(Advertisement) The recent global pandemic has highlighted the need for greater mental health awareness as more people speak publicly and privately about their struggles with mental illness. This openness, along with the stress and disruption of the pandemic, has increased the demand for mental health services.
These needs are still with us today and many mental health professionals are busier than ever. That doesn't mean you should ignore your marketing strategy – on the contrary, it's more important than ever that people know you're here to help.
We have a comprehensive guide to the best digital marketing ideas for mental health professionals here. These are nine key ideas you should consider incorporating into your marketing strategy.
An overview of mental health marketing
Marketing to therapists and other mental health professionals is very individual, but some elements apply to all.
First, you need to create a brand that resonates with your clients and reflects your practice in an authentic and positive light. All marketing content you create should match not only your logo and color palette, but also the tone you use and the headlines you post.
The topics you post should also be relevant to your niche. Do you focus your work on children, couples, the elderly, trauma survivors, people struggling with addiction or elsewhere? Create content that speaks to people the site serves to achieve maximum impact.
Taking the time to think about your functional brand, your values, your voice and your target customers are important first steps to any marketing method you choose to be successful.
9 Marketing Ideas for Mental Health Professionals
Struggling to decide how to market yourself as a therapist? These mental health examples and strategies will inspire you to create your own marketing strategy.
1. Web design and development
Every business needs a well-written and carefully designed website to represent it online. After all, most of our research today, from pizza delivery to mental health services, begins online.
Your website is like a gateway to your online practice, so make sure it reflects the welcoming and professional environment your patients want and deserve. It should be easy to navigate your website, browse your services and specialties, and contact you or make an appointment.
Source: Employment Advice Centre.
2. Content Marketing
Content marketing is a great way to get people interested in the topics you specialize in. You can add a blog section to your website and post regularly about your location.
This content will help your SEO efforts (more on that later) and help you connect more with potential patients when they ask for help. In the area of relationships, this is important.
Renowned social worker and professor Brené Brown does an excellent job of presenting his articles, books and podcasts on his website.
Source: Brian Brown.
3. SEO
SEO for healthcare companies like mental health professionals helps people looking for practices and services like yours find you. The more you rank for specific keywords or search terms that patients may be using, the more people will walk through your door.
Good SEO is all about finding and writing the keywords most relevant to you and your customers, as well as practices like including relevant alt text in your images and a solid internal linking strategy. It's also about getting good links for you from other websites and sharing them widely on social media to increase your website's search engine results page (SERP) ranking.
4. Social networks
Speaking of social media, it has benefits for marketing mental health practices in addition to SEO juice. It's a popular way for mental health professionals to build a brand, connect with a new audience and expand their patient base.
Instagram has many therapists and counselors on their channels offering advice on boundaries, family relationships, self-love and more. TikTok has also become a great place for mental health professionals to share their wisdom and ideas with their audience.
For more mental health social media post ideas, check out the following examples of popular mental health professionals on Instagram and TikTok.
Source: Dr. Nicole Lepara
Source: your pocket therapist
5. Video Marketing
Video marketing and social media often overlap, especially when so many social media sites are converting to video. You can use Instagram's live video marketing features to make mental health videos on YouTube or discuss new mental health trends and topics in the news.
And you can further increase their reach by adding these videos to your social channels (if they're too long, cut them into short but consistent pieces). Video gives you a great way to speak face-to-face with your audience and share your knowledge, as well as compassion and empathy.
Source: Dr. Snipes or Dawn-Elise.
6. Start a podcast
Podcasting is still the most popular way to connect with people, and you don't need a lot of knowledge or a big budget to get started - all you need is a smartphone to record and some editing -experience.
To be successful, your podcast must fit your niche and tell an interesting story. And now that the podcasting space is so crowded, you can't just download it and expect it to take off.
But if you're a good storyteller and get your message across well, podcasting is an affordable way to reach new audiences and reach the people who need your services. Esther Perel is a respected therapist and has two podcasts to inspire you.
Source: Ester Perel
7. Email Marketing / Newsletter
An email newsletter can help you extend the reach of other content you create. For example, you can include a link to your monthly podcast, your latest blog post, or social media posts (or all three if you're ambitious) that you think will be useful.
You can also use email marketing to develop relationships with your patients by introducing them to your office staff, informing them about new services you offer, talking about the latest mental health trends, and more. .
Email campaigns are a great way to ask current patients for advice and reviews on relevant sites.
8. SEO / local marketing
Getting these patient reviews is another great way to improve your Google rankings. You must have and complete your Google My Business listing so that potential patients can find you through your website. The more positive reviews you have, the bigger your business will be as people search for mental health professionals near you.
Your Google My Business listing should include information such as your specialties, location and hours of operation, and how people can contact you to find out more (including links to your website and social channels is a good idea).
9. Checkpoint
Marketing for healthcare professionals can be more than just the organic reach you get from your content. You can also pay for advertising to reach the right audience and get results quickly – this is especially true if you are new to your practice and your online presence is highly effective.
Pay per click (PPC) advertising allows you to earn money when someone clicks on your ad. These ads can be placed on social networking sites and on Google, and the amount of data available to advertisers means that your ads can be highly targeted.
Marketing ideas for mental health professionals: Key findings
If you are looking for ideas on how to grow your psychiatric practice, there is no one way that works for everyone. But we hope these nine marketing ideas have inspired you to develop your marketing strategy.
- You don't have to use all nine marketing methods at once – it's best to focus on just a few and tweak them. And choosing complementary ones, like video marketing and social media, can help increase the reach of the content you create without extra work.
- Navigating the waters of health marketing, especially in the mental health field, can be challenging because of the privacy and confidentiality required by the field. Reach out to other members of your family for inspiration on how to share and communicate within personal or professional boundaries.
- Hiring a mental health marketing agency can help you grow even more if you're on a tight budget—a great option if you don't have the time to manage all those marketing tasks on your own and still want to focus patient care.
Looking for help with digital marketing for mental health professionals?
Hearst Bay Area has the industry knowledge and experience to help you succeed. Find out more and contact us today to find out how we can help you!