My chat with Jody Halsted, owner of Ireland Family Vacations for episode 13 was a great reminder of the importance of creating content that will drive business to your practice. But there is actually a different kind of marketing tool that can solve our growth and monetization woes.
The thing is, this strategy is not the same for everyone. In fact, I've had multiple times in my marketing life where I have been tempted to do too much on too many platforms trying to be too many things for too many people and I've always regretted it. So what am I talking about?
In this episode, I'll take you step by step through the process of creating content that will work all year long no matter what social media platform (that includes blogging and podcasting) you choose. How? Long and short of it; be consistent and avoid confusion.
So would you benefit from joining every social media platform, or maybe just creating quality content for your ideal client on a few key platforms?
This is a question I know many people wrestle with. There is no one size fits all answer, but I hope the perspective I share today will help you make the best long-term decision for your practice, and your balanced mental health.
Get your step by step guide to private practice. Because you are too important to lose to not knowing the rules, going broke, burning out, and giving up. #counselorsdontquit.
My chat with Jody Halsted, owner of Ireland Family Vacations for episode 13 was a great reminder of the importance of creating content that will drive business to your practice. But there is actually a different kind of marketing tool that can solve our growth and monetization woes.
The thing is, this strategy is not the same for everyone. In fact, I've had multiple times in my marketing life where I have been tempted to do too much on too many platforms trying to be too many things for too many people and I've always regretted it. So what am I talking about?
In this episode, I'll take you step by step through the process of creating content that will work all year long no matter what social media platform (that includes blogging and podcasting) you choose. How? Long and short of it; be consistent and avoid confusion.
So would you benefit from joining every social media platform, or maybe just creating quality content for your ideal client on a few key platforms?
This is a question I know many people wrestle with. There is no one size fits all answer, but I hope the perspective I share today will help you make the best long-term decision for your practice, and your balanced mental health.
Get your step by step guide to private practice. Because you are too important to lose to not knowing the rules, going broke, burning out, and giving up. #counselorsdontquit.
[00:00:00]
Introduction
Kate Walker: Hi, it’s Dr. Kate Walker with Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses, and this month, in February, season two, it’s all about love. It’s all about you sharing the amazing you and people who love you sharing the amazing you and it’s important that you have an editorial calendar so you don’t lose your freaking mind trying to stay consistent. So at the end of this podcast, you’re going to have some – here I go again – actionable steps, that’s a hard word to say, and make some amazing posts in your blogs, podcasts, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook world that people will love.
Let’s get to work.
In season two, we’re talking about social media digital marketing for private practice. So if you’re a mental health professional in any state, not just Texas, you’re really going to like what we talk about over the next few weeks. Last week, we covered the sort of why of social media: why are you there? What are you hoping to get from that? And so we talked about KPIs, key performance indicators, and goals versus dreams and specific, measurable, attainable, trackable, realistic goals so that you know if what you’re doing out there on social media and in your blogs and your podcasts is actually moving the needle on the goal that you have set for your practice.
And we talked about those KPIs and goals can be things like purchases, so if you have an Etsy store and you are selling printables for clients or you have a book, you want people to click purchase, so we talked about a call to action. If you’re using engagement with your posts to position yourself as an expert in your community, which is building your brand, then you’re going to want to track those insights. And then we talked about even creating an email list, an opt-in on your website so people can click and get on your email list. And then we talked about the importance of actually sending them things and sending them quality things so that you don’t confused them, like, hey, opt in to get the information for my latest couples’ retreat and then I’m going to send you information about parenting. No. You’ve got to make sure that if you’re going to be doing emailing that you send them stuff that they actually signed up for.
And that’s really what we’re talking about today: creating content that feeds the interests of the people who have already shown interest in you. So what does that look like? It looks – for me, anyway – a couple of ways. In my history, my story, I’ve been doing this the wrong way for a long, long time. So if you picture Kate in the first ten years of practice, I can go back to my archives, because I like to keep archives of the things that I’ve done; it’s sort of my big idea archive and everybody should have one. One of the things I can do is I can back and click a folder of old articles because – yeah, that’s how long I’ve been doing this. That was back when I would buy space in a local magazine and write an article for them, and that article would then have to go be published and it was published once a month, or maybe I bought a subscription so I could get into all 12 issues of this particular magazine. I was writing a lot. Now, I’m going to give myself credit – 10 years’ ago Kate a little bit of credit, because at least I would try to do a series. So my focus was then infidelity, recovering from infidelity, working with couples who are surviving working through infidelity.
So I would write a series of articles about surviving infidelity, and they were fun and I did a lot of good research and I spent a lot of time – I could not tell you if it moved the needle on my goals. Now, back in the day, we would simply ask, how did you hear about me? And yes, I did get a few people who said, hey, I read about you in such and such magazine, but it was not this earth-shattering impact that I was having. I learned other things had way more impact, like joining my local chamber, being brave and joining committees and talking to people, developing the ten-minute consultation, telling people to push the button to schedule a ten-minute consultation for more information. Not, hey dude, you look like you need therapy. So I did develop some ways to talk to people so that they would click the button, make the phone call, schedule the appointment, purchase the course.
But with digital marketing, it’s so much easier because you can just keep producing. You don’t have to wait for the next magazine to come out. You don’t have a publisher going, hey, we have an issue coming out soon, where is your article? You can literally put out four blogs a week if you want to, and don’t even get me started on the Instagram reels. You can schedule content all the time. The two keys I want you to remember from this episode today though are consistency and confusion. Consistency and confusion. One you want to strive for and one you want to avoid.
So doing this in a haphazard fashion without an editorial calendar, it can really be overwhelming. I see so many practice owners, that’s one of the reasons they come to me: I’ve just gotten behind on my content, I haven’t put out an Instagram post, I started blogging last year and I just couldn’t keep up with it. I hear that a lot. And maybe that’s something you are going through, too.
So what can an editorial calendar do for you? Well, number one, it gives you a big picture. So you can look – and even if you did something just as simple as this: In January, I’m going to talk about this. February, I’m going to post about that. March, all my photos will reflect this. And of course, let’s step back and take an even broader view. You have done your perfect customer worksheet. You’ve figured out your avatar, who your ideal client is, whatever applies to you, and so you’re going to want to make sure that no matter which month you are in, you’re writing posts to that person. I was on Instagram yesterday, surprise, surprise, and I found it’s Voices of GenX, I don’t know, she’s a lady, she looks like she’s my age, she talks like she’s my age, she says things that I would say – I mean, I followed her immediately, and I don’t follow a lot of people. I just scrolled, she’s hilarious because she’s talking to me. I have no idea what she’s selling or if she’s selling, but I didn’t care. I just wanted more of her.
So that’s what your content will do. It’s going to leave people wanting more pieces of you, so you have to deliver. Broadest view: make sure that your message is to that person, that couple, that family, and then divide it into months. So what is this person or family or couple thinking about in January? New Year. New Year’s resolutions. Failed New Year’s resolutions. With couples: well, we held it together for the holidays, now we’re going to tell the kids we’re getting divorced. With students: I get a new shot at this and three weeks in, they’re sending notes home to my parents again. So there are a lot of things happening in January for your avatar. Now, do the same thing for February. Don’t write anything yet, don’t produce anything yet, just challenge yourself to write “this is what my avatar is doing” for each month of the year. And when you’re doing with that, put it away, pat yourself on the back and go eat a cookie or run a mile or whatever it is that rewards you.
[Ad: 40-hour training]
Now that’s going to be your content and that avoids our second thing. Remember the number two thing, we wanted to avoid confusion. If your avatar is the mother of an ADHD child and you start sending your content about recovering from infidelity and that’s not her world at all, she’s going to delete your messages and eventually get bored with your content. So don’t – and I talked about this last week – it’s so tempting to think of social media and digital marketing and going to your Google search console and thinking of it like a freaking popularity contest. I get sucked into this too, especially with my email list. An email list is like a badge of honor, like oh my gosh, my email list grew by 200 people, and then I send out an email and 50 people unsubscribe. Well, that’s because I’ve confused them. I’ve asked them to opt in based on a particular interest and I’m like, aha, I’ve gotcha! Now I’m going to talk about fishing. No, I don’t talk about fishing, but you get the idea. So avoiding confusion means understanding who is clicking, listening, reading, downloading, purchasing, making the phone call and giving them the content that they already want.
The other part, consistency, this is where we head next. So you’ve done your exercise, you have put down something for each month of the year that your avatar, your person, your family, your couple is interested in and would be searching for anyway. Now look at your own life situation. How able are you to post, create, whatever it is on a weekly or a monthly basis? And be real with yourself. I choose to create content weekly and it’s doable for me, but I also don’t have any kids under my roof anymore. My husband travels quite a bit. I have very simple hobbies. This is a great schedule for me in this season of my life and it’s easy to compare yourself with others and think, oh, I’ve got to do this weekly, I have to do this 85 times a month! No you don’t. You’re looking at your competitor instead of the person that is already in love with you and your content. Or if they’re not, they will be. That’s who you are talking to. That’s who you are trying to reach. That’s, honestly, whose story your content will tell: the person who will be clicking.
So don’t get caught up in this more is better, more is better. No, it’s consistency. Consistency is better. If you’re going to post once a week, then freaking post once a week because your person, let’s call him Bob, is going to be waiting for that content because they’re just hanging on by a thread, they loved what you said last week, they’re driving to work and they are waiting for your podcast to drop and it never does. Maybe they give you a pass one time, then next week it doesn’t drop again, and they’ve listened to everything, so they’re like, well, you know, I’ll see what other podcasts are out there. So consistently posting is way more important than a quantity of posts that you’re just kind of half-assing and you’re just trying to keep up with Fred down the block, who has hired someone to do this. You cannot be Fred. You cannot be Pat Flynn. You cannot be someone who posts and posts and posts.
I love Pat Flynn, and Pat Flynn, if you ever hear any of my podcasts, you are a huge influence on me. He did a podcast once, or maybe it was a blog, about trying to be someone else and trying to post as much as someone else and that comparison that we all have that leads to imposter syndrome. It brings you down. More importantly, it takes away your productivity. So if you just remember these two things: remain consistent and avoid confusion, that is a great start.
Alright, so your editorial calendar, we’ve got 12 months figured out for this avatar, for this person, who will be clicking, liking, sharing, listening, downloading, etcetera. What are we going to tell them? There’s lots you can tell them. For me, I find that the best content comes from a place that I’m struggling with because as mental health professionals, if we’re going to be honest, our ideal client is us, or it’s some version of us. So maybe it’s ten years ago you or twenty years ago you, or it could be now you’re really focused on what a child is going through or a partner is going through. Whatever is bringing out emotions in you is probably bringing out emotions in somebody else. So as you think about the content that you’re going to write, write it under the main theme for that month.
So remember in January, we looked at it and we said, okay, what is a mom of an ADHD kid thinking about in January? She may be thinking, oh gosh, I hope this school year starts off better, so a clean slate. New year, new parenting. Five organizational hacks you can use with your kiddo to start the new year off right. Ten things ADHD moms tell their kids to encourage them and get them out the door in the morning. All of these sort of new year, new you posts – and by the way, this works in August too – if that is your avatar, if that is your person, that’s going to be the content. And maybe you want to start off with four topics and you’re really ambitious and you’re going to put out four blogs and then you end up with two, that’s okay. You didn’t disappoint anybody. You put out two blogs. Stay consistent with two blogs and you’re good to go. Do that with February. Do that with March. April.
Now look at you go. You have 48 topics. Your goal is to put out half of those – and this is the exciting part. Let’s just multiply and multiply and multiply, right? Because look what you can do with one topic. Now, I’m not going to talk about – well, I probably will because I always repeat myself, but last episode is when I talked about the different types of calls to action based on your goal. So if you want to go refresh your memory with that, go for it.
If you’re listening today to figure out, okay, how can I multiply this content? First of all, there are a couple of schools of thought. One school of thought is stick with the platform that’s bringing you the most movement on your KPI. So if you know for a fact that podcasts are where your person is and that’s what’s moving the needle to making phone calls, scheduling appointments, making purchases, opting into your email, then one school of thought is, well, just do podcasting. Another school of thought is go everywhere. Just make sure you cover everything because your client or potential person could be anywhere. I don’t know if there’s any right or wrong way – well, actually, I do: pick the way that works for you. Please pick the way that you know fits with your balanced mental health, because if you’re going to set a goal, well, Kate said I need to be everywhere that the client is or the potential client is, y’all, I don’t even know Twitter. I have a profile, I don’t know why because I don’t even go there. So if I set myself up to be everywhere, I would be so disappointed because I just can’t and I think my kids are tired of me calling them saying, okay, am I allowed on TikTok yet? Just kidding; I don’t do that. But definitely with Twitter.
So look at all of the other platforms. Start with what you feel comfortable with. You may know that your people areon Instagram, and if you don’t know anything about Instagram, schedule an Instagram lesson. There are people out there, there are podcasts, YouTube channels, where people can teach you exactly how to use Instagram and use it. Go back to the things we’re doing and avoiding: be consistent, avoid confusion.
Next, once you’ve decided on this content, 48 things, you have four topics for each month. Think about how many ways you can multiply this content. So for me, I am a better spoken word person than writer, so I start with the recording. So I’ll do a podcast recording or I’ll record a YouTube video or I’ll host a webinar, then I send that off to the transcriptionist, which I then get my transcription, I pull material out of there to use for my blog, I send the transcription to my assistant, who then carves it up into Instagram content. So we are able to be in multiple places at once with that same post. So it starts with one post, one recording, one YouTube video, then chop it up.
If your wheels are turning right now – I hope they are – let me give you a quick hack. Let’s say you’ve picked a theme for March and you know you want to record a YouTube video or you’re going to write a blog on ADHD vacations during spring break, or traveling with kiddos with ADHD, or maybe to a mom who struggles with ADHD, spring break, you get the idea. Well, record your video, your podcast, write your blog, and then spend time chopping that up. Chop it into little pieces and you can use a program like Canva, Google it, to create beautiful little graphics you can use on Instagram. Instagram then has a little URL that leads to you. Same thing with the blog. Then it can go into your newsletter, if you have an email list of moms or people working with ADD, struggling with ADD, traveling with ADD, whatever the thing is, now you have content that you can chop up from that recording you made or blog post you wrote. You look at that and you’re like, oh my gosh, I have eight things I can post this month from one single production of content. I mean, now you get the idea, right?
So the editorial calendar will allow you to stay ahead of the game. So imagine if you knew that that’s what you were going to do in March, and smart you, you sat down in February and you recorded, wrote, whatever, this thing, you can go to Upwork like I did and find an amazing transcriptionist, send that off – or, if you’re a blogger and you already did the writing, go through it, have someone else go through it, have a friend who struggles with that go through it and say, hey, what looks important to you in this? What are some things that really jump out at you? Have them highlight it. And you are ready to go in March.
You have your posts highlighted, you go into Canva, maybe you’ve got somebody who is able to take that material and create that beautiful graphic, post it, and then you can start measuring the data and see what leads to the goal or the needle moving thing for your goal. What leads to more phone calls? What leads to more clicks? What leads to more purchases? I think a lot of you are starting to click to this is the beginning of your SOPs, standard operating procedures, that will allow you to hand off this work to a VA.
If you listened to my podcast last week at the beginning of season two, I said I have so many people who come to me and want to hire out their marketing or hire out their social media, but they don’t know what they’re doing on their own yet. Well, when you do all of this stuff, you get your calendar ready, you have your plan, you understand your avatar, your person, now you can create some SOPs, some standard operating procedures, that you can hand off to a virtual assistant or a real one – well, virtual assistants are real, they’re just not here – and they can do the work for you because you already know what it’s going to do. And you already know that at the end of the month, you’re going to look at the data, see what moved the needle, see what to change, see what to keep, because you have plenty of time. You took this editorial calendar from 12 months to 48 ideas to 12 posts to chop it up into 48 posts again and now you’re able to give it to another person to do for you.
So let’s review: what did we talk about today? We talked about the editorial calendar. How it can save your brain, fight overwhelm, lead to some standard operating procedures, and really, really sharpen the focus of your marketing so that you are meeting your goals and remaining awesome in your community because you are too important to lose to not knowing how to do this stuff and then getting frustrated and burned out and giving up and quitting. Counselors don’t quit and you’re amazing.
Now, go do great things.
This is Dr. Kate Walker, have a great week.