A brief outline of social media marketing goes like this:

Your Blog Post

->post to Twitter/Facebook

-> Followers click to learn more

->They like your ideas and think you’re helpful

-> They sign up for a free report to get more information

-> You send a newsletter with more useful stuff

-> Followers like you even more

->You offer a program/product

-> Followers buy because they now know, like and trust you.

Dr. Susan Giurleo is a psychologist and private practice consultant–the Biz-Savvy Therapist.  She talked to WTCI via email about what she does and how she does it.

What’s your background? What do you do now?

I am trained as a PhD counseling psychologist and focused my research around education and career development. Over time my interests shifted a bit to helping children with developmental issues such as ADHD, autism spectrum and learning disorders. I was a school psychologist for awhile, worked in a group practice and then got tired of working for others and went out on my own. The whole idea of starting a business was overwhelming and scary to me. I had no business background and neither did anyone in my immediate family. But I was motivated to learn because I wanted to create my ideal practice, utilizing evidence-based approaches to help kids and families in distress.

I spent a lot of time learning how business and health care work. Once I got the business fundamentals down, I started to learn how to market my practice. I quickly realized that marketing involves psychology at its core. The best marketing speaks to people’s needs in a way that allows them to understand products and services and make purchasing decisions.

Learning how to market my practice was fun and rewarding. And led me to where I am today.

Now, in addition to my private practice, I write my blog BizSavvyTherapist.com and provide business coaching and consultation to mental health professionals in private practice. My focus is on the marketing of small practices because I feel that is where people can do the work they love and make a very good living at the same time.

All of the business skills I talk about and teach are ethical and promote good mental health. I teach a strategy called “content marketing” (some call it ‘information marketing’). This approach combines valuable psychoeducation to the public,while at the same time promoting a practice and mental health services. Content marketing allows a practitioner to position herself as an expert or the “go to” person in her community for a specific treatment issue or condition. Based on solid, ethical content clients start to self-identify a fit between their needs and a specific practice or provider. At the same time referral sources such as physicians, lawyers and other professionals come to see the provider as a reliable source of information and quality care for their clients.

The BizSavvyTherapist allows me to combine my passions of promoting mental health, education and entrepreneurship. I feel that the more clinicians I can empower to have strong practices, the more people we can help and serve. It feels like a win-win–more clients, more healing and more income for providers.

How do you go about working with clients using content marketing?

My coaching process has evolved over the past few months.

Initially I ask my coaching clients lots of questions about their reasons for becoming a therapist,why they want to build a practice, what their ideal practice looks like and who they want to help.

To build an authentic practice each one of us needs to know our “why.”  Why do what you do? Who do you help others? What drives your decision to work for yourself?

The truth is, it’s not easy to be a small business owner. Yet, so many therapists start their graduate training with this goal in mind, but graduate with no idea how to go about the process of making money in a helping profession. So, we need to get at the heart of our motivations to be in the business of helping.

Once there is clarity on the why, we then explore how that translates into a profitable business. From my client’s core passions and interests we develop a focus, or a specialty from which they can build an authentic, rewarding business. We generate a business plan that incorporates a balance between their business and the lifestyle they desire. I call this “career/life balance.”

Once this base business plan is in place, I can teach and advise how to do the “nuts and bolts” work of building a website/blog, provide services that clients want and will pay for, and multiple income streams and marketing.

Ultimately, the goal is for therapists to have a solid business that helps people with specific needs and generates a good profit.

In this way, helping professionals can do the work they love and get paid well. It’s not hard to do once people are very clear on their motivations and goals.

What are the basic marketing lessons that apply to therapists?

The cornerstone of any success business requires that we offer something specific that solves a problem or addresses a pain point for people. By default, therapists are trained to help people in pain, but we are rarely specific enough about this.

Human beings naturally categorize things, ideas and people. We are hard wired to sort out “what’s in it for me?” Therefore, we pay close attention to the details of a business or service offering. We are willing to invest our resources (time, money, energy) into something that looks like a good fit for our needs.

This means that therapists need to become more specialized and demonstrate an expertise in one treatment area. People don’t work with generalists. They want providers that can meet their specific needs.

Without a focused specialization, all marketing efforts are wasted. No one can successfully market “therapy.” First of all, how do you define that well enough so people see that they need it? And, let’s face it, no one will trust someone who says “I can help you with any problem you may have.” Would you trust a physician who says they can treat any ailment from cancer to schizophrenia? Of course not. So the first basic marketing lesson is to develop a specialty.

After deciding on a focus for your practice, the next step is to develop a marketing “home” where all of your marketing activity comes together. I always suggest this be a website built on a blog platform (WordPress is my preference). Having a robust web presence allows people to access your information 24/7 and eliminates any need for brochures since the website has all the information people will need.

The website becomes the place where you provide information about your specialty, articles that are informational and helpful to clients (and potential clients). You can list services, products, free newsletters, etc. Once these basics are in place you then branch out into social media using Facebook and Twitter to drive traffic back to your site. It really can be quite elegant and efficient once you get a good basic online structure set up.

And the third marketing tip: show yourself online. Put a picture of yourself on your webpage, get rid of those pictures of sunsets, beaches and drops of water (they don’t mean anything to people). When you engage in social media, always have a picture of yourself associated with the account (whether it be Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or another networking site). Therapists are essentially marketing themselves. We don’t have a product. If you won’t show your face online, people will not trust you. Our culture increasingly expects to see faces of others online. The internet is the new community center. I know many therapists are uncomfortable with the concept,but we can’t change cultural shifts. If you want to engage in a marketing plan, be ready to show yourself. Nobody will every visit with an anonymous therapist.

Are there marketing ideas that don’t fit for this profession?

The one things many marketers recommend that therapists can’t use is testimonials.

Ethically, we can’t ask clients to give us feedback that we then share with others.
Sometimes business minded clients will offer a testimonial, but I recommend a policy of not using them because our ethics codes are clear that testimonials can be a place of misused power differential. That really is the only area where we need to adjust our marketing efforts.

However, I also want to say that I hear a lot of talk in professional circles about how therapists should not use social media (such as Facebook and Twitter) but that is incorrect advice. There are many ways we can use these platforms ethically and safely to promote mental health and to market our practices. As long as the information shared is factual and never references real client stories or situations, social media is a powerful tool. There is a lot of debate about this, but many of the people engaged in these discussions don’t seem to really understand the flexibility in these platforms. It is absolutely possible to have an ethical social media presence. I recommend therapists learn how to use Facebook and Twitter with their “professional” hat on, rather than approach it as they would as a private person.

I talk about ways to use social media on my blog.

Any final words of wisdom for people building a private practice…?

Start with one thing. Take one action. That could be meeting with a professional colleague for lunch or coffee, writing an article for a local publication (online or off line), heading over to WordPress.org and starting a blog. The process of building and marketing a practice can seem overwhelming, but when we break it down into steps and stick with it, a lot of progress can be made in a short period of time.

I wish every one the best in their practice building efforts!

Find Susan Giurleo, PhD on the web at BizSavvyTherapist.com, ChildDevelopmentPartners.com, and on twitter: @susangiurleo.

12:00-1:00PM EST – Dr. Susan Giurleo, Biz Savvy Therapist
Topic: “First Steps to Building Your Innovative, Powerful, Profitable Practice”

1:30PM-2:30PM EST – DeeAnna Merz Nagel, OnlineTherapyInstitute.com
Topic: “Text-based Therapy: An Introduction to Email and Chat”

3:00-4:00PM EST – SCHEDULE CHANGE Brian Whetten, Selling By Giving
Topic: “The One Challenge You Have to Address if You Want to Build a
Six Figure Practice from a Place of Love and Service”

4:30-5:00PM EST – BONUS CALL with Laura Dessauer, Business Success for Therapists
Topic: “Want to Know the Top 5 Mistakes Therapists Make in Building Their Practice?”

A few past and future WCTI contributors weighed in on the question.  Their answers below.  Your answers:  Waiting to be written and posted to comments.

Will Meek, PhD (willmeekphd.com)

Where did your first referrals come from?
My first referrals came from therapist directory websites (Psychology Today and Network Therapy).

Where do most of your referrals come from now?
My referrals continue to come from sources online. Those include online therapist directories and my website, which appears high in search engine rankings. Additionally, I have started getting people from insurance websites as well as from colleagues and friends of previous clients who had positive experiences with me.

Catherine Auman, MFT (catherineauman.com)

I started my private practice by getting on as many managed care panels as I could. This eventually turned into an average of two new referrals a week.During that time I was also building my cash business in any way I could, primarily on the Internet and through advertising. Now my practice is 2/3′s cash patients and 1/3 managed care. I love it!

Buck Black, LCSW (buckblack.com & truckertherapy.com)

Where did your first referrals come from?
In my office:  My first referrals came from people calling the group practice (which I am part of) and the secretary scheduled them with me.
Online/phone:  Google searches that directed them to my website.  I spent a lot of time increasing my Google rankings so this would happen!

Where do most of your referrals come from now?
50% from my website and my online Psychology Today ad.  Approximately 30% from face-to-face networking in my community and the remainder from referrals from the group practice and my ad on the back of the city bus.

Susan Giurleo, PhD (childdevelopmentpartners.com & susangiurleo.com)

First referrals came from colleagues–other psychotherapists, neuropsychologists.

Now: physicians, neuropsychologists, school adminstrators/guidance counselors, current or past client word-of-mouth referrals, my website/blog.

That’s them.  How about you?

• Where did your first referral come from?
• Where do most of your referrals come from now?
• What referral sources are you trying to develop for the future?

Take a second to comment–you’ll likely be helping out a rookie; you may even find yourself inspired to do some extra outreach.

How to stop giving your money away to insurance companies and the biggest mistakes therapists make in building a successful fee-for-service therapy business

How to help your potential clients TALK THEMSELVES into working with you and what you’ll need to know to attract way more clients without compromising your values

The mindset shift and business model change you need to learn so you can easily double your current income

How to use coaching to build a fee-for-service practice making six to seven figures a year

The reason why you may be procrastinating in your business and the biggest gift you can offer your clients

The marketing approach that helps your community, while growing your practice at the same time

How to expand your practice using text-based therapy: what you need to know about using email and chat with your clients- everything from encryption, client screening, and cyber-cultural awareness

How to create a signature presentation that leaves your potential clients asking for more

Practical tools you can use to earn expert status and how to utilize technology and marketing strategies to engage clients, build credibility, and earn loyalty

Specific ways social media improves your visibility online and how to use directories and google local business center to gain exposure and attract new clients

How online networking sites and technology can bring therapists, students, and interested professional together in a global web community, maximizing your practice exposure

And so much more!

Innovative Private Practice 101:  Start Up Basics

Who is this for?
The program is for the newly licensed or those desiring to leave their current employment and start an independent private practice.

Who won’t find this helpful?
If you are already running your own practice and have an office, a business presence online, HIPAA compliant intake paperwork and get paid on a regular basis by clients and/or insurance companies, this course is too basic. But stay tuned…there will be classes for you coming up in 2010!

What will I learn?
In 5 classes we will discuss:

1. Why bother starting a practice? What drives your desire to build your own business? And what sets you apart from your competition?
2. Start-up Basics: A Place to Call Your Own and how to Pay for It
3. Legal Stuff: Lots of Insurance, Forms, Files and HIPAA
4. Clients: Attracting and Keeping Them
5. Mini-Marketing Lesson (Marketing is HUGE topic. In this class we’ll touch on the basics you need to get started.)
6. (Optional) Q&A session with Susan.  This will be your chance to ask me any and all of your burning questions about starting a practice.

How will I learn?
All content will be delivered via teleseminar (via a phone bridge line. It’s like a conference call) and email. All calls will be recorded so you can listen to them at your convenience (exceptions noted below). I will send some written articles and workbooks via email. (All material will be delivered digitally [phone, email].  There will be no hard copy book or CDs.)

When does this class take place?
This is a one week, intensive course.  Each call will be 60-70 minutes long.

Sunday, December 13, 2009 @ 8:00 PM EST: Call 1: Why bother?

Monday, December 14 @ 8:00 PM EST: Call 2:  Start-Up Basics

Tuesday, December 15 @ 8:00 PM EST: Call 3:  Legal Stuff

Wednesday, December 16 @ 8:00 PM EST: Call 4:  Clients

Thursday, December 17 @ 8:00 PM EST: Call 5: Mini-Marketing

Friday, December 18 @ 11 AM EST: Call 6: Q & A with Susan (note time change)

How much does it cost?
I know many of you are new to the profession and money is tight. So here is my holiday gift to you: You can listen in  and participate in these calls for FREE! That’s right I will help you get all the practice start up basics for free, but you must be on the calls *live* for the freebie. This means you will not have access to any of the recorded material or workbooks to review after the calls.  (And please don’t email me and tell me you want it for free but the time is inconvenient….please…..it’s free.)

Here is my advice. If you want to save money and want to know how to build a great, enjoyable, profitable mental health practice in 2010, clear your schedule for the evenings on the week of December 13.  Then, get a big notebook to take notes as you listen.

No pressure here, but I will NEVER offer this course for free again. In fact, I will package it up and sell it on my blog starting in January 2010, so this is your only chance to get this offer (and you have to admit, it’s generous).

But I want the recordings and I would love to have a workbook.  OR  I REALLY can’t clear my schedule. How do I get access to the class material?
I know you may not be able to make all the calls live as this is a time intensive course, it happens all in one week and during the holiday season.

If you want the recordings so you can listen at your convenience and a workbook you can use to stay on track, I’m offering the entire course for $72 (BTW, that is $12 per hour).

Yep, 6 hours of content on how to start a mental health practice for $72.  And the content is yours to keep forever so you can review it over and over again. Why so cheap? Because I know you are starting out. I know money can be tight. But like I said above, I will package this up in 2010 and offer it at a higher price, so now is the time to jump on this if you are interested.

I think that about covers it!

If you are ready to learn how to start a successful, innovative, ethical, all around wonderful mental health practice in 2010, click on one of the buttons below to register.

Remember, if you sign up for the free version, you will not get access to the recorded calls or the workbook.

Go to BizSavvyTherapist.com (a WTCI affiliate) to sign up.