Online marketing has surpassed traditional marketing in many ways. This trend will only continue as the Baby Boomers enter their golden years and millennials continue to dominate the market.
If you haven’t changed your online marketing efforts in the last few years, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to market your private practice. Here are ten ways to update your online marketing.
Use the Right Tools
There are endless tools and business applications available that help Therapists and small businesses with limited resources, operate and compete in the market. Evaluate the current tools you’re using and identify any gaps or challenges your therapy business currently faces in regards to marketing. From there, look at the tools that will help solve that problem.
Conduct a Social Media Audit
Even small businesses and Therapists in Private Practice need to have a strong social media presence. It doesn’t have to be as in-depth and integrated as a large scale brand, but it does help connect clients to the business through trust and a rapport. Conduct a social media audit to ensure that you have consistent imagery and your ROI on time and money spent on the various platforms.
Conduct a Brand Audit
Social media audits often fall under larger scale brand audits. Conducting a brand audit helps you determine if the message you’re conveying to clients aligns with the business goals. This is an opportunity to ask clients how they feel about your logo, colors, and how you present your business. Consider working with an outside agency to create a new brand strategy based on your findings.
Revisit the Marketing Plan
Creating a marketing plan is an important step that business owners and Therapists should engage in when they form the business. However, it’s often overlooked beyond the launch of the business and can quickly become dated. If there’s already a marketing plan in place, evaluate it and update it based on the changing market and business goals. If there’s no marketing plan in place, it’s time to create one.
Implement Automation
Having standard operating procedures in place is the key to time management and longevity in business. Much of this can be accomplished by automating repetitive tasks. Some entrepreneurs have their lead generation and conversion efforts entirely automated. Look at various tasks that can be automated, such as email marketing, social media scheduling, etc.
Repurpose Old Content
If you’ve heard that content creation is the key to driving web traffic, you’ve likely been creating content for years. Don’t make the mistake of getting too caught up on creating new content all the time; look back to your old content and see how you can repurpose it. A series of blog posts about a certain topic can be reshaped into a lead magnet. Old posts can be shared again by social media to drive traffic to your site.
Learn SEO Basics
Content contributes to strong SEO, which helps clients find your website when they Google a relevant keyword. It’s estimated that 70% of people never venture beyond the front page of Google. Thus, your goal is to be on it. Get familiar with keywords and answer the questions that your clients are asking when they search.
Think Mobile
The future is mobile, so optimizing your marketing efforts and website for a mobile future is essential. It’s also important to consider that mobile searching means more voice searches. Whereas typed Google searches tend to be broken keywords, voice searches tend to be fully worded questions.
Learn from Analytics
If you’re not currently reviewing your Google analytics, you should be. This can help identify the effectiveness of campaigns and determine where the majority of your traffic is coming from, both in terms of client demographics and online browsing.
Create Conversations
Remember that consumers want a human touch in an online world. Start simple by creating conversations and telling stories that personify your therapy business, rather than presenting as a robot that wants to sell, sell, sell.
Online marketing is the best way to reach clients far and wide and bring awareness to your therapy business. Remember to set goals about what you hope to achieve with your marketing efforts, and create an action plan to achieve them.