Josephine (She/Her)
How would you like to be in a position where your concern isn’t how do I get more clients, but how do I avoid burnout handling the number of clients I’ve got? This was the question from Sara Witter, who told me she got eight clients in a fortnight by following my advice.
If you’re looking for some more Christmas clients, listen to this practical episode containing some quick tweaks for your marketing. You could probably do most of them in a morning. Hello, and welcome to the Good Enough Counsellors Podcast with me, Josephine Hughes.
What we’re looking at today is that gap in your schedule, often just before Christmas. Inquiries can slow down, so I thought I’d record an episode before we hit December so that you can do some work to get some more clients in.
If you’ve got gaps in your calendar at the moment, use those gaps to do some tweaks in your marketing. If you normally have, say, a morning where you would see clients, why not use that time to do a quick audit of your marketing?
Take some notes from this episode and go through these three key areas that I’m going to tell you about today. And hopefully you might be in the same position as Sarah, who implemented some of the ideas that I shared with her.
So what I’m suggesting you do today is a little marketing audit of three key areas. And the first one that I’m going to talk about is your directory profile. Directory profiles are a really great, great way for clients to find you.
If people do a search for counsellors near me or counsellors in a particular location, they’ll often hit the first page of Google and they will see adverts for the counselling directory or Psychology Today.
Or it may be that they’ve been reading about finding a counsellor and they’ve been recommended to go to somewhere like the BACP website and find a counsellor there. So a lot of people who are already looking for a counsellor will be hitting the directories.
But as we know, directories can be quite overwhelming for clients because there are so many counsellors on there and sometimes it feels like you’re looking for a needle in a haystack. How on earth do you actually pick out one of these lovely looking people and get in touch with them?
So let’s have a little think about that and how you can make your directory profile stand out to somebody who’s already looking for a counsellor and needs to find someone. I had a conversation with a previous client of mine recently. This is a counsellor who’d worked with me to update her directory profile.
And her story was that she’d had an inquiry recently from a client who. Who’d read her online directory profile a couple of months before and gone away and not been ready at that point to book in.
But when she came back to the counselling directory, she remembered my client’s directory profile and she spent ages looking through pages and pages and pages of counsellors because this particular profile had stood out to her. And when she found this counsellor, she then contacted her straight away. That is the power of a good profile.
You make yourself memorable to potential clients so that even if they go away, they can still find you when they come back. And I’ve definitely had this happen to me. I’ve had a client who said to me, well, I saw your profile about a year ago, but I wasn’t ready then.
So a good profile not only can help you get clients now, but it can also help you get clients in the future.
But one of the things that can really help you to stand out to clients is your headline, those first few sentences that you say, or the search paragraph in the cancelling directory. It’s really important to get this part of your profile right because what it does is it invites people to click through and read more about you.
So this is vital to get right, and it means being specific about the sort of people that you help. Recently I was looking for a counsellor for a child.
It’s somebody who’s an autistic child and I knew that there would be counsellors out there in my local area. So I know there’s counsellors who do work with autistic children of a primary school age.
So I was quite specific in what I was looking for, counselling for primary school age children who are autistic. And you know what? I couldn’t find anybody who told me that that was what they did. And it made it so difficult to actually find anyone.
In fact, because I’m a counsellor myself and I’m in a CPD and referrals WhatsApp group, I was able to find someone through that group because I knew people in there. But imagine if I’d been a mother who was desperately looking for a counsellor for my autistic child.
It just wasn’t stated in any of the introductory paragraphs or first few sentences of people’s profiles. And I think that means that people think there aren’t counsellors out there who can help me. And it isn’t that at all, is it?
It’s just there’s counsellors out there who aren’t communicating what they do to people. So one of the first things I’d like you to do is audit those first few sentences or the search paragraph of your profile. Does it speak to people?
Will it tell them what you actually do? Recently in therapy growth group, I’ve run my make youe Profile Work Intensive Implementation week.
And one of my clients came into the therapy growth group and said, I thought one of you was kidding me because I’ve had my first inquiry. And it’s because she’s got a very clear first paragraph.
This person that got in touch with her was exactly the type of client that she liked to work with.
And then it’s such a wonderful thing because it means that the clients can find the counselors who really suit them and the counselors get their ideal clients. So please do have a look at your first few sentences and ask yourself, will this speak to the sort of clients that I want to work with?
Have I made it clear about the type of work that I’m doing?
The next thing I suggest you check about your directory entry is whether or not it’s got keywords that might apply to the problems that people are going through at this time. So we’re not quite at the festive period yet, but it’s coming up quite rapidly.
And that means there’s going to be people out there who are feeling dreadful about it. So they are going to be dreading those family dynamics. They’re going to be thinking to themselves, how am I going to cope with people?
Because I’ve got a very recent bereavement, what am I going to do with all this jollity? And there are particular types of people who will find the festive period quite difficult.
Have you got keywords in your profile that will speak to their specific problems at the moment? So it might be something along the lines of difficult family relationships.
So try and think of keywords that your potential clients would be looking and searching for at this moment in time and pop those into your profile.
Then, once you’ve had a look at your headline, had a look for your keywords, it would be a really great idea if you could do a little look at your profile where you ask yourself, does this speak to people? Does each sentence need to be there? Am I making my sentences too long and complicated?
Because often you’ll be trying to fit a lot in and you’re trying to say a lot, but sometimes that makes them a little bit too complicated. Are my sentences really impactful do they all need to be there?
So check out your profile and it might even be a good idea to ask someone else to look at it as well and get friends maybe who aren’t counsellors to have a look at it and to tell you if it makes sense to them. Because often we do fill our profiles with our professional language without even realizing.
But if you can get someone who’s a non counsellor to have a look at it, they may be able to give you some useful feedback as to whether or not it’s got too much jargon in it.
So go through your directory profile, check your headlines out, check your keywords, check all your sentences need to be there and are clear and impactful and maybe get someone to take a look at it for you.
Now, within my therapy growth group, I’ve got a tremendous amount of help for you if you are in the process of upgrading your directory profile or perhaps if you’re starting out and don’t know how to write it.
So I’ve got a whole set of trainings on how to find your niche and how to actually write your profile with some templates as well to help you get through the process. Let’s move on now to the second area I think would be really helpful for you to have a look at.
And this is something that can sit there on our backs and you’re thinking, I really need to sort this out. I haven’t had time to sort it out. This is a really big job and that’s your website.
So if you’re somebody who created a website when you first set up in private practice, you may not have had a look at it recently and it maybe feels like a really big job to do. And so you keep putting it off. So let’s see if we can just break it down and give you some simple actions that you could do just in a morning.
And again, I’m going to give you three different things to take a look at with regard to your website. So the first thing I’m going to suggest you have a look at with regards to your website is your personal bio. So this would be your About Me section.
How have you done it? We often are tempted to put a list of our qualifications because perhaps we don’t feel we’re good enough.
We want to prove to people that actually we really are. So we tend to bamboozle people by listing our qualifications first.
But actually it’s really important, important in your About Me section to think it’s actually not about me, it’s actually about the client. And if that sounds a bit counterintuitive, I’ll try and explain it.
So whenever you’re doing anything on your website, you want to be thinking about who’s going to be reading it and the purpose of why it’s there. So a client is going to be reading your About Me to see whether or not you can help them.
And qualifications are really useful because they show clients that you are actually a bona fide therapist. But people aren’t really interested in reading a list of qualifications and CPD that you’ve attended.
What they’re really interested in is whether or not you can help them.
So to show clients that you’re able to help them, you want to use the About Me to highlight aspects of yourself that might really apply to their problems. And it can help you to stand out from other therapists if you include a bit of your personality in there.
You don’t necessarily have to go into personal details unless there’s something that you feel happy to tell people about. But it’s things like you could say what you enjoy about working with your clients.
So if there’s a particular aspect of work that you like to do, you could talk about that. You could talk about your experience with that work. For example, say you like working with bereavement.
You could highlight the particular areas of your experience where you’ve worked with bereaved people because this lends what we call authority to your profile, to your bio, and it helps people to understand that actually you can really help them. So bring some of your personality into your bio. Talk about what lights you up about working with people.
And if you want, if you’re prepared to do it and it feels okay, you could self disclose something about your own history, as long as it’s not a long piece that talks all about your personal experience without making it relevant to the client. The number one thing here in your About Me is to make it very relevant to your clients concerns.
So that’s the first thing that I suggest you take a look at with your website. Have a look at the bio, see if it will speak to clients and show them why you’re the right person to work with them.
And please don’t feel that you can’t put your qualifications in there, but I’ve popped them at the bottom rather than having them as the first thing the client sees. Now the second thing that I think is really important for you to look at with your website is are your offerings clear?
Is it clear what you actually do? It’s easy to make the assumption that everybody knows how counselling works, but people may not be aware of how counselling works or what to expect.
And I think it’s really important for you to tell clients in a little bit more detail about what they can expect from counselling. And this goes beyond the frequently asked questions, such as how often do I come for counseling? Or how long can I expect to stay?
How long is a course of counselling? It’s actually much more about what they can expect to get out of counselling, the ways that you might work with them.
And I don’t mean that you say I work in an integrative way. And this means that I would use some TA and some inner child work and some internal family systems work.
That’s not what I’m talking about because again, that’s just gobbledygook to your client. It would be talking about how you would help them process the issues that they’re coming with.
So you might talk about how you’d help them to explore the issues, what exploring the issues does, how that helps to give them a different perspective, and then crucially, when that’s happened, when that process takes place, what they can expect counselling to give them.
Because people are expected to invest quite a lot of money in counselling and people come with a particular problem and they would really love to have that problem solved. So I think it’s very important when you’re talking about what you do that you show them the clear benefits of how you can help them.
And finally, have you got a clear call to action? Do you tell people what to do next? Are there places on your website, for example, buttons that say contact me.
If you write something, for example, in your about me or in your services section that says please contact me and we’ll arrange a free introductory call. Make sure that you actually do include a clear call to action on your website.
And again, in therapy growth group, I have got lots of resources to help you with your website. I’ve got a whole training on how to write your About Me page, for example.
I’ve also got some specialist training on working on your search engine optimization and also a whole course on learning how to blog because that helps to bring people to your website as well. Let’s move on now to think about the third area that you can audit.
And this is if you’ve got a social media presence, have you taken a look recently at your social media bios? So this would be where you tell people a little bit more about yourself. So take a look and see if that’s up to date.
For example, have you got a link to your website in there? You don’t necessarily have to link to your website homepage.
It might be that you’ve got a really relevant piece of work there that you would like to link people to. So if you’ve written a blog recently on coping in the pre festive period, you could put a link in there.
So double check your bio, check that it’s got things like your location. So if you’re somebody who sees people face to face, it really is worth having where you work in your location.
So this would be not only maybe the address, you don’t necessarily have to give that out, but certainly keywords about your location, your town for example.
So you’re a counsellor working in and then name your town because the bio is searchable and if people are looking for counsellor working in X town, they may well find you that way.
Make sure your bio includes the sorts of issues that you work with as well, so that people who are searching can easily see the sorts of things that you work with. And last but not least, in terms of your bio, make sure that you’ve got a photo of you available.
It really does help to have photos of yourself available on your website and your social media and your directory entry. And if you’d like to know a little bit more about photos, you’ll find a lot of photo tips to help you get noticed.
In episode 22, it’s called Directory Profiles Photo Tips to Get Noticed. So do listen to that if you haven’t heard it already, because it will really help you with finding a good photograph of yourself.
Now the second thing you can do with regard to your social media is to think about the sorts of things that people are interested in at the moment, to think about the sorts of problems that your clients will be facing at this time of year.
So as I’ve said, it could be things like coping with bereavement, or it could be coping if you haven’t got children, it could be coping if you have a difficult family relationship.
So think about how you could do posts around those sorts of subjects in order to help people and to let them know that these are things that you work with. And if you’d like to get some more ideas for pre Christmas content, I covered this in episode 38, which is the social media toolkit for introverts.
But if you go through to the end of that episode, you’ll find some ideas for December social media posts. Now the third area is one that I think we’re not very good at as therapists and those are sales posts.
So this is where we let people know that we’ve got spaces available and we tell them about what we do.
And I know that some people who are very successful on social media do things like do just a simple post saying, I’ve just had a space become available, so if you’d like to book in, please get in touch before it goes. That can add a real sense of urgency for people.
So if they’ve been following you for a while and they are thinking about getting in touch with you, something like that, which is, you know, I’ve got a space available, please get in touch. That actually might encourage them to get in touch. But we so rarely actually tell people that we are available for work.
So make sure that if you’ve got spaces that you are regularly telling people that you’ve got spaces. And you could set this up as a recurring post, for example, that you post every couple of weeks just so people know that actually you are available.
This is what you do. And you can tell people how much a session would be. You could tell them about how they get in touch with you.
So these are posts that let people know that you’re available and how to get in touch with you and what to expect. So make sure that you’re including these in your social media feed over the next few weeks.
In Therapy Growth Group, I give ideas for every day of the month.
So if you’re stuck for social media posts, I can help you make your social media very topical and apply to your clients and the particular areas that you work in.
So that’s something that I’ve got available in Therapy growth group along with a lot of other training on how to use your social media pages effectively so that you can reach clients in this way. So let’s recap what I’ve talked about. So, number one, take a look at your directory profile. Does your headline work?
Does it speak to the problems that your clients are going to be looking for? Are all your sentences clear and impactful?
Have you got keywords in there that will apply to the sorts of problems that they’re experiencing right now as we approach the festive period? Number two, take a look at your website About Me page and your services page. Does your personality shine through in your About Me page?
Have you made it relevant to your clients concerns? Are you making it clear what counselling is all about and how you help people?
And do you have a clear call to action that invites people to get in touch and then the third area to audit is your social media presence. Have you got a bio that includes things like your location, your links to your website, information about the types of problems that you deal with?
Check that out. Make sure that you’re publishing posts at the moment that speak to the types of problems that people are facing as we approach the festive period.
And last but not least, remember to do some sales posts as well. Now, these ideas can actually have quite a big impact on your client numbers and they don’t have to take a lot of time.
You could probably do most of them in a morning. So put some time aside, work on these three areas and keep in mind that clients are looking for someone they can connect with.
So be you share what really matters to you in terms of the work that you do and that will help you to connect with potential clients. If you’d like some more in depth support, have you thought about joining Therapy Growth Group?
I’ve got a dedicated group that’s especially for therapists who are looking for more clients and I support them in a variety of ways.
We’ve got some great information and training resources and I also do coaching calls with the group so that you’re able to bring the problems that you’re experiencing at the moment and receive support and ideas not only from me, but from other therapists who are also seeking to market themselves. And we share ideas and what’s working for each of us. And I do give quite a lot of guidance as well. It’s a brilliant group.
There’s lots of peer support, including peer supervision, and if that’s of interest to you, I do have a special Black Friday offer that’s coming up. It’ll kick off on Friday 22nd November and run through to the 25th. So keep an eye out for that.
If you’re on my email list, you will receive some information about it. If you’re not on my email list, why not download one of my resources that are listed in the show Notes?
Because there’s things there that can really help you get more clients. So I hope that’s helpful to you.
I hope that you’re able to implement these ideas and that as a result you see the same number of clients coming in as my follower Sara who got eight clients in a fortnight. The clients are out there and it’s just a case of communicating with them that you’re the person for them. 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.