Therapy Marketing Solutions Podcast
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Hosted by
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Frequency
Two times a month -
First Episode Date
November 1, 2022 -
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Listen to Therapy Marketing Solutions Podcasts
Will Be Soon Available On
Therapy Marketing Solutions Podcast
On this podcast, our host Heather Jensen, owner of Therapy Marketing Solutions, brings real-world applications on how to market your practice, diffuses the mystical power behind marketing, and meets with everyday clinic owners to discuss what is working for them in their marketing to help them grow thriving businesses.
On this podcast, our host Heather Jensen, owner of Therapy Marketing Solutions, brings real-world applications on how to market your practice, diffuses the mystical power behind marketing, and meets with everyday clinic owners to discuss what is working for them in their marketing to help them grow thriving businesses.
Meet our Podcaster
Heather Jensen
Mother, Wife, Advocate, StoryBrand Certified Brand, Marketing Guru, & Podcaster
About Me
As a mom with kids who have struggled with speech and one with Autism, ADHD, and anxiety taking
kids to therapy has been a part of my life in one way or another for the past 18 years.
These opportunities
have taught me a great deal about therapy-based clinics and endeared me to the hardworking
professionals that own them.
Combining these experiences with a Bachelor's Degree in Web Design and Development, a certification
as a StoryBrand Certified Guide, and many years helping small business owners build successful
businesses has given me unique insights to help therapy-based clinics.
This ultimately fueled my passion
to open Therapy Marketing Solutions, a marketing agency that helps clinic owners build thriving, vibrant
practices.
Therapy Marketing Solutions Podcast Transcripts
Episode 21: Heather Jensen
Heather: [00:00:00] Hey, everyone, this is Heather and you're listening to the Therapy Marketing Solutions podcast, where we are going to take the mystery out of marketing and we're going to meet therapy clinic owners to discuss what is working for them in their marketing to help them grow thriving practices. You don't have to figure this all out on your own because when we all work together, we're able to build something amazing and in the end serve clients better. So let's get started. Welcome, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Therapy Marketing Solutions. We are excited or guess I should say I am excited. I'm you know, I'm used to having a guest on my podcast. And so when it's just me, it's just me. But you guys get the best. Okay, I'm going to start that over. That was crap. Um. Welcome, everyone, to another episode of Therapy Marketing Solutions. I am excited to be here today, you guys. The topic is near and dear to my heart. As I as maybe some of you know, maybe some of you don't know that. I initially started my venture into marketing as a web designer, and so websites have always been near and dear to my heart. They are my bread and butter. I love them. I love building them. Um, so they are one of the my, my loves, my passions. So we are talking about websites today. A question I get from a lot of people is what should I have on my website? Like, what's the purpose of my website? What should we be doing? A lot of businesses make the mistake of just slapping a bunch of information on there and then calling it good, and that really doesn't do much for you.
Heather: [00:02:01] It's kind of a placeholder, in essence, a digital placeholder, if that's the the direction that that someone takes. So there are things to have on a website that will help you to engage with your ideal clients and that will get people excited to work with you because it'll also warm the relationship. They'll understand exactly what you do, what services you offer, and when it comes time, they're going to have less questions. They're going to be like this. This is a good fit. Okay, So I'll tell you kind of a back up for half a second and tell you a story. So like I said, I am a web designer by trade, by training initially, obviously I've done more training to to offer additional marketing services. But web design is where I started and, you know, building websites, super excited about it. Love it. Gorgeous websites. Get my first couple of clients, I was actually doing contractual work in the beginning and I would meet with clients and they would be like, Well, I mean, I would ask them. I would say, Hey, if you could just send over all your content for your website, then I'll design it out. And they'd be like, What do you put on a website? And after about getting that question about five times, I just stopped and was like, What do you put on a website? Like, what is the purpose? What is actually supposed to go on there? I know how to make it look gorgeous.
Heather: [00:03:31] I know how to make it function. But I did not know what to put on a website and I am not one to to not have an answer for someone. If I don't have an answer. And I can't say that I have an answer for everything, that's definitely not it. But if I don't have an answer, I'm going to go and figure out the answer. So I actually, as some of you know, I am a storybrand certified guide, and that's where this really came into play. So I'm a web designer. I don't know what goes on a page. I can't help my clients, which I love helping people. I love, like giving people knowledge, sharing knowledge. And so that really, really bothered me. And so then I discovered Storybrand and Storybrand was a great way. It just it really broke it down into very simple terms. These are the things you should have on your website. This is how it's going to help you. Obviously, one of the big things with Storybrand is that you're not talking about you, your business. You are talking about how you solve your customer or client's problem. And so when we talk, when we are communicating on our website, we need to make sure that it's not just like I went to school and I got a master's degree and I, you know, been doing this for 25 years, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Heather: [00:04:57] Right? Because that's what people are going to do. It's kind of going to be like Charlie Brown's teacher, my mom, my mom. Okay, maybe I didn't do that, right? If you have a good Charlie Brown's teacher impression, send it to me. I'd love to hear it. So. Let's talk let's break this down in real terms. What do you put on a website? Well, there's a couple of different things that you put on a website. And this doesn't have to be like your home page. This is the website. So not all of these sections will go on your home page. Many of them will, but some of them we save for different pages, your bout page or your service page or where it makes sense. That's where we put it. So first off, on a website, you absolutely have to have a good header. You have to in some way catch their attention very quickly so that they want to continue reading. So that's number one and that goes across all pages. You need to have a good header and each of those headers for each of those pages should obviously be in line with with your core messaging. So you don't want to like go off into right field and totally be like, What? They just confused me.
Heather: [00:06:11] They were talking about you know, green and now they're talking about purple or something like that. Um, talking about unicorns. And all of a sudden we just started talking about narwhals, right? So we need to make sure that it's consistent, that it is on brand or on theme. Write your website. Everything. All of these different parts need to be consistent on theme. So we've got our header. Our header needs to very quickly do a couple of things. It needs to tell them exactly what services you offer. Tell them how it'll benefit them, what will their life look like afterwards, and then of course have a call to action. So most likely that's going to be a button. You need to have a button. Put a button. I've got another whole podcast on call to Action buttons. Check it out. I won't get on that soapbox about that today. Go and listen to the other podcast. So those are the three things they need to understand exactly what you do. Very quickly, you've got very like like seconds to engage with them, to be clear as to what you offer. Once we are done with the header or once we have that header, then we need to talk about what's at stake. This is something that a lot of websites miss out on. They miss the opportunity to talk about what is at stake. What I mean by that is they fail to to highlight what it looks like if they don't work with like if you don't work with the business.
Heather: [00:07:53] So for example, if you were a PT like a physical therapist, this what's at stake is that they may continue to be in physical pain if they do not come to you or if you want. This is an opportunity to differentiate yourself from other physical therapists. If you have some certain process or system, they may continue to, you know, maybe there they wonder what's going on or they just they get a couple of, um, physical therapy sessions without any luck. So maybe it's about the process, Maybe you have an amazing process. And so they will continue to kind of again, it boils down to that, that their life is, is they're still going to be some kind of pain. They may not understand their diagnosis. Maybe they're not getting to the root cause of of the pain. Maybe they're someone's just trying to fix the the top layer of pain versus figuring out what is actually truly causing the discomfort or pain. That because if you don't fix the root problem. Right, you're not going to fix it. So, um, there's a couple things that we need to be careful of. Obviously, you don't want to get like. Too far in the doldrums. Like depressed people and get. But you definitely need to have. Like, just poke at the pain point. Poke. We're not hitting. We're not slapping the pain point. We're poking at the pain point. If you were baking, this would be the salt in the recipe, whereas the sugar is everything else.
Heather: [00:09:35] So we just need a touch, a pinch of salt. Right. So let's talk about what terrible thing could happen if they don't use your service. That's really what we want to do. The next section is called Value Proposition. This is where the sugar comes in. This is where you get to tell them. You know, all the benefits of working with you, going back to that idea of being a physical therapist. Maybe you have a very clear process. Maybe you have an amazing diagnostic tool. Maybe you have friendly employees or fun atmosphere, whatever that is. Write down what success looks like. Write down the benefits of working with you. Just make a list and then pick three of them that support that. Your steaks that go back to the steaks. So you always want to be like making sure that you're staying consistently on brand, Right? But really talk about three of the benefits that come in working with you or that they can see in the long term. Even so, it could be just benefits working with you or it could be benefits of long term, no longer having pain, being free to enjoy activities that that they weren't able to participate in. Again, whatever those benefits look like. And then we've got the authority section or the guide section. A lot of businesses only use the authority section, authority. You you have to establish some kind of a authority, Right.
Heather: [00:11:19] We need to say, okay, yes, you know what you're talking about. You went to school. You so but this but the way you do it, you have to be very careful. It's not just i, i, i, i, i. Instead, you want to do two things. One, express empathy. And you could say, I understand that you have been in pain for years. Our our process is going to help you identify the pain, alleviate the pain and get back to living your life to the fullest or participating fully in life. Um, and then there's the second area authority. Authority is we've helped over, you know, 500 or 1000 or others who have had knee pain and been able to get back to living their life pain free. Um, that's one way of expressing authority. Another is just saying. We've been helping people since 2003 or whatever. So this is not a full on bio. It's it's very much like. In a very succinct way, expressing how you are an authority in the field, how you know what you're talking about. Um, but, but on the, the bio, let's, let's talk about that for just a half a second because. Most websites have an about page. Most websites have a bios on the about page. Again, a lot of people just start talking about themselves and they'll be like, I went to school or I graduated in school from in 2008 with my PhD in this or that or whatever.
Heather: [00:13:21] While that's important. While that is what helped you to become the professional that you are, to give you the knowledge that you need. People only care about your degree, your education, your experience expertise. They only care about it as far as it is going to help them. And so when you think about it in those terms, when you're like, okay. This is not about me. It's not about tooting my own horn. It's about. Talking about my education experience in terms of how it's helps my prospective clients. And that's a big shift in your mind when you really think about it, that all of a sudden you are saying. Um, you know, I have always been. Maybe you tell a backstory. Maybe there is some story. I've worked with speech language pathologists who they themselves were in speech therapy services as a child. And so it was very clear early on that they enjoyed. You know, being in speech so much and they wanted to help others. And so you can give that. You can give a why. But you can also say something like, um. With, you know, talk about the desire to help others. But in the you know, you could say something like okay in um. With a goal to help others live pain free. I decided to pursue my physical therapy to be to get a PhD in physical therapy so that they could live pain free and, you know, live their best lives.
Heather: [00:15:19] Or, you know, that's again a why you could talk about I had a knee injury at the age of 17 that didn't allow me to continue the sports that I enjoyed. And and while I was doing I realized that I really enjoyed the the industry and was passionate about helping. I wanted to be able to help others like like those that helped me. Um, so like I said, again, it's about telling a story, inviting them into a story of how you can help them, how you can help them, how you can help them. Is there an echo? Um, that's the, that's the thought that I want ingrained is how you help them. Um, okay, so a couple different areas that we have. One is pricing that can or cannot be like you can put it on your website or you can decide not to put it on your website. That's really a preference. Um, what you can do is instead of just like placing your pricing on your website is that you can talk about the different services that you do. So, you know, let's say that you do, um. If we're an SLP clinic. So a speech language pathologist, you could do okay. We do autism groups. Group therapy. We do Myofunctional therapy, which is a ten week program or something like that. And then we do weekly speech therapy for articulation and language comprehension. You just listed like what services you provide. You didn't put any price points to it, but you have that listed.
Heather: [00:17:10] If you're a mental health professional, you could say, you know, we do weekly. Individual therapy. Couples therapy. You could do like individual couples therapy or you could do like, what if you did, like, group therapy? You know, like couples group therapy or pre-marital group therapy, whatever it is. So you list off your services, you list off your pricing if if you want to add that to it. But that shows really clearly what services you provide. Um. And then one of my favorite. Sections on a website is the plan or the process section people really enjoy. Knowing what like painting a picture, what the next steps look like, what they should be doing. They like to follow steps. And so having steps. Very, very clearly laid out is going to help them. You know, if you were crossing a stream and if someone told you, okay, go to this stone, you know, this boulder or this or that, or, you know, this rock and that rock and this rock, then it'd be really easy. But navigating it yourself may mean that you might slip and on a slimy rock and fall into the water. Right? Um, so 3 to 4 steps. Four is the max. Once you get over four, then you confuse people. This is not every step in working with you. We are not talking about every minute detail. We don't need to be like, Hey, let's get on a consult call and then we're going to, um.
Heather: [00:18:55] You know, fill out an intake form and then bill insurance and then da da da da da da. They don't need to know this is high level. This is whatever your call to action is, is usually step number one. So let's say it's. Schedule a consultation. Step number two could be that beginning stages diagnose or assess, you know, your pain and then finally step that third step or fourth, depending on if you need a third in between step. Step number three, if you wanted it, it could be attend weekly therapy or a ten therapy. Um, or you can skip over to that to the last, the final step. The final step would be. What life looks like afterwards. Participate fully in life. Be Be free of pain, whatever that looks like. So you are painting a picture on how to get over each one of these stones. Which stones to use to get over the stream. And. And that. You know, it's so great. There's there's clarity in that and there's structure in that. And like I said, people really like to follow steps. So make sure you have your steps on getting started on how we work with you. Nobody wants to look at your website and be confused as to how to start working together. They're like, Should I call? Should I do this? Should I do that? Like what? What is it? Um, the there's a couple other areas.
Heather: [00:20:37] Obviously, we have some explanatory paragraph that really is, is what we call a one liner. It says what you do so point out a problem, how you solve it and what the end result looks like. Um, so it's, it's typically a couple of sentences, a paragraph you can. You know, when you're creating content, use that in different contexts. So you've got one on your home page and maybe you have one on your bout page that talks a little bit more about your business and the problem it solves for the client. The service page it would be very like if you have different service page, let's say you have a couples therapy and individual therapy. Well, the couples therapy is going to solve a different problem than the individual therapy, right? And so those that that content is going to be different. The final section on a website is your footer or in Storybrand, as we lovingly like to call it, your junk drawer. And you know that drawer. We all have one. I think I have three. I think I definitely have three. I think I've got one in my bedroom, one in my kitchen and one somewhere else. I don't know. We won't we won't talk about the junk drawers, but at least my junk drawers. We're going to talk about your website's junk drawer, though. The junk drawer is where you put all of the information that you don't know where to put. Now, I'm not talking about let's, like, shove it full of stuff, but you will have all of the pages that you have on your website on there.
Heather: [00:22:16] You will have social media links on there. You can have a lead generator or like an email signup for a lead generator on there. Um, you can have obviously your privacy policy or terms and condition. All the legal jargon that goes with a website is going to be on there. Your copyright. All of that kind of stuff. Because let me back up for just a second. I didn't even go into your menu because your menu shouldn't the menu on the top of your website should not have every page listed. We don't need a smorgasbord. This isn't like all you can eat buffet. You want to guide them through your website, which means catering the experience. So you present the information in the way that you feel like it is best served. Don't give them everything at once with like, here's every page that I have on my website. Here's everything you need to know. No, Instead give it to them little by little. Um. You know, feed them slowly. Let's not, you know, give them a huge platter and be like, What do you want to eat first? It's overwhelming. So hopefully this has helped you to figure out your website a little bit more. So my takeaway or challenge this week is to really work through each one of these sections. I will add some links in the bottom of this that you can go through and actually identify, you know, some of these different sections and to help you start workshopping all of these different areas for your website.
Heather: [00:23:56] Hopefully this answers the question what should I have on my website because. You know, when you have a website that really communicates and is clear and talks to your ideal client, all of a sudden the the leads you get are going to actually understand what you do. You're going to stop getting all of those calls where it's like, hey, do you do you like do this or that or random? And they're going to understand exactly. Assuming they've been on your website, they're going to understand exactly what you do, how you can help them and what the end result is going to look like. And they're going to be excited to work with you because you are going to be different. They are going to be like, Wow, this website is amazing. This is something like, I'm so glad that they're talking to me instead about them or worse. I'm so glad that it's talking to me instead of Google bots. Because let's face it, if your website was written for purely SEO keyword purposes, that is not for human consumption. Nobody wants to read that. Google bots probably don't even really want to read it. It gets pretty dry pretty quick. So go through this, you know, take one section at a time and just kind of spruce it up, work on one page at a time, whatever that looks like to you.
Heather: [00:25:24] Whatever is a measurable goal or a small goal that you can be like, you know what, I'm just going to work on my home page and I'm going to spruce it up. Um, and then there's something else. You guys, you don't have to do this alone. We have. Actually, if your website is just kind of, uh, like, I'm embarrassed to, you know, it's kind of like that mess when someone comes over to your house and you don't know that they're coming over and you're like, Oh, shoot. Like, my kitchen looks like a mess. Whatever. If you're embarrassed by your website, then we have we have started building website templates. This is a done with you program. You can check it out on our website. It is We guide you through every step of getting everything you need for your website. Like let's gather up the pieces and then you pick the template. One of our templates that we have created for those within the Allied health professionals and we build the site for you. You don't have to build the site. How cool is that? But we give you every tool you need to get you ready for us to get you a gorgeous site that looks good, that speaks to your clients and that you're going to be proud of and you're going to want to show off to everyone. So what's better than that? And at a very affordable price, because we know that this is especially geared for like startups or solopreneurs, very small businesses, because you shouldn't have to have a website that is unsightly or embarrassing or that you're hoping that people don't really actually find like you should be.
Heather: [00:27:11] You should love your website and it should look like a part of your business because I know that you provide amazing services and you should have a website that really showcases what you do, the value you bring and the services you offer. Hey guys, this is another episode of Therapy Marketing Solutions. I really hope that you take all of this to heart and keep marketing just one step at a time, block out a little bit of time each week to continue your marketing journey, because six months from now you'll be amazed at what you've accomplished and you're going to be excited about your business. Marketing doesn't have to be something that you're like, Oh my gosh, I need to avoid. I know it needs to be done. It doesn't have to be a root canal. It can be fun, it can be enjoyable, and it can be exciting to see what happens when you're marketing your business. We're glad you could be here today. Thank you for listening. If you are interested in learning more about marketing, check out my blogs at 3C Digital Media Network dot com or therapy marketing solutions.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Happy marketing, y'all.
Episode 20: Mor Goldberger
Heather: [00:00:00] Hey, everyone, this is Heather and you're listening to the Therapy Marketing Solutions podcast, where we are going to take the mystery out of marketing and we're going to meet therapy clinic owners to discuss what is working for them in their marketing to help them grow thriving practices. You don't have to figure this all out on your own because when we all work together, we're able to build something amazing and in the end serve clients better. So let's get started. Welcome, everyone. Welcome to a new episode of Therapy Marketing Solutions. We are excited to have you here today. And today I have an incredible guest I'm excited to introduce you to. So I have more Goldberger, who is a licensed therapist on our podcast today and I'm excited to share about this topic because this is a topic that everyone within the Allied health professional therapist, whether you accept insurance or don't you know, or private pay, this is one of the challenges that you encounter in running a business, in working with clients. Um, and that is how to talk about money. I mean, you know, some of us struggle with that just in our own personal life. It's hard to talk about money. So then as a business owner, it's it's an additional challenge. Right? So welcome more Thank you so much for being here.
Mor: [00:01:36] Thank you for having me. I'm very excited.
Heather: [00:01:39] Yeah, definitely. So first off, I just want to allow you to introduce yourself. Let's talk a little bit about your background. Sure. And and what you've been doing just so that we can get to know you.
Mor: [00:01:53] Yeah, of course. So my background is quite diverse. I used to work in international development in Haiti, and then I went to business school over in Berkeley. And, um, and I always had a passion for therapy and was always interested in kind of psychology. And so a few years ago, I, you know, on the weekend in the evenings, got a master's in family therapy, got my MFA and began working as a therapist part time while also working full time in tech. So I kind of wear both both hats. But I'm really passionate about this topic, about talking about money as a therapist in particular. So I'm excited to to be on on here with you.
Heather: [00:02:38] Yeah, definitely. I did not know part of your history that you were in Haiti for a while, so that's very cool. I'd love to hear some stories. Um, we'll save that for another day, but I'd love to hear about your travels and all of those experiences. Um, and I love that you went back to school because you had that interest. We have that in common. You know, I was an English major once upon a time and then went back to school and web design, So, um, I just was interested in it. So I love that you have that as well. Um, so. Uh, and then you talked about like, you know, this, that you work in tech, but then you also see clients and, and how cool is that? Um, because I know that's a hot topic in the therapy world. And so you can kind of see both sides and the benefits and things like that. Um, so let's talk about money.
Mor: [00:03:35] Let's talk about money. Like, there.
Heather: [00:03:37] Should be like a song going on right now. Let's talk about money.
Mor: [00:03:41] Yeah.
Heather: [00:03:43] Uh, we'll we'll put that in later for sure. Um, so why is it difficult for people to talk about money, especially? Therapy based businesses.
Mor: [00:03:56] Oh, man. Of course. This is like I feel so passionate about this topic because on the one hand, I have this background in business in my MBA, and I think really analytically about like, you know, income and revenue and how we're thinking about things. And then as I got into the therapy space, I kind of learned that talking about money and thinking about money and thinking about therapy as your career and how you can make it work financially is so challenging because money is almost like a bad word in therapy. We're expected in a way to treat our clients like we just love them. And we do. We do love them. I love my clients, but it's just kind of out of us, of our hearts that we're working with them and having to navigate and and point to the fact that really it is a business arrangement in a way. And it is your your career can can, you know, feel at times at odds with being a caring therapist that is building trust, that is building that relationship that is so important for therapy to even be effective?
Heather: [00:05:04] Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I've said this before, I've, I've kind of gotten on my little pedestal a little bit on social media about it every once in all. But I truly believe that it is okay to to help others and build a thriving clinic at the same time. I don't think that they have to be exclusive. I think that they can be inclusive because as you build your business, you're able to help more people, you're able to extend that. And so, you know, I want to challenge anyone who's who's had that thinking, who's struggled with that, thinking that maybe think about it in a different way, maybe thinking about it as, as I build my clinic, I can help or my practice I can help more people. You know, with their challenges and their struggles and the things that they're facing in their lives.
Mor: [00:05:57] Yes, I love that. And I also like to challenge therapists that even if it's just for you because you are valued at at that rate and because you want to spend your time with your family or and other things. And even if you don't feel like a lot of times we have to kind of find excuses that are around being serving others to assert what we need for ourselves. And I actually feel like the more we're comfortable with the real blatant truth of things and with really taking care of ourselves, the more that we signal that when we speak to our clients like it's not, there's nothing wrong with me not taking insurance. There's nothing wrong with my rate being X, This is just what I'm this is what I'm comfortable with. I think it really starts with that. Getting comfortable with yourself about what what you're going to charge, what you're worth and and not feeling like you have to make any excuses for it.
Heather: [00:06:55] Yes, I love that so much. I really I do think that is some kind of an internal struggle or conversation, at least that we need to have is what is my value and and understanding that is also and coming. I guess understanding that and being okay with that also helps you to bring more value to your clients.
Mor: [00:07:20] Totally, Totally. And I will tell you so in my in my associateship right now, I'm on like a sliding scale. So I have to have these conversations with clients all the time where they, you know, get a referral. I contact a client, they know that I'm on a sliding scale, that I'm for affordable, you know, folks that are looking for affordable therapy, but they don't know what that means. And I have to have a conversation of, you know, some people are expecting to pay $20 a session. You know, there's I have to be able to say this is what I'm starting at. Here's what I'm open to. And this is why. And at first it was really hard. And I think a big part of that for me was because I hadn't kind of clarified in my mind what was my walkaway point. I hadn't really clarified, like what I need, what I'm comfortable with, what I'm not. As soon as it was clear to me the whole way that I communicated it and the kind of assertiveness that I spoke about my rates at really changed. Yeah, I think kind of having that clarity is important.
Heather: [00:08:25] Um, so what are some of the challenges that you have encountered when talking about money?
Mor: [00:08:32] Yeah, think I think, you know, I have had all kinds of challenges this year in particular, as I mentioned, because of all of those sliding scale conversations. I think I think, you know, I actually am I'm laughing kind of remembering one of my most cringe worthy experiences was with this with this couple where I really wanted to work with them. I'm passionate about couples therapy. I'm working on getting certified with EFT, and I really wanted to work with them. They were really kind of on the lower end of the budget. Um, and I was like, You know, maybe we can just try a session, see how you feel. Because I was almost thinking like, if you try it, you'll, you'll want to do it. But then in the process, in my, in my, in my sight, I realized I couldn't really just give like a free, a freebie session. Like that's not really something you do. You have to have people sign a bunch of confidentiality forms. There's all these things and you don't want to do. Start working with someone who has a zero capacity to pay. So it's just not it's not a good idea. So I try to walk it back. Actually. I try to say, you know, actually it can be whatever you're comfortable paying, but like, I really got to collect something.
Mor: [00:09:49] It turned into this scenario where my client was like, I feel like really wronged. I feel like you going back on what you said. So before we even started therapy, we're, you know, really off to a bad start. And I remember thinking I just wanted to, like, run for the hills. Just like, never mind. But I couldn't. Like, you can't. That's not you can't do that ethically as a as a therapist. So it ended up working out. We had like a really direct conversation about it, um, you know, and we repaired what we call in therapy repaired and kind of like made the person comfortable and kind of feel heard. And now they're one of my favorite clients to work, to work with. But I think, I think there's all kinds of messy challenges that come up when you're trying to figure out like, what are you comfortable with? What are you saying to the other person? And again, I think part of that goes back to really having clarity on like what you will or won't do, what your rates are, where you have flexibility and where you don't.
Heather: [00:10:47] When you bring up such a good point that when you don't have clarity, when you aren't comfortable, maybe that's another word to when you're not comfortable with, you know, your pricing and your pricing model, people can feel that. Then, like you said, you get in trouble because you say something and then backpedal, and then there's that loss of trust. Yeah. And you're and you're having to try to repair the relationship like you said. So it's better. Which brings us really to that point of setting up some expectations from the beginning. I think that is one of the big things that needs to happen is, is that you need to be able to have that conversation right at the beginning. Obviously, you can't just like, you know, start, um. Having sessions and then just build them and then be like, What? Wait a second, we didn't have this conversation. So having all of this set up in the beginning helps the relationship to move forward in a healthy way that is going to help your clients in the long run.
Mor: [00:11:54] Yeah, definitely think think. Having that kind of expectation upfront is important. I also think another thing I've learned, I've done some research on this since since having some snafu's and the other thing that I've read about is like not overexplaining. A lot of times when you over explain why your rate is X or why you don't accept insurance, you're you're really signaling that you aren't feeling strong in your position. And so being comfortable, just putting it out there and my rate is X, you know, pause and also not expecting folks to necessarily be able to confirm straight away. Some people make the mistake of starting to negotiate against themselves after they've stated their rate because they're not hearing an immediate definitive response. But actually, if you if you let people know like go ahead and take time to think about it, check your finances, that's not a bad thing. If someone needs a little bit of time to to confirm their availability and their budget.
Heather: [00:13:00] Um, and that actually you saying that sparks a thought. You know, I'm in a, in a sales group and, and I know that's a bad word to say with anything with marketing or with, with therapy. But one of the things that we talk about, like if I'm, if I'm on a call, you know, with a prospect and things like that is pausing, you talk about the money and then you pause. And for us, it's more uncomfortable than it probably is for them because you're like, Oh my goodness. Like what's like you have this internal, like whole thought process going on. You're like, what are they thinking? I can't read them. I, you know, you don't know them that much that well, anyways, so, um, but but it's okay to have a pause. It's okay because people need to think about things. They need to be like, okay, Yes, I get it. This is where you're at. Yes, that sounds good. Let's move forward. Or like you said. You know what? Let me talk with my spouse or, you know, my significant other or whoever or let me think about it, whatever that is. It's okay to have a pause.
Mor: [00:14:06] Totally. Totally. And I think, you know, a lot of a couple of times I've had clients end up going away and talking with like, you know, whether it is like a grandparent or someone who actually helps support them, they might not have the answers to how to finance your rate straight away, but maybe, you know, if they think about it and they want to make that investment, they they will find different ways to do it. So whether it's a pause or even just a like, let me know we can talk, you know, it's not going to you're not going to get the answer on the call, right. Then you don't need to close and finalize that at the moment. And feeling desperate to do so. Actually, again, signal kind of a lack of confidence in your in your rate and in your your.
Heather: [00:14:52] Value and people can sense that desperation feel. Um, yeah. So I agree with that 100%. So so one of the, the thoughts that, you know, as I was thinking about preparing for this podcast and things like that is that one idea that I had is just, I mean, a lot of therapists put it right there on their website, so it's right there so people can find it. Another option is, is, you know, creating a flier or a handout, right when you meet with them. And by doing that, you're taking a little bit of the pressure off yourself because it's like they've already seen it or you you know, you let the flier or your website do the talking for you, at least some of it, you know.
Mor: [00:15:35] You know, that's an interesting idea. Heather. I don't know if 100% would make that recommendation. I'll tell you why. I think for me, sometimes people don't know what they want. They think they might be, you know, get the kind of potential clients who think they are just looking for the cheapest possible therapist, you know, and they're only comparing you based on on rate. But so what I like to do, I do no more than 15 minute consults when I'm talking to a potential client and I tell them, you know, I'll go over kind of where I work, how I work, my rates and everything. But first I want to see if we're even a fit. I want to know what you're coming to therapy for and I'll tell you a little bit about how I would work with you and see if you're interested in learning more. Um, and at that point, I can kind of give them a sense and a flavor for, for my work. So, for example, if it's a client that's interested in couples work, you know, there's a certain modality that has that is the only evidence based practice for couples work, which is EFT. And so I can tell them about that. I can tell them about how we structure it, how many sessions like what we do in each stage. And they can really get a sense of like, Wow, this person really knows what they're talking about. And so when it gets time to talking about the rate, they're not just comparing me on an apples to apples like number two number from their alternatives. They're also comparing how they feel talking to me and what they think their confidence about working with me. So that's why I would recommend unless you are like really just competing on rate. Yeah. Um, and you are on a race to the bottom, then I would recommend actually having that consult call, giving yourself a chance to put your best foot forward and then, and then hitting them with the cost because therapy is not cheap.
Heather: [00:17:27] Yeah. Yeah. And you bring up such a good point. I love that. Um, you know, and maybe with that in mind, maybe you don't. Maybe that's the challenge. Maybe you think to yourself, maybe it doesn't make sense to have it on my website. I know a lot of therapists like to have that on there and as a because they want to avoid that conversation. So but I agree with.
Heather: [00:17:48] You.
Heather: [00:17:49] That um, that having that conversation with them getting because therapy is very personal, you have to have someone that you mesh well with and. So having the consult first is important and then you can still have, you know, maybe you, you send them a link afterwards that or you have a flier afterwards. And so then they can see it on paper if they have questions later on or something like that.
Mor: [00:18:19] You actually bring up a really good point and want to roll back some of my pushback, which is it depends on where you are too. Like if I'm like building my practice and I'm trying to get more clients, I might be willing to have more of those conversations to pitch myself. And if you're already well established and you have a lot of clients and you're only looking for a trickle of serious folks who are within your budget, then maybe you don't mind that you might turn away those price sensitive folks and save yourself time on the 15 minute consult. So it's definitely depends. But I do think you actually remind me of something which I know we haven't gotten to yet, but we should chat at some point about the, the tool that I think we were talking about that many people embed into their website, the benefits checker that can kind of help clients assess for themselves if they can afford therapy by checking their out-of-network benefits and seeing what their true cost would be and saving the therapist from having to have that back and forth conversation. So I do think that's something else that folks can do.
Heather: [00:19:26] Yes, definitely. And I want to talk about that in just a second. First, one other thought actually as we were having this discussion is that, you know, not everyone's going to be for you, not everyone, whether that's personality, whether that's their own financial circumstances. Et cetera. Et cetera. Et cetera. Right. We could go off on a list. Um, so one thing I think and and let me know what's your thoughts on this? But as we were discussing, I thought would be that, you know, if I'm not the right fit, whether that be from a personality, um, or a financial here are some alternatives for you. And so never just like being like, nope, I'm not Right. Sorry. Goodbye. You know, you're on your way, but you're continuing to serve them in some capacity by saying, I understand that this might not be the right situation for you, but here are some alternatives that I that I might suggest. Here are some other people that might be a good fit for you. And so making.
Heather: [00:20:25] Love.
Heather: [00:20:25] Validations so that they're not just left in like a lurch feeling like, well, I don't know what to do. I still have my I still have a problem. I still need help. Who am I supposed to go to now?
Mor: [00:20:37] I think that's such a good point. And I actually have noticed that when I tell folks like some folks are like, Oh, that's a little out of my budget. Sometimes I tell folks, you know, think about it. If you want, I'd be happy to help connect you to someone else in my practice that could be more aligned with your budget. And I've been surprised that people really seem to take that as like, Wow, this person cares. They're not just out for like the max dollar. It builds trust. And if for me, most of the time it actually brings the, you know, the clients over the fence towards like, no, I actually do want to move forward working with you. So I agree. And even if they don't like it's, you know, it's a good it's a good practice. People are looking for help. And even if you're not the right fit, you can easily kind of have that referral list that you send them over.
Heather: [00:21:29] Yeah. And I think the big thing is at the end of the day, it's about serving them and helping them. And so whether that be that they work with you in therapy or they find someone else, you're still able to serve them by, you know, by giving to them freely.
Mor: [00:21:51] Exactly.
Heather: [00:21:53] And it doesn't. Yeah, it's one of those things. It doesn't hurt. And like you said, it builds that additional trust. They're like, wow, okay. They're not just there to maybe, you know, fill my their schedule or to add those kinds of things that might cross their mind. Instead, they're like, they truly care about me and truly care about helping me through this time in my life.
Mor: [00:22:18] 100%. 100%?
Heather: [00:22:20] Yeah. So.
Heather: [00:22:22] Um, and there are some differences. You know, one thing that we haven't really brought up is insurance versus private pay, you know, because.
Heather: [00:22:31] That's.
Mor: [00:22:31] A big.
Heather: [00:22:32] One.
Heather: [00:22:32] Yeah, Some clinics are take insurance except insurance, while others are private pay only. So having that discussion about money is different depending where you're at.
Mor: [00:22:48] Yeah. And a lot of people, you know, a lot of people do a mix of things. Some people take only insurance, some people are just private pay and then people are kind of there's that. A lot of people are actually trying to transition away from insurance and build their private pay practice. So actually, one thing we haven't touched on is, is my role. So I mentioned that I work in tech, but I lead therapy, experience and growth for men. And what we actually do is we help therapy artists grow their own private pay practice and do that by being able to step away from insurance while connecting their clients in a compassionate way to a service that will take care of all of that hassle for them and get them money back, get their clients money back on the sessions without putting the therapists on the hook.
Heather: [00:23:37] Yes.
Heather: [00:23:38] Yeah, absolutely. Um, I think what Montaya does is, is genius and great. It's so nice for. I feel like it's that that third option because for some it's like, okay, I'm only private pay and or else they're insurance. But it's kind of that third option where it's like I can I can be private pay, but I can still, you know, there's that way for clients to to be able to utilize their benefits of their health insurance.
Mor: [00:24:10] Yeah, exactly. Because I think a lot of times therapists, at least the therapists I've talked to, maybe think about it more in a black and white way. Like either I take on 100% of the insurance hassle and keep my rates like X and make it really accessible, or I'm totally leaving my clients in the lurch. If I tell them, you know, I'm not doing insurance anymore and they're going to just be hit with this huge extra cost. But the reality is there is that gray middle ground option, which is like, I'm not doing this, but here's a service like you can use. And a lot of people don't even know that they can be reimbursed with out-of-network benefits, like up to, you know, 80% of their session costs. So that, you know, knowing that actually makes clients more likely to to see the therapist of their choice instead of being on these like long wait lists and looking endlessly to find somebody who accepts insurance.
Heather: [00:25:06] Yeah.
Mor: [00:25:07] Within what they're looking for.
Heather: [00:25:09] Yes. Yeah.
Heather: [00:25:10] And then all of a sudden they're empowered because like you said, they're able to pick and not an insurance. They're able to pick the therapist that they really want or that they, you know, maybe they've done a consultation. They've decided, okay, well, from a financial standpoint, I just can't do this at this point. But then knowing that there is a way that they can be reimbursed allows them to instead of just being like, this is a therapist, you get now all of a sudden this is the therapist that you actually want to work with and and that can really help you in your life journey.
Heather: [00:25:49] Totally, totally.
Mor: [00:25:50] Think. I think that, you know, the other thing is, just like people have such an aversion to dealing with insurance, they, you know, they think about it like going to the DMV or getting like a cavity filled or something. It's just like, oh, you know, these clunky websites and having to remember your super bills.
Heather: [00:26:09] And I'm going to spend an hour.
Heather: [00:26:11] On hold with insurance company like, Oh my God, I.
Heather: [00:26:15] Just don't want to deal.
Mor: [00:26:16] With that. So, so when you're on a consult call and someone is like, Oh, I can't afford that. Um, you know, you have one of two options. You can either tell them like, okay, go call up your insurance and see if you have this thing that you maybe have never heard of called out-of-network benefits, and then see if you can understand what the information they give you and then call me back and maybe then we'll start working together and that, you know, you're just going to that's the likeliness of all of those things happening are pretty low. But then if you use, you know, like a benefits calculator, like the one Montaya has, you can say, you know, I don't I don't feel claims, but if you grab your insurance card, I can check real quick what your what your rate if you get if you're eligible for out of network benefits and then we just spit out like, okay, this is what this person's deductible is. This is how many sessions at your rate it'll take for them to meet their deductible. And then this is the percent they can expect back. And right then you can give them some concrete information and say, this is what your insurance estimate is, this is what you my rate would end up working out to for you. So even though I charge $200, you know, it would work out to 105 as the estimate and they can file your claims for you so you don't have to do anything. So at that point, our super user therapists say that like that kind of framing really helps bring people over the over the the fence and really across the finish line willing to work with you.
Heather: [00:27:51] Yeah, that's great. Um, so that actually brings us to our takeaway and challenge. Every podcast episode. We always have some kind of takeaways or challenges and we actually kind of have two for you today. Um, two.
Heather: [00:28:07] For the price of.
Heather: [00:28:07] One. Yes, two for the price of one. So you guys are getting bonus today. Um, so first off, the one is like, like Morehead said, Montoya has a benefits checker that you can embed on your website or that you can just use with while you're doing consultations, things like that. So talk a little bit about more about that.
Heather: [00:28:34] What you're. Yes.
Mor: [00:28:35] Yes. So as you mentioned, you can either just embed it into your website and folks when they go to your website before they even have a consult call with, you can just grab their insurance card, put in their information, be like, oh, okay, this would be what I would actually pay with this person or or you can complete it for them. When you're on on a call, you can just hit, check the website and enter in the information. So that's the benefits calculator. And then and then I don't know. I'm trying to think if there's another piece to that. Oh, and then the claim submission that we just do automatically if clients are interested but they don't have to, they can choose to file their own claims.
Heather: [00:29:16] Yeah. And you guys right now there is an opportunity for them to be able to try this out for free, correct?
Mor: [00:29:23] That's right. We are giving listeners to this podcast a one month free trial of the benefits calculator with the promo code TMS.
Heather: [00:29:34] And really the idea behind it is like, try it out for a month. See if it works and see if it increases your conversion. See, you know, you can see what the clients think of it. You can kind of, you know, play around with yourself, see if you like it. And then if it works, check.
Mor: [00:29:52] Your own card, your family's card.
Heather: [00:29:54] Right.
Mor: [00:29:54] It's totally unlimited use. So a lot of people have fun with it.
Heather: [00:29:58] Yeah.
Heather: [00:29:59] And if it helps your business to continue to grow, if it helps you to, you know, take away some of that, um, objections that you might receive from prospects or potential clients, then maybe that's something that you incorporate within your business. Um, and that leads us to kind of number two. So take away challenge number two that more and had kind of discussed was to create a talk, a script, talking points, something and that by creating a script that allows you to get more comfortable because we can all go based on a script. But if someone asks us like a question that we're not prepared for, you know, sometimes you don't know how to handle it. And so by creating a script about, you know, your payment, how payment is handled and you know what payment looks like, you are able to be confident in that conversation.
Mor: [00:31:02] 100%. And we will go ahead and share with you as well. Heather, the the script that we have gotten from a lot of therapists that works for them for explaining that they don't accept insurance but how they can support their clients in case folks want to adapt or use any part of that as well.
Heather: [00:31:21] Yes, definitely. So check that out in the podcast notes. That's going to be there as well. And you guys, check this out. I think the big takeaway also third takeaway I guess, is, is make a plan, get comfortable with yourself and your pricing model, whatever that is, because when you're comfortable with it, when you're confident and clear on it, then you will be able to, you know, set clear expectations from the beginning and working with clients. So anything else that you want to kind of add, throw in about min tire? Um, no.
Mor: [00:32:05] I think I think thank you so much for having me and, and folks can definitely feel free to reach out with any questions. We have a wonderful product specialist Maria who can walk you through things, do onboarding for you and answer any questions. So do reach out if you're interested.
Heather: [00:32:22] Perfect. Well, thank.
Heather: [00:32:23] You so much for being on this and I've enjoyed this conversation. Um, it's something that. Keeps coming. That comes up often, you know, as as we work with clients and things like that or as therapists work with clients. And so I hope it's of value to them, gives them some kind of little ideas, spark some ideas in their mind and how they can navigate this part of, of being either a business owner or even just any therapist. The conversation comes up whether you're a business owner or not. So thank you again so much for being here.
Heather: [00:32:59] Thank you.
Heather: [00:33:00] And guys, thank you again for listening to another episode of Therapy Marketing Solutions. Happy marketing you all.
Heather: [00:33:09] We're glad you could be here today.
Heather: [00:33:11] Thank you for listening. If you are interested in learning more about marketing, check out my blogs at 3C Digital Media Network dot com or therapy marketing solutions.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Episode 19: Heather Jensen
Heather: [00:00:00] Hey, everyone, this is Heather and you're listening to the Therapy Marketing Solutions podcast, where we are going to take the mystery out of marketing and we're going to meet therapy clinic owners to discuss what is working for them in their marketing to help them grow thriving practices. You don't have to figure this all out on your own because when we all work together, we're able to build something amazing and in the end serve clients better. So let's get started. Hey y'all, This is another episode of Therapy Marketing Solutions. This is episode 19. You've got Mail. Email Marketing 101. So when I say you've got mail, honestly, it reminds me of the movie with Meg Ryan or AOL. I'm like, You've got Mail. Maybe that just dated me a whole lot. I don't know. But you know, that's just what I think of is that AOL, when, you know, you received a marketing or an email and it said that. And anyways, so let's talk about email marketing, because if you aren't sending out mail, you may be missing a huge opportunity in your marketing. Um, here, what is email marketing? Let's start with that. Let's just start with what is email marketing? So it might just be like, well, I mean it's emails and marketing. So what does that mean? You just send out emails? Well, yes and no. There's a little bit more to email marketing, but but yeah, pretty much you send out emails with the goal of nurturing relationships.
Heather: [00:01:49] And so email marketing is a very effective tool. And like I said, if you're not doing it, you may be missing out on huge opportunities to connect with your ideal clients. So there's a lot of benefits for email marketing. One is, is that you own the list of contacts, unlike social media, social media, when if you were to close your account, you would lose all those contacts. If for some reason the social media platform decided to up and quit one day, they're like, Yeah, we're done. I don't see that happening. But then you, you know, that's gone. It's just gone. All those contact. S And so while social media has a place, it is not the only type of marketing that you should be doing. And, and it may not even be the best type of marketing that you should be doing. It really depends on your business, your following, because it's great to have followers on social media, but if there are other clinics, unless they're sending you referrals, they may not be, you know, you might still not be connecting with your ideal client. So that's one of those questions you have to ask yourself Who is on your social media list? Who is following you? If they're not your ideal client, then again, maybe that's not the place for you. Um, but in our last episode that I recorded about repurposing content, you can use email marketing and social media hand in hand.
Heather: [00:03:24] That's the good news. So let's, let's again, let's talk about some of these benefits. So you own the list of contacts. Um, there's a higher return on investment, typically with email marketing. In fact, HubSpot, which is a CRM for marketing, says that they did a study and they reported that there is a 4,200% return on investment. That's huge, guys. And why why exactly is that? Because email marketing is is relatively inexpensive. So. The biggest expense in email marketing is, is typically if you hire someone, then there's that, obviously. But if you're doing it on your own, the biggest expense is your time. Um and so 4,200% return on investment. I don't know. That might mean that you might need to look at email marketing. You might be, like I said, missing something. Um, that is also 3,600% higher than the average return on investment for paid advertising. And paid advertising would be like Google ads. Social media ads. You know, any kind of ads that you are putting out there. So, wow, that's huge, guys. Again, you are getting a huge return on investment for doing it. Other benefits are that you're warming the relationship. When people go to your website, they may or may not be ready to book an appointment if they are not booked, ready to book an appointment appointment, what comes next? Do they just like, Oh, I don't want to book an appointment and they leave.
Heather: [00:05:15] I mean, you're missing an opportunity right there. Um, I tell clients and this is from Donald Miller Storybrand that your call to action button, which is like book an appointment or something like that, is asking someone. To marry you. It's that commitment level. It's a little bit more. Whereas if you have a way of collecting emails, that's a little bit more like, Hey, you want to go on a date, let's just try this out. Let's see how we feel about it. And so this is an opportunity for you to nurture relationships, to build rapport, authority. All of those things can be done through email marketing. So like I said, lots of benefits come with email marketing. Um, so let's break this down a little bit more and get into it. There are different types of email marketing for there's, I mean, there's many different types, but the types that I want to focus on today is the sales email and then the nurture email and really how you decide who gets what email comes down to understanding your goals. So if you are wanting to retain current clients, then a nurture email is the best email to be sent out to them. If you are wanting to gain new clients and nurture that relationship with with new prospects, then you're going to want to start with the sales email.
Heather: [00:06:51] And and typically how it works is the sales email has 5 to 6 emails that go out and we've got a blog post on it. I will share the link in in our show notes for that so that you can understand exactly what each one of those sales emails should contain in them. But some of them are an opportunity to overcome objections, a paradigm shift. You know, really when I say sales email, it's again nurturing the relationship. We're not just like, Hey, you want to buy, let's do this now. We are building a relationship, a rapport with your prospects. And it's not even till the last email that we really ask for the sale that we're like, Now's the time. You know, let's get the commitment. The nice thing about the sales email series is typically if someone does not. If they continue through the 5 to 6 emails and they haven't booked an appointment yet, then you would bring them over to your nurture email. Your nurture emails are more to educate. They bring a lot of authority in and it's again, you can continue warming that relationship if they're a prospect or. Bringing value to current clients. And that's where that comes in. And as far as how often those are sent out, that's really based on who you're understanding, your client and your goals. If you are wanting to if you're wanting to, the sales emails go out pretty quick, pretty within 2 to 3 days.
Heather: [00:08:38] Some will be like once a week. That would be the max time length in between emails that I would suggest. Nurture emails can be anywhere from once a week, two weeks to once a month. And and the nurture emails like are not only for nurturing the relationship, but they're also to remind people that you still exist. And that's where it's great for your prospects. Because if they are, we're on the fence about working with you and then they receive your 5 or 6 emails, sales emails and then they you drop them, they just go about their life and they forget about you. But having these nurture emails will continue that relationship. It will continue to bring value to them. And and I'm sure you guys understand this any time you bring value to someone, especially when it's of a free value, they're going to love you. They're if it's if it's great value, they're going to even if they don't become your client, they may tell someone about you. So that's the great news is is value creates a relationship. They rely on you for information. After a while, they're like, well, you got to go and see this person. They're amazing. You should you should join their email list or or, you know, if they talk to someone and they're like, Yeah, I'm really struggling with this problem. Just they'll be like, Oh my gosh.
Heather: [00:10:06] So and so I received their emails and it's it's great information. Just go book an appointment with them. So it really does create. Um, it's a great way of marketing and, and it's pretty low risk in that sense. As far as investment, as far as, um, you know, time that you have to continuously put in it. Sometimes I think people think email marketing are like so overwhelmed I can't do it. But it's, it's really, it doesn't have to be especially if you're repurposing content in your nurture campaign or your nurture emails. Like it doesn't have to be this thing, this big thing. So how do we get started with email marketing? Well, there's a couple different things. You know, first off, what I said before, understand your goals. What is the goal of your email marketing? Are you trying to gain new clients? Are you trying to retain clients? Once you have those goals set, then you can you can move on from there. The next step really is is deciding on some kind of email marketing software, some kind of platform that you want to use. There's there's a variety of different ones. Some of the ones that that I tell clients about are mailerlite, constant contact, active campaigns, MailChimp, those are some of just a handful, or you can use a CRM. So if you have a sales tool like HubSpot, you can use them for your email marketing as well.
Heather: [00:11:42] Um, so again, picking the tool that you want to use this tool is going to be a way to collect and store emails. It's also going to be a way to send emails and my favorite automate. So you're not going in there and like sending an email every week? Nope. The beauty, especially of the sales emails, is that you can go in and write 5 to 6 emails, get them all set up and then they are automated. They go out every single time someone signs up for your emails, they just go, you know, and you tell it how often to go out. So it's like, okay, I want it to go out every three days. Does it for you and you and and it's marketing for you while you sleep. I mean, people could be like signing up at 2 a.m. and you're sleeping your cozy little bed and there's no there's no work involved. Once you get it set up, I do suggest that you go in and about every six months or so that you review all the content, make sure it's up to date, make sure it's still applies to your ideal clients. Also, you know, like if you feel like you're not getting the the results that you want, maybe you need to adjust something. Maybe you've learned something, something that's of greater value to your ideal clients and that, you know, so six months you go in and you review it, but not a lot of work.
Heather: [00:13:13] Same thing with your nurture emails. Nurture emails can be anywhere from 26 to or 12, 12, 26 or 52 emails. And it really that that's based on feedback. It's based on understanding, finding your your ideal client on deciding how often you want to send them because you don't want to feel spammy. Right? You want to send them. Great. And valuable stuff. Valuable stuff that's that they're going to want to continue to read, that's going to to in some way benefit their life. So, um, and again, those nurture emails, you can write them once, review them every six months or you decide that you're going to write for a month or however many a month. So and then you just go back to it every so often and you review them and they are set up ready for you. This is, I mean, great. And it doesn't have to be new content. It doesn't have to be. You go and take posts that worked on social media. You go take content from a blog and all of a sudden you will be surprised at how quickly you can create nurture emails. Nurture emails aren't that long. They they literally could be two paragraphs. So it doesn't have to be that long to create value in someone's life. Um, so we, we've got the email marketing software set up.
Heather: [00:14:50] You're creating, you create something of value to get people to sign up. So that's, that's really the first step before you create the emails is you got to get people to sign up for your email list. What? So that's where the lead generator comes in, creating something. It can be a five minute video. It can be. You know, some kind of pdf could be a journal, like something for mindfulness. I mean, just understand your ideal client, sit down, brainstorm a bunch of different things that you think that would be valuable to them. Um, one of the things I say is what are the questions you get asked the most? Not about your business, like the day to day operations, like what time you're open, Do you offer telehealth, whatever? No. But what are the questions about the services you provide that you get asked the most and then create a lead generator about it? Um, so that is, is kind of the gateway into your email marketing. That's what's going to get people to sign up for that, create a lead generator value and then nurture these relationships. So, um. We've got that done. We've got the email, and then just make a plan like what you want your emails to look like, what you want to have in your emails. We've kind of gone through that a little bit. How many emails you want, the frequency of the emails, all of that.
Heather: [00:16:23] So the four steps understand your goals, set up an email marketing software, create something of value, a lead generator that are going to get people to actually sign up and then make a plan for your sales campaign and your nurture campaign. If I was going to pick which one I would start with first. Again, it's based on your goals. You know, if you're like wait listed for six months, maybe, maybe it's not about the sales email list. Maybe it's more about creating a nurture email campaign for your current clients. Um, but on the other side and that thing, the beauty of it is, is if you don't have one done right away, you can still have people signing up for something. Just make sure that they're receiving emails, communication from you in some way from the moment that they sign up for that email list. Okay, guys. So that is email Marketing 101. I hope that it helps you to feel excited about it because I mean, again, the return on investment can be great, the results can be amazing and it can be a huge benefit for your marketing and for your business, your practice. Um, if you want to know how to get people on your wait list. Create email marketing if you want to. If you want to have a wait list. Email marketing. If you want to send out some new offerings, some new service, let's say that you are now providing some additional service that you hadn't done before.
Heather: [00:18:02] Guess how you get the news out? Email marketing. This is direct access to your clients, your prospects, everyone. So. And even if you're doing something cool in office, email marketing, right? Okay, so here's the challenge for today. Today I want you to. Write down a list of goals. What do you hope to accomplish in email marketing? And then look for some kind of email marketing software. I've given you four different options. You can pick one of those, but look which one fits. Some of them will have introductory they're free until you have x amount of people signed up for your email list or you're sending out, you know, X amount of emails, a certain number. So do your research. Figure out which one works best for you and your needs. And then. Get going on it because it will be it'll be very rewarding to see it, to see this kind of flourish and blossom from there. So. Okay, guys, this is another episode of Therapy Marketing Solutions. I am so excited for you guys to start email marketing and happy marketing y'all. We're glad you could be here today. Thank you for listening. If you are interested in learning more about marketing, check out my blogs at 3C Digital Media Network dot com or therapy marketing solutions.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Episode 18: Barry McGarrah
Heather: [00:00:00] Hey, everyone, this is Heather and you're listening to the Therapy Marketing Solutions podcast, where we are going to take the mystery out of marketing and we're going to meet therapy clinic owners to discuss what is working for them in their marketing to help them grow thriving practices. You don't have to figure this all out on your own because when we all work together, we're able to build something amazing and in the end serve clients better. So let's get started. Welcome, everyone, to another episode of Therapy Marketing Solutions. This is episode 18, Finding Your Niche. And today we have Barry Magiera, who is a licensed marriage and family therapist on our show today. So welcome, Barry.
Barry: [00:00:55] So good to be here. Heather. Thanks for inviting me.
Heather: [00:00:58] Yeah, I am. I was actually really excited. It's always a great conversation with you, Barry, so I'm excited for today's conversation and then just, you know, helping our listeners to to maybe take some, you know, little tidbits from this conversation we have and, and apply it to their own businesses. So let's start off really talking let's talk about, you know, kind of your experience in counseling, how you got started and then how you started your business to.
Barry: [00:01:27] Yeah. Well, gosh, this is a topic I could talk all day about. We have, in fact, talked about counseling so much. That's how we got here. Um, so I have been married for almost 24 years. Next month. Uh, we got. Thank you very much. We got married super young, 19 years old. We were babies. Um, and, you know, marriage, as we're all very aware, is difficult at times. It's awesome. It's wonderful. And there's so much to learn. About ten years into my marriage, I realized that there was a lot that I didn't know. There was a lot that wasn't going well. And so my wife and I ended up in counseling and the experience was super life changing for me. And I kind of came out of that therapy experience like thinking if I could, you know, give my life to helping other couples in their relationships, that that's something I would totally be open to. Um, and couldn't let go of the thoughts. So I went back to school. I got my degree in marriage and family therapy. And so that's what I specifically do. I work with couples, especially couples, in kind of extreme distress or crisis. And my business is blue sky intensive therapy. So we do a type of therapy called intensive therapy, which is not the typical hour a week therapy. It's kind of like a therapy a day at a time or a week at a time, just depending on what people need.
Heather: [00:02:59] Yeah. Yeah. And one of the things that I love about your story, Barry, is that you actually didn't really want to go to counseling, right? You were.
Barry: [00:03:07] Not.
Heather: [00:03:08] You were like, being dragged by your. I think there was some claw marks on the wall as you were going in.
Barry: [00:03:14] You would love my wife if she was here. You would love her because she's so smart. She would say, I think we need to go get counseling, Barry. And I'd say, No, I think we're fine. And she'd say, But there's so many things we couldn't talk about. And I'd say, That's fine. I think it's actually normal. A lot of couples can't talk about things. And she eventually said, you know, Well, I'm going to go to counseling. Will you at least sit in the room? And I said, Well, of course, if that's what good husbands do, I will do that and you know the rest of the story.
Heather: [00:03:42] Yeah, definitely so. And I love that you took something from your life and then created a career out of it just because you realized what an impact and it made for your marriage and how that could impact others, too. I mean, because I agree, marriage is hard. I'll be 25 years in September. Hey, congrats. Yeah, we're Man, it's been a second. Yeah but but yeah. So I definitely agree that marriage can be a challenge and there are some ups and downs, hills and valleys and there's periods of, you know. Our moments. Even there, my favorite person in the moments you're like, Yeah, I don't know about that person so much.
Barry: [00:04:25] And there's some times where we need help. We don't know what to do, we don't know how to fix something. And so needing needing help is very normal. And having the guts to ask for help is a big deal.
Heather: [00:04:39] So yeah, what I love about. Oh, sorry, what were you going to say?
Barry: [00:04:43] Just feel lucky when people reach out and ask for help. I just feel very lucky to to be asked. It's a it's a big honor. Yeah.
Heather: [00:04:52] And so how long has blue sky intensive therapy been in business?
Barry: [00:04:58] So I started in the middle of Covid. So 20, 20 ish, you know, 2019, 2020. So in the therapy world where I live, um. When Covid hit and everybody was locked down. Um, the need for counseling services exploded. And so quickly, all of us counselors went from no waiting lists or small waiting lists to long waiting lists and months of like not being able to get people in. So in the middle of Covid, I had such a long waiting list and more and more people reaching out. And so I had a good friend of mine who did intensive therapy for individuals. He would work with a client for three days at a time, and they would do trauma recovery therapy. And so I talked to him about it and I said, you know, I would love to figure out how to do something like that for couples. And so I my myself and with his help, we developed a program that I created to be able to work with couples, and I would begin to work with them either for a day just so they could find some relief and stabilization while they wait to get into another counselor. Or for the couples that were really bad in crisis, we developed a week long program that couples could come to, and it's kind of like the E.R. or ICU experience in the medical field. They come in their relationship. You know, it's it's dying. And so we work to stabilize it. We work to give it a chance to live and thrive again.
Heather: [00:06:41] Yeah, definitely. I think that's pretty amazing what you guys offer. And I love the idea that you you know, it's kind of like an E.R., an ICU, um, where they come in to to get that immediate attention, that immediate help. And then from there, they can at least have some kind of plan on how to move forward or what they want to do with their marriage in the long run. So I think that's so great. Um, and I would imagine I would love to see some statistics. I'm sure they're still working on some of that. But statistics on how many couples realize there was an issue during Covid because they were stuck in the same house together.
Barry: [00:07:23] Absolutely.
Barry: [00:07:24] What seemed like manageable, like always thought about like a small cracks in Covid. Those small cracks just became extreme riffs and. Yeah. And because they're stuck in the house and they're stuck around each other. Those little riffs became really big issues.
Heather: [00:07:43] Yeah, absolutely. So. So you've been doing this for three years. Your business has been established for three years. And like you said, you do intensive couples therapy and trauma therapy. And you kind of talked a little bit about that niche and how you decided to work within that niche. Um, so let's talk a little bit more about how it how it works. Um, how do people find you? What is the process, some of those things?
Barry: [00:08:16] Yeah.
Barry: [00:08:17] Well, one of the things that I so, you know, things like Covid or things like really big kind of earth shaking experiences, they can really awaken us or there's an opportunity that lies there that can kind of awaken us to like, thinking about something that could help others, especially in the human services industry. Um, that maybe is doesn't exist or there's not too much of. So for me, you know, there the idea of intensive therapy, it's very rare. It's not in it. You can't find it in every state. For us in Idaho, from what I know, for professional counseling services, we're the only couple that offer intensive therapy in Idaho. So you'd have to travel out of Idaho to find some of these services. So Covid kind of opened my eyes to the need of people needing something soon, sooner than later, and trying to help this crisis from getting worse. And so, you know, for for people that are listening in your line of work, if there's like, um, really difficult times, those are often laden with opportunities to begin to think and consider, um, what aspects of their industry they could really silo into and drill down into and, and develop something that could be really beneficial to the industry. So specifically counseling. You know, counseling has only been around really since the 1960s. So we're in our infancy. So kind of the standard of an hour of therapy a week became kind of the standard protocol. And there's no research and there's nothing that says like that is ideal. That's what people are best impacted by. So I kind of in those moments just felt like, well, the statistics are the evidence aren't telling me that I have to stick to this thing.
Barry: [00:10:20] So if I could do whatever, what would I do? Um, and I found that I don't have to carry a whole caseload of clients if I'm just seeing a couple a day at a time just to get them stable so they can get in with their counselor that they're on their waiting list for. So I began to do that, letting go of my hourly weekly clientele, making space a day at a time to help couples. And I started. And recognizing like, wow, a day with a couple, we can accomplish months of work in a day. And they felt instant relief after a day of that for the most part. And and then, you know, I started encountering couples that needed even more. They were even more in extreme crisis. Hence the need for developing kind of a week long protocol or program to help them. So it was really the the situation of Covid and what was driving kind of business per se, that really helped me kind of begin to open my mind to consider what we could do to help more people, to really help what was going on, to get people help sooner. And, you know, the the kind of the slogan that we came up with for my business is get better faster, because that's what it all comes down to. I hate to see people in suffering. And so if there's a way we can help them sooner and get them feeling better sooner, I would love to give my life and time to that.
Heather: [00:11:45] Yeah, think that's so great. So wonderful. And I love that you talk about the benefit that as you have done it, as you've niched down it has allowed you to become more efficient and to just to do your job better, to see results faster, to do some of those, you know, those benefits you really see by doing one thing instead of, you know, branching out to every single thing or having a certificate or education and everything, it's like by focusing in you're able to to better serve. And one of the things also is that it allows you to be very specific in the kind of people you want to work with, too. So what is kind of your process in deciding who you work with and who you don't work with? Because that's one of the big parts of having a niche.
Barry: [00:12:38] Yes, correct. You're so right. You have to say no to a lot of good in order to to be able to be great. So saying no to a lot of those opportunities that you could do and just saying yes to the one thing that you really are feeling called to or dedicated to or really feeling strongly about. That was a definite a moment. I can remember the moment where I realized like, I'm going to have to say no to a lot in order to say yes to this one thing. And so that's something that's a real pivotal moment that everyone has to go through to get to these places to niche down. So in the process of developing this, I knew that there are going to be some cases that a day is not going to be valuable for. And so looking at and using the the protocols that my the therapy that I already do and I'm just doing the normal, you know, hourly weekly therapy that a lot of people get, I'm just using it in intensive doses. So I'm using the same criteria that we do in regular therapy to know if candidates are couples are a good candidate for this program. So, um, I'm looking to see if there's, you know, diagnoses that couples are coming in with, if they, you know, if I'm the 10th counselor that they've seen, There's some of these things that I watch for in the consultation that help me know if if a couple is a good match for what I'm doing or not.
Barry: [00:14:14] You know, if a couple comes in and and one of the spouses is still actively engaged in an affair, like what I'm doing is not going to be great for them. Yeah. And so we so when a couple reaches out to me, we have an hour consultation. I listen to a little bit about what's going on. I try to get a sense for what the struggles are and then I tell them a little bit about what I do and we talk about if what I do would be a good fit for what they're going through. We talk about the kind of therapy that I do and use and, um, and so a lot of couples self-select, you know, they determine, yes, this is good, this would be good for us or no, this wouldn't be good for us. And then I'll also have kind of some things in my head that help me know whether this couple would be a good fit or not for the kind of therapy that I offer.
Heather: [00:15:06] Yeah, I absolutely love that you have kind of some criteria and really, if you weren't working within a niche that might be that might be difficult to come up with that criteria. But because, you know, I have one day or five days to work with this couple, these are the things that I need to see. This is where I need to see them in their marriage or in their journey in order to actually be beneficial to them. And one of the things that I absolutely love that you said is you had to say you have to say no to a lot of good things in order to really do the things that serve you and help you. And I mean, I think anyone in any in any industry that can resonate. It with, you know, and I'm in marketing and that definitely resonates with me. It's hard to say no sometimes to the the tempting things or the things that you're like, Oh, that could be kind of fun or exciting or maybe maybe I should try it. Yep. Um, what do you do to stay kind of true to yourself in that?
Barry: [00:16:06] Well, I think a lot of us councilors, we would guess a lot of my friends that are in the counseling field, they're really, um, people pleasers. So we are, um, we are we have so much empathy and so much compassion that when somebody comes along and they need some help and it's not necessarily in my niche, there's definitely things inside that say, Oh, you can let that go for now and help them. So surrounding myself with the right people, my business partner, my wife, um, my colleagues, you know, making sure that they are there to support me so that I have a supervisor, I talk with my supervisor about my cases and my consults so she can help me, like when I'm tempted to people, please, and to let go of my boundaries and cross them to help somebody that might not be in my niche. I have people in my corner that can help me see it and help me. Um, because I'm not the only answer. So they remind me, Hey, there's plenty of other good therapists that can be a huge help for them, so let's get them connected to them so that you can stay in your lane and keep doing what you're doing. So, you know, it's not that I'm letting a person down or it's not that I'm disappointing them. I'm actually doing a better thing in getting them to connected to somebody who's great at what they do and that can help them best.
Heather: [00:17:29] Yeah, and I love that. And that's one of the things I was going to say. I'm sure that having some kind of. You know, list of people who can help with this circumstance or that circumstance or who are professionals who specialize in those areas is helpful for you as well. Just so that if you are tempted, you know, to. Yes. I mean, I your counselor, it's not just that your people pleasers that like you said, but it's that you want to help everyone that's why you went into the profession and it is very noble and honorable. But you also have to recognize that you might not be the best person for that. Um, you know, you might not be the best counselor to help that person.
Barry: [00:18:09] Yeah, I think great counselors have great referral lists, like they have people they're connected to that are great at what they do. And so when people come along needing help, we know what we're great at and we can also refer them to somebody who's great at whatever they need.
Heather: [00:18:26] Yeah. Oh, I love that. That's such a great little. I'm going to like put that on the wall or something like, thank you for that. That was just very insightful. Um, Forbes actually says a focus business concept has numerous benefits, including simple and streamlined operations and less direct competition, thus allowing you to be a big fish in a small pond. A clear focus means you can focus your audience targeting, targeting, strategy, defining and excelling with a special skill set and knowledge in a particular industry allows you to identify, claim and build on your market expertise. And I love that. It just talks about so many benefits that you're able to to really show how you're different. This is who we are. This is what we do. This is the only thing that we do. So there's less direct competition. You can create very streamlined operations. You're not having to create a process for that and a process for this. And, you know, filling spread thin and and you really are able to focus on that one target audience, which again, benefits them and it benefits you from a marketing standpoint because instead of speaking to a blurred crowd or the masses you are speaking to, you know, the Millers or whatever, whatever couple. So you're speaking to very specific couples.
Barry: [00:19:57] Yeah, I, I, I'm a hunter. I'm from the Idaho Northwest area where we hunt and fish a lot. It's a concept that's like using a shotgun versus using a rifle, a shotgun where we're like shooting from the hip. We're hoping to like hit something, throwing it out there versus a rifle, which we know what we're shooting for. We know we're aiming at and we know how to hit the target. So, yes, absolutely. And might I just plug for just a minute that if you're struggling to find clarity in that for your business, somebody like Heather, who's wonderful at asking questions and helping you find clarity, which she did with me as we put together our my website, it was great because it helped me find clarity on even more who is my target, how do I reach them? And it was just incredibly helpful.
Heather: [00:20:54] Oh, well, thank you so much. I'm glad it helped and I love that. Just kind of working with clients to to find that clarity because again, it's very you haven't target, you haven't aim, you know, what you're shooting for and can move forward. And that actually helps me or um, you know, kind of from a marketing standpoint, uh, you know, obviously having a very clear and defined message or I guess first off, having a very clear and defined audience helps you to create the clear and defined message that's going to resonate with them. It's something very specific. They're going to be like, Oh, like he's talking to me. How did he know? Yeah, you know, that's that's where it gets exciting. Is that. Go ahead. I would say is that they they were like, he gets me.
Barry: [00:21:47] Yeah they feel seen by you. They feel heard by you. And you know, if you're listening and you want to start a business or you are a business owner and you're like struggling to find that clarity, I'm just want to advocate one more time because I didn't have a ton of clarity. I knew kind of in general who I wanted to reach and how I wanted to go about it. But people like Heather can help you clarify, find clarity on knowing what the audience really is, who the audience really is, and how to market them and speak to them in really, really crystal clear terms and and putting the message on the bottom shelf for them. So I would just say, listen, you don't have to know how to. Do it all. People like Heather are wonderful at coming alongside and helping you with that.
Heather: [00:22:38] Yeah, and we definitely had did some great work together where there was a lot of aha moments for both of us. Yes, because it's, you know, just having a conversation, figuring things out. So I appreciate that, that, uh, thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. Um, HubSpot says by focusing on a small audience, you can use your resources to find customers who align with your product. These people need your product the most and are most likely to convert. And that's one of the big ideas, too, is that instead of. Wasting money on Google ads that just go out to anyone within this region or whatever. And I'm not saying Google ads are a waste, but if you're not using if you don't know who you want to, you know, target, if you don't know what exactly you want to say, then yeah, it can be wasteful. You can be literally throwing money out the window. Um, so definitely making sure that you know, who you're talking to is going to help both with your marketing and your advertising budget so that you're using money efficiently, you're marketing, you know, budget efficiently and really can target those that are interested and need your services the most.
Barry: [00:23:55] Yeah.
Heather: [00:23:55] So I think the big idea is that by doing that, by creating a niche, you're better able to help. People versus just kind of like, Yeah, I did good. I helped someone. Like there's I don't know. Do you feel that way? You're like, I absolutely was able to help this couple more than I would have been had I just been doing, you know, general counseling or something like that.
Barry: [00:24:20] Yeah, absolutely. Like in the counseling field, for example. So, you know. Counseling. The field of counseling is growing leaps and bounds. Mean 20. Think the recent statistic was it's growing 20 some percent a year. Mean we have people coming into the counseling field in huge numbers. So you have like 100% of these counselors. Well, how many of the counselors are actually doing couples therapy? Well, if you look at the statistics, you know, maybe 25%, 1 in 4 counselors will do couples counseling. So already right there, I'm down to a small group of counselors in the field that are working with couples. And then out of that, if you look at, well, how many of them will work with a couple more than an hour a week? Oh, then that number drops dramatically to maybe single digits of how many how many counselors would actually work with a couple for longer than an hour a week. So now I've put myself in the single digits in the counseling field. So when a couple comes along and they know, Oh, we're in trouble and we know we need more than an hour a week, who they go looking for is a very select few.
Barry: [00:25:27] So I am a name in a very select few, and I'm sure that the counseling field is just one example of what that's like in other people's industries, where there are different niches that make your name one of a few that people will reach out to. And by doing this and being open and this is where I just want to say like this does entail risk. I mean, letting go of my weekly client load to be able to believe that a couple will see me for a day. That was a risk that you have to step out in faith in some of these ways. But the payoff is so great. I would just encourage anyone who's listening take the risk, step out in faith because these risks really have a huge payoff, not just from like better, you know, being more successful in business, but like the satisfaction and the fulfillment that comes personally when you take a risk and you step out in faith and step into this niche. I can't. I can't tell you how rich the satisfaction and fulfillment is when you do that.
Heather: [00:26:32] Yeah, I love that. Yeah. Because it definitely there's something to be said when you niche down, you know, all of a sudden you're doing something that you're very passionate about. That's kind of why I went from just general marketing to niching down to working with therapy, you know, those within therapy industry or allied health professionals because. That was that was the people that I loved to work with. You know, all it takes is one. And all of a sudden you're like, ooh, this is this is fun. This is what lights me up in the morning. And when you are excited about your work, your clients benefit from it.
Barry: [00:27:08] Absolutely.
Heather: [00:27:10] And so that's a huge benefit for them as well because you're just going to be excited to be there, excited to help them, excited to, you know, really give everything to help those who are, you know, your clients well.
Barry: [00:27:25] And I can imagine for You mean now you just have to become an expert in the therapy world marketing instead of like becoming an expert in whoever comes your way and their world like that makes your life so much easier because you now just have to be focused on this one area instead of every area, which I have to have to think that's a game changer for you.
Barry: [00:27:50] Absolutely.
Heather: [00:27:51] It does make a big a big difference. And so I really like what you said about, you know, you've got to be brave. You got to step out in faith. Um, I actually just did a social media post video that said kind of that same thing where it was like. Live on, like outside of your comfort zone? Just right outside of it, just on the outlining, you know, just kind of push out that comfort zone more and more because the more you push out of the comfort, the more you're going to have those benefits, the more you're going to build the life you want, the more you're going to, you know, do work that you're passionate about, all those things. And, um, so I totally agree with you is to live your life just outside of comfort.
Barry: [00:28:35] So good.
Heather: [00:28:36] Yeah. Yeah. So. Well, guys, um, if you have, I'm going to just make a little plug for. For Barry, since he was so nice about, you know, plug in my business. But, um, if you have clients who are in need or prospects that, you know, if you've got a waitlist and need immediate help. Within their marriage and this could be a beneficial to them. Please reach out to Barry at Blue Sky Intensive Therapy. He is amazing at what he does and in helping his clients. So anything else you want to add today, Barry?
Barry: [00:29:13] Thank you so much for letting me come. I like I said, I love talking about this stuff. So another chance, another opportunity to talk about how we help the world we live in more and how do we help it faster and better. I'm just thankful people like you that are willing to have these conversations and make space and time for this. And thanks for letting me be a part of it.
Heather: [00:29:34] Yeah, well, thank you very much for being on the episode on this episode. And I think there's a lot of amazing tidbits and, and think food for thought for people on this episode that, you know, if they're kind of teetering on should I niche down, should I not, this may be the thing that that helps them make that decision, especially when you point out not just the pros, but that there is risk to it. But are you willing to take that risk? Is the risk worth it? You know, um, all of those things to to get to that next step. So.
Barry: [00:30:09] It's a good word.
Heather: [00:30:10] Yeah, definitely. Thank you guys for joining us on another episode of Therapy Marketing Solutions. We're glad you could be here today. Thank you for listening. If you are interested in learning more about marketing, check out my blogs at 3C Digital Media Network dot com or therapy marketing solutions.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Happy marketing, y'all.
Episode 17: Heather Jensen
Heather: [00:00:00] Hey, everyone, this is Heather and you're listening to the Therapy Marketing Solutions podcast, where we are going to take the mystery out of marketing and we're going to meet therapy clinic owners to discuss what is working for them in their marketing to help them grow thriving practices. You don't have to figure this all out on your own because when we all work together, we're able to build something amazing and in the end serve clients better. So let's get started. Hey everyone. Welcome to a new episode of Therapy Marketing Solutions. We are excited to have you here today and I've got some great stuff for you guys. I've got great news. Actually. Great news is that you don't always have to be creating new content all the time. I mean, seriously, that is a huge reason to celebrate. And I'm a content creator, but sometimes coming up with new ideas or, you know, trying to decide what to write, how to write all that stuff can kind of drain you after a while. Let's just, let's be honest. Okay. Um, so here's what we're talking about today, you guys. We are talking about reduce, reuse, recycle your content. And when I say reduce, reuse and recycle, I am not talking about plastic bottles. Okay? This is not an ad for that. But what I mean by it is that. When you read, you will reduce the amount of work by reusing and recycling your content. And that's why it's great news, because you are saving yourself time, energy, mental power, like, you know, all of those things.
Heather: [00:01:51] You are saving yourself. For more work. So that is awesome because we all know that like running a small business, you have to market. If you're not marketing, then then you might be missing out on growing your business and gaining additional clients. So marketing is important. It's important to get the word out to help so people know who you are, what services you provide, how you're going to help them, all of those things. And when we're marketing, we do it in a variety of ways. So I know one of the big questions is like, okay, so what should I be doing first? And then the sense of overwhelm dread sets in because all of a sudden people are like, You should do social media, you need to write blog posts, you need to do video for social. And of course, YouTube, you should have a YouTube channel and you need emails and you need lead generators and you need brochures and you need fliers. And the list goes on and on and on. Webinars, you know, etcetera. And all of a sudden all you can think about is curling into a little ball. In your closet and maybe eating some chocolate. At least I would be eating chocolate. Seriously, it's a lot of work when you think about it in that way. And you're like, How am I going to tackle all of this if I can't hire a company? How am I possibly a solopreneur, possibly of a few, you know, other therapists on or even if you're a larger clinic.
Heather: [00:03:26] You really have to ask yourself that question. Is it is it reasonable? Is it. I mean, is it healthy for me to try to tackle all this at once? So again, by reusing and recycling your content, you're able to reduce your workload, which is a huge, huge, huge plus, meaning you can still be marketing, you can still be doing all the things. With less work involved. And so let's break this down into what that actually means. So with let's say let's start with writing a blog, because that's how I like to start. Writing a blog article means that, you know, I find a lot of content. Typically, my blog articles are like 1000 to 1500 words. And so you've got to do a little bit of research. You find the content, you write it all out, and then. You are able to take that content and you're able to reuse it and repurpose it. And what I mean by that, there's a little bit of a difference between reusing and recycling your content. So with reusing, you take snippets out of it. So let's say that in that blog article you it was like five things you should be doing, um, for. For your mental health. Let's throw that out there. Okay. So if you have five things that you should be doing every day for your mental health, maybe that means meditate, write in your journal, take a walk, drink water, get adequate sleep.
Heather: [00:05:05] So those are the five things. Well, all of a sudden, you know, and those could be your subheadings of. And so you could expand on for a couple of paragraphs for each one of those five things. But you can create a blog post or like here's five tips on how to improve your mental health and then you list those in bullet points. There's a social media post right there. You can also do a video about it and you break down one of them. Let's say it's take a walk every day and then you kind of dive into the benefits of that and you're like, Hey, guess what? By taking a 20 minute walk every day, you're you're getting vitamin D, you're, you know, enjoying nature. Your. Breathing fresh air. Hopefully we're all breathing fresh air. And so therefore, you are more grounded. Your day feels better. Obviously, any kind of exercise is going to be beneficial for you, for your mental wellbeing. So we've just created I just created two blog posts out of or sorry, two social media posts out of a blog post that I just made up on the top of my head. You see, where I'm going with this is that you can curate your content from this blog article and reuse it in different ways.
Heather: [00:06:26] And then how we recycle it is that we take one aspect of the blog and you say, Huh? Wonder what it would look like to write a whole nother blog post on. Meditation. And so then you go into that and you talk about how meditation is incredibly great for grounding yourself, clearing your mind, bringing peace or quieting all the the chaos and all of those things. You've just created a whole nother blog post off one idea. And so you're recycling by making something new out of it. Uh, so this can go for everything. You can extend this into webinars. You could do a whole webinar with the five, you know, five things that are going to help your mental health. You can then, like I said, I gave a video on social media. You can write an email and maybe your weekly email is just a teaser to get people to read your blog article. So then you just take little tiny things on there. You start with a problem and you say, You know, for many of us who are struggling or many people who struggle with mental health, um. There needs to be strategies or I'm just I'm just, you know, throwing things out there. But you have this idea where you start with the problem, you kind of tease the problem out a little bit more and then you say. There's five ways that you can improve your mental health.
Heather: [00:08:04] And then to read it. Jump over to our blog. You can also just write a whole email out of it that has nothing to do with the blog post. So you're not you're not driving people to the blog post. You could do an infographic out of it, which would be fantastic and infographic meaning a visual of the five Ways to Improve Your Mental health so you can make a brochure out of it. You could do a lead generator. A lead generator meaning that you create. Um, some either visual or video or pdf that then you ask for their email in exchange, their name and email in exchange for this valuable content. So by reusing and recycling, you are reducing the amount of work, the amount of stress and still effectively marketing. Here's the other thing is that sometimes people are like, Well, that's repetitive. You're just, you know, regurgitating the same information over and over again. Well, two things that I want you to think about. One is that marketing is absolutely an exercise in repetition. You need to be saying the same thing in different ways everywhere. And so that's something to kind of think about, but you're not really being repetitive. So there's a quote by HubSpot, and I actually got this from 20 creative ways to repurpose your content. I'm going to drop this link in the podcast if you want to read this. And it says in this article, it says, You're not being repetitive.
Heather: [00:09:45] You're using content you and your teams have purposely created, giving it new life and ensuring that all segments of your audience can gain value from what you have to offer. And I really like that part about all segments because here's the thing is maybe you have a handful of people who follow you on Facebook and go to your website and email and your lead gen or and your brochure. The chances of that are pretty slim. Pretty rare. More than likely you have a different audience on social media and a slightly different audience who might be reading your blog posts from your website and a different audience who's part of your email campaigns and your lead generators, and then even a different audience who sees your brochures in office or that you drop your brochures off to. So. This is a way to get that same content or similar content out to all the people who are following you, whether that be through blog, email, social media, all of that. Because often content gets lost very quickly, especially on social media. If you're not like pounding that stuff out. It can go to the bottom of, you know, the social media really quickly. If you're not if people aren't commenting on it. That's just the way that the metrics work. That's just the way that that social media works. Um, so by doing this, your content. Is getting a new life. It's getting a second chance.
Heather: [00:11:29] It's getting more opportunities to be viewed. And of course, the overall goal is that then people follow you, they understand, and they want to work with your with your clinic or your practice. They want you to help them because they've seen your social media post or your blog or whatever. And they're like, yes, they have some incredibly insightful content. And this this has helped me so much. Now I need to go with them. You're building that relationship with them by creating. Content on the different platforms. So just something to think about, you guys, This is a pretty fast podcast episode, but I wanted to get this across to you that you do not need to be creating something new every day because honestly, it would be hard. You know, I build marketing for others, but I also have to market my own business. And if I had to constantly be reinventing the wheel and thinking of new ideas. It's a challenge. It's a challenge because. You know, you work with clients. That's your main job. I work with I do client work. That's my main job. So marketing for yourself? It takes a lot. You know, it's extra work and so make it easy for yourself and again, reduce the amount of work by reusing and recycling your content. That is the big thought for you. So I want to challenge you guys to write one. Blog post. Or if you're not interested in a blog post, write one email or lead generator, whatever it is.
Heather: [00:13:19] The idea behind it is to create something that's a little bit longer, that has more content than a social media post. And then from there. Reuse it and recycle it. And next thing you know, you'll be amazed by how much content you come up with. You'll be like, Oh my gosh. Just did like two weeks worth of content off one idea, right? Okay, you guys. So that's your challenge for this week. I hope it helps you in your marketing. I hope it helps you to continue to to attract clients that that you can help in your practice. And I want to leave that with you guys. Happy marketing you all. Okay, so this is going to be a post sorry, an advertisement that I'm going to do in this next bit that I would like attached to all my. New podcasts that are coming out. Um, so. This will be just its own little snippet. If you can add it to the end of all the podcasts, that would be fantastic. Thank you so much, Jordan. Guys websites can get expensive, marketing can be expensive. And if you're a solopreneur or a new clinic or practice, you already have plenty of overhead that you're working with. You've got rent on your building, you've got employees, you know, all the things that go into keeping the lights on and keeping your clinic running. So when it comes to marketing, sometimes there's just not a lot left over, right? But, you know, it's important to market.
Heather: [00:15:17] And that's where our website templates come in for these website templates are created just for allied health professionals. We work with you and we're not just giving you a template. That's the beauty of it. You know, just going and buying a template. We build the template template website for you. So the big idea behind it is you gather your content. And you drop it all in. In our easy system. We do. We have checks, check marks all the way. We tell you what step is next so that you're able to gather all your content in one place. We get together, we review it with you, and then from there we build your website for you. So this is perfect. You get a website at a fraction of the cost that looks and feels professional and like you're one of the big in the big leagues, right? And no one knows the difference. Gorgeous website template website for you that is going to wow your clients and fill your schedules and help with your marketing. So if you want to check it out, head on over to our website. We're glad you could be here today. Thank you for listening. If you are interested in learning more about marketing, check out my blogs at 3C Digital Media Network dot com or therapy marketing solutions.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Happy marketing, y'all.