Many psychiatrists, therapists and counselors rely upon word-of-mouth and referrals to drive patient acquisition. In today’s digital environment, marketing online is an absolute must not only because it’s a competitive market to be in, but because most people these days begin their search for services and products online. Your website is your online business card, but if you’re looking to become successful online then it will take more than just having an website. You’ll want to place your information on directory sites like Psychology Today and have an active social media presence as well — for many, this can seem like a daunting task.
Do any of these sound like you?
- You’re just starting out with your treatment facility or private practice, you have a nice website, but you’re not sure how to get people to it?
- You’re not sure where to begin creating content, how frequently you need to create content, and struggle with what to write?
- You have content, but feel like no one is reading it and aren’t sure the best strategies for distributing that content? Or worse yet… didn’t realize you need a distribution strategy?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re definitely not alone — AND you’ve come to the right place!
While some may consider these difficult challenges to overcome, I implore you to get excited about about the marketing technology that’s at our fingertips these days and not be hesitant or scared about embracing it. Let’s dig in a bit.
Behavioral & Mental Health Digital Marketing
As you consider what marketing strategies to explore and implement, the first thing you’ll want to do is identify your patient personas and consider your patients digital journey which will absolutely include research online.
Patients need guidance and access to information that speaks to why you’re different and what sets you apart from your competitors. This is where content becomes critical — especially video content. In 2017, 74% of internet traffic was video and that’s only expected to increase.
Clinicians, therapists and counselors have a huge opportunity to connect with patients and their families on a more personal level through video content. The best part of this, is that it’s available to prospective patients 24/7/365 — you’re essentially able to market people on a personal level while you’re working and sleeping!
A great example of a Therapist who is crushing video marketing and social media is Kati Morton, who has been producing video content on YouTube for 6 years. If you’re not familiar with her, I suggest you spend some time checking out Kati’s entire YouTube channel, but for now here is an example video of her speaking to those looking to heal from an Emotionally Unavailable Father.
The structure of Kati’s videos are great, as she immediately shares the topic of her video, welcomes new viewers to her YouTube channel, reminds people to subscribe to alerts so you’ll know when new videos are shared each week, sometimes recommends resources and then digs into the topic of the day.
At the end of Kati’s videos, she usually leaves you with actions to take relative to the Patient Persona she’s talking to, she adds another CTA (Call To Action), in this case it’s to leave comments in the video below, and there are links to other related videos at the end such as her Emotionally Unavailable Mother video. I absolutely love her YouTube channel. You can follow Katie on Instagram and Twitter as well, where she has over 20,000 followers.
What is Inbound Marketing And Why Is It Important?
As defined by HubSpot, a leading inbound marketing and sales software provider, “inbound marketing is focused on attracting customers through relevant and helpful content and adding value at every stage in your customer’s buying journey. With inbound marketing, potential customers find you through channels like blogs, search engines, and social media.”
When people are looking for services or to buy products online, most start out with an internet search and that’s why making it easy for patients to find you online is so important. It’s not enough these days, however, to simply have a website with some photos.
Your website should include frequently updated content such as a blog, resources and video — this is because you want your website to be engaging and a place where patients feel that they’ve come to the right place, that you’re speaking right to them and that you can help them.
Action Item: Take a look at your website and read through the content on your services page. Does it use I and talk about you? Then it’s time to do a little updating so that your content speaks to what your ideal patients are feeling and how you can help them — this is where going through a patient persona exercise is helpful.
Content Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Social Media
When developing your inbound marketing strategy, there are three main areas to focus on and those are creating quality content, optimizing that content for search engines, and then distributing that content through social media.
One area where many organizations fall flat is the distribution of their created content. Just because you create it, does not mean people will come. The same amount of time, if not more, should be spent on distributing the content that you create.
Content Marketing & Patient Personas
Content marketing involves the creation and sharing of online content such as blogs, long-form website content (very important for Google rankings these days), videos and social media posts. When creating content for your website and for social, you’ll want to take some time to define your Patient Personas — a patient persona (also known as a buyer persona or avatar) is simply a fictional description of a particular patient type — i.e. Alcoholic Adam, Bipolar Becky or Codependent Cody.
Why is this important? Because when you’re creating content — either written or video — you’ll want to be speaking to that particular type of patient and their specific needs. Doing so, will actually make it easier to create content and will help you create better and more relevant content. If you’re speaking to everyone; you’re speaking to no one.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO as defined by Moz.com is “the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.” While this may sound scary to many behavioral health practitioners, it really doesn’t have to be. For those looking to DIY, here is Moz’s Beginners Guide to SEO.
Why Is Video An Important Part of Content Marketing?
Video marketing is becoming increasingly more important piece of content marketing and the statistics are astounding. Therapists, counselors, addiction treatment facilities have a unique opportunity to connect with patients and their families and build a sense of trust before they even pick up the phone or walk into your facility.
Let’s take a look at some of the statistics. According to Social Media Today:
- 500,000,000 people watch Facebook videos everyday
- In 2017, 74% of all internet traffic was video
- Mentioning the word ‘video’ in the subject of an email increase open rates by 19%
Getting Started With Video Creation
The good news is, that you don’t need much to actually get started with video. You can absolutely get started with your smart phone, a mini-tripod, inexpensive microphone and basic computer editing software like iMovie.
Another bonus is that there are great resources on YouTube from people who have accomplished much success in this area that you can learn from too. Two great resources that I recommend are Sunny Lenarduzzi and Amy Landino.
Here are a couple videos from Sunny and Amy about starting a successful YouTube channel and the best videos to make when you’re just getting started.