If you're licensed in multiple states—or practicing under PSYPACT—it can feel like you've suddenly unlocked access to an enormous pool of potential clients. But as Anna explains in this episode, the ability to legally serve clients in more locations is not the same thing as having a marketing strategy that attracts them.

In this conversation, Anna breaks down why trying to market yourself everywhere often leads to weaker results, how geography still matters even for virtual practices, and why choosing a clear primary market can make your marketing significantly more effective. You'll walk away with a practical framework for expanding thoughtfully while staying focused on the clients you're best positioned to serve.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:

1️⃣ Why being licensed in multiple states is a credential—not a marketing strategy.

2️⃣ How to choose a primary market that strengthens your visibility, referrals, and SEO.

3️⃣ Why trying to market to too many locations at once can dilute your results.

4️⃣ Practical ways to expand into secondary markets without losing focus or momentum.

Resources & links mentioned

• Confident Copy: https://walkerstrategyco.com/cc
• Done-for-you services: https://walkerstrategyco.com/services
• Episode 74: https://walkerstrategyco.com/show-notes/74
• The Walker Strategy Co website: https://walkerstrategyco.com

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: The Walker Strategy Co website: 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 coach, 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.

Hey there.

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Welcome back to Marketing

Therapy, episode 75.

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Today we're talking about marketing

when you're licensed in multiple states.

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This is something that obviously had a

huge boom post-pandemic, but continues

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to be something that I see come up a lot

in practices, and a question I'm often

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asked, "Anna, I got licensed in another

state," or, "Anna, I'm a PSYPACT provider.

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How do I get clients in

all of those states?"

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And that's a great

question and a fair one.

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You can see clients in 40-plus states,

right, if you're a PSYPACT provider,

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or you can see clients in three states

if you're licensed in that many.

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But does that mean you

actually get clients there?

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How do I get clients in other states?

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That's the question we're tackling today.

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Now, PSYPACT, Counselors Compact,

whatever it is, these sound

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like a marketer's dream, right?

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All of a sudden, your market has

increased in size by 30, 40, 50x.

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We're talking millions and millions

and millions of potential clients.

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That should mean more clients, right?

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More reach, more opportunity.

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But this is actually something I see

a lot of clinicians stumble around.

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So today's episode is really about

why that seemingly unlimited reach

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can actually end up paralyzing your

marketing, and why there is something to

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be said for staying in your lane, staying

close to home, and that kind of thing.

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This episode, of course, will

apply to anyone licensed in

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multiple states, whether that's

two or, like I said, PSYPACT 43

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or however many it is currently.

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The name of the game, again,

these days is specificity.

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We know right now in this market

that marketing is working best when

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you are clearly speaking to someone.

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So saying, "I can see clients in

40 states," you, my friend, are

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communicating a legal credential.

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You can legally see clients

in that many states.

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That is not itself a value proposition.

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It is not a reason someone would

choose you, and it doesn't actually

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mean a lot for your marketing.

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Sometimes when your potential market

is enormous, I often experience

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this when clients come to us being

PSYPACT providers in particular.

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They have this illusion that if

they narrow down into a particular

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market demographically or

geographically, that they're leaving

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money on the table because, well,

I could see clients elsewhere.

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But in the same way that a generalist

private pay practice is gonna be a

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lot slower to grow than a niche one,

the same is true for your geography.

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So PSYPACT multi-state marketing, that's

about enabling your ability to work,

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but it does not define your marketing.

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It is not itself a marketing strategy.

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That's really what I want you to walk

away from this episode understanding.

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So when we look at this and when we're

coaching students through this in

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Confident Copy Live or we're discussing

it with them in our done-for-you

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services, we're going to recommend what

we call a primary market or a home base.

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This is about basing

your marketing somewhere.

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Okay?

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When we say primary market, we mean a

geographic audience that your website

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and your language and your visibility

strategy is ultimately anchored to.

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We've been talking a lot about visibility

so far this summer, how just because

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you exist, of course, doesn't mean

you're gonna be found, and so a lot of

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your ongoing marketing is about making

sure that people know that you exist.

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We really suggest that you keep those

efforts focused close to home, even if

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you can see clients across the country.

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So we're talking your home state.

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We're talking about the state

where you have the deepest roots

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and relationships and credibility.

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We're talking about your individual

city or metro area leaning in,

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and I'm talking regardless of whether

or not you are in person or online.

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Now, in this market, as I shared in

last week's episode, I would absolutely

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recommend having an in-person location,

even if it's just a once-a-week

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sublease, because of the benefits

it allows you in terms of marketing.

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But this episode is useful

regardless of if you are online

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only or hybrid and in person.

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Now, a lot of this reasoning,

a lot of the strategy behind

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recommending a target location or

a primary market is related to SEO.

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And I'm not gonna get into the

nitty-gritty of SEO here, but it's really

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important to recognize that even if you

never meet a single client in person, even

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if you are exclusively telehealth forever

and ever Amen, geography still matters

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for your marketing and for your SEO.

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When someone wants to find a

therapist online, they often still

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append location-specific signals.

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One study showed us that forty-three

percent of people who want telehealth, who

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know that they're going to see a provider

online, still search with local intent.

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So that means something like therapist

in Florida or, you know, anxiety therapy

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in Nashville, whatever that might be.

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They're attaching a location to it

almost by instinct, even though they

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fully intend to see someone virtually.

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And Google is reading those signals.

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Google is looking for signals

of your location and also of the

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searcher's location in order to match

those and potentially surface you.

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So if your website has no clear

geographic kind of anchor or home base,

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if you're really trying to speak to

forty states at once, Google doesn't know

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where to put you, and that's an issue.

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So you end up not really

showing up strongly anywhere.

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And then there's the ranking

reality here that you cannot

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rank everywhere simultaneously.

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It's just not how search works.

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Spreading yourself across forty

states is nearly impossible.

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Ranking well in one state is

challenging when people are

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searching with local intent.

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Ranking well in 40 states when

people are searching with local

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intent is borderline impossible.

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And so if your practice is deeply

optimized for Tennessee, for instance,

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that has the language and the

pages and all the referral signals,

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whatever that might be, it's going

to surface far more reliably for

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Tennessee searches than a website that

is spread thin across forty states

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trying to be relevant to all of them.

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So even if you're online only,

when it comes to SEO, searchers are

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still using geographic language,

and Google is still treating those

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queries, even if they haven't

appended a location geographically.

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And so it is in your best

interest to make sure that your

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website is still based somewhere.

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We can't abandon geography completely,

and we also can't attempt to

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be all places at all times and

rank well in multiple states.

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It's really about finding a primary

one and then adding on from there.

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This is the greatest argument

for why you need to make sure

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that you're focusing somewhere.

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The other thing to keep in mind here

is that if you were to select your

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home state or your city or whatever

that might be, whether or not you're

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online or in person, is where you also

likely have the richest connections.

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It's also where you are most likely

to be cited in a local magazine or

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to start forming those connections.

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And the more authoritative you can

appear in a particular area, the stronger

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that presence is going to be, right?

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And so if people are most likely

going to be referring to you in

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the city of Nashville, then noting

that you are based in Nashville and

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serving X number of states or clients

in whatever other areas is going to

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reinforce that really, really well.

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Lean into where you already are.

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Your ability to be found in your local

area because of your connections,

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because of your SEO, whatever that

might be, is going to be stronger than

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your ability to be found by a client

on the other side of the country.

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Now, obviously if you have a physical

location, even part-time, even that

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once-a-week sublease like I was talking

about, there's your primary market.

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Done.

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Done and dusted.

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If you're online only, that's where

things get a little bit trickier.

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But it's important to think

about where you already have

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the most referral relationships.

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That's probably gonna be where

you're physically located,

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but it might be different.

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I've talked to two clinicians who,

you know, were based in California

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and then moved to another state and

continue to base their marketing

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out of California because of their

well-established connections there.

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You can think about things like

where your niche population is going

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to be concentrated geographically.

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We don't need to get too specific here

because quite frankly, there is likely a

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caseload full of clients in any area of

the country to fill your niche practice.

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But if there are areas of the country

where people may need your services

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more, that is worth thinking about.

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I wouldn't let that take priority

over your own relationships,

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but something to think on.

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You can think about places where you

have personal credibility, right?

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Lived experience, maybe where

you went to school, cultural

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knowledge, whatever that may be.

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And again, I would think about this at a

secondary level, but are there areas that

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have demand and perhaps less competition?

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Now in this market, chances are just about

everywhere feels saturated to you, but it

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is possible that there are some pockets of

the country where you are well-established

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and and that don't have as many therapists

serving the niche population that you do.

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So those are a couple things to

think on if you're fully virtual.

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Chances are it's going to be

where you're physically located

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or where you have previously been.

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But this is where we see

kind of your niche and your

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geography start to work together.

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What I'm gonna suggest and kind

of caution you against is choosing

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a market just based on where you

think there's less competition.

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Because, again, if you don't have an

authentic connection to that place,

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if you don't have any established

relationships, it's likely not

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gonna serve you particularly well.

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I would rather you base yourself out of

the place where you have the deepest roots

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versus where you think it's strategically

more lucrative, if that makes sense.

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Now, if you establish a primary market,

you can still see clients in other places,

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so what do you do about those, right?

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So you have your primary location.

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You are based in Nashville.

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You are based wherever you decide on.

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What about the others?

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My suggestion here, when boiled

down, is essentially wherever

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you want to get clients, market

as if you were physically there.

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Be as there in those markets as you

would be if you were in your primary one.

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So this means that we're not just gonna

be spraying and praying across 43 states.

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It means you're gonna be really

thoughtful about the secondary or

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tertiary locations that you choose,

and engage thoughtfully, strategically,

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relationally in those places

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Oftentimes that might mean

joining the local Facebook

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groups for clinicians there.

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That might be reaching out to establish

some relationships with other clinicians,

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either adjacent or same niche as you.

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Starting to form connections with other

providers who in your primary location are

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already serving as fruitful relationships.

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It's going to be very, very relational.

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Now you can also make some changes as

it relates to SEO and your website.

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You can create individual pages of your

website for the different states or

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metro areas that you're focusing on.

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You know, making sure that your

directory profiles are reflective

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of those other zip codes.

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Making sure that anytime someone lands

on your website, it notes based in X, but

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serving clients in, you know, X, Y, and Z.

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So we absolutely wanna make sure if

someone from a tertiary location or from

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a random state that you are technically

licensed in lands here, they know

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you can serve them, but recognizing

that the majority of those folks are

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likely to be in your primary market.

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So if you decide, "You know what?

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I wanna go after clients in X market,"

choose that market thoughtfully

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and then go after that market

as if it was your primary one.

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So it's about being really

thoughtful about that expansion.

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Again, just because you can serve

clients in all of these states doesn't

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mean that they just suddenly know that

you exist or going to come flocking.

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They're gonna find you because

you've engaged in thoughtful

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marketing around them.

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Okay?

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I wanna highlight here that

the sequencing matters.

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When you are thinking about how to

expand and how to market yourself,

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engage, invest, lean into that

primary market first, and then be

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thoughtful about those secondary

and tertiary ones that come after.

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Primary first, build that up strong.

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Build a presence there, because trying

to build presence in five, 10, 15

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states is how you end up with a just

watered-down spray and pray approach,

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and that's what I don't want for you.

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The deeper you can go in

individual markets, the more

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successful you are likely to be.

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Now, everything we're talking about

today is running through your website.

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Like, that is the core home base of

your marketing that is communicating

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to your primary market and your

secondary and tertiary ones that

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you are available to serve them.

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It is the asset that is anchoring

you where you belong and making sure

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that when someone lands there, they

know if you are able to serve them.

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We need to make sure that your location

is mentioned strategically, thoughtfully,

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and consistently across your website,

homepage, about page, specialty pages.

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All of those need to make very,

very clear what your primary,

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secondary, and tertiary markets are.

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We need to make sure that regardless of

where they are located, they are landing

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here and getting a sense of your niche

and determining whether or not you're a

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good fit for them aside from location.

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Okay?

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This is all based in your website.

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If you know that your website is

not speaking clearly to a primary

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audience, start there before

we even get into primary and

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secondary and tertiary locations.

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Okay?

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You can be super str- super strategic

about your location marketing, but if you

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aren't clear about your audience and your

niche first, we're gonna have an issue.

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So start there, and then you can start

building on these additional strategies

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The clinicians who are doing well

right now got clear on that first,

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and then added on things like location

and SEO and individual strategies,

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like what we're talking about here.

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This is a cherry on top strategy to

the foundational client conversion

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engine that you need built regardless.

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So please know that.

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Of course, we wanna start there.

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Now, like I said at the top of

the episode, PSYPACT, multi-state

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licenser, it's a genuine advantage.

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How cool that you are available

to serve all of those clients.

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But it is only going to be useful

for you if you use it strategically,

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not as a headline, not as a value

proposition, and not just thinking,

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"Well, because I can see clients,

those clients are going to find me."

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You're gonna have to be intentional

about who you're going after and where

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you're going after them in order to

bring in clients from other states

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So if you're wondering what to do

about your multi-state marketing,

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pick that primary market first.

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If you're in person, you

already know what that is.

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If you're virtual, consider

what that should be given your

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established relationships and the

competition around your niche.

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Build your website around your ideal

client, and then go after those

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clients in those markets really,

really thoughtfully and strategically

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Don't let the idea of being licensed

in multiple states masquerade

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as a marketing strategy, okay?

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It is not itself a marketing

strategy, but it does point you

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in some really cool directions.

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It does open you up to new opportunities,

but only if you do it thoughtfully, okay?

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I hope this one was helpful for you.

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See you in our next episode