5 marketing trends private practice owners should know about

Key Points

1. Relationships are key to all business goals
2. Authority is more important than social media (affiliations, media, public speaking, guesting on podcasts or blogs, books, longer form content that shows your expertise brings the right kind of audience, helps your SEO) Don't bend yourself out of shape to fit with social media trends create stuff you are proud of and use social media to get more eyes on it. 3-4 times a week is fine unless you are inspired to create more AND it is OK to take breaks. It is far more important to have a well thought through strategy that builds your authority and reach than to show up relentlessly on social media.
3. People need longer to consider their purchases, give them the time and space (free consultations, free trials, open days)
4. Email lists are essential create freebies that you can offer to people when you are doing the authority-building activities I just talked about. That way if someone has seen you speak for example they can then download your freebie and join your mailing list to keep in touch.
5. Specialising has never been more crucial there is so much noise on social media it is unbearable. In order to stand out and build that authority you really need a specialism.

Useful Links

Client Checklist 2021

Psychology Business School

Episode on specialising: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/e30ee22c-128a-4343-adce-d0063b0e8512

Episode on authority building: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/27c69a61-a513-4e5d-9991-64bc6962f778

Epsiode on blogging: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/2e15439d-31c8-49da-b5cd-20f6c6bd721a

Hello and welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast.

Today I'm thinking about the marketing lessons that I have learned already

in 2023 because things are changing fast, and I think it's really important

that we adapt our marketing strategy to keep pace with those changes.

I'm recording this at the beginning of 2023.

And it is already clear that what worked in 2022 and 2021 is not going to work

in 2023, and that is partly because of recession psychology and the fact that,

whatever the numbers are showing in the economy, the mindset of the public has

very much shifted to a recession mindset.

And if you joined me for the challenge that we did at right at the beginning

of January, then you already have.

Have heard my thoughts on recession psychology and some of the

adaptations that we need to make.

But over the past few weeks, even since we did the challenge, there has been some

evidence emerging about what is working and what does not work so well in our

marketing at the beginning of this year.

And I thought I would share some of those learnings with you here.

there are five things that I'm gonna talk to you about today, and

I think that they're all equally, I.

But the one that I would do first is the one I'm gonna start with today,

and that is about relationships.

So you will have heard me talk on this podcast before about how crucial

relationships are for marketing a private practice or an online

course, or any other venture that a psychologist or therapist might.

Want to get off the ground.

Relationships are the key to everything working.

If you know people who already know, like, and trust you, who know that you're

an expert in what you do and are willing to talk to their friends about you.

You are unlikely to ever really struggle to fill up your private practice so long

as those people are the right people that come into contact with your ideal client.

So if, if you need to do some work on that professional network that network

of people who can refer to you and that you can refer to, then I would

really urge you to go back and listen to the podcast episode I recorded on

that exact subject and get stuck into.

First, because this is the type of marketing that never goes anywhere.

And what we are seeing at the moment in 2023 is huge fluctuations in

how do social media platforms work.

We're, I'm hearing some chatter about the way that Google works changing,

and I think we, we are seeing.

, all kinds of difficulties with paid advertising as well, and I'm not

saying that any of those things are bad or that we shouldn't be doing

them or that they're not important.

I'm just saying that I wouldn't build my business strategy on one of those things

working for me, even though a couple of them do really work for me at the moment.

I think the thing which can't be taken away from.

is our relationships with other people, and it will always be true

that when somebody's looking for a mental health professional, they

will prefer to work with somebody that has been recommended to them.

So the first thing we all need to focus on in 2023 are the relationships that

we have with people that could refer to us and people that we want to refer to.

, so tick that off your list first.

I would recommend making a monthly date where you focus on it for, you

know, a couple of hours every month, making sure that you are maintaining

and building that network of people.

You really won't regret it.

But like I said, there's a podcast episode already that will walk you through that,

so I'll link to that in the show note.

The second thing I think we need to really be focusing on in 2023 is our authority.

Your authority as a professional is far more important than

your presence on social media.

Activities that can build your authority are the activities which

show that you know your stuff to the general public or to your ideal.

specifically, it's stuff like affiliations, organizations

that have a little bit of cudos already with the public.

If you can show that you are linked with them, then that is very much

likely to give your credibility a boost.

If you are still working in the nhs, say that you're still working in the NHS on

your website, that gives you credibility.

If you are working with a charity, talk about that on

your private practice website.

It gives you credibility if you are working with one of

your professional bodies.

If you have a role within, say, the BPS or one of the other professional bodies,

mention that it, it all makes you look more authoritative and more credible.

The same can be said for media appearances.

Now we know, or you certainly do, if you've listen, listened to the

episodes of this podcast with James Waterhouse or Rachel Spencer, that you

get in touch with the media and offer your professional expertise to them.

Most of.

Time, but that isn't generally how the public perceive it.

It, it is true that if we see somebody on b BBC breakfast or in a newspaper

that we respect, that we assume that they have a level of authority that

we associate with that media outlet.

It's called the Halo Effect and it's worth benefiting from.

So being in the mainstream media is becoming more important

doing things like public speaking, guesting on podcasts or blogs,

writing your own books, writing your own longer form content

that really shows your expertise.

, that could be blog posts, YouTube videos, any of that cornerstone content that

we've spoken about on this podcast before.

And again, I will link to those episodes that allows you to really

demonstrate that you know your stuff.

No writing 500 words and then saying, Hey, if you like this, Book an appointment

with me, like actually giving people the benefit of your expertise and telling

them something meaningful in that content is what we need to see right now.

Perhaps people have been recommended you and are checking you out and need

to know that you know your stuff.

This is crucial in the current market because people are

being much more cautious about where they spend their money.

So they need to know that you're an expert and if you don't have

anything demonstrating that they're not gonna be confident enough

to spend their money with you.

It also is likely to help your search engine optimization, and that means.

, like where you show up on the page on a Google search, it's

likely to be helpful with that.

So the good news is I think it's less important now to try and

jump on social media trends and.

Try and get in front of as many people as possible on social media.

It's much more important to create stuff that you are really proud of

that demonstrates your expertise, and then use a bit of social media

to try and get more eyes on it.

And I would say based on the experts that I listen to about social media and the

courses that I'm doing at the moment.

Posting three or four times a week on social is absolutely fine unless you are

inspired to create more content than that.

And it's also completely okay to take breaks when you are

tired or you're burnt out.

I mean, personally, I haven't had the easiest start to the year

ever and I have had to take some breaks already from social media.

and it hasn't done my engagement any harm at all when I come back.

So I think whereas the algorithms before used to really promote consistency, now

it's much more about quality and putting stuff out there, which is optimized

for the platform you're posting on.

So it's way better to create something long form that you're really proud of,

and a couple of great social media posts.

Really listen to the way that the platform you're posting on works and

use those to promote that content rather than trying to churn out loads

and loads and loads of content and all of it falling a little bit flat.

I'd also say on the point of content creation is it's much more

important to have a really well.

Through strategy for your marketing that focuses on building your authority

and your reach than it is to just show up relentlessly on social media.

So, In order to help with that, I'm recording another episode called Your

Marketing Machine, which is all about how you create that strategy that's gonna work

for you so that you don't feel the need to kind of waste your time showing up.

over and over and over again on social media platforms and never really

building that authority behind you because authority really is the key.

It's not just about showing up willy-nilly all over the shop dancing and lip syncing.

Thank goodness, right?

I think we can all breathe a bit of a sigh relief about that.

The third thing I wanted to mention here links to that point about authority, and

that is because people are being more careful with their money at the moment.

They need longer to consider their purchases and they often need a

bit more handholding before they can decide to spend money and in

the context of a therapy practice.

I think for me anyway, Is going to mean offering free consultations again.

So we did an episode last year where I talked about my relationship

with free consultations and I stopped offering them for a while.

I used to offer them in the early days of my practice.

I found they were a bit problematic.

I wasn't very good at holding the boundaries and lots of people

would have a consultation and then not go forward to therapy.

So I stopped doing them as an experiment, and my practice did much better actually

when I wasn't spending my time doing that.

, but then I noticed when I restarted my practice back in November when I

came back from maternity leave that actually a lot of people were, were rec

requesting to have some time with me before they went ahead to book sessions.

And that those people that I met more often than not did then

go on to book therapy sessions.

And I thought that probably that is to do with this recession psychology and people,

even though they do have the money.

And I talked a lot in the challenge about.

Trying to make your marketing speak to those people that

actually do have the money.

Even in this difficult time, even the people that do have the money are feeling

more cautious about where they put it.

And so to expect somebody to do that without having had any contact

with you at all, unless you've got a really established reputation.

Can be tricky.

And because I'd had a year out and I'm in a new area where I didn't

really have that kind of established reputation behind me, it seemed

really important to offer that again.

And I think that might be common to a loss of people's

practices from what I'm hearing.

So if you're not offering free consultations at the moment, it might

be something to consider if you're not seeing as many referrals as you'd like.

Another way in which this principal has impacted on my business is on

the psychology business school, my membership, because I've, I

think three years ago I offered a free trial of psychology business

school or a one pound trial, sorry.

So that people could come in and have a look before they decided to buy.

I've, I never did that again until.

This month and this month, I thought that I would open up to my entire email

list the opportunity to come in and have a look around the membership for just

one pound for seven days so they could have a look at all of the courses that

we have, our start and grow roadmap.

Our roadmap to a successful online course.

All our master classes, they could come along to a weekly coaching

session get to know the community.

The only thing they couldn't do is download our suite of legal

documents, because that's something I had to hold back because of the

intellectual property of the lawyer that created them, and the fact that

they, they literally cost thousands.

So I couldn't give those away for a pound.

. But other than that, it was a completely kind of no holds Barr access to the

membership because I had this inkling that a lot of people would be in this position

of kind of wanting to come on board in the membership, really serious about growing

their practice and possibly listen to this podcast and felt like I, you know, I might

be the right person to help with that.

but I couldn't really expect them to make that decision without fully

knowing what they were gonna get.

And I know a lot of us when we start out in independent practice, won't

have ever been part of a business membership before, might never have

done a marketing course before.

So you've really got no frame of reference for what you're gonna get

on the other side of that purchase.

So I hadn't inkling that people might really need a low cost way of

having a look around the membership.

And I was definitely right.

, it's one of the most successful.

Promotions that I've ever done.

So I think that that's another kind of road test for this theory that people need

to come in and see what they're gonna get.

So if you've got an online course or if you've got a membership, I would really

consider letting people have a look at, at least part of what you offer in a

bit more depth as part of that customer.

. So you could do that in a number of ways.

So if you've got a membership, a free trial might be appropriate

or a one pound trial.

So that you've got that psychology already of buying rather than

just inviting people who might literally just want a nosy around.

I think that could be a good way of doing it.

If it's an online course, you could do an open day.

where you invite people to, to come along for just one of the master classes

that you run or just one module of the course you could open up to people.

There are a few different ways of doing it, and I think it's really

worth considering if there is some way that you can offer that.

If you've got a book, could you give away the first chapter?

Lots of different ways of approaching this but I think people need that

sneak peek before they make a decision.

The fourth thing I wanted to bring to your attention, and I talked about this

a lot on the challenge, but I think it's so important for everybody that

I really wanted to mention it here.

Is the email list.

I think it's really essential that when you are doing those authority building

activities, maybe you are public speaking, you're guesting on a podcast, or you're

providing a guest blog that you have something that you send people to, like

a free downloadable, where they give you their email address so that you

can contact them again, building up.

Bank of people who are interested in your specialism, who are in your

ideal client group, it gives you so much flexibility in your work.

It means that if you ever decide that you want to launch an online

course or a book, you have people waiting to buy that from you.

And that's extremely valuable, both for now and for the long term, for your

long term strategy in your business.

So I'd really urge everybody, whatever your.

Goals to start thinking about how you could create something that

gets people onto your email list.

And there are loads of clever ways of doing it.

So say you are public speaking, you can put a QR code onto one of your slides,

which people then, you know, snap with their phone and it takes them straight

to your free downloadable signup page.

So you can make it really easy for people to join that mailing

list wherever you meet them, whether it's at a networking event.

, whether it's a speaking event that you are doing or whether it's when you're

guesting on a podcast or doing a guest blog you can even put links into your

own books if you're publishing books.

So it's a really good idea to do that.

And obviously you'd put it across your socials and in

your email signature as well.

The fifth thing that I wanted to mention, is specializing . Please, please, please,

if you haven't already, it's such a good idea to know your specialism and

then to be really clear on the client group that you are trying to attract.

Right now, it's never been so crucial because there is so much

noise on the internet right now.

I, I dunno about you, but I, I'm kind of finding Instagram a little bit unbearable,

because there are so many experts trying to tell me how to live my life.

all the time.

So I tend to tune out the generic ones and I think most people are doing that,

whereas we get excited to follow people who are providing content that speaks

exactly to us with the struggle that we are most concerned with at the moment.

I don't think there could be a more important time to specialize.

It also makes it much, much easier to build that authority that we've been

talking out throughout this episode.

So.

, if you haven't got your specialism yet, I'm gonna link to the

episode that I did probably way back in 2021 about specializing.

And I'd really encourage you to listen to that and get clear on on your specialism.

Now, if you've got any questions or comments about this

episode, please do let me know.

I'm over @rosiegiderthorp on Instagram, or you can find me in

our Facebook group, which is now called the Psychology Business.

Toolkit.

So do come and find me over on Facebook or Instagram and let me know what

you thought of this episode and any takeaways or any questions that you