Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses

104 Attraction Marketing for Counselors: How to Build Trust and Grow Your Practice

• Dr. Kate Walker Ph.D., LPC/LMFT Supervisor

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What if you could attract your ideal clients effortlessly, even before they realize they need your services? Join me, Dr. Kate Walker, as we uncover the secrets of attraction marketing and why it's a game-changer for your practice. Learn how this approach not only surpasses traditional marketing methods but also transforms how you engage with potential clients. We'll break down the significance of the 10-minute consultation and explain how understanding your ideal client can revolutionize your marketing strategy.

In the next part of the episode, we explore the art of building strong relationships through resources. Discover how a brief consultation can pre-qualify clients, guide them towards valuable resources on your website, and eventually turn them into part of your extended marketing network. By offering no-cost resources like recommended books, guides, and YouTube videos, you not only build trust and familiarity but also create opportunities for referrals from satisfied non-clients. This approach not only enhances client engagement but also maximizes your marketing reach.

Finally, we discuss the importance of creating branded, personalized resources while ethically leveraging existing ones, such as those from the National Institute of Mental Health. Learn how to optimize your website’s SEO and utilize analytics to identify the resources that resonate most with your audience. By making helpful resources accessible and encouraging newsletter opt-ins, you can significantly expand your reach and support more people. Tune in to gain actionable insights that will transform your practice into a magnet for your ideal clients.

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.

Speaker 1:

Hey, welcome to Texas. Counselors Creating Badass Businesses, and I'm Dr Kate Walker, and this is your Tuesday coaching. I'm going to take a second and let folks in who are here and, as usual, if you're here, awesome. If you're listening to me on a replay, that is wonderful too, because you're doing something amazing for you so that you can I don't know watch your kid's baseball game, get through the grocery store, do whatever it is that you want to do on this beautiful Tuesday. So today is all about the marketing tip that keeps people coming back, and this is one of those things that's like but wait, there's more. And it's also going to kind of tee you up. I don't know. I have a golfing on my mind, so tee you up for a different sort of marketing tip as well.

Speaker 1:

Honest to goodness, some of you may not like this. As counselors, we're not really taught to be marketers. I know everybody knows we're not taught to be business people, but this is a completely different skill, because marketing means what you're doing is you're helping people access you. So think about that for a second. You must be pretty amazing if you want people to access you. Well, of course, you're amazing, right? You're this shiny, amazing, beautiful, wonderful piece of knowledge and wonderfulness that the community needs to access, because you have something they need and there are all kinds of podcast episodes and things out there that talk about the imposter syndrome and if you just don't really believe you got all that oomph and all that shininess, this is going to be a little bit of a struggle for you, possibly, maybe a little bit, but I'm going to go there anyway. So here's what you need to know before we even do anything with this. And if I'm going to take one second and verify that we got everybody in Right, okay, we're good.

Speaker 1:

So here's one of the things I'm going to talk about. Actually, I'm going to talk about three things that I have talked about before, so I'm not going to go into detail and a lot of depth about that. Number one is the 10-minute consultation. I've talked about that a ton. I've got other episodes about that. I'll post a link when we get this up in your profile or if you're listening to this on the podcast, we'll post a link so you can grab the link to that episode. Anyway, you get what I'm trying to say. Also, you're going to need to have access to your website back office. I can't teach you how to do that on this episode, because they're all different, but, long and short, you need to have your login information. So if you don't have the type of website where you can get into your back office, I don't want you to stop listening. Keep listening, keep watching, because when you do get access and you need access if you're going to do effective marketing then you'll know what to do. You've got all of this stuff teed up and ready to go.

Speaker 1:

And the third thing I would like you to keep in mind and I'm not going to teach you this today is your ideal client. I want you to have an idea who your ideal client is. So if you are just starting out and you're like I, just like people who have a pulse and walk through my door or click the on button, that's okay. We've all been there. It's really tough to think about developing a niche or a niche when you're just trying to keep the lights on right, when you're just trying to build that practice. So, again, you don't have to have that ideal client today, but as I give you this information, you will see how much easier it is to develop the resources I'm going to talk about. If you have an idea who your ideal client is.

Speaker 1:

So traditional marketing, right. Traditional marketing and I really mean probably 10 years ago it's you know, door hangers and getting your name on the back of the T-shirt at the high school and getting a directory listing and some kind of a paper item, right. So it was all about I'm going to sit here and I'm going to shine, right, because I'm always going to be shiny, and I'm just going to hope that people kind of trip over me. I hope they find me, and if they happen to find me when they have the need, that's even better. It's like finding a dentist when you have a toothache, right. So it's not that you're out there and you notice all the dentist billboards and business cards and commercials, but when you have pain, suddenly you're looking for the dentist, right. So that sort of traditional marketing what I talk about a lot here, what is sort of I don't have the data, but it's effective, it's more effective than traditional marketing is attraction marketing, right. So you're over here right now.

Speaker 1:

Other hand, right, if you're watching me, you're over here, shining, you're being your brilliant, beautiful self and people who aren't in pain are actually going to trip over you. They're going to find you. They're going to be like wait a minute, what's that beautiful, shiny thing over there? I want to walk over there and see what that is. So you're actually attracting people to you who may not be your client yet. They may not be in that level of pain where they're seeking you out, right, and just going okay, where is it? Where is it? Where is it? But they're in a space where maybe they're feeling pretty good, but they hear you at a talk or they're Googling a thing, and they come across your amazing article, your blog post, your podcast, your YouTube video that you put together and they're like, oh my gosh, I like this person. This person is trustworthy, I like the information. I fact check them and they know what they're talking about.

Speaker 1:

And so, with that in mind, let's go through the steps of how this type of marketing will work. And I had to look up for a second. That's what I was doing a minute ago. I wanted to see well, what did I actually call this thing? What's the title? Because I know what it is. I'm actually wanting you to think about people who do become your client, but I also want you to think about the people who are not a good fit for you based on your specialty, schedule and cost. Both of these folks are going to be affected in a good way by the type of marketing that I'm talking about today.

Speaker 1:

All right, so when you think about that 10 minute consultation, really what we're doing is we're pre-qualifying folks for you Now, so that could be. Again, I mentioned the three things based on specialty, cost and schedule, right, I've been reading and hearing a lot on the interwebs. Folks are like how do I make a schedule that just allows me to work from eight in the morning to two in the afternoon? I've got kiddos, I want to make sure I'm home in the afternoon, and so you're thinking, okay, I've got to pre-qualify people before I get them in my office, right? So like, if they find a day or a time and it's 11 am and they come to see you and then you find out, well, they can never come back to see you at 11 am, they just grab the first opening, right? That means you didn't really pre-qualify them and I talked about this in the episode a couple of weeks ago where you know setting expectations in that 10-minute consultation so that that first session goes smoothly, right?

Speaker 1:

If you go to that first session and you're sitting there talking about your schedule and they're like well, wait, I can't ever come at this time again. I work for a living. You didn't do a good job of pre-qualifying them, so again, that's the magic of the 10-minute consultation. Here we are again right. So, with this 10-minute consultation, what you're going to do and this is the secret sauce you're going to direct this person. Whether they are qualified and they are eligible and a good fit for your practice and they booked that first session, or they are not, you want them to keep going back to your website Now, your website. That's why I said earlier, you need to have access, but even if you don't keep listening. So if this 10 minute consultation, if it goes well, right, you get to the end of the 10 minute consultation. You both agree on a time Great, I can't wait to see you Tuesday at 10 30 am.

Speaker 1:

By the way, your appointment's about two weeks off and I have a resource on my website. I have an Amazon store and if you go to that Amazon store, you'll see 10 books that I recommend that deal with the topic that I think you're describing to me in this 10 minute consultation. Now, keep in mind that Amazon store. I do get a kickback, so you can always just go to your favorite bookstore or log into Amazon wherever you like and you can grab that book. Also, on my website, you will find that I have this guide, five steps to the thing that you're struggling with overcoming it, managing it, surviving it, dealing with it and I think it would really be helpful. So if you want to grab those resources before our first meeting, I think you'll find that first initial session goes a little bit better or something like that. Right, so you do you. You figure out what verbiage you want. So you see what we did there.

Speaker 1:

If that first session is two weeks away, this person's going to go back to your website for your Amazon store. They're going to go back to your website to download the guide. Now they have this information. Guess what they're going to do? They're going to tell their friends. Everybody and I'm pointing at me, I'm pointing at you, I'm pointing at my neighbor across the street everybody wants to be helpful. We love it when we have a resource that our friends and our neighbors and our colleagues are looking for.

Speaker 1:

If we overhear a conversation, somebody's struggling and we're like wait a second, I know a great book. Hey, I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I have this resource and you can get it by going to wwwyourawesomewebsitecom wwwyourawesomewebsitecom. So here's this person who has two weeks to do the work and, if it's a good fit, right in 10 minutes isn't a great amount of time to get to know someone, but if it's a resource they find helpful, then they will refer it to others. All right, now that's the person who's coming. Now you can imagine what's going to happen with the person who is not booking that first appointment. And if you're a seasoned professional and you are listening to me and I know you're here you know that sometimes that first phone call doesn't result in a booked session. But guess what? Six months later they come back and they say you know what I did book with another therapist and it wasn't great, but I had such an amazing phone call with you or email or whatever it is you do you that I came back.

Speaker 1:

That's what we want. So we call that. Of course, that's wonderful, right? But we're also trying to take that person who did not become your client and we're going to help them become part of your marketing team, right? I like to call that a raving fan. We want them to take what they find from you and, even if it's not a good fit, and they become a client. They trust you, know you, like you and they refer you to others. So it's the same thing. Right? You're going to finish the conversation, the 10-minute consultation, and you're going to say I'm so sorry, it's not a great fit, but after listening and hearing your 10-minute, you know our talk together today.

Speaker 1:

I think my resource might help you navigate the struggle that you're currently experiencing with your adult child, with your partner, with your aging parents, and if you download that, you know it may be helpful, right? So you're helping them. Again, they're going back to your website to get the resource and this resource. So let's talk about that resource for a minute. These are things that that you don't charge for. I know it's tempting to think, yeah, I'm just gonna, I'll charge a dollar, I'll charge 50 cents, I'll create a membership and when they join, they become a member. Then they have all the things free. Okay, I love your entrepreneur mind, but if you're going to help the community start to view you as an expert and see your shininess, even when they're not in pain, you want to eliminate as many barriers as you can for them to be able to access you, right? Because that's what your stuff is. It's just a piece of you.

Speaker 1:

So imagine if you created a YouTube video and you post the link. Well, guess what? Now they may listen to that thing once a day for a week. They're hearing your voice, they're seeing your face, they're watch how you know. Maybe you use your hands too much, like someone I know, right, they're looking at the stuff behind you. Maybe you know they're able to read the you know fine print on your degree. Who knows what they're doing, though, is when they meet you in that 10-minute consultation, their anxiety is through the roof. They're not hearing you, they're not really listening, because that's just how our brain works Anxiety up, cognition down.

Speaker 1:

If you have a YouTube video and they're going through this and listening to you again and again, well, now their anxiety goes down, they're able to really hear you, they can pay attention to the things in your background, the things that are, I mean, gosh. You know I have a book for sale over here. I mean, who knew, right? I'm not saying to do that, you know, in your YouTube video, but you can. The point is, these folks then have the time to really get to know, like and trust you. So if it's not a good fit for that time in their life during that season, you can bet you will stay front of mind when they're going through this issue. Later on, when they're talking to friends and family with similar issues, that resource that YouTube video or whatever resource we're talking about here will become front of mind and they become your marketing team. This is your raving fans, as Pat Flynn calls it. Right, these are going to be your true fans and they will let people know about you because you're so easy to access and you're so easy to get to know. You're so easy to get to trust and like.

Speaker 1:

All right, so let's talk about resources. What kind of a resource? Well, you know I like odd numbers, so I'm all about the three steps to this, five steps to that. So I know some resources. I'll just use myself as an example that I've come up with. In the past I worked with couples navigating infidelity, and so I would come up with things like five steps to fighting fair, and I would research and I would find other you know articles and things and I would come up with, you know five things to fight fair by Kate Walker.

Speaker 1:

You can also use other people's resources. You just want to be sure to cite them correctly. Go to the National Institute of Mental Health websites. They have tons of great PDFs. Now, the only issue I have with other people's resources is you can't really put that on your letterhead. I mean you can, but the point is you want to put something in these folks' hands that will lead them back to you. So it'll have your email, it'll have your phone number, it will have your website, right? So if they are hitting print, or even if they have it on their phone and they're just reading it when they're in a bad situation and they're like, oh gosh, I need to bring up that resource. They see your brand, they see your logo, they see all about you. And again, if it's the National Institute of Mental Health, we know that's great information. But perhaps you could even summarize it, consolidate it into five steps. Just be sure to give proper credit.

Speaker 1:

Number one and number two remember you can't charge for things that are not yours, right? So if you do decide to turn it into something to sell, you can't put someone else's stuff behind a paywall, right? You can't say, okay, well, here's my brochure from the National Institute of Mental Health, but I'm going to charge you a dollar to access it right when it's free on the National Institute of Mental Health website. So creating your own resource isn't that hard to do. I mean, you could literally probably record yourself in a session Don't do that without your client's permission, but you could literally record yourself in a session giving pointers to a parent about what are five ways you can help your kindergartner get ready for the first day of school. Right? I mean those of you who work with kiddos you could come up with three ways without even thinking. Right, you could sneeze and you would find three ways to help your kindergartner get ready for the first day of school.

Speaker 1:

So this is where that having that ideal client is really, really helpful, because if you have lots of favorite clients, it's gonna be hard to sort of pin down one thing. But don't worry, there's still a place for this, okay? So if you're still kind of in that stage of your practice where just if they have a pulse and they can find out how to log in and walk through your door or whatever, that is, well then, post some things about depression. Post some things about depression. Post some things about anxiety. You know, here's how to uh just uh, not dysregulate. Here's how to regulate uh, your uh fight or flight response when you are called on to give a speech in your uh in your class at school, right, and you just give them close their eyes, visualize, right? I mean, I just came up with four things. I didn't even try, right? So you do that on your letterhead or some sort of a pretty background.

Speaker 1:

There are lots of software programs out there, websites. Canva is my favorite, that's C-A-N-V-A. I don't work for them, I'm not an affiliate. I just think it's a great way to build pretty things. So you create the resource, you create the guide for, maybe, this generic client.

Speaker 1:

One thing I would caution you against is and I talk about this, or I will be talking about this at the Texas Counseling Association Annual Conference in Dallas this year as of this recording, it's 2024. I'm going to talk about the ethics of creating copy, right, you want to make sure it's within your scope of practice, right? Don't just think, well, I think this kind of client would be nice to have. So I'm going to create a guide Because, remember, this is you shining, this is you being your brilliant self and people are going to be like, ooh, I want to get that guide. Then they're going to want to book an appointment with you, and if you're not trained in that, that's going to be tough, right, there's some ethics involved there. You kind of led them to the thing and then you're like, ooh, but wait, I really can't do the thing. So having an ideal client, having a special area that you feel trained in and that you love, that could be super helpful.

Speaker 1:

Another thing to do, though so let's say you're undecided, that's okay. Well, create five, right? If you love working with kids, create a kid resource. If you love working with couples, create a kid resource. If you love working with couples, create a couple resource, if you right. So do three or four and then see which one gets downloaded. There are ways of quantifying. There are plugins for your website. You can use your google search console. There are ways to to understand how many of these things actually get clicked and downloaded, and then just run the numbers Right.

Speaker 1:

If you see that there's an area that's really utilized in your community and you notice that those clients coming in are energizing, they're something you really, really feel that hits you where you've been trained. Then take the other three things down and just focus on creating resources for that client All right, that type of client, that particular issue, all right. Now I'm going to do like my yoga teacher does. All right, if you feel ready, here's an advanced thing, here's an advanced posture for you. Right, and this is the thing I was warning you about you might feel a little icky about, but you can use those resources to create something we call an opt-in All right.

Speaker 1:

So if this, at the end of the 10 minute consultation, this person is not going to be a great fit for your practice and you want to make sure that they are still in your world, right, they're still able to access you. They have quick access, they are. You know, it's sort of like a waiting list, but different. So if you're interested and you like the idea of doing newsletters, right, this is directly related to using that resource to create this opt-in. People opt in by getting the resource and then you have them on a mailing list. Now I'm not going to get into the HIPAA aspect and all that. I've done other episodes on that aspect and all that. I've done other episodes on that.

Speaker 1:

So you would have to do your due diligence to understand what can go out to folks. If your email list is not a HIPAA compliant email list, right, you obviously want to make sure that you're not sending anything out. That's like a reply all or has 15,000 emails and everybody can see it right. So this is simply like sending out brochures to people once a month or once a week. So if you don't know quite what you would do with an email list, then don't do the advanced posture. It's totally fine. Go back to child's pose. You're fine.

Speaker 1:

This what I'm giving you today an understanding that, okay, I can take things that I already have and that I already know. My favorite thing to do is to literally take stuff that didn't sell, like if you had this course and it just sat there like a bump and never sold, you never got any traction for it. Turn it into your free resource, right, getting on the 10 minute call hey, sorry, it's not a great fit, but I think you would really love this resource I have. It's a series of three emails or it's a one hour YouTube video where you will learn four ways to help your kindergartner go to bed at night when they're feeling anxious about a bully at school. I don't know. I just got super specific on that. I'm not really sure.

Speaker 1:

So let's recap.

Speaker 1:

For this you will need to know and be able to do a 10-minute consultation. Of course, you can still just put it on your website and hope that SEO is optimized and you are up there in the Google search engines and people when they Google kindergartners first day of school, they're going to fall over your posts and your website copy. But having that 10 minute consultation to pre-qualify folks as a client or say, oh, you know what, you're going to be my true fan Now. You're not going to say that to them, by the way, they're just going to be my true fan Now. You're not going to say that to them, by the way. They're just going to like you enough to become that.

Speaker 1:

You're also going to need to have access to your back office and an idea who your ideal client is. Then the fun part make the resources, get them on your website and then start helping the world just like you do, just like you're good at Help people deliver or help them share you right, you're going to give them ways to help their friends and neighbors with your magnificent materials. All right, now go do great things. I'm going to hit pause and I will take questions from folks who are here.