Therapist Marketing: Starting a Private Practice

If you are starting a private practice and need help with your marketing plan, we have a brand new training coming out! Click here to learn more and sign up for FREE!

Starting a private practice can bring some of the most exciting energy into your heart and body. The possibilities are endless for how you will grow and sustain this beautiful vision that you have for serving others and providing an income for yourself. That said, when you are starting a private practice, marketing can often feel daunting. Where do you start? How much time do you spend?

Let’s first set the foundation when it comes to any therapist marketing, whether you are starting a private practice or not. Successful marketing isn’t about doing all the things. It is about aligning what you do with who you are and the needs of your future clients.

We would never ask you to sacrifice your authenticity and integrity. You know what is best for you once you have the knowledge to make a decision. So, this article aims to give you what you need to get started with marketing strategies. This is assuming already that you have time for your marketing laid out, that you know your services and fees and all the parts of your private practice business plan.

Therapist Marketing Part 1: Understanding Your Client

When you are starting a private practice, it can seem that all you want is for the phone to ring or your email to be full with people who need your help. You have a HUGE advantage starting out that you get to be clear on who it is that you help. Taking anyone and everyone is a recipe for lowering your clinical outcomes and for increasing your burnout.

Ask yourself, who do you want to work with? What kinds of issues light you up in session? What drains or depletes you? Think back to the people you have worked with and start paying attention to what energizes you. That might be a good starting place for knowing who you want to work with. Not so sure who you want to work with or you fear picking a niche might eliminate everyone from calling you? Check out this free training on developing a niche in private practice.

Once you know who you want to work with, you can start researching where these clients hang out in your community and who they are connected with. Want to work with parents? Then when you start marketing you will get connected with schools, pediatricians, or family attorneys. There may be meet up groups in your area for parents too. Being clear about who we want to serve, even when you are starting out will give you the direction of where to go in your marketing.

Now that you know who you want to work with, you can start creating a message to share with the world about who you help. We teach a step by step formula on how to do this in our Business School for Therapists, but you can learn more about writing an ethical and compelling message in our free training here on Marketing Messaging for Private Practice.

Therapist Marketing Part 2: Therapist Websites

Now that you know who you are speaking to and what you want to say to connect with them, it’s time to put your marketing in action with your therapist website. Here’s the thing, you do not have to have a website. BUT we believe it’s helpful and you can do it in just one page when you are starting a private practice.

On your one page website you want to connect to the pain of your ideal client, share how you help and have a way for them to contact you either by a secure HIPAA compliant form or calling you. You need a picture of you so they know who they are talking to as well.

Simple.

“What? That can’t be!” We are talking about getting started in your private practice. You have time to add pages and grow your website. But if you wait around for it to be perfect, it’s time you are spending not being seen by the people who really need your help.

As you develop your website you will want your website to be found on google searches (known as search engine optimization SEO). But for now, get a website up and then you can update the SEO and add in more pages down the road. We have an easy peasy training for your website building needs called Websites 101 for Therapists that you can check out for more information.

Therapist Marketing Part 3: Networking and Community Relationship Building

Remember how we talked earlier about knowing the ideal client you want to work with? This is where that becomes super important.

We aren’t going to advise you to go to coffee with every person or attend some cringey networking meeting, unless you love those. When you are starting a private practice you want to start exactly where you are at, with who you already know. That’s right! Make a list of the people who already know you - professionally and personally. Reach out to them and let them know what you are up to and check in with what they are up to as well. See if there is any way that you can be of support to them, and over time, as people learn about what you are doing, they will refer to you.

Start building a referral list for your clients as well. As clinicians, we want to connect our clients with ethical and reputable people. In connecting with people you already know you can start creating a list of people who can refer clients to. You can also ask those connections if they know of people that they connect you to. For example, if you work with chronic illness in your practice, you might have some specialists that you would love to have on your referral list, but you don’t know any yet. See if someone you know does! Start asking around and get connected. (Are you seeing how knowing your ideal client impacts your referral list building?)

Heads up! When you are starting a private practice you may feel safest connecting with therapists in your area. Connect with therapists who do different kinds of work than you. You want to diversify your connections. If you work with kids, connect with couples therapists. If you work with ART or other short term modalities, connect with therapists who do long term work.

Once you have connected with people you know, then you can continue on your marketing journey connecting with people in the community by reaching out to them on their website or calling them up. But let’s make starting your private practice easier and leverage the relationships you already have.

Therapist Marketing Part 4: Therapist Online Directories and Listings

This is another optional strategy for marketing when you are starting a private practice. While your website is new, it won’t be seen right away. It’s going to take time, however directories have been around for a long time and are often a way people research and find a therapist.

There are many directory options. You want to be sure that the values of the directory line up with your business. Some might even tailor to a niche that you have - shout out Therapy for Black Girls. Fill out the directory with that amazing marketing message you created, link your profile to your website and see if the directory will work for you. We recommend trying any free trials to see if the directory gets calls for you.

Be also sure to list your business on Google. Create a profile, link it to your website, add in your compelling message with pictures of yourself and your office. It’s another way people can find a therapist in their area!

Conclusion

Yes, there are more strategies to be had, and you can learn about those in our upcoming free training. But when you are getting started, we want to keep things simple and easeful. Do these 4 things and then you are ready to advance into a more full and robust plan. We cover all things marketing in our Business School for Therapists, an online program used by thousands of therapists, just like you who are starting or growing their practices without burnout.