When you’re in private practice as a licensed mental health counselor, you have to market yourself to ensure that you have clients. You can’t rely on referrals or word of mouth for a thriving practice. It’s important that you’re constantly finding channels to market your practice in unique ways that will help you stand out from others. These are a few free ways to market your practice since it’s unlikely that you’ll have the money for paid marketing when you’re first starting.
1. Free Trials
There are many Internet directories that cost to join and advertise your practice, but many of them have free trials. It could be 7 days or 14 depending on the platform. At the end of the trial, you’ll have to decide whether it’ll make sense to hold onto the subscription or not. For this to work, you’ll need to ask clients where they found you. If you don’t see any results from the trial, move on to another directory until you find one that works.
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2. LinkedIn for Connections
It’s important to network with others on social media, and LinkedIn is one of those natural places to connect with potential clients as well as people who may refer them to you. Expand your network beyond medical doctors and other counselors. Have a clear description of what you do, so people can find you during a keyword search on the platform. You’d be surprised to find that many people search for professional services as well as counseling on the platform.
3. Blogging
While hosting a website isn’t free, it’s a minimal cost for hosting as well as the domain each year. Once you have a website, it’s not enough to have your services and ways to contact you. The website should have a blog where you can use keywords to rank in the search engines. Blogging is free to do, and it’ll help Google and other search engines place you in front of your potential clients. Clients are often uneasy about contacting a counselor without knowing anything about him or her. With a blog, they can get a sense of whether you’d be a good fit.
4. Other Writing Ventures
Along with writing your own blog, you can guest post on other blogs surrounding your niche. Local magazines and newspapers might need content for their online publications. Pitch wherever you think your topics will be a good fit. This is where it’ll come in handy to already have a blog. You can pitch and point to the blog that you have, so they can see how you write.
5. Radio Interviews
Your local radio station needs interesting content like the newspaper does. They provide a certain number of hours to local topics and public service topics. Email the producers of the radio station and pitch a topic or suggest an interview about a problem that’s recently been in the news in your area. You’ll need to be sure that it fits with your specialization before offering yourself for an interview.
There are many ways to market yourself when you’re starting your private practice or you find yourself in a lull where you need more clients. As a licensed mental health counselor, there are people who need your expertise. It’s up to you to get your name in front of them, so you can help.