If you are a counselor, coach, social worker, marriage . . . → Read More: Taming the Flood of Head Spinning SEO Advice]]>

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is vitally important to getting your website to show up on the first or second page of Google’s search engine results. If you’ve had a website for more than 2 seconds, you’ve heard this more than a dozen times.

If you are a counselor, coach, social worker, marriage and family therapist, psychologist, or other type of solopreneur with a private practice in the healing arts, talk of SEO probably makes your head spin and your stomach queasy.  It’s like smelling something unpleasant that you can’t escape.

Do-it-yourselfers like you can generally handle creating a website on a host with cool templates and a simple online editing tool.   But when it comes to taking the next steps, you lose faith in your abilities as the courage to get into things like html coding feels overwhelmingly intimidating.  The more you start researching tips, and listening to SEO gurus with favorite advanced methods, the more insecure, scared or frustrated you become.

I was asked today:
Does SEO have to be done every day, or does it last a while, like a year or so?

Well, I don’t do SEO for a living, but I am increasingly hired to write website content and  / or create a DIY website for clients — and that inevitably leads into doing or recommending the basics for SEO.  In my experience there are simple basics that must be done that should “last” as long as your content stays the same. Then there are SEO “fads” which will change unpredictably. And lastly, there are ongoing marketing methods that boost SEO.

1.  Good as long as you don’t change page content and as long as url stays the same

• meta tags, alt tags, and headline tags  (done in your therapysites editor)
• internal links from your pages to your own articles elsewhere on your site
• strategic use of keywords sprinkled through your content

2.   Current SEO “fads”, can change when Google feels like it — unpredictable

• interactivity by giving visitors things to click, do, fill out, download, watch, hear
• social media buttons and review / recommendation widgets
• blogs and other frequently new content

3.  Marketing with SEO boost juice — ongoing

• incoming (back)links from high traffic sites, like PT, Facebook, and YouTube
• Google Adwords and Google Places
• Your own YouTube channel to house videos you create
• Give-away products like newsletters, special reports, ebooks

And that’s it.  I know you can do that much.

No Hype Coaching Questions:  Before doing any SEO, do you know what your strongest 3 keywords or phrases are?  What are the secondary 9-12 keywords that your potential clients use when searching for help with their problem?

No Hype Help:  If you head is still spinning from this simplified SEO instruction, and you want some personalized training in how to get your on page / on site (#1) SEO done,  I’d be happy to walk you through that during a 30 or 60 minute strategy session.

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What I’m not in favor of is letting the template make ALL the design decisions, especially concerning:

So there’s . . . → Read More: You Need a Website — Where Should You Start?]]> The days are long gone when private practice counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, psychologists, life coaches, wellness coaches, career coaches, and naturopathic doctors can build a business without having a website.  For introverts and extroverts like, this is THE most important and most central thing you can do for the sustainability of your professional life.

So there’s no 2 ways about it — you need a website.  Probably 20 people this week have told you that.  You know it’s true, and yet — not being a computer wiz — you don’t know where to start.  Well, here’s a roadmap for you.  By the time you’re finished reading this blog, you’ll know exactly what to do.

Internet presence is an essential foundation for all other marketing in today’s world.  Everyone will have an opinion about where to start.  And my opinion is that if you:

This was the dilemma faced by one of my counselor colleagues recently who . . . → Read More: I Have a Blog — Now What?]]> Are you just venturing into internet marketing?  Have you started a blog because colleagues or friends suggested it, but now you aren’t sure how to make the best use of it, or integrate it with the rest of your web presence?

This was the dilemma faced by one of my counselor colleagues recently who wrote:  ”I have created a LinkedIn account, a PT profile; I’ve been added to the company website, and now a blog.  So, now I’m not sure how to optimize these fragmented pieces.”

Such a great question, because any counselor, coach, or ND who uses blogging as a client attraction strategy does indeed need to optimize these pieces separately, and then as one smooth whole.  Here are my suggestions about how to do that:

1.  First,  optimize each individual piece to its full extent.  There are SEO possibilities even in locator profiles in directories like Psychology Today and LinkedIn, on your individual bio on the company website, and in sticky posts and sidebars on a blog.

For optimization here, think keywords — what terms are likely for potential clients to use when searching for help to end a problem that you can treat? Use those keywords early in every / any form of web presence.

If your blog allows, be sure to make use of meta tags too such as title, keywords and descriptions that get coded into your posts so that search engines have an easier time finding your writings.  All blog platforms I’ve seen so far at least provide a way to add meta tag keywords (sometimes called labels or categories).  Ask your tech support if it’s not obvious how to do this.

2.  Next,  cross refer where possible,– you can list both the company website and the blog on LinkedIn, and add a blog feed app to your LinkedIn profile so that your blog posts (snippets) show up there.   I recommend doing that only if you will be a prolific writer and blog at least once a week.

You can also list your PT profile url in your LinkedIn profile, and put the PT “verified” icon for your profile on your blog, and perhaps on your company bio page as well.

3.  Also have Facebook, Google+ and Twitter icons on your blog.  Even if you personally don’t have an account with these social media platforms,  your  readers can still recommend reading your posts to others. Be sure to directly ask readers to do that. Mention the other platforms occasionally in your blog, and link to them in your blog content.

Sounds like lots of work, I know, but once you have this all set up, it will pay off in working for you…..like little virtual promoters on your virtual success team.

No Hype Coaching Questions:  When you add a new piece of marketing to your web presence, are you intentional about how it fits into the whole of your marketing plan?  Do you have a purpose for each piece?  Each should be supportive of the other in some way.

No Hype Help:  Whether you are focused on social media, blogging, presentations and workshops, or in person networking, marketing works best when you have a coherent plan that makes follow up simple.  For a better understanding of  creating and using a marketing plan, join the introductory webinar for the Get Clients Now! system coming up on Friday March 9th.    And for other do it yourself training, check out my brand    new webstore.

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Be careful!  You could be throwing your money away.  Some companies that tout the virtues of their special SEO tricks are doing nothing more than placing ads, connecting with questionable backlinks from foreign countries, possibly putting . . . → Read More: How to Be a Wordy Website so Clients & Google Love You]]> Think SEO is something complicated that you need to pay a high priced company to do for you?

Be careful!  You could be throwing your money away.  Some companies that tout the virtues of their special SEO tricks are doing nothing more than placing ads, connecting with questionable backlinks from foreign countries, possibly putting “black hat” code into your site that Google will penalize you for, and bringing traffic to your site that won’t ever turn into clients in your office.

The best SEO still starts with writing that you can do yourself.  Despite all the new SEO indexing  factors that Google likes to see — such as video and social media interconnectivity — content is still vital to page ranking in search results.

And content is what converts a visitor to your site into a client.

Or what causes them to decide against working with you.

Website writing is hard for many professionals.  Writing emotionally compelling content that moves readers to take an action like picking up the phone to call for an appointment is even harder.

The good news is that writing for website marketing is a skill that can be learned.  Here are the most current guidelines:

1.  Sparse content on your home page isn’t doing you any favors.  You need in the range of 350-500 words  (a recent change when 500-1000 was desirable)  on that page.  It’s really worth the effort.   Compose in Word to use the convenient word counter function.

2. Niche specific relationship building content must speak to a specific type of client about a specific thing.  Compelling content makes an emotional connection in the reader that persuades them to work with you.

3.  Keyword rich content is simple — in a conversational tone focused on the potential client and their problems, use the words and phrases they use to complain about their life.

4.  Internal links boost SEO. Internal links are keywords that naturally appear in your marketing message that are linked to further information or a helpful resource that is also on your own website.

5.  Be short.  Short words, short sentences.  Short paragraphs.

6.  Ask for the Like.  In the old days we asked for the sale.  Bottom of home page calls to action should still ask readers to call for an appointment.   But now it’s also important to ask website visitors to spread word of your site on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.  And to help them want to do so, be sure you’re providing something of value in your content — whether that’s a give-away article, report, cool photo quote, or video.

No Hype Coaching Questions:  If your website isn’t doing much to help build your private practice, it’s time for an honest critique.  Is your homepage conversational?  Is the message there emotionally connecting?  Is it keyword rich, and are there internal links with substantive resources?

No Hype Help:  If writing a marketing message that works, is good for SEO, and keeps people on your website  without feeling “cheesy” isn’t your forte, maybe my expertise as a writer and experience with web marketing can help. 

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That belief soon shifts into feeling that the key to gaining a full client load is to discover the greatest need in your community, and . . . → Read More: Want Motivates More than Need]]> It’s normal when first starting out in private practice to believe that your clientele will just find you ~~ somehow.  I call this the faith-based operating mode.

That belief soon shifts into feeling that the key to gaining a full client load is to discover the greatest need in your community, and then explain why your particular professional training resolves that need.

I call that the “ I have studied it / they need it / they will come” operating mode.

Unfortunately, marketing doesn’t work like this.  When . . . → Read More: Desire for Instant Gratification Sabotages Marketing]]> It’s sometimes said that therapists go into the psychological occupations to heal themselves.  If true, then from observing the mindset many counselors have about marketing, perhaps what’s getting treated is the driving need to have some desired something NOW — called, in diagnostic terms, instant gratification attachment.

Unfortunately, marketing doesn’t work like this.  When this instant results mindset frames your approach to promoting your business, it’s a prescription for private practice sabotage.

Therapist-turned-coach Casey Truffo, and others, have pointed out that marketing is like dating, or building a good friendship.  It takes time, energy, and an investment in attracting with your best qualities forward.

Clinging to the expectation of instant return on your marketing efforts leads many practitioners to giving up on good strategies too soon.   Consequently….

….Referral building campaigns fail because  – when you get no response from sending out 100 postcards —  you never make another contact with that mailing list.

….Social media use fails because —  when you don’t get new clients from posting great quotes once a week for a month  – you get discouraged and don’t look into how else Facebook could be used.

….Locator directory and website marketing fail because  – when your recitation (in professional jargon) of credentials doesn’t generate new cases —  you don’t re-examine and revise your core message to stimulate a compelling emotional connection with a clearly defined type of client with a specifically noted problem.

Solopreneurs in all the healing and helping arts must get clear on these points:

• Marketing is NOT about getting your name out there
• It’s NOT about getting known in your community
• It’s NOT about telling people what you do
• It’s NOT about explaining the benefits of your process
• It’s especially not saying you (like everyone else) have a warm, safe, confidential environment

Just like you shouldn’t expect to fall in love and get married by the end of a first date, good client generating marketing almost never produces instant results.  It’s a fluke when it does.

But just like courting, marketing is a relationship cultivating process that needs to be nurtured with repeated contact that brings something interesting of value to the table.

In other words, marketing requires:

• patient, strategic action steps and follow through
• focus on what your potential client population is suffering from
• giving generously of your attention, knowledge, and help BEFORE getting the client
• repeated reminders of how interacting with you feels good and helps, so your niche wants more of you

To combat instant gratification attachment as a business owner, I recommend doing 3 simple things:

1. Have a niche so you know who you’re trying to have a relationship with
2. Find the most comfortable ways for you to be a resource for them — for example:
• blog, write articles, sell ebooks
• network on social media and in person
• give workshops and signature talks
• meet colleagues over coffee and develop professional friendships
3. Commit to 2 ways to be that resource for not less than 6 months

No Hype Coaching Questions:  Where can your marketing stand more patience, or more repetition?  How, specifically,  is the desire for instant results sabotaging your efforts?

No Hype Help:  A 60-90 minute strategic consult can help you prioritize your marketing needs, identify the best methods for you to commit to, and give you simple tools and techniques to help you stick with it.

I’m borrowing this idea in reverse today to make a few points about the type of writing required for . . . → Read More: Writing for Marketing is the Zebra]]> In med school there is the adage that when you hear hoofbeats, think horse, not zebra.  It’s an idea meant to help students new to diagnosing illness to start with what’s most common first.

I’m borrowing this idea in reverse today to make a few points about the type of writing required for marketing your private practice.

Academic Writing is a Horse

Due to the labors of getting through graduate school and post-grad programs, counselors of all types become proficient  with academic writing. Even coaching programs are starting to require research papers in proper APA style.

The requirement of producing literature reviews teaches us to present a multitude of other people’s thoughts, and to be personally invisible in the written product.  We get skilled in belaboring a point and using 50 dollar vocabulary.  And we strive to impress an evaluator with our knowledge of a wide range of theories.

Often when we try to soften an academic style to use in marketing the resulting writing becomes definitional, and perfectly suited for Wikipedia.  While informative, it fails to make a strong human connection.

The Marketing Downside:   This style of writing intimidates potential clients, and turns them off.  They simply won’t wade through it. When suffering or consumed with their own problems, the last thing they will put up with is an academic proposition about the abstract value of psychotherapy techniques, or the coaching “journey”.

Academic writing is meant to be impersonal.  To a hurting or confused potential client, it’s cold and distancing. This doesn’t tend to lead them into your office for help.

How-to Writing is a Pony

If academic writing is a horse, how-to writing is a pony.  It’s virtues are that it’s short, compact, practical and uncluttered with citations for other people’s thinking.  Often appreciated for quick comprehension due to lots of bullet points, the how-to is a valuable form of writing for displaying your expertise and furthering rapport and trust.

The Marketing Downside:  While detailing your 5 step process for taming a panic attack or using abundance thinking is very useful elsewhere,  as an approach to the first encounter with your marketing  message (such as in a directory profile or on your website homepage),  it’s premature.  Save that for generating materials for your Resources page.

The Who’s Who Horse Race

Sometimes we get advice to “get our name out there”, and let the community know who we are — and we take that literally.   Being uncomfortable with personal disclosure, we give just the credentialing facts, ma’me, and load the writing with professional jargon, acronyms and references in an effort to show ourselves more qualified than the next guy.

Unfortunately, most of our hard earned achievements sound like psycho-gobbledygook to the average client who have no clue about the difference between a psychotherapist, psychologist, and psychiatrist, or a counselor, coach, and social worker.

The Marketing Downside:  The resulting writing is a self promotion that sounds more like an entry for a Who’s Who volume than a validation that you understand what a potential client is going through. Worse, it creates more confusion as the potential client is left with worry about how to make the right hiring decision when they have no idea what all your credentials even mean for them.

The Zebra

Instead of academic writing, how-to steps, and the who’s who in the healing arts entry, what you want is to be the zebra. Zebras are unusual in North America.  They stand out in a crowded field of horses. They compel attention, even second looks.  They fascinate and are remembered.

This is what you want your marketing to be.  How?   Write like you would speak to a hurting individual who is already sitting in your office.

1. Ask direct, specific questions about their pain that get them to feel seen.
2. Validate how they feel about the trials of their daily experience.
3. Reassure that you will try your best to help.
4. Talk about how it’s hard to be where they are, dealing with what they are going through.
5. Suggest what they want instead of what they currently have.
6. Tell them what to do next.
7. Provide the way to do it (contact info).
8. Lend your confidence that things will be better soon.

This is all your core marketing message needs to do.  Whether you’re writing a 200 word directory “profile” or a 500-1000 word home page, paint the zebra.

No Hype Coaching Question:  What’s your core marketing message, and in what style of writing are you delivering it?

No Hype Help:  Painting a zebra is a skill that can be mastered, but it is like learning a foreign language at first. Want help? I’d be glad to draft what you need for a reasonable fee.   See what’s available by the profile, by the page, or by the website.

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