Building Trust Beyond Directories
Josephine Hughes (She/Her)
00:00:01.520 – 00:18:13.310
Many of you are uncertain about clients who contact you via directories and make a booking. You don’t want to be out of pocket in case they don’t turn up, and so you charge them for their first session in advance.
However, have you ever thought about how this situation might feel from the client’s perspective? Might clients feel nervous about paying you?
How do they know that you’re genuine, that you’re going to turn up, and that they’re not being persuaded to part with their hard earned cash by an online scammer?
Welcome to the Good Enough Counsellors podcast, where today I’m looking at ways that you can increase the likelihood that potential clients will trust you and get in touch. Because I wonder if you’ve ever been like me. You know, you want therapy and so you turn to the directories to find someone.
But despite digging around for a while, you go away having not made a decision. There’s not been enough there to convince you to write an email and you feel worried about the thought of contacting anyone.
There’s some safety for clients in turning to a directory.
For example, one of the professional association directories, such as BACP, finds a therapist gets a good press because everyone listed has already been vetted by a well known organisation for qualifications. But even so, as you read through the people’s listings, some doubts may set in. Are they really the best person for you? Will they judge you?
What will therapy with them be like? Will it work?
And while you, as the therapist can try to demonstrate that you’re a good fit in what you write, people may well be looking for more reassurance than you can offer in one short directory listing. So in today’s podcast, I’m looking at what you can do beyond your directory entry to assuage people’s concerns.
In marketing, there’s something called the rule of seven.
This was developed during the 1930s, when it was discovered that potential moviegoers needed to see a movie poster at least seven times before they bought the tickets to the cinema. Nowadays, in the online world, it’s considered that people may need even more than seven touch points to actually make a decision.
So how can you make that happen in your marketing, given that you haven’t got a large budget or an enormous marketing department? First of all, understand the type of person who might be seeking your help, and that’s one of the reasons why thinking about a niche can be helpful.
It means that you can think about where those sorts of people will go to look for information and the methods you’ll use to reach them to use some simple examples.
Older people may prefer local directories or word of mouth recommendations, while younger, more tech savvy people may turn to social media or platforms such as Betterhelp.
People with specialist needs, such as those from the LGBTQI community, may use recommendations from online groups, and people with urgent needs may seek out crisis hotlines.
While there’s huge benefits from advertising on directories that appear on page one of Google, thinking about your niche may give you ideas about the channels you can use to communicate with different types of clients and download my handout 21 ways for counsellors to find new clients to get more ideas about the different channels you could use. One of the obvious channels is to have a website where people can click through from your directory entry and dig deeper into you as a person.
You have far more room on a website to speak to people, and once on your website, people are less likely to be looking at alternative therapists.
You can showcase your knowledge and expertise with blogs, which have the added benefit that they may also draw people in from Internet searches without them ever having visited a professional directory. You can then use your website to set up a relationship with them by inviting them to download a resource in return for their email address.
This means you’ll be able to send them follow up emails, which can increase the likelihood of future bookings. However, you do need to have quite a compelling reason for people to hand over their email address, and this is where blogs can really help.
If people are able to access relevant articles that showcase your knowledge and therefore your trustworthiness, they’re more likely to sign up.
Blogs can also be repurposed for your social media feed, not only to tell people that your blog exists, but also as the basis of posts that each take one aspect of the blog to amplify your message and reach more people. And it’s another channel to reach people. And you can often add a link to your social media feed on your directory entry.
Now there’s another channel you can use to reach people, and please don’t groan when I tell you what it is. Would you like to know about something that nearly 80% of marketing professionals say helps to increase sales?
Where people spend a significant proportion of their leisure time, approximately 17 hours per week on average, where 96% of people turn when they’re looking for information about a service and something that doesn’t actually require a website? Yes, it’s video marketing, and you probably guessed that from the viewing statistics that I quoted.
Videos have hugely increased in popularity as the rise of TikTok shows it’s often the way people consume information, and also they’re very likely to share videos too, which means you may well be able to reach more people than those in your immediate audience. Videos are hugely popular because they tell us so much in a short time.
Just today, as I was writing this episode, Claire Scuds of BC’s counselling shared a short video on her social media. It’s about how old stories can affect you and how therapy can break their power.
It’s two and a half minutes long, but in that time, Clare has managed to communicate her understanding of psychological difficulties, her professionalism and her approachability.
Most of all, she comes across as someone who is non judgmental, and I think clients watching it will find themselves reassured that therapy need not be a scary process with someone like Claire. As I explained in episode 22 on profile photo tips, a picture can tell a thousand words.
People’s brains process visual information more quickly than writing, and it’s possible to learn so much about someone so quickly. As Claire’s video example shows, videos increase engagement, they capture attention and they keep people involved longer than text based information.
Therapists who are sharing themselves on video are showing more of themselves than a simple photo and therefore viewers feel a stronger sense of connection with them and they develop that connection more quickly than just by reading. Additionally, using video can increase your accessibility to those who prefer not to read or who are visually impaired.
I’m sure I’m not the only person who will have a video playing in the background while I’m doing something else like walking or cooking.
It’s easy to watch or listen to videos on a smartphone and they’re more visually appealing than a screen of text, and people tend to retain more information from a video than other forms of communication. Just yesterday I spoke to a potential coaching client and she said meeting me was like meeting a celebrity.
I wish I I’ve had counsellors approach me on the street because they recognise me. The reason for this is that I’m well known in my niche because my videos help people to know who I am and help them to relate to me.
Part of the reason I’m using this episode to talk about the power of video is that it was video that got me started on this journey of visibility. As I said in last week’s episode, being seen is actually a good thing.
Being more visible builds people’s knowledge of you and attracts inquiries and referrals. It’s what you want if you want to build your practice. How I got started on video is simple.
I attended a challenge to learn how to go live on Facebook because it’s really easy to do so and there’s minimal tech involved and over time, what I learned is that video can be a great way to communicate with people, particularly if you’re neurodivergent and you find it easier to speak and process ideas verbally than by sitting down and planning something out and writing it in advance. I know that in this podcast I’m talking to many of you for whom the idea of creating videos sounds either scary or impossible, or both.
So I’d love to extend the help that I had when I started.
I’m running a live video feed challenge from the 24th to the 27 September 2024 and that’s to help you feel more confident both to appear on camera and to get used to using video on your phone.
The challenge will be with a small group of other therapists, away from the public gaze and from all your friends and family so you can make mistakes in peace. You’ll be producing short videos in no time. I promise you to enrol on the challenge. Just join the 2024 live video challenge Facebook group.
I will pop the link into the show notes. The other day I watched Nikki Holmes of time for you counselling Cheltenham. Nikki is running a live weekly ADHD Q and a clinic on Facebook.
If you’re interested, you can catch her most weeks on Fridays at lunchtime.
Nikki is so confident on camera now, and she’s using her video skills to help people and reach new clients and their video skills she learned on my last live feed challenge back in 2020. If you’d like to be able to do the same, please do click on the show notes.
It’s taken me four years to repeat the live feed challenge, so don’t know when I’m doing the next one. Please opt in now, but for now, let’s look at some of the fears around creating videos to use in your marketing.
One of the biggest ones is about being seen on camera, and I have got lots of resources to help you. If this is you, please do listen to my previous podcast episode on camera Shyness. That’s episode 21.
There’s no doubt that the fear of judgment is a big contributory factor to people’s reluctance to speak in public, and I covered this issue in last week’s podcast about procrastination. That’s episode 30.
Kate Cocker, the speaker coach, visited therapy growth group over the summer, and we have her training recorded there to help you conquer your fears about public speaking. But you may also like to know some of the statistics about what people really want from videos.
Over 60% of people value authenticity and relatability more highly than polished, high quality productions. The smartphone has democratized video production and people’s expectations. They want to know you, not that you’re a fantastic video producer.
This week I recorded a live video interview and no editing is possible when you’re live. I completely and utterly forgot Gabor mate’s name.
But it didn’t matter because the viewers supplied the name for me and their comments included them in the conversation. This meant they were taking an active part.
It had the additional benefit of creating more engagement and comments, and that fed the social media algorithm. Now, you may be asking at this point, am I just talking about videos on social media?
Possibly you don’t have a social media presence, or you don’t want to spend time developing one. But think about what I said about Claire Scud’s two and a half minute video. It communicated so much information in that short time.
Even if you don’t want to be active on social media, how about creating some videos that you can add to your website?
I have no doubt that if you add them to your web presence, they’re going to increase visits to your website and they’ll be watched by potential clients. Think about the concerns that clients may have about therapy and address those concerns.
For example, on the about me page, you could offer an insight into yourself and provide reassurance that you understand the need for them to feel safe. With a therapist, you could provide an FAQ video where you talk about the concern that people have that their problem isn’t bad enough for therapy.
You could briefly share information about privacy, talk through what happens in a first appointment.
Even a video that showcases your room can help people to feel more comfortable about booking an appointment with you, and you may be able to share your videos on your directory entry in order to help people find you and for the search engines to point them in your direction. Here’s some tips to optimise your website videos and the time you’ve spent creating them.
Use keywords that are relevant to your clients in your title and write a detailed description that includes the keywords and summarises the content. Adding captions helps to make the video more accessible and more easily searchable, as does adding a transcription.
However, if you’re thinking about having videos on your website, you may like to think about loading them onto YouTube to host them, and then embedding YouTube on your website.
This has the added advantage of discoverability of one of the biggest video platforms in the world and as YouTube is also owned by Google, it makes sense to do so. I’m sure you’ve seen videos being suggested in Google searches. The other advantage is actually a technical one.
Adding videos to your website may slow its loading times down, and this can be a crucial factor in people accessing your website. Using YouTube means you’re using an infrastructure that’s designed to deliver videos quickly and it won’t affect your website speed.
And of course, even if you just have a personal Facebook page, you could share your YouTube videos there.
One of the concerns that many counsellors talk to me about is that they don’t feel confident that they have enough expertise to share information with clients on their social media posts, on blogs, let alone on video.
And it’s often a common concern that comes up when thinking about niching look out for my next social media toolkit episode that will be appearing in October 2024, and I’m going to talk about that issue there. But remember, I’m also covering these types of concerns in my free live feed challenge, which starts on the 24 September. So please do sign up.
I asked at the start of the episode about how you could help clients to build up trust in you as a therapist.
If you’re someone who has set up a directory entry, it’s worth thinking about that rule of seven how many channels do you offer to help clients find out about you having a website and or a social media presence and creating content there that you can use to encourage clients and tell them that you’re trustworthy helps to increase the likelihood of people getting in touch.
And if the thought of video scares you rigid, please tune in for next week’s episode where I’m talking with Katie Bowers, an EFT therapist, and she’s going to share how she overcame her fear of visibility social media using the power of tapping.
Thanks for listening. Do come and join my Facebook community, Good Enough Counsellors, and for more information about how I can help you develop your private practice please visit my website, Josephinehughes.com. If you found this episode helpful, I’d love it if you could share it with a fellow therapist or leave a review on your podcast app. And in closing, I’d love to remind you that every single step you make gets you closer to your dream. I really believe you can do it.