Marketing Your Therapy Practice for FREE

As a therapist, most of your time is spent on helping clients. If you own a private practice, you have to find those clients that you want to help. That search is best supported by effective marketing.

To find your clients you need to create a marketing message that describes you and your art therapy practice, and how your services can help clients.

New clients can be found using a referral-based system, however, this is not a completely effective system as you are relying on other people to send clients to you. In many cases, these clients have been vetted by a third party who may not understand your skillset and the type of client that you work with in your practice.

By developing your own marketing strategy, you have more control over the type of client you market your business to and the way in which you present your private practice to potential clients.

​

When you begin to focus your efforts on marketing, you soon learn that it can be an expensive endeavor that often does not guarantee results. As a new private practice, spending money on marketing can be a daunting prospect if you are not earning regular client income.

In addition to direct marketing costs, you will still incur some expenses such as printing, electricity, and time. These costs will not entail any direct marketing costs and will use resources that you already available.

One of the most important considerations when developing a strategy to market your private practice is to consider where your ideal client can be found. If you understand where can reach your ideal client, you can identify the most effective marketing methods.

Below is a list of some of the most common and effective marketing methods available to therapists:

NETWORKING

• With other therapists
• Therapist directories
• With doctors
• Through professional programs such as EAPs, rehabilitation etc
• With allied health professionals
• With local businesses
• Local media – print, radio, TV (community related stories)
• Community organizations
• School, universities, and colleges for contract work

ADVERTISING

• Social Media
• Therapists directories

EDUCATOR

• Local events
• Public speaking
• Community events
• Media appearances
• Publishing website content
• Publishing content for others

FREE MARKETING

Some of the above methods will cost money. A more targeted approach at FREE marketing will include the below avenues:

• Google places listing
• Create social media accounts for your practice
• Free online directories
• Local newspapers and radio stations
• Connecting with community organizations and groups
• Create a website with effective SEO techniques
• Connect with doctors and allied health professionals.

The most effective marketing methods will be formed from creating a marketing plan that identifies who your client is and communicates to them how you and your practice can help them.

A marketing plan establishes your marketing goals and helps to create the blueprint to achieve those goals. Your marketing plan helps to communicate the benefits of your therapy business to your ideal client.

Once your marketing plan is defined you will have a clear view of:

• The marketing assets you need (advertising content)
• The advertising platforms you will use
• The demographics of your clients
• The time investment required to market your business
• External resources you may need to hire
• Important metrics for evaluation

These below components define your marketing strategy:

• Business goals – income, customers, product development, and growth goals
• Marketing goals – increase client bookings, promote physical or digital products
• Market research – understanding the demographics of your location and interest level in your services/products
• Customer profile – understanding the personal demographics and specific mental health requirements of your clients

Once you have defined your goals, you can use the below steps to outline an overall marketing plan for your private practice:

• Map out the year for promotional opportunities
• Identify the best tools to create your marketing assets
• Identify the resources you have to take action based on your marketing plan
• Create your plan
• Revise and edit your plan
• Implement your plan for a month
• Revise and edit your plan again for the rest of the year

For more articles that relate to marketing your art therapy practice, check out our previous blog posts listed below:

USING EMAIL MARKETING:

• How to Build an Email List for your Therapy Practice
• How to Create a Free Offer to Build Your Email List
• How to Create a Monthly Art Therapy Newsletter
• Marketing to Your Clients Using Email

GENERAL MARKETING TIPS:

• How to Establish Your Business Network
• How to Plan Your Marketing Strategies
• The Best Marketing Methods for Art Therapists
• Understand the Marketing Cycle of Your Art Therapy Practice
• What to do when you have no clients booked

SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS:

• Create a Social Media Workflow for a Therapy Practice
• Ethical Posting on Your Social Media Pages as a Therapist
• How to Create an Annual Social Media Plan in 60 mins

TIPS FOR MARKETING TEMPLATES:

• 5 Essential Marketing Templates for your Therapy Practice
• Create A Sales Funnel for an Art Therapist
  What are Brand Image Assets and Why Do I Need Them?

SIGN UP below to download the FREE Marketing Cycle Worksheet.

Use the worksheet guide to establish a marketing strategy for your therapy practice. Complete the sections to help guide you through the stages of your marketing cycle. Use this blog post to help understand each stage of the marketing cycle process.