Cheap and Effective Online Marketing for Private Practices

- Posted: February 15, 2016
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- TheraNest Team
Online Marketing for Private Practices
Would you like help creating an online marketing strategy for your private practice? You’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll discuss easy (and affordable) strategies for marketing your practice to your prospective customers online.The Very First Thing You Need (Drum roll please)
A functional website. In this post, we’ll discuss a lot of things you can do as a private practice to advertise online, but a website is crucial to your online success. A Facebook business page is a poor substitute for your own central online hub. You need a central location to operate online. This is where you’ll send people who want to learn about your business. A dedicated business website is far superior to a social media profile because it looks more professional and you have more control over how you communicate with your audience. Your website doesn’t have to be the slickest one out there, but it does need to be easy to navigate and informative. You don’t need to have a ton of images and videos. A blog is useful, but it can wait. You don’t even need a large library of content. At the very least, you should include the following on your website:A Home page
On this page, you’ll include a welcome message and a snapshot of all of the most important information your site visitors want to see in a flash. This includes your address, directions to your facility, your phone number, a brief overview of services you provide, current news, and promotions.An “About Us” page
Clients like to know (and see) you before coming into your office. Take a moment to get personal. Create a biography for all client-facing staff. Discuss who you are and why you entered the profession. Include photos to establish an immediate connection.A “Contact Us” page
Don’t forget to provide your customers with ways to reach you. You may have included this information on your homepage, but you can repeat it on a dedicated “Contact Us” page. Some site visitors won’t see it on your homepage.A Services Page
What services do you offer? List it out on this page and then go into detail about what each service entails. Discuss who benefits the most from each type and explain what you do during them. Include how long each service lasts. The more information you can provide on this services page, the better. It will reduce the amount of time your front desk staff spends answering common questions about your provided services.A “Downloadable Forms” Page
Give your clients (and your staff) a solid head start by including all of the required forms and files your clients need to fill out on your website. This list includes everything from the initial form a first-time client fills out and your payment policy.A Blog
Blogs can be great for establishing yourself as an expert. It can provide a lot of valuable content to your site visitors. You can use a blog to highlight testimonials, discuss common concerns, and share your professional opinion on topics that are interesting to your site visitors. Now, let’s roll our sleeves up and get to affordable online advertising:Buy Google Ads
Have you ever done a search on Google? The first two listings that come up (along with every listing in the sidebar) are actually advertisements.
Get Social
As I mentioned before, social media won’t take the place of your website, but it’s still an important part of your online marketing strategy. You may be asking yourself: Which social media platform should my business be on? It depends. Ugh. Don’t you hate that kind of answer? Let’s figure it out together by answering the following questions:- Which platform do your clients use the most?
- Which platform is the most comfortable for you to navigate?

Create an Email List
An email list is a collection of people who’ve given you their email addresses to receive updates from you. Your email list is your single most valuable asset when it comes to online marketing. And it’s free. Hooray for free. Why is an email list so valuable? Your email list contains a group of people who want to hear from you. Unlike paid ads, these people haven’t just landed on your site, dazed and confused. They’ve had a chance to look around and get comfortable, and they’ve decided that they want to create an ongoing relationship with you. They want to know about your upcoming events and get notified about blog updates. You can start collecting emails on your website or even on your Facebook or Twitter pages. Use a plugin like Hello Bar or SumoMe to collect emails. I recommend offering something immediately in exchange for their email. For example: offer a free report like, “5 Tips to Choose the Perfect Mental Health Specialist.”