3.A. Marketing Your Child Therapy Practice

growing your child therapy practice 11 essential marketing tips knowing how to put yourself out there and market your private practice is essential for two primary reasons first, it is necessary from the fundamental reason of why you pursued a profession within the child therapy arena you want to help children since those children (and especially their parents) desperately want your help, you can make the gap between what you do and who you do it for disappear by marketing your private practice well second, from a practical business standpoint, showcasing your specialized expertise is essential for your private practice’s survival how to advertise your child therapy practice but how do you present yourself as the expert you are? how do you appropriately market yourself so that parents searching for support for their children will determine that you are the professional for them? here are 11 tips for marketing your child therapy practice 1\ leverage your relationship with hopscotch one of the foundational rules of marketing is to be where your clients are, and your prospective clients are here, browsing hopscotch’s directory of child therapy and child service providers we offer many collaborative ways for you to showcase yourself as the expert of choice that you are, and we pride ourselves on being the avenue of choice for parents to come find the provider that is best for their child’s specific needs since you are already a part of our network and already have your private practice listed in our directory of providers, great! caregivers use the information within provider profiles to decide for themselves which clinician may be a good fit for their child or adolescent, so make sure your provider profile is filled out with all the necessary important details (we covered this is part 2/week 2 of coaching) our materials for part 2/week 2 can help you discover tips for making your provider profile shine 2\ network unless you are extremely extroverted, most people tend to shy away from networking, but any savvy, successful, private practice provider will confirm that networking is essential to your business’s survival networking is positively a must! if you are unsure of how to begin networking, joining one of our upcoming therapist peer consultation meetings is a great place to start check out our blog about this pro tip for child therapy providers invest your networking time with therapists and providers who see adults, especially parents chances are, at least some of those adults and parents will have children by nurturing your professional relationship with other therapists or service providers in similar but different niches, you can not only position yourself as their go to referral, but also grow your own list of referral options for your clients it’s a win win for everyone involved! 3\ follow up and follow through take the time to nurture your professional relationships, because a one time meet and greet is likely not enough to seal the deal on becoming a referral resource for a fellow professional routinely follow up with the professional contacts you network with and consider what resources you might have that may benefit them in return could you be a referral resource to them? try to find authentic and mutually beneficial ways to grow your professional network 4\ leverage community resources why not collaborate with local ordinances and host a workshop at a local community center or city library? a one hour presentation on a topic pertaining to your practice (ie play therapy, parenting techniques, adolescents and anxiety, etc ) may draw in a great crowd of potential clients from within your local community you’ll facilitate the opportunity to meet and interact with loads of prospective clients all in one place simply because you provided accessible value to them up front pro tip for child service providers advertise your workshop at hotspots within the local community such as at ballet studios, karate dojos, pediatric offices, churches, etc 5\ host an online workshop if live public speaking is not your thing, why not take away some of the nerves by making it virtual? there are many low cost and even free ways to give an online presentation or workshop virtually, and you’d be surprised how many coaches and therapists are finding business this way 6\ be a super helpful and available expert one way to be the “super helpful and available expert” is to reach out to the local schools in your area to ensure school counselors add you to their referral list a little friendliness goes a long way here, so in addition to dropping off some business cards, make sure they get to know the wonderful, warm, responsive, reliable, and friendly you leave them without a doubt that you are the polished expert who can help another way is to offer a short presentation of useful info at the next pta meeting, school function, organization meetings, etc many child therapists and child service providers leverage free speaking engagements to score clients because it’s a proven marketing strategy that gets your name out there public speaking may be intimidating at first, but remember your prospective clients want to find you as much as you want to find them 7\ sign up as an expert on local news every local news outlet needs sources for when different stories and news alerts occur, so it’s a good idea to let your local journalists know that you exist simply contact local news outlets and submit your contact info and credentials to position yourself as a source the next time an expert opinion is needed, you will be positioned to receive positive publicity as an industry expert while you are at it, ask yourself where else you could position yourself as a voice of authority, and sign up as an expert resource anywhere an expert resource may be needed could you guest blog for high traffic websites or write an article for a local daycare newsletter? the options are endless! 8\ be where your potential clients are whether they are at schools, daycares, after school programs, pediatricians, child dentists, rec centers, etc ask yourself, “where do children go?” and then position yourself and your business to have a presence there by dropping off flyers, your business card, or offering to do parent workshops 9\ have an online presence in today’s modern world, having an online presence is a must in addition to your hopscotch provider profile, you may also consider having a website or launching a social media profile pro tip for child service providers avoid using social media as a platform for sales instead, use social media as an engagement tool for building authentic relationships focus social media efforts on connecting with followers, commenting on related community posts that pertain to your niche, and providing helpful content 10\ track your referral sources now that you are spending time on marketing, it’s important to know where your referrals for clients are coming from by doing this, you will be able to see where most of your effort is paying off, where your clients go to find therapists, and who are your best partners this will help inform future marketing efforts and goals pro tip for child service providers ask new clients where they heard about you keep an ongoing list of referral sources and frequency on a spreadsheet or notebook be sure and thank any referral sources if you have permission from your client 11 monitor your online reviews we all have an internet presence what does yours say about you? you can google yourself and learn if you have any online reviews if you have positive reviews, you may want to link to them in your website if you have negative reviews, because of hipaa you won’t be able to respond, but you can ask colleagues and referral partners to create reviews so that you have more positive than negative reviews the only way to put yourself out there, is to put yourself out there the point of all these marketing tips is that staying (or hiding) in your office or play therapy room and hoping clients show up is not a successful business strategy however, when you choose to advertise your child therapy practice and market yourself, the goal is to make it as easy as possible for the parents of the children you are trying to help to find you show up wherever you can as the friendly, competent, helpful expert that you are ask questions answer questions get involved in your community, attend community functions, volunteer in local charity events, and make it a point to cultivate relationships in the end, good business is all about good relationships, and the more you focus on taking initiative to develop those relationships, the more your referrals and business will flourish a few other tips about referrals when someone refers, thank them! return phone calls and emails in a timely manner, even if you have a full caseload, usually within 24 hours or next business day is best referral sources will not keep referring if they get feedback that you’re not returning calls! make sure you are developing a positive reputation in the community even when you are not working, people are watching have a professional outgoing message on your phone empty your voicemail box so people can leave messages