Does Every Therapy Private Practice Need A Website?
To determine if you need a website, let’s start with getting really clear on what having a website could accomplish for you and see if it’s a good fit.
It’s easy to get caught up in the things you are “supposed to do” in your private practice marketing. And websites are for sure a big “supposed to do.”
Yet, you may not actually need a website.
To determine if you need a website, let’s start with getting really clear on what having a website could accomplish for you and see if it’s a good fit.
Websites are Marketing Tools. And Just Like Other Tools, It’s Best to Fit the Right Tool To The Right Job.
The answer to, “Do I need a saw?” is entirely dependent on if you need to saw something. Similarly the answer to the question of, “Do I need a website?” is dependent on if you need the benefits of having a website.
So what can a website accomplish for you? What exactly does a website even do? What purpose does it serve?
Knowing very clearly what a website can do will help you discover if having a website is in alignment with your marketing and business needs. Let’s explore the needs that a website can fulfill so you can answer for yourself if you need a therapy website.
Do the following 6 needs align with your needs?
1. I Need To Get Found By Potential Clients That Are Searching Online
Most clients will google you before reaching out to you. Your website is the opportunity to make a good first impression and provide them with information about who you are, where you’re located, what you care about, and more.
Websites also help you look credible. When your entire online identity is a single psychology today directory listing, you may come across as less invested or serious about your practice to those who are searching online for a therapist.
A website can start building a relationship with website visitors. Without a website, that potential is not there and may need to be built through other marketing channels.
2. I Need To Create A Place Where People Can Emotionally Connect With Me
Unlike directory listings and social media profiles, you own and manage your website. You get to decide what it looks and feels like, and therefore get to decide the emotional experience that your visitor has.
If you are only online on other spaces, the opportunity for establishing that emotional connection is partly lost. Psychology Today, and other online profiles, are designed for searchers to efficiently find a lot of information in a very compact space. All the profiles look basically the same and are not able to be personalized to you or who you serve.
On your website, you can design how you connect with website visitors on a much more impactful level. Just like you decorated your office to make it comfortable and welcoming, you can take that same care with your website.
3. I Need To Incorporate Helping and Generosity Into My Marketing Strategy
A website is the perfect digital space for helpful and generous content that you can create and publish all year long.
Content marketing includes blogging, videos, email marketing, and more. For most therapists, creating helpful, free content is a good fit for them as helpers.
By providing help through your website’s content, you pull people towards you, where they naturally want to be. You can align your website’s content with your potential client’s pain points, being there for them with answers to their questions, things that they are curious about, or solutions that they can apply in their life.
Your own website is a necessity for this style of marketing. It cannot be done anywhere else to the same effect. You can offer your website visitors much more information on your website than you could through any other marketing medium.
4. I Need The Ability To Build Relationships Over Time
A website is also a way to integrate your marketing across both community-level marketing and digital marketing.
In many cases, potential clients or referral sources won’t want to become a client or a referral source just by finding your brochure in an office somewhere. They may need to have more points of contact with you. If you are present online, it allows the relationship to be built over time.
Any day of the week and at any time of the day, potential clients referral sources can visit and revisit your website to find out more about your solutions and how you care.
5. I Need To Grow My Services And My Reach
If you plan on expanding into one-to-many services like groups, workshops, or retreats or if you plan on expanding to another income stream like books or products, you will benefit from having a website (as well as growing an email list on that website).
Websites allow you to grow your reach beyond just your local market.
A website means having one central, 24/7 accessible place that clients and customers have to find out about all that you offer. If your offer would benefit from having a national or even global market, then a website is a way to get that reach.
6. I Need To Serve The Needs Of My Current Clients
Websites are marketing tools that help you reach potential clients and referral sources but they are also for assisting current clients with information. Information such as:
- Your contact information
- Access link to a client portal – pay or schedule online
- Information about your hours and location
- Access to forms
- Information about new services
- FAQs
- Helpful resources that you’d like to grant your client’s access to like downloadable media, pdfs, etc
A website allows clients the ability to get this information without calling or emailing you.
Websites are a way to keep your clients informed about updates to your services as well. Unlike printed marketing materials like cards or brochures, websites will grow as you grow being updated as you update your practice.
Did Any Of These Needs Ring True For You?
Here they are again at a glance:
- I Need To Get Found By Potential Clients That Are Searching Online
- I Need To Create A Place Where People Can Emotionally Connect With Me
- I Need To Incorporate Helping and Generosity Into My Marketing Strategy
- I Need The Ability To Build Relationships Over Time
- I Need To Grow My Services And My Reach
- I Need To Serve The Needs Of My Current Clients
If these needs resonate with what you envision yourself doing in your marketing, you may need a website.
So Who Doesn’t Need A Website?
The Overbooked Therapist
A therapist that is fully booked and so completely overwhelmed with inquiries that they have a wait list may not need a website.
If they have too many inquiries as it is, increasing their visibility by marketing online with a website would just make them more visible.
The overbooked therapist might be better off investing into other aspects of their business, like growing into a group practice or hiring an assistant for administrative tasks.
The Not-Interested-In-Online-Marketing Therapist
Online marketing isn’t the best-fit marketing approach for everyone. With hundreds of ways out there to market a private practice, if the thought of marketing yourself online doesn’t excite and energize you, hold off on investing your time and money into it.
Instead, choose to do the marketing activities that excite you! Marketing activities that can be done with enthusiasm are more likely to get done and to get done well. Well done and done marketing will have the most impact.
Many Therapy Practices Will Benefit From Having A Website
Most therapy practices will benefit from having even a simple website but if you are already overwhelmed with clients or really not feeling it, a website might not be the best match for you at this time.
Remember: the internet is not going away.
We all are increasingly using the internet for communication and connection. If you start building up your online presence now or later, the internet will be there for you in either case.
Examining what exactly a website can do should help you determine if you need a website for your therapy practice.
Websites can help you get found, be there emotionally, provide helpful content, build relationships, grow a global audience, and serve your current clients with information too.
But there are no “must do”s in marketing. Are you excited about the idea of having a website? Does having a website align with the marketing tasks that you envision yourself dedicating time to?
Would love to know what you think! Is having a website in your near future? Why or why not? Reach out anytime.