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Posted on 10/27/2021

8 Steps to Online Marketing

8 Steps to Online Marketing

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Create an Online Presence

Step 1: Create a website

Your website is the center of your online presence and is the only online “profile” that you completely control. Creating social media profiles and joining online registries are an important part of a marketing strategy, but any social platform can change their algorithms tomorrow. But your website is under your complete control. 

Creating a website can be overwhelming, but the good news: you don’t need to be an expert and you don’t need to learn how to code to create a high-quality website. There are many options for building a website, but the 3 primary options are:

  • DIY Build with WordPress or Squarespace
  • Use a Therapy specific company (e.g. TherapySites) 
  • Hire a Web Design Company

Step 2: Create Social Media Profiles

Social Media can be a thorn in the side for many practitioners and many feel they don’t have the time for it. You don’t need to be posting 4 times a day on each social platform, but you should at least have a complete and updated profile on the primary platforms (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.). 

Step 3: Join Online Registries 

Online registries (e.g. NRMFT & Psychology Today) are a great way to steadily get new clients. These registries often show up in Google when people are searching for therapists in their area. These profiles are often the first time a potential client will learn about you, so be sure to fill out your profiles with as much detail as possible. Here’s an article we wrote on how you can optimize your NRMFT Profile. 

 Use the Code FREEMONTHFT to Join our Registry with a 30-Day Free Trial

 

Show Up in Google

Step 4: Optimize Your Website for Google (aka SEO)

While having a website is a good start, a website does no good if nobody is finding it. Search Engine Optimization (aka SEO) is how you can get people to find your website via Google. SEO is a complex industry where you can spend years learning about. But just because it’s complex, doesn’t mean it needs to scare you. There are still some easy things you can do to make sure your website has the basics of SEO down. 

Step 5: Create and Optimize Your Google My Business Profile

A Google My Business (GMB) profile is one of the easiest ways to get traction on Google when you’re getting started out. GMB profiles are what show up in the Maps section of Google. They only show up for local searches so if someone in your area searches for “therapist near me” your GMB is profile is an easy way to get in front of them. 

 

Expand Your Reach

Step 6: Start blogging

Blogging can be a great way to help out your audience while also improving the SEO for your website. What should you blog about? Focus on the questions you get asked the most and what you enjoy talking and writing about most. Don’t like to write? You can hire freelance writers to contribute to your blog but beware of hiring cheap writers that don’t create good work.

Step 7: Consistently post on social media

Earlier we mentioned that you should create social media profiles. Focus on one social media platform and regularly post there (e.g. once a week). Which platform should you post on? There isn’t a right answer. We recommend starting with the platform that you find the easiest and where you enjoy posting the most. The purpose of social media is to organically connect with your audience and to start the process of creating a relationship. So if you enjoy posting and interacting with your audience, that’ll make it much easier to build those relationships. 

Step 8: Paid Advertising (Google & Facebook)

While SEO is a great long-term strategy that can get your website to show up in Google, it can also take a while to see results. Paid advertising in Google is a way to immediately show at the top of Google. Google typically charges anywhere from $2 - $15 every time someone clicks on your website, so you’ll need a throughout strategy to your ad campaigns so your not wasting your money. But if done correctly, paid ads are the fastest & easiest way to get in front of your audience. 

 

Where to Start?

If you’re looking at this list and getting overwhelmed, don’t worry. You don’t need to get all of these marketing strategies set up overnight. 

Start with the basics (website, social media, online registries) and go from there. 

This is the start of a series of marketing articles that we will be posting to the NRMFT article. We’ll be going over how to get started with SEO, Google Ads, and much more.