You Don’t Have to Be a Fraud to Market Your Practice

You Don’t Have to be a Fraud to Market Your Practice Just be yourself – it’s much more effective! Just share what you know, like you do with your current clients, everyday. That’s it.

I know.

You hate the idea of marketing. You feel like a sleaze; like an impostor. You DO NOT want to do it.

Take a stroll with me down memory lane. Hearken back to your grad school days. Remember Holland’s Hexagon from Career Counseling class?

Here’s a reminder in case you’ve forgotten.

Holland’s Typology: Career Choice is an Expression of Personality

Do you remember which category therapists fell into? It was the one whose description was:

“Prefers activities that inform, develop, or enlighten others. Examples: teacher, counselor.”

That personality type, by the way, is “Social”—a label you may or may not have related to. Most therapists (me included) identify as introverts. But that is not what I’m talking about here. (Okay you can modify it if you want: The “Introverted Social” type. Fine. Makes no difference for where we’re going.)

But really, doesn’t this one fact hold true more than anything else you learned in that career class? You do inform, develop and enlighten others while sitting in your therapist’s chair, yes?

If You Teach Your Clients…

I have really, really good news for you. (And if not, you might want to consider another career. That innate desire that drove you to grad school in the first place—that has you giving yourself high-fives after a client leaves because you know they really got it—is the same exact desire you need to be able to market yourself more effectively than ever. In fact, in being yourself, in teaching others, you will market yourself better than 95% of therapists do.

All You Need to Do is Teach

No need for sleazy marketing ploys. No need for slick salesman tactics. Authenticity, actually, is good economics. You can be YOU.

(A look behind the scenes: Teaching is what I’m doing now. With you. In this moment. And I hope I’m not coming across as a sleaze-bag.)

Holding Everything Close to the Vest Doesn’t Work

There’s a marketing revolution going on in some really smart circles. It called “content marketing”. It can be done both offline and online.

The premise is: People don’t buy just because you hit them with a sales pitch, no matter how great your flier, brochure, directory listing, or PowerPoint presentation. You can’t promise things and not deliver. Likewise, people don’t buy because you graduated the top of your class from Really Prestigious University in No Matter Where or that you use the Guggenheimerschmidt technique to achieve amazing results.

In order to engage with you, potential clients need to

Feel understood for who they are
Feel that you get their particular problem
Believe that you can assist them
Get help in overcoming their hesitancy
Know that others have come before them
Feel that the risk in starting is minimal
See you as being different, in some way, than the rest of the folks out there.

On the internet, they’re saying “Content is King”. Give people something valuable. Give them a non-threatening way to get to know you, and eventually, they’ll end up in your office waiting room.

Psycho-education is King (or Queen)

For us therapists, “Content” is “Psycho-education”. Can you:

Enlighten people about the ways in which depression manifests itself?
Give parents help in dealing with troubled teens?
Educate people about society’s contribution to body image problems?
Instill hope in couples that they can recover from an affair?

I’m thinking you can do at least one of those. Or bring some other neat knowledge to the table. Am I right? But, if I tell them what I know, why would they come see me? Good question! Because they feel seen by you. And they need hand-holding, structure, accountability. And most of all, people want someone else “in it” with them. That’s why.

(Another peek behind the scenes: I’ve told you things I know. Hopefully, you feel that I understand a little about you, and what your problem is. Do you feel like continuing this “relationship” with me?)

Okay, So Far, So Good. But How in the Heck Do I Provide PsychoEducation?

Another great question I thought you might ask. All you have to do is to write short articles. (Like the one you’re reading right now.)

Read some more of our free articles and you’ll get a good idea. There are a number of free articles available on our site. If you want access to more great information, subscribe to our New Generation Practices Newsletter, and keep yourself at the leading edge of psychotherapy practice building.