Better Marketing Methods for Psychologists
As marketing courses aren't usually a part of psychology education, dealing with how to market your services to people might be a real nightmare when you intend to open a private office. Especially if you don’t have a large marketing budget, you wouldn’t want to make mistakes. If you don’t have the extra time and money to discover the best marketing methods for psychologists by trial-and-error, you might want to start with some proven tactics.
I will list some stellar marketing methods for psychologists in a bit. However, before getting into more details, I would like to explain the logic behind them in a few sentences.
The most effective marketing method for psychologists is the word of mouth, namely references and recommendations. The more sources of reference you have and the more channels you’re visible on, the more efficient your marketing efforts will be. By following this principle, even though there is a bottleneck in one of your marketing channels, the others will maintain the flow and minimize its impact on your business. Within this perspective, taking networking as the focal point of your marketing strategy will be to your advantage. Here are some of the most effective methods to promote your services.
1. Maintain Good Connections with Other Psychologists
This suggestion might sound illogical as they are your potential competitors. However, keep in mind that they need you as much as you need them. Imagine you get some clients that you cannot help (might have issues out of your specialization). You may send them to your trusted connections, and in return, they will do the same for you. Moreover, you may direct clients to each other depending on the availability of your schedules as everyone can have extensively busy schedules from time to time. Being in a circle of professionals supporting each other is good for you and for your clients.
2. Maintain Good Connections with Doctors
Many people decide to see a psychologist upon the suggestion of their doctors because they tend to take doctor recommendations seriously. They also tend to make an appointment with the psychologist who is recommended by their doctors. Therefore, to be among those recommended ones, keeping communication with doctors would be a good idea.
3. Maintain Good Connections with Everyone - beyond all marketing methods
Attend the networking events involving people from various professions. Journalists, insurance brokers, actors or bankers might not be a classical source of reference, but anyone may have friends or family members who need psychological consultancy. Apart from this, you might witness unexpected advantages of a diversified network. For example, a journalist you met in an event might call you and ask for an article about your profession and publish it in a newspaper, or an insurance broker might help when you need insurance for your office. Never underestimate the power of networking and meeting new people.
4. Arouse the Attention of Local Media
This might be easier than you expected. For example, when you’re organizing an event, prepare a press release and send it to local newspapers and TV channels to see if it will be published or broadcasted. You have a greater chance of arousing local media attention if your event is something extraordinary and interesting. While preparing the press release, make sure to reveal that your event is newsworthy.
5. Develop a Strong Online Presence
In today's world, a potential client will google your name before booking a consultation with you. What they see about you on internet will have a significant impact on their decision to contact you or not. Fortunately, it is something that you can control and manage if you want to. Having a professional-looking website and social media accounts for your profession and managing them correctly will positively affect the ultimate decision of your potential clients.
As a cherry on top, positive reviews on Google and psychology-related rating websites will further contribute to your success in attaining new clients. Although it is hard to avoid negative reviews every now and then, your approach and response to them should reflect your professionalism and further strengthen your online presence.
6. Write a Blog, Write a Blog, and Write More…
You need to publish your articles on well-known websites about psychology or create a blog under your website and share short articles about your specialization. This will not only increase your recognition and visibility but also help you show off your expertise. When you start to write a blog under your website and create original content, you will see that your website moves up in search engines. Moreover, optimizing your social media accounts and sharing your blog posts on social media will help you reach out to more people. The power of the internet and social media should never be underestimated.
7. Online Ads - One of the Fastest Marketing Methods
Especially if you are new in business, it won’t be immediately possible to be displayed on the first page of the search engines, which will make it harder to attract the attention of people online. Although it seems to be a big issue, it can easily be overcome through online ads. Online ads are more affordable than traditional means of advertisement such as TV commercials or newspaper ads. They can make your website more visible to people who are in search of a psychologist using the internet, and via local targeting, it will help the community around your office find you.
However, before engaging in online ads yourself, you need a detailed technical training about how to handle it properly. IF you don’t have time to handle it yourself, you should get professional support for online ads. You don’t want to waste your marketing budget on technically improper ads that are destined to be unproductive.
8. Connect with Companies Offering Psychological Support to Employees
Nowadays, many large-scale companies provide their employees with psychological support services. If you could get a contract with one of these companies, it will help you get recognition and visibility among the employees and their families. Even though you may have to provide your service to the employees at a lower rate, it will be an excellent opportunity to gain recognition especially if you are new in your career.
Marketing strategies mentioned above are effective on most cases but might not always work for every situation. What matters is to be eager to continue with new strategies without giving up, and to be patient when seeing the results takes time. The strategies listed above are specifically beneficial for those who are new in their careers or who opened a new office. If you are more experienced, you may need to develop some more complex additional strategies in line with the location of your office, your specialization and your professional expertise and experience.
Contact us for your questions about marketing your business or book a free consulting session to discuss your needs and how we can assist you.
