand strategies.
Communicate your brand message in your physical collateral like:
Business cards
Brochures
Signage
Presentation decks
Postcards and other promotional merchandising
Similarly, your physical office space, including signage and decor, can also contribute to the overall brand experience you provide to your clients. Your customer service and your staff are an extension of your brand and its values as well.
Recap: A simple 4-step strategy for therapy branding
There's a very simple strategy that I recommend following. It fits every practice as long as it's consistently executed and practiced and it involves the following 4 steps:
Focus on your Ideal Client. This is the number one priority for any business and especially a therapy business. If you don't know who your ideal client is, you can download a free worksheet I created for my clients, the Ideal Client's Profile Worksheet. The reason I put this step as a number one priority, is because all your marketing messaging and efforts need to be directed at an audience, a specific audience that experiences unique problems and looks for specific solutions that are relevant to their lives. Without knowing who your ideal client is, your marketing will be generic and lukewarm and won't connect with anyone. In this scenario, you will be left to compete with other therapists based on price, location, and convenience alone.
Define what you want to be known for. When you have a specific problem with your house, your car, or even your health, you will most likely seek out the service of a specialist. Right?
When I had a problem with a window in my bedroom, the first google search I did was "window repair in my area". And although the service that you provide is very different from window repair, people are still looking for it in the same way they are looking for a window repairman. They search on google, ask people they trust, and read reviews. The biggest mistake that you can make is not to take people's journey to find you into account. So now that you know that people will search for very specific services and solutions, ask yourself what you want to be known for. Here're some questions to ask yourself: - What kind of search will your potential client do to find you fast? - What kind of issues are you working with (men, teens, couples)? - What are your areas of expertise in working with clients? (multicultural families, immigration issues, divorce)? Defining what you want to be known for will help you stay in people's minds and come up on search engines.
Define your main message. Your main message (or core message) is the elevator pitch of sorts that communicates clearly who you are, what you do, who you work with, and how you can help them. Breaking it down to these elements will help you understand your own role better and it will help you position yourself as an authority on a specific subject.
Be generous. I don't mean to give away your services at a discount or for free. I would not recommend that event to a starting practitioner. What I mean by generosity is, making it easy for the person who's looking for help to find the right information quickly. Being generous means anticipating the questions that your ideal client may have before they contact you and answering them on your website, social media, or a piece of content that you are creating. It means directing the person who needs help to get help as soon as possible by responding quickly when they contact you, or by referring them to another source if they are not a good fit for you. But one thing I want you to keep in mind is that you should be the one deciding on the form your generosity will take, otherwise you will find yourself spending a lot of time on phone calls that don't lead anywhere and responding to messages without booking the clients that your practice needs.
These are not the only ways to stand out from your competition, but these are the first steps that you should take. This is the foundation for building your therapy brand and uniquely positioning yourself as a mental health provider.
