There’s a lot of pressure to be visible all the time.

Post more. Show up more. Keep going.

But what if the marketing that actually works for you doesn’t need you to be constantly ‘on’?

In this episode, I’m talking about a steadier way to get found. The kind that keeps working long after you’ve finished writing.

If you’ve ever wondered whether there’s a calmer way to build your practice — this one’s worth a listen.

You don’t need to be everywhere.

You need to be recognised.

LINKS

Check out The Framework First Blogging Method

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If you found this useful and fancy fuelling the next episode, you can buy me a coffee here buymeacoffee.com/janetravis

What if the blog that you wrote months ago is still doing more work for your practice in the post that you shared yesterday? Now, in this episode, I'm talking about why blogging keeps working for counselors long after it's been written, and how that can take a lot of the pressure off your marketing.

Welcome to the Grow Your Private Practice Show. I'm Jane Travis and I'm here to help you to get found by more of the right clients with simple doable marketing, especially blogging. So each week I share practical tips to help you to grow your practice with clarity and confidence. And today we're exploring how blogging keeps working for counselors long after it's been written.

So let's dive in.

Hello, hello, hello and welcome back and if this is your first time here, it's great that you found us out. You're having a great day so far. Now, I want to start with something reassuring because there's something really grounding about knowing that something you did months ago or even years ago is still doing its job for you.

You don't have to keep nudging it. It's not asking you for constant attention. It's just doing what it was created to do. And that is what a good blog does. And that's what I want to talk to you today because the blog that you wrote once can keep working for you long after you've written it. And that's not true of most other marketing.

So this episode isn't about blogging tips as such. It's about something a little bit more fundamental and important. It's about, it's about relief. You know, that feeling of relief that you have when your marketing keeps working instead of constantly needing to restart it and coming back from a standing start, if you like.

Now I want to be really clear upfront because I am not anti-social media. You know, this isn't going to be a rant because I've used social media. I still use social media. There's definitely still a place for social media and for some counselors it can play a really brilliant supporting role, helps people to get a feel for who you are, but.

Usefulness is not the same as suitability and what matters is whether it's still the right place for you to be putting your time and energy 'cause marketing itself is a long-term commitment. So the way that you do it deserves a regular review because platforms change, how people use them, changes and what you need from your marketing changes too. Now I know for me, social media has become so much harder than it used to be. It changes so often. It's hard to keep up with all the changes. So sometimes the most sensible move isn't to double down and try harder and to learn new things, but it's to pause and ask yourself, is this still earning the effort that I'm giving it now, something that I hear a lot is this, you know, counselors telling me that they're posting regularly or that they're sharing thoughtful things or that they're trying to show up, you know, with little, little air quote things properly trying to show up. Properly, and yet there's this nagging question underneath it all.

Is this actually helping the right people to find me? And that doubt really matters because when you don't trust that the effort that you are making is adding up to something solid, then your confidence takes a hit. And you start to second guess yourself, or you might start to change direction or you blame yourself. Have you ever done this where you blame yourself and think, oh, it's my fault.

I'm not good enough. I can't work this out. I'm not good at tech, or I'm not good at at marketing. And then you tell yourself to push harder. And what happens there is your inner critic is having an absolute feel day. Or you tell yourself that you just can't do it, and you stop altogether, and that is just so sad.

That is just so sad. Please don't do that. At that point. It's easy to assume that you need to have a better strategy, and often what you really need is a strategy that's gonna work for you over time. Not one that constantly resets the clock every day. Now most social media content is designed to be seen briefly and then replaced.

Now, like I say, I'm not here to bash social media, but it is what it is. That doesn't make it bad, it just means that it's short term, and that means that if you stop posting, then your visibility stops. So if you take a break, the work pauses you and there's very little carryover. So you know that feeling when Monday rolls around and it's like you've never posted anything before?

Yeah, that happens all of the time. But the good news is that blogging isn't like that. A blog doesn't rely on constant output to keep going at his job once it's published. It keeps contributing to your marketing, contributing to your business, contributing to your bottom line. It keeps on letting people know who you are, where you are, and how you can help them.

And each blog that you write builds on what's already there, so you are not starting again. Every week you are building something, and that cumulative effect is where the relief really starts to show up.

Now, just to be clear, when I talk about how blogging works over time, I'm not talking about needing to write dozens of posts before anything happens. That's not the case, and there's no magic number of how many blogs you have to have written. But what I mean really is that there's a cumulative effect to this.

So every blog gives the right person another way to recognize themselves in your work. So one blog might speak about a worry that they've been carrying for a while, and another blog might help. To put something into words that they've not really been able to explain, and then another one might help them to feel less alone with it and normalize the problem.

And then another one might address a fear about going to counseling that then makes it more simple to reach out without that fear. And each one of these increases the chance that somebody lands on your website and thinks, wow, it's a little bit like this person's written. This just for me now I still get inquiries from posts that I wrote years ago, back when I was still figuring it all out. Half the time. I don't even remember writing them, which is kind of, it's sort of a mixture between really being encouraging but also a little bit alarming. 'cause there's stuff out there, can't really remember writing, but it kind of proves the point because what matters isn't the volume, it's the intention. So a blog doesn't vanish after a few hours. It sits there on your website waiting to be found when somebody's actively looking for help. So someone might find a blog that you wrote years ago, you know, late at night when they're searching on Google, or when they're trying to make sense of something personal or when they're deciding whether counseling might be something that's going to help them.

And that blog introduces you before you even meet them. So here's the question I want you to sit with. What would change if you started writing with the expectation that something you publish today will still be helping someone years from now? So it kind of means that. You know, past you previous, you sits down and writes, but future you gets these inquiries that come through and that's kind of, it's like time traveling really.

Now I'm gonna lean into a gardening metaphor for a moment, so just, just stay with me here. Social media can feel a little bit like planting something in a pot, and you have to carry that pot around with you, and you're constantly moving it into the light or checking on it, or giving it a little bit of water and constantly nurturing it and checking whether it's doing well enough.

But blogging is different. You know, with blogging it's like you plant something once in the ground and you let time and consistency do the work for you. You don't have to hover over it every day checking out why hasn't it grown? And sometimes a blog brings you an inquiry and you, like I say, you genuinely can't remember writing it.

And I can tell you now that that feels. Absolutely amazing that what you wrote made a real difference. Either way, it's doing exactly what it was meant to do. Now I hear different versions of this from counselors, so they might tell me that clients have mentioned a blog in passing when they're sitting in the counseling chair. Or they might refer to something that they read months ago. Or they might say that reading that blog helped them to feel ready to get in touch.

In fact, recently a counselor, I know Julie said, I've had my blog mentioned several times by new clients, and one even printed it out and brought it to me. I mean, how cool is that? I mean, doesn't that prove how powerful these things can be? Now that blog had clearly done a lot of work before the session had even began.

And I experienced this myself when I was in practice. You know, I always used to ask new clients how they chose me. And the thing is they didn't say, oh, because you've got the most qualifications. 'cause most people just, they just don't, you know, they're not really bothered about that. But they did talk about something I'd written.

And that's not passive marketing. Sometimes people think that blogging is quite passive. It is definitely not passive marketing. That's a blog that's doing exactly what it was written to do to help you to get found by the people that you love working with, so that they'll come and work with you. You'll help them.

That will feel fantastic and you're gonna be earning money. So there's a real difference between showing up consistently and consistently resetting your visibility because with short term marketing, every pause comes at a cost. You know, if you take a step back, the work stops. So if you are poorly or you go on holiday, look at you, oh, God forbid we have Christmas, and then you have to start again, and you have to start again almost from scratch.

And over time, that's, that's bloody exhausting. But blogging offers a different experience. Each blog stays just exactly where it is. It keeps contributing. It keeps building on what's already there. So the question shifts from, can I keep this up to, what would it be like to build something that doesn't disappear when I step away?

Now getting found isn't about being everywhere. It's about being recognized. You know, a strong blog acts as an introduction. It shows people how you think, how you work, and who you are for, and that's gonna help them to save time, and it's gonna help to build confidence in you. Because that's something that starts the therapeutic alliance, and that's something that starts to lead to more inquiries and more of the right people that you love working with.

So there's a choice here. You can either keep putting energy into visibility that disappears quickly, or you can build something that lasts. So look, getting found doesn't have to mean pushing harder or being everywhere, thank goodness. Sometimes it means creating something solid that keeps working long after you've written it.

So if blogging feels like a good fit, but you don't want to spend hours second guessing what to write or how to structure it, well look, that's exactly why I created the framework first. Now framework first gives you a clear blog framework that's designed specifically for counselors. So you can write with intention, you can save time, and build blogs that keep working for you over the long term. So you don't need to blog more, you just need to blog more deliberately. And I'm talking about once a month here. So I'll put the link in the show notes. So if you want to take a look at it, go and check that out. Now if you've enjoyed this episode, and I really hope that you have and you want to support the podcast, there's a buy me a coffee link in the show notes. Now this helps me with the behind the scenes bits and keeps me talking into a microphone in a room by myself, which I'm very grateful for. So thank you for listening, and if you've got value from today's episode. Please make sure that you hit follow so you don't miss the next one. And you'll always have a little bit of encouragement waiting for you in my podcast feed.

So look, that's it. Have a fabulous, fabulous week and I look forward to speaking to you soon. You take care. Bye-bye.