Badass Therapists Creating Practices That Thrive

Harnessing the Benefits of AI in Marketing for Therapists

• Dr. Kate Walker Ph.D., LPC/LMFT Supervisor • Season 3 • Episode 124

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Speaker 1:

Hey, I'm Dr Kate Walker. Welcome to our weekly Step it Up training, and this is live for Step it Up members every Tuesday at 12 o'clock I almost said 1 o'clock, 12 o'clock, central Time and today is all about AI and marketing, and so I'm going to let participants in who are going to be here live, all right, and so let me grab my notes. So, marketing and AI that's our topic today, and if you are brand new to attending the group coaching every week, welcome. I'm so glad you're here. I know it can be tough to get away, especially if you are working full time like we do. If you're listening to me on a podcast or a video, some kind of recording, you're doing a great job. You're taking time out of your day to do something awesome for your practice and for the people you serve. So at the end of this I'll go through my spiel and then I will hit pause on the recording and open it up for questions. If you have questions, you can ask me, but just know that it will get incorporated into the training. So if you would rather use chat, just take a second and open up that chat button and you can post the questions in there as I go. So, all right, here we go AI and marketing.

Speaker 1:

So I don't know where to start. Should I do the chicken or the egg? So here's what I'm going to do. First of all, ai stands for artificial intelligence. If you don't know what that is, don't worry. Right, take a big deep breath, it's okay, and go to Google and Google chat, gpt. You can start with that. There are lots more and they're growing all the time. I just did a phone update and I'm pretty sure my phone is now got AI and it's probably ordering whatever's on my Amazon list as we speak. But for our purposes, I'm going to refer to ChatGPT, just because it's the one most of us are familiar with and for me, it was the easiest to really dip my toe in the water of AI. So, chatgpt, you can use your Google account to log in. You don't have to pay anything. You can use the free plan, all right. So there's the chicken, here's the egg, or vice versa. However, you want to do that Marketing.

Speaker 1:

So when we think about marketing, I'm going to make it really simple for you today. Number one you have to know the person and you have to know their pain, all right, not just a person. Like we could spend hours and go through an avatar and create who this person is, what they wear, where they shop, what they drive, all of those things, and that's important. But for the purposes of our conversation today, I want you to just think about number one a person and their pain point. Number two you need to know your amazing self and all of the things that you contribute to the people who sit in front of you, whether it's virtually, or you got an office with a couch, they are coming to you because of the words coming out of your mouth. That reflects your training, it reflects your specialty, it reflects your passion. It reflects so many things about you. Right, because, yes, you're training. You have a diploma that hangs on a wall and a license that says you have permission to do this thing. Right, but who you are is special and we need to know what is special about you and this person with pain. And then, number three you're going to need 12 months of content. Now, if you want to know if that's kind of overwhelming like bam, all right, 12 months of content. I have done some other trainings on this. It is in your Step it Up 1 start here in the Kate Walker training profile. So I'm gonna review it really quickly, but we will get back to that.

Speaker 1:

So 12 months of content is because Google is basically just a giant butler right, a butler brings you things or a giant waiter right, a waiter brings you things and you giant waiter. Right, a waiter brings you things and you want the waiter to bring you what you ask for. So google bots scan all of the pieces and parts of your website and so that they know it. Right, it's like I don't know about you, but I mean, I've worked retail before. First day of retail they say, okay, we want you to walk the store, we want you to learn the store, we want you to know where everything is. So when somebody asks you for the thing, you can tell them where the thing is right. We want you to know the store like the back of your hand. That's what google is doing constantly because it wants to be a good butler. It wants to be a good waiter. So when somebody's sitting at their keyboard and they put in what is the best hiking in Northwest America and with level two trails or something like that, google gets to work because it has walked the store. It knows exactly what you're looking for and it's going to give you in, as quickly as possible, the search results.

Speaker 1:

So what do we want to be? We want to be one of the things that Google brings to the consumer. The consumer is your potential client. So how does Google do that? Well, google can't bring them things if it's got nothing to crawl. So you have things like your website copy and your blogs on your website. I'm not going to talk about social media, because Google doesn't crawl social media. Google has nothing to do with social media. It is your website, your website copy, and those are just the words on your website page and your blog. Now, if you don't have a blog, it's okay, take a deep breath. You can just focus on your website copy.

Speaker 1:

But what we want to make sure that we do is that we are something so shiny that Google is like oh, I remember that they bring it to the forefront, page one, so that the potential customer, the potential client, looks at that and says, yes, she is who I need. So we've got the person with the pain point, we've got your amazing self, and then we have to create content so that we are bright and shiny. So Google picks us and hands us on a platter to the potential client. So how do we do that? Well, and how does ChatGPT help us? Right? So, excuse me, we do that with something called content pillars. Much easier than it sounds. Content pillars, basically, I'll give you four. What is how to, your guide to and resources for there are way more than that, but this is going to get you started.

Speaker 1:

So I'm going to take my cursor and I'm going to open up chat GPT and for those of you who are listening, don't worry, I will talk you through everything that I am doing here. And so the first thing I want to do is person with a pain point. All right, so what if I'm brand new to marketing and I don't know what Kate's talking about right now? So I'm going to put in chat GPT what does person with a pain point mean in marketing? And I just have, I'm going to read what it's giving me. It's giving me five bullet points and then it's giving me ways to identify pain points. It's going to tell me why pain points matter. So if you're listening to this right now, I would hit pause and I would do this. If you're listening to me, live, we're going to keep going and then I can answer your questions. Maybe you have questions about your customers, your potential clients, pain point. So, types of pain points. I'm going to read the five bullets that chat just gave me Financial pain points, productivity pain points, process pain points, support pain points. Like 24-7. Our customer service is here to help you and here's where we live you ready.

Speaker 1:

Number five emotional pain points feelings of frustration, fear or uncertainty. So, example regain your confidence with our proven method. So I want you to think for a second about your amazing self. Remember step two what you do, how you were trained, what you do how you were trained, what you believe in, how you feel like you help people. And so let's imagine that your specialty is grief. You work with people suffering from a loss. They're struggling to survive a profound loss. We could dial down even more the loss of a relationship, the loss of a pet, the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, right? So as you go through, grief is an awfully big term. So we're going to crank it down a little bit to loss of a thing, and then we could even crank it down even more. You could make it regional, you could make it a particular demographic. You do you right If you work with kids, if you work with older adults. And now we're going to marry these two things together.

Speaker 1:

So I'm just going to pick loss of a pet and I'm going to ask ChatGPT what is the pain? The emotional. So I'm going to pick emotional pain point for a potential client who has experienced the loss of a pet. Okay, all right, it's giving me five bullets again. Chat GPT is like me. I like odd numbers three and five. Oh, no wait, it's giving me more. It gave me six, all right.

Speaker 1:

So it's giving me common emotional pain points for pet loss. And then it's going to how to address these pain points in marketing. So I know a lot of times when we introduce chat, gpt or AI, we think it's cheating, right. We think, well, we're using somebody else's words, it's plagiarizing. But you see how general this is right. I'm gonna show you how to make it your own. But you gotta have some place to start, especially if you're brand new or you're just starting your practice or you haven't marketed before. You're brand new, or you're just starting your practice or you haven't marketed before, you're transitioning from school counseling to private practice or something like that.

Speaker 1:

So I'm going to read you what Chachi PT says are emotional, common emotional pain points for pet loss. Number one grief and sadness. I don't know how to cope without my pet. Number two loneliness and isolation. I miss their presence and companionship in my home. Guilt or regret Could I have done more to help them? Lack of understanding People don't understand how much they meant to me. Difficulty, moving on how do I keep their memory alive while finding peace? Loss of routine everything feels so different without them here.

Speaker 1:

Now, if that's all we did in this training today, you could take each one of those bullet points and you could write I don't know why I'm out of focus. There we go. You could write website copy for that. You could go into Canva that's C-A-N-V-A and you could create a beautiful picture that could be the header for your blog or it could be the header on your website. So for those of you who are DIYing your own website, right, you could take even one of these bullet points and you could turn it into something shiny that Google could grab and deliver to the person who's at their keyboard looking for that counselor who can help them with the pain from the loss of a pet. So let's take this. I'll just take number four. People don't understand how much they meant to me, right? So there, if you just wanted to take that one bullet point and put it on the first page on your home page, on your website, and you could put something with a photo that says it's hard when no one understands how much the loss of a pet really means to you, right? And with that moment you've got what's called an H1 or an H2 heading, which just means it's a little bigger than your paragraph text. Google, you got Google's attention. You got pet loss in there. You've shown that you're using the words that Google can relate to the loss of a pet. Then under that you can write a short paragraph.

Speaker 1:

Now I could go back into ChatGPT and I could grab that bullet. In fact, I'll do it. So I'm going to say people don't understand how much they meant to me. And I'm going to say write 3A4 sentence paragraph paragraph. I could put on my home page. That would help people understand.

Speaker 1:

I am a counselor who helps people with pet loss. Use this. And I'm going to use the bullet point that I just grabbed this as a prompt and the bullet point I grabbed was people don't understand how much they meant to me. All right, chatgpt, do your magic. All right. Here's what ChatGPT gave me. People don't understand how much they meant to me. If you've ever felt this way after losing a beloved pet, you're not alone. As a counselor specializing in pet loss, I provide a safe, compassionate space where your grief is acknowledged and your bond with your pet is honored. Together we'll navigate the pain, find ways to cherish their memory and help you rediscover a sense of peace and connection.

Speaker 1:

Now, if you're listening to that right now and thinking, wow, that's great, I'm just going to go do that, great, go do that. But if you're like me, you might think, well, that really doesn't sound like my voice. And there are ways to feed information that you've written before into chat GPT. So it starts to learn your voice and you know if you use slang, if you use a particular inflection, you know and how you write. Yes, you can teach chat GPT and Claude and all of those different AIs how you actually deliver information. So I never take what chatGPT gives me right off the bat. I always make it sound like Kate, right. In fact, I usually just use ChatGPT for the bullet points themselves and then I can take it.

Speaker 1:

So then let's just say you grab this. Now that becomes your website copy. That becomes your homepage website copy. Now you wanna add other things to that and that becomes search engine optimization. Seo is very important and I've done other trainings on search engine optimization. So you want to include things like your location, your address. If you're virtual, it's a little bit trickier, because Google loves when you have a physical address. If you're virtual, it's a little bit trickier, because it's Google loves when you have a physical address. But those types of things are very important too.

Speaker 1:

But all we're talking about today is how chat can help you develop your marketing copy. So that's great. You've got your paragraph. Now what about that? 12 months of content. All right, let's go back to our pillars of content. What is remember? We have four. What is how to guide to and resources.

Speaker 1:

For Now, I'm not going to spend the time going through all of these, but I'll pick one. How would I explain to a potential client that? How my grammar's poor, forgive me how to deal with the loss of a pet? Give me three paragraph headings. Now, what I'm doing here is I'm directing ChatGPT to give me the scaffolding for a blog. Okay, so let's say you want to start January with this blog. And remember, google loves blogs because it gives them more things to crawl. They're learning the store, they're learning about you.

Speaker 1:

So you're going to write a blog for January how to cope with the loss of a pet. So you're going to ask and you want to write it. So you're just going to ask ChatGPT to give you three paragraph headings. Remember, if you don't want to write it, chatgpt can write the whole thing for you. But remember, you got to check the facts and you have to make sure it sounds like you Don't ever just rely on AI to be the complete author of everything. It's not that accurate. So let's see what kind of headings it gives me. Number one acknowledge and validate your grief. Number two create rituals to honor their memory. And number three seek support when you need it. So would that be a good scaffolding for you if you were going to write a three paragraph blog Remember, it doesn't have to be long about how to cope with the loss of a pet.

Speaker 1:

So there's your first paragraph. I'm sorry, there's your first blog for 2025. Then, okay, well, if you're going to write 12 of these, then you might want to look at the seasons how to cope with the loss of a pet over Valentine's Day. How to cope with the loss of a pet when it's your birthday. How to cope with the loss of a pet when it's your pet's birthday. So we go throughout the year and we start what I do. I actually have a calendar on the wall that helps me keep all of this organized. You may do spreadsheets or you may do paper and pencil. You do you. But then you can start to get your plan for the entire year, because remember what's your goal? Number one you have identified your person with the pain point. And number two, you're going to show how you can help with that pain. So the 12 months of content is your store. This is so that Google has lots and lots and lots of ways to get to know you and understand you and make sure that it can deliver you to the people who are looking for you.

Speaker 1:

So, let's say, in January, you're going to write how to cope with the loss of a pet. Okay, let's just stick with the how-to pillar for a minute how to help a family member coping with the loss of a pet. How to help one of your kiddos when their gerbil dies. Number four how to help when someone you know has lost a pet, someone you know at work, right? And you don't know what to say, right? So there are four quick how-to blog posts, and maybe you don't want to do four how-to blog posts in one month, that's okay. Put one in January, one in February, one in March, one in April. Put one in January, one in February, one in March, one in April. Now we move to the next one what is grief? What is grief after the loss of a pet? What is so? You can continue with all of these threads until you, before you know it, chatgpt is going to help you fill up an entire calendar Now that covers website copy and that covers blogs.

Speaker 1:

And in the title of this presentation today, I included email, because those of you who are a little bit more advanced with this, I hope you're collecting emails. So when people come to your website, they are clicking on your website, they're getting involved with your community. And that means no waiting lists, right, because you've got people. They're clicking. You're giving them resources. You're giving them five ways to cope with the loss of a pet over the holidays, five responses you can give to well-meaning people who ask about the loss of your pet, you're giving them some kind of a resource. And then, because you're super motivated and you love email I'm saying that tongue in cheek, but it's a great way to keep your potential clients involved in your world, especially if you don't have room on your schedule for them, right, if they're just out there on a waiting list. So if you're sending emails let's say you're sending a monthly newsletter to the folks on your email list ChatGPT can help with that too.

Speaker 1:

It's basically like taking your blog, condensing it down to a paragraph, and you let your audience know. Hey, audience, I've got this blog coming out and it's going to feature how to cope with the loss of a pet over Valentine's Day. Watch this, I'm gonna put this into chat GPT. So give me a three sentence email about coping with the loss of a pet over Valentine's Day. I want the email to direct people to my blog. Give me a subject line as well. All right, here we go.

Speaker 1:

Chat GPT says subject line coping with pet loss this Valentine's Day. And it has the broken heart emoji. And then it has two little paw print emojis. And then Valentine's Day can be especially tough when you're missing the unconditional love of a beloved pet. If you're struggling with grief, know that it's okay to honor their memory and feel the love they brought into your life. Visit my latest blog post for heartfelt tips and ideas to help you find comfort and healing during this tender time.

Speaker 1:

So very short email goes out to your email list. They will click the link in the email and go back to your website and read your blog. And, if you have other resources, maybe you got on Canva and you got super inspired and you came up with a guide to coping with pet loss over the holidays. So, in summary, ai is not like the Terminator. Ai is super helpful and it can help you come up with ideas when you have writer's block. So remember number one you have to chat.

Speaker 1:

Gpt can help you identify the person with the pain point. This is your potential client. It will help you highlight your amazing self so that Google loves you and they bring you on that silver platter to the person who needs you. And then, finally, you're going to use ChatGPT to develop 12 months of content. More content, the more Google loves you.

Speaker 1:

It's going to help you develop website copy, especially for your homepage and I didn't even talk about your About Me page and your services page, right, chatgpt can help you with that as well. And if you are really good at this and you have an email list, chatgpt can help you with those quick emails that will direct people back to your website so that they know where to go. And this is the best part, right, we want to create super fans. We want to create people who will easily refer your website to others. What better way to be helpful to your neighbor than to say, hey, I just read this amazing blog on susanscom's website and I'm going to send you the link? Right, they're going to send you your link to people because you are so freaking helpful, so I'm going to hit pause button and answer questions.