Shownotes
If you’ve recently raised your fees—or you’re thinking about it—this episode is essential.
Because here’s the reality: when your fee goes up, your website has to work harder.
Not because your clients are “pickier”… but because they’re human. And when we make higher investment decisions, we naturally slow down, look closer, and seek more certainty.
In this episode, Anna breaks down what that actually means for your website—and why a “good enough” site may no longer be enough to support the level you’re stepping into.
Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:
1️⃣ Why higher fees require higher levels of trust—and how your website either builds or diminishes that trust
2️⃣ What happens in the first five seconds on your website (and why it matters more than you think)
3️⃣ The difference between generic copy and “sticky” messaging that makes clients feel deeply understood
4️⃣ How to ensure your website reflects the current level of your work—not an outdated version of your practice
Resources & Links Mentioned:
- Birthday Sale: https://walkerstrategyco.com/bs26
- Confident Copy: https://walkerstrategyco.com/cc
- Squarespace Templates: https://walkerstrategyco.com/templates
- DIY Brand Kit (DBK): https://walkerstrategyco.com/dbk
- Done-for-you Services: https://walkerstrategyco.com/services
Connect + Subscribe
Enjoying the podcast? Subscribe so you never miss an episode—and feel free to share it with a fellow therapist who’s building their private practice. Explore more marketing support for therapists: https://walkerstrategyco.com
About Marketing Therapy
Marketing Therapy is the podcast where therapists learn how to market their private practices without burnout, self-doubt, or sleazy tactics. Hosted by Anna Walker, a marketing strategist and founder of Walker Strategy Co, each episode brings you clear, grounded advice to help you attract the right-fit, full-fee clients and grow a practice you feel proud of.
Transcripts
Hey there.
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Welcome back to Marketing
Therapy, episode 67.
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Today we're talking about something
very, very human and how it
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applies to your therapy website in
particular, and your therapy clients,
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especially as you raise your fees.
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Now, a lot of therapists will raise their
fee and then inquiries will slow down.
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There's a lot of reasons for that.
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People that are up for paying.
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200 versus 100 or 300
versus one 50, right?
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400 plus a session.
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There are often fewer of them.
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So seeing a slowdown in inquiries is not
necessarily a sign that anything is wrong.
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However, sometimes the fee, the increase
isn't the issue, but the way that you
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are putting yourself out there is because
here's something that a lot of therapists
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often don't realize when they make this
decision, is that the higher your fee.
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The more trust your website has
to cultivate the bar that your
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website has to clear as your
fee increases, raises with it.
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The higher the fee, the more trust
your website has to cultivate.
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You would not expect a lemon, right?
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A card that has a whole ton of
issues and is barely driving
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to drive like a Porsche, right?
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And you cannot expect a low trust.
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Low caliber website to convert premium fee
clients simply because your rate went up.
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That's what we're getting into today.
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Now, as I mentioned, this
is not unique to therapy.
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I'm not talking about the quality of
premium fee clients versus other clients.
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Like, that's not the issue here.
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This is what we do when we
make decisions about our money.
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Think about any high investment
decision you've made.
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If you are deciding to book a $500
a night hotel for a staycation with
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your partner versus a $90 Airbnb
because you had to run back to help a
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family member in your hometown, that
experience is gonna look a lot different.
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And if you are booking that $500 a
night hotel, you are gonna read reviews,
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you're gonna study photos, you're gonna
scrutinize the cancellation policies.
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Your decision making criteria is
gonna be a whole lot different
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if you need an attorney.
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To help you with your practice or
another issue in your life, hiring
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a $400 an hour one versus a hundred
dollars an hour one, you are gonna
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be doing your research, right?
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You're gonna be looking for signals
that that person is worth it.
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But you're also gonna know
that if you decide to.
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Hire that $400 an hour attorney
that it's probably 'cause
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they're very good at their job.
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This is what this comes down to.
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When something costs more, we naturally
slow down, we look harder, and we seek
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out more certainty before we commit.
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That is not a therapy thing.
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That is a human thing.
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That is what we do with our money, and it
means that as your fee grows, as it well
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should the bar for your website grows too.
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Premium fee clients are
not pickier in a bad way.
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This isn't about vanity.
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They're just doing what any of us do.
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When the stakes are higher, they're
not simply coming to your website
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and learning about you wondering,
Hmm, can this therapist help me?
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They're wondering why this
therapist at this price.
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The higher the investment, the less your
website can afford to feel uncertain.
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That's what we're
talking about here today.
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Now, it's really important to
acknowledge that your website
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does not operate in a vacuum.
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It is not make beautiful
website, get premium fee clients.
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Unfortunately, it's not that simple.
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However that website lives
inside of a larger system.
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That system is what we call the
client conversion engine, right?
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It's the thing that turns
strangers first into inquiries
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and then inquiries into clients.
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So there's three parts of
that client conversion engine
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if you're new around here.
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The first is confident identity.
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That is knowing what you do, who
you serve, what sets you apart.
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There's confident presence, which is
how you put yourself out there and
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how you are received, and then there's
confident connection, how you're actually
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making sure people know you exist.
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If one of the elements in your
engine is weak, then the whole
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thing is gonna struggle to run.
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So today we're talking about that
confident presence piece because that
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is where your website lives and that's
where this trust gap starts to show up
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most visibly when you increase your fees.
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Now, why is trust so critical?
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I've talked about this a lot recently.
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We have a episode on the trust recession,
which I'll link in the show notes, but
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the fact is that trust is at an all
time low, and therefore your marketing's
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job is above all to cultivate it.
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People need to feel like they trust you
in order to take the next step with you.
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And we have to be really careful
about where trust is being
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either supported or diminished.
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And often we end up unintentionally
diminishing trust because
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we're focused in other areas.
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We're focused so much on getting people to
the website that we're failing to look at
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if the website itself is doing the work of
growing that trust or taking away from it.
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Now when you land on a website,
trust building starts before
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anyone reads a single word.
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Okay?
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This is where design is leading the
subconscious to make a decision.
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Studies show us that people.
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Take less than a second to make a
split second judgment about a brand
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and the halo effect, which is a proven
psychological concept, tells us that
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if it is not a good first impression,
then that plays into how this person
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perceives the brand moving forward.
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They say that you only have one
first impression, and that is true.
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The halo effect tells us that if someone
lands on your website and immediately
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has a feeling that introduces doubt,
uncertainty, unprofessional that the
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rest of your marketing is on an uphill
battle in order to earn that trust back.
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On the flip side, if they land and have
an immediately positive response to your
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website, then they have a halo effect.
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They are looking at your brand
through rose colored glasses
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in every future interaction.
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That's why this first
impression is so important.
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So that's that split second and subliminal
reaction to how a site looks and feels.
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You know, when you've landed on
a website that feels premium.
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I'm not talking about therapy,
I just mean in general.
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I have team members in multiple
different states, and so anytime we
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hire someone in a new state, we have
to initiate tax setup in that state.
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And those websites, you
know what I'm talking about?
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You pay your taxes, you land
on them, and they are archaic.
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They are terrible and so outdated and you
know the minute you've landed on one, that
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this is gonna be a not fun experience.
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Right.
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You know what I'm talking about on the
flip side, if you land on a website
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for a really premium, high-end brand
of a product that you're looking at,
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you know, or maybe a spa that you're
interested in or a another service
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provider, you know, when you're landing
on something that is going to offer an
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experience that is far more positive
than that tax setup one, right.
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You've experienced this
too, and so do your clients.
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I think therapists expect that what
clients are going to believe or
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assume about them is different than
what they would believe or assume
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about other websites they land on.
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But the fact is these are judgments
we make regardless of the service
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or product that we're seeking out.
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Okay?
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From there, from that initial subliminal
reaction, that is driven primarily by
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design, then the next test happens in
the first five seconds, and that is your
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client knowing, am I in the right place?
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Is this for me?
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Is there something specific to me here?
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Or could this be any therapist
for literally any client?
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Is there something calling out to me?
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You know the name of the game right now.
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Specificity.
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If your client cannot get a taste
of that without even scrolling,
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they have the subliminal split.
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Second design thought about whether
or not you are trustworthy and
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the halo effect that follows.
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And then we have them reading
the copy for the first time.
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Is there something for me here?
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That's what's happening
in less than five seconds.
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And this is where the copy has to start
to do its job and do that heavy lifting.
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No surprise here, but the difference
between copy that's gonna go ahead and
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build trust and copy that doesn't is going
to come down to how specific you are.
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How many websites have you landed on
that, say, does this sound familiar?
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And then it's a list of six bullets
about feeling overwhelmed and anxious,
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or relationships are struggling or.
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Your child is acting out, right?
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So, so, so generic, so, so, so
applicable to literally almost
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anyone seeking out therapy, right?
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What instead?
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Builds trust right now is
painting a visceral word picture.
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We call this stickiness in confident copy.
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But using your copy to paint the word
picture of laying awake at 2:00 AM
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replaying that conversation with your boss
and questioning absolutely everything that
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is what helps someone feel seen whether or
not they actually were awake at 2:00 AM.
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When you paint a visceral word picture, it
displays a deeper level of understanding
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of that particular client than a bullet
about feeling overwhelmed and anxious
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or second guessing conversations.
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Is about creating something visceral
and specific in your client.
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Now, when you're raising your fees,
there's also a page that I often
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recommend adding to your website,
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we actually developed a template
specific to this that was recently
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added to our Confident copy bonus
fault, but that is your fee page.
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There is a delicate dance to
communicating your fees on your website.
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Now your fees belong on your website
and we can do an entire podcast episode
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on that, so I will die on that hill.
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Assuming that we agree on that
and that your fee is going to be
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represented, we wanna be thoughtful
about how it's represented.
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You are allowed to charge what makes
sense for you for your session fees.
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Absolutely.
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This isn't about that.
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What this is about is not apologizing,
but instead positioning your fees
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as the investment that they are.
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Giving people the context and
often the education that they
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don't have to understand what it
means to pay out of pocket, what
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it means to not use insurance.
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There's a delicate balance and dance
to strike here, and so I think this is
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another spot that as your fee increases,
your website also needs to kind of meet
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that higher standard is in relation
to how you're communicating those
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fees, offering just enough education,
offering just enough context that
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your client is going to understand
and ultimately come to agreement.
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About why this fee is what it is
and be okay moving forward with it.
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Now, sometimes I see clinicians very,
very, very well intentioned attempt to
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build trust on their website, but they
end up shooting themselves in the foot,
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and that is when they overemphasize
the pain that your client is in.
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I've landed on websites before,
and the homepage is a mile
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long, which I'm not afraid of.
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Long copy.
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If you've been around for a while,
you know that, but the page is a mile
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long and you know what most of it is?
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It is just belaboring the
pain that this client is in.
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There is a really fine line between
acknowledging what brings someone
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to therapy, saying, Hey, I see the
fact that you're laying awake at
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2:00 AM and absolutely piling on
how miserable they already are.
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And so I've landed before on these
websites where I just scroll and
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scroll and scroll, and there are some
specific examples, but the story is a
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literal novel of how terrible things
are right now, a premium fee client.
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We've talked recently about the
premium fee mindset, and we can
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link that in the show notes as well.
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But we've talked about how a premium fee
client knows they are ready for therapy.
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They don't need to be convinced,
they don't need to be reminded.
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They want to see evidence that
you understand them, but this
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isn't a question of whether or not
they're going to seek out therapy.
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And when you overemphasize pain points,
you end up speaking to someone who
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needs that level of convincing, which
we know your ideal client does not.
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And so the site can become very, very
hard to connect with and so, like I said,
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that's a very well-intentioned way of
displaying your level of understanding.
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But we need to be really mindful about
how much of that we're doing and how
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much we should be balancing that with
where your client actually wants to go.
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Casting the vision, as we say on
your website of what is possible.
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Okay.
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So that's one of those mistakes I often
see when it comes to trust building.
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Now I talk to so many clinicians
who say my website for a
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long time was good enough.
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It's been good enough for a long time,
but I'm noticing a shift that is a
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huge theme in the conversations I've
been having with therapists recently.
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And the fact is that like a
simple, straightforward website,
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it can work at certain stages.
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And something is always better
than nothing for sure, but
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there's a ceiling to that.
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There's a ceiling.
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As you choose to break into higher fee
structures, at a certain point, good
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enough is gonna stop being good enough.
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And so having a website that is generic
or dated or unclear could potentially
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end up undermining the very fee you're
trying to charge and the very fee you
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are worthy of and capable of calling in.
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But we know that in a saturated market
where clients have 7, 9, 10 tabs open,
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a weak website doesn't just fail to
impress, but it can actually create doubt.
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And as we've talked about recently,
doubt is expensive at lower fees.
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People may overlook a mediocre website,
but at higher fees, they usually won't.
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And those stakes are rising
along with your fees.
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Now the most common version of this
that I see and that I talk to when
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I sit down with y'all in, you know,
discovery sessions and things like that,
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is the therapist who's decided to depa.
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So for a long time, your website
worked well enough, but you're ready
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to drop insurance, you're ready
to get focused, and your website
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hasn't yet made the transition.
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That's the most common one.
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So your website was working well enough
when referrals were flowing, when
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insurance was filling the caseload a bit
more easily, but now you're asking your
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website to do a different job for you
and therefore the website has to change.
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There's also the therapist whose fees have
just simply outpaced their site over time.
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I just sat down with a
therapist yesterday who.
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In her pre-call inquiry basically
said, I know I do really, really,
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really great therapy work, and
I'd like to be paid accordingly.
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Amen, sister.
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Absolutely.
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But when you visit her site,
it feels incredibly dated.
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There is not a premium experience
being communicated here.
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I don't have a deep sense of her niche.
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I would really have to dig around to
see myself in that website to find those
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signals of specificity and authority.
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So it's not that the website itself was
bad, but it was in no way communicating
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that high caliber clinician.
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She knew she was.
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And as she had grown in her
abilities as a clinician, her
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website hadn't grown with her, right?
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And so her fees, which she
had just recently raised, had
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outpaced the website experience.
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And she was realizing disconnect
was starting to cost her.
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So while the practice had grown and the
work had deepened, the rate had climbed.
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The website was still belonging
to an earlier version of herself.
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And then finally, there's the referral
scenario that I'll hear about sometimes,
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and that is where someone is very,
very well known in a specific niche.
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Like you get calls for this thing whether
you like it or not, you're actively
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getting clients through word of mouth.
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But you're also concerned that if
a potential client was doing some
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research and wasn't just calling you
directly off the back of a referral.
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Maybe they're weighing you against
someone else, that the website
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is likely to raise some doubts
or some questions to potentially
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undermine that decision to reach out.
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Rather than support it.
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Do you fall into any of those camps?
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Are you someone who knows your
website needs to step it up a notch?
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Are you a clinician who has stepped
into kind of a higher version of
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yourself and your practice, but
your website isn't communicating it?
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Or are you quite frankly doing really
well and really well known in your niche?
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And if all clients ever had to
do was call you, you'd be good.
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But if they're visiting your website,
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maybe you're not, if you fall into any
of those camps, that's why I created this
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episode is to get you thinking about how
much harder your website may need to work
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considering where you find yourself today.
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Considering what we know about
how clients are making decisions.
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I heard recently from one of our
done for you clients, we both
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wrote and designed her website.
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She specializes among other things
in working with women going through
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divorce and relationship challenges.
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And so she was meeting with a kind of
high-end divorce mediator, which is a
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hello, a great networking conversation.
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And the mediator noted early on in
her conversation, this was their first
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meeting, how impressed she was by the
website, how it spoke directly to a
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woman who needed to feel empowered
in this process, which is exactly
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who this client was going after.
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That is the sign of a
website doing its job.
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This clinician charges premium fees.
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She stands behind them.
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And her website is backing her
up, and this mediator called
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that out, which was really cool.
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Another one that I've heard from recently,
a clinician specializes in faith-based
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work and she heard from clients how
grateful they were that she was explicit
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about that worldview on her site because
that is what they were connecting to.
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And because the website was clear and
elevated in that regard, they were
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far more inclined to reach out to her.
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They found her because of it,
and then they trusted her before
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they ever got on the call.
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Those are signs of a website
doing its job, right.
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The common thread here is that your
website should be working so well that
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it is doing the filtering for you.
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It is doing the trust building.
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It is doing the relationship
initiating before you ever
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get on a call with someone.
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And the higher your fees, the harder
your website needs to work in order
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to make those things possible.
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Now, a lot of therapists feel after
they raise their fees or when they're
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in a new season of practice that
they just gotta go out there and
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they gotta focus on visibility.
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And you know what?
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Good on you.
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You need to have that expectation.
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Visibility is critical.
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Like I said, your website
does not operate in a vacuum.
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It's not just make pretty
website, get premium fee clients.
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But focusing only on visibility,
focusing only on traffic,
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if not followed up by trust.
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Once people land on your site and
learn about you, then that just
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leads to more people leaving.
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00:19:05,335 --> 00:19:07,705
It's that pouring water into
a leaky bucket situation that
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I've talked about so often.
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We might catch some water, we might,
but we're gonna lose a lot more of it.
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So if you're going to be out there
and investing in relationship building
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and investing your time, or your money
or your energy and other marketing
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strategies, whether that is SEO or Google
Ads, whatever it may be, please make
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sure that you are leading to a website
that you know is backing you up and not
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00:19:30,775 --> 00:19:34,195
diminishing the trust that is required
for someone to decide, absolutely,
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this therapist is worth the 2 50,
300, $400 a session that they charge.
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Promise me you will do that.
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Okay.
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It can be easy to assume that
you need more visibility, and
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sometimes that is the issue.
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Only if you are sure, first and
foremost, that the website at its
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00:19:53,635 --> 00:19:57,325
foundation, at the foundation of your
marketing is doing what it needs to do.
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I.
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00:20:00,620 --> 00:20:03,710
So I hope I've gotten your gears
turning, no pun intended, on the whole
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00:20:03,710 --> 00:20:09,360
engine metaphor with this episode,
that in this market, when trust is
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at an all time low, when it is your
most valuable currency that you can
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00:20:15,650 --> 00:20:19,475
be generating in your relationship
with clients, your website's job.
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Is to cultivate that, and the higher
your fees, the more trust required
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00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:29,090
and the more trust required, the
harder your website needs to work.
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00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:32,630
Now we have lots of ways
we help you with that.
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00:20:32,630 --> 00:20:34,520
I've mentioned our done for you services.
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In this episode, our done for you
services are currently on wait list.
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00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:41,005
As I prepare for maternity leave,
they will be opening up again.
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00:20:41,975 --> 00:20:44,675
When I return, and we'll be booking
projects for the summer and fall.
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00:20:44,915 --> 00:20:48,105
You can get details for that
walkerstrategyco.com/services.
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00:20:48,455 --> 00:20:53,375
We're also as this episode drops in the
middle of our seventh birthday sale, and
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00:20:53,375 --> 00:20:57,935
that birthday sale includes all of our
resources for creating a website yourself.
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00:20:58,340 --> 00:21:03,530
That rises to the occasion and we have
so many incredible success stories from
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00:21:03,530 --> 00:21:07,430
clients who have used our Confident Copy
program, our website templates to create
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00:21:07,430 --> 00:21:11,630
websites that are calling in clients
and that they put together on their own.
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00:21:11,630 --> 00:21:14,150
And there's nothing quite
like pushing Launch on a site.
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00:21:14,290 --> 00:21:15,700
You created start to finish.
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00:21:15,700 --> 00:21:19,840
So if you are someone who is interested
in taking advantage of those resources,
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00:21:19,870 --> 00:21:22,210
like I said, confident copy our templates.
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00:21:22,210 --> 00:21:26,560
We have our ultimate DIY bundle
that includes our DIY brand kit.
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00:21:27,100 --> 00:21:27,820
Now's the time.
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00:21:27,820 --> 00:21:28,840
You can get all the details there.
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00:21:28,840 --> 00:21:30,550
Walker strategy code.com/bs
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00:21:30,550 --> 00:21:31,360
26.
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00:21:31,900 --> 00:21:34,570
Those deals are live through
Thursday of this week.
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00:21:34,870 --> 00:21:38,410
We're also giving away a free gift with
all purchases made during our birthday
377
00:21:38,410 --> 00:21:40,420
sale, which is our Get Found Coach.
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00:21:40,750 --> 00:21:43,540
A new marketing AI tool that I generated.
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00:21:43,540 --> 00:21:46,150
It was my pre maternity leave project.
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00:21:46,270 --> 00:21:49,390
We've never offered something like
this before and it is the powerful next
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00:21:49,390 --> 00:21:51,130
step after you launch your website.
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00:21:51,130 --> 00:21:52,060
I've gotten so many questions.
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00:21:52,060 --> 00:21:54,040
Hey Anna, my website's live now.
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00:21:54,040 --> 00:21:54,790
What do I do?
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00:21:55,150 --> 00:21:57,105
This Get Found Coach is
gonna give you tailored.
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00:21:57,850 --> 00:22:01,600
Recommendations based on your location
and your niche, your bandwidth, your
387
00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:05,110
time, your energy, your money on what
you should be doing in the weeks and
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00:22:05,110 --> 00:22:06,580
months following your website launch.
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00:22:06,580 --> 00:22:08,260
So that's a free gift
we're offering this week.
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00:22:08,950 --> 00:22:14,380
Now, no matter what, if your fee
has grown or you want it to, then
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00:22:14,380 --> 00:22:18,250
the question worth asking yourself
today is, has your website kept up?
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00:22:18,700 --> 00:22:22,000
And if not, what does it need to
do to start rising to the occasion?
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00:22:23,700 --> 00:22:25,380
That's what I'm gonna leave
you with today, I hope.
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Like I said, I got your gears turning
and I'll see you in our next episode.
