Five Minute Marketing For Therapists

What can you do TODAY to get more clients? I call this strategy, "Five Minute Marketing." It's based on the concept that "It doesn't matter so much WHAT you do as THAT you do." (Think about that for a moment.)

Spend five minutes a day marketing.

• Write a letter to a referral source, or write a thank you note to a client.
• Drop a note to a client you haven't heard from in a while.
• Send a birthday card to a client.
• Write a blog post or a Twitter post.
• Spend five minutes writing part of an article.
• Spend five minutes in the front office answering the phone (especially if you have openings in the next week or two.)
• Call and introduce yourself to a therapist who works with a complimentary population.
• Schedule lunch with a therapist, or doctor, or minister who referred to you in the past, but who you haven't talked to in a while.

Just five minutes a day, every day, adds up.

Tips for More Effective Therapist Websites

I'm often asked to critique therapist websites. Here are my general criteria to make your website more effective.

1. Each therapist should have a separate page on the site.

2. Articles are a great addition to a practice website, but they need to be

• Consistent (all PDFs or all links -- ideally, use links)
• Written by a therapist -- not just compiled information. Put YOUR name on it.
• Updated regularly. (Reference a current event in the article to make it relevant.)
• Listed alphabetically, or listed by category. Or, better yet, both.
• Error-free. (No typos!!)
• Internally linked. At the bottom of each article page, it should take you back to the individual therapist's page who wrote the article.

3. Individual therapist's pages should like to a "Contact Us" page. E-mail and phone numbers should be on each therapist's page. The practice phone number should be on every page of the site.

4. The site needs to be professional -- no broken links, no ugly pages.

Making the Most of Your Therapy Directory Listing

My next free teleseminar will be Friday, and the topic is "Making the Most of Your Therapy Directory Listing."

This program is for therapists who currently have a profile on The Therapy Directory (powered by Psychology Today). This 50-minute program is designed to help you maximize your profile (and your online presence in general), increase your brand profile (both offline and online), and convert more prospects into clients.

For more information, visit:
http://www.eventsbot.com/events/eb381611452

Building Your Online Therapist Profile

Thanks to everyone that joined me for the free teleseminar today on "Building Your Online Therapist Profile."

Or try this link to listen using Itunes.

Download the handouts (PDF form) here.

Therapist Profile

Are you a therapist in private practice who could use a couple of new clients? Does your appointment book have a few holes?

Click here to download the HANDOUT for the the "Building Your Online Therapist Profile" teleseminar.
If that version of the handout didn't work, try this PDF version.

Want to check and see if your vanity URL is available? Click on the 1&1 banner below and search for the domain you're interested in registering.



Or click here: http://www.tinyurl.com/netherapist

Purchase the "The Therapy Directory Sign-Up Kit." For just $49, you'll receive:

• A sign-up kit to receive your free 90-day trial to The Therapy Directory.
• One-year registration of a vanity URL to re-direct to your Therapy Directory profile.
• 15-minute consultation to review your Therapy Directory narrative.

If you don't want to purchase the Sign-Up Kit online, you can fax or mail your credit card information to us and we will e-mail you the Sign-Up Kit as an Adobe Acrobat PDF.

Download the order form here.

Ready to write your own profile, and don't need the URL or consulting assistance? Sign up for your free 90-day trial of The Therapy Directory here.

For more information on developing your brand:



And

Building Your Online Identity

One topic I'm hearing a lot about from therapists is how they can build their online identity.

When you Google yourself, what do you find?

I will be offering a teleseminar on this topic on Friday, Dec. 18 from 2-3 p.m. CST.
Register online for free for "Building Your Online Therapist Profile."

In the meantime, step one to building your online identity is to register a domain name (URL) in your name. It's called a "vanity URL."

Suggestions:

• The first one you should try to register is your name: i.e., www.MindyBrown.com
• If that's not available, add "therapy" or "therapist" to your name: www.MindyBrownTherapist.com
• If you don't like that -- make it geographic specific: www.MindyBrownOmaha.com
• If you're known for a particular specialty, you can use that as your URL: www.infertility-omaha.com

Be creative! And don't be afraid to register more than one domain name. They're cheap through 1&1 (currently $6.99 for the first year; $8.99 a year after that) and you can "point" them anywhere you'd like (more on that later).

Click here to look and see if the URL you want is available.

Or click on this banner:

Media Training Tips -- Part II

These tips were provided courtesy of Margaret Bumann, in her "Media Training 101 for Mental Health Professionals" training workshop in Omaha on Friday, Nov. 13, 2009.

Read Part I for information on Interview Preparation.

Broadcast Interview Tips

• Practice speaking in short sentences; television sound-bites are only 7-10 seconds long, on average.
• Avoid jargon; use language that everyone understands.
• Use colorful, descriptive words and analogies; it makes what you say more interesting.
• Rehearse your main point; out loud, in front of a mirror.
• Repeat your message several times during an interview. Review the main point you typed or wrote out, then practice saying it several different ways prior to the interview.
• Good posture projects confidence; sit up straight, square your shoulders.
• Sit still; don't rock your chair.
• Don't cross your arms; it can make you look defensive.
• Look the interviewer in the eye.
• Relax, be gracious, smile!
• Wear clothes that project the image you want them to. If you're speaking as a professional, wear professional clothing.
• Even if you think the camera has stopped rolling, don't say anything you wouldn't say in public.
  

- Contact Margaret Bumann at (402) 618-6313 or e-mail margaret.bumann(at)cox.net for more information about upcoming media trainings or to schedule a media training workshop for your group, association, or organization.