Top 5 Ways That Blogging Can Help Your Group Practice Become a Premium Pay Private Practice
As a group practice owner we all know you are ambitious and want to make as big of an impact as possible by helping the people in your community. Strategic blogging might not be on your radar now but it can make a huge difference in your practice. I know it feels like this is just one more thing on your never-ending marketing to-do list.
This blog might just make you consider using strategic blogging as a way to market your practice.
As a group practice owner you’ve already figured out how to build a practice that isn’t just you. You have other therapists working under you and you are ready to start bringing in more private pay clients who actually value the therapy your practice provides.
Private pay clients are not just picking someone off a list. They are doing their research and trying to find the therapist who has the right expertise and is the right fit for them.
This is where targeted blogging comes in. We’re not talking about just putting a random blog up here and there. What works when you are in solo practice quite cut it when you have multiple therapist’s caseloads to fill. It isn’t enough when you are aiming to position yourself as a premium service provider.
As a group practice you need a content strategy that shows off your teams expertise, prioritizes quality, and positions your practice as the experts in their field that they are.
This article will show you how blogging can change your online presence to bring in premium pay clients. In the process blogging will open the doors to opportunities you might have never considered.
Positioning Your Practice as a Premium Mental Health Provider
There’s a huge diiference between having a successful therapy practice and being recognized as a premium provider in your field. Your blog isn’t just a marketing tool; it’s a place for you to establish your expertise and show what sets you apart.
You want your practice to become the place to go for help in your niche. Your ideal clients don’t just go to your website to establish this. They want to see that you are a thought leader, that you are making contributions to your field and that you are making a broader impact.
When you are consistently putting out quality blogs you’re doing more than sharing information. You are demonstrating that your team stays ahead of the game. That your practice doesn’t just practice therapy that they are engaged in improving the profession as a whole.
Private pay clients want therapists that are visible in their field. That are part of the larger conversations around mental health. They want to know that others in your field look to you for knowledge.
Your blog creates the base for all of this. It shows off your teams unique perspectives. Demonstrates your practices specialized approach and highlights your therapists contributions to the field.
You aren’t trying to be flashy in your blogs but demonstrate a depth of knowledge, expertise, and commitment to being one of the best at what you do. When potential clients see you putting out quality content it reinforces their confidence in you as the right therapist.
You want to target your specific blog topics to premium pay clients and the things that they need and are interested in.
Managing Multi-Therapist Content: Creating a Cohesive Voice While Showcasing Individual Expertise
One way that group practice owners put out regular blogs is to delegate the writing to their team. So each member of the team takes a turn writing a blog. This can make it hard to maintain a consistent brand voice.
Creating Your Content System
To start off with you need to come up with a practical process. It’s important to have guidelines for your therapists to follow when writing. This allows a consistent brand but also allows each therapists individuality to shine.
Decide how often you want to post and then decide how often each team member will write. Try to cover each specialty, as well as mental health awareness months, and seasonal topics.
Asssign broad topics and due dates to each of your therapists so that you have a plan but they can write what feels right for them.
Managing Your Team's Contributions
Each therapist in your practice has their own voice and style and you want to let that shine. At the same time your blog does need to have a feeling of cohesion. The guide that you provide should outline the tone of the practice’s blog, preferred terminology and phrases. Include guidelines for structure, citations, length and calls to action.
You want to make it as easy as possible for your therapists to write their pieces. Give them clear guidelines and what kind of document they should write. Take as much of the guesswork out of the process as possible. Give them everything they need like links to practice resources and support to actually post their blog on the website.
Using Your Teams Strengths
Each of your team has unique strengths and expertise. Use this by having them focus their writing on the things that they are most knowledgeable about. This not only produces better content it helps your therapists enjoy the writing process.
Avoid Micromanement
Try to be as encouraging and positive as possible about the articles your therapists write. Give them specific and concrete direction as well as examples. Help them to know for sure what you want from them. Remember that done is better than perfect. Make sure that you are giving positive feedback as well as suggestions.
Brand consistency doesn’t mean every post sounds exactly the same. It means they all have same standards and the same “feel” to them. Your goal is to create consistency while also highlighting each therapists expertise and personality.
So now here are 5 ways blogging can help you grow your premium pay group practice;
1.Connect With Your Practices Ideal Clients
As a group practice owner you’re not trying to connect with any and all clients. You are trying to connect with the right clients for each of your therapists.
Think about your practices ideal clients. They might be perfectionist entrepreneurs trying to let go, or couples who are succeeding in their careers but struggling in their relationship.
They aren’t making impulse decisions. They are spending the time they need to find the right fit therapist for them. And they know how important it is to find the right one.
Your blog allows you to connect with these ideal clients and get a peak at how your practice approaches their specific challenges. They’re seeing if you understand what they are experiencing and if your brand of help is what they’re looking for.
Your blog also allows your clients to get to know everyone on your team above and beyond their about me blurb. It allows them to share their unique perspective and approach and allows clients to figure out who is a good fit for them.
Your blogs don’t just teach them about the topic it also helps them to get to know each therapist in your practice.
2.SEO: Helping Ideal Clients Find You
Seo can be overwhelming as a therapist. But I’m not going to get bogged down in technical speak. I want you to think of SEO as helping your clients find you when they need you most.
Even if you are visible on all of the social media channels if your clients can’t find you it’s all for nothing.
As a group practice with multiple clients and multiple specialties you can authentically create blogs that speaks to all kinds of struggles.
When a prospective client is searching for an expert in your therapists niche’s you want to show up in their search on Google.
Your content helps pre-qualify clients by clearly communicating your practices level of expertise and approach to care. By the time they reach out they know who you are and what you do.
The other important thing to keep in mind is that you don’t have to compete for every therapy related keyword in your city. You just need to rank for the searches your ideal clients are making.
As with the blogs themselves you really want to err on the side of quality over quantity when it comes to SEO keywords.
3.Media Engagement
Most therapists don’t realize journalists are constantly looking for expert sources. They often find them through blog posts and pre-qualify the information that you are going to give them.
They need mental health experts who can speak to clinical issues but can also communicate well. You are demonstrating both through your blogs.
Media opportunities not only give your practice more visibility but also give it more expertise and credibility. This way when your private pay clients are researching you they find quotes in the media, learn more about you, your expertise, and are even more interested in working with you.
The more of this expertise you collect the more in demand you become for media engagements, the more expertise you appear to have.
Your consistent blogging gives journalists a reason to come back to you as an expert source. As you consistently post your blogs, the journalists remember you and eventually you become their go-to expert because you always deliver what they need.
Being quoted in the media tells prospective clients that you operate on a higher level. That your team stands above the crowd.
4.Speaking Opportunities
Like media engagements when a summit organizer is looking for speakers on a particular topic they often search the topic for experts in the field. Having a consistent blog allows you to show up easier in this search.
When they get to your blog they can tell that you are capable of discussing complicated topics and breaking them down for non-clinical audiences.
Your blog establishes your expertise and now the speaking engagements also validate your credibility.
Like media engagements speaking opportunities and blogging feed on each other. The more you blog the more expertise you develop and the more you speak the more credibility you have for premium pay clients. Its a cycle that keeps building your reputation until you are the go-to expert in your niche.
5.Clinical Consultations: Becoming a Therapist Other Therapists Trust
When you become the therapist that other therapists come to for advise you know that your practice will always have more clients.
When others are coming to you for consultation you know that they are going to send you clients because they know that they can trust your expertise within your particular niche.
When you look at who to get mentorship from in the field you aren’t just looking for anyone. You do your research and look carefully at all the information you can find about them.
You want someone that you can look up to. Who you feel good about how they work. You get this information from their website and having a blog gives them more information.
Your content becomes a place that educates prospective clients but as time goes on it also educates prospective consultees. You eventually get to where you are mentoring future professionals through your blogs.
Using Your Blogs For Multiple Marketing Assets
You can get a lot more from your blog than just the blog. Think of each blog as an opportunity for multiple types of content.
It can easily be turned into multiple social media posts. You can use it to post quotes and other visuals across multiple platforms.
You can also use your blog to help your email marketing. Turn one blog into multiple emails. Add some reflection questions and exercises and there you go. Engaging content that nurtures your list.
You can also use your blog posts for videos and future trainings or vice versa. One of my recent blogs came directly from a training I did for a friend with a group coaching program.
The goal is to adapt your blog for multiple posts and emails. Don’t just repost your blog everywhere.
Let’s Help Your Ideal Clients Find Your Group Practice
You and your team already have expertise. You’re doing amazing work and making a difference in peoples lives. The challenge isn’t creating the expertise. It’s showing it off so others can find you.
But you’re busy running your practice. Your therapists want to focus on serving their clients. Finding the time to create consistent blog content feels impossible.
This is where having a copywriter who is also a therapist makes all the difference. My expertise as a therapist and a copywriter can elevate your practice. I understand the nuances of ethical therapy marketing and I speak both languages.
When you work with me I help you bring in more premium pay clients so that you and your team can do the work that you love.
Book a consultation call here, so that I can help you make your practices expertise visible.