Your Clients Judge Your Site on Content -- Shouldn't You? A Trip Down Memory Lane
Your friend is chewing a piece of Juicy Fruit gum. You can smell the sweetness as she chomps. Your mouth begins to water. She reaches in her bag, pulls out another piece and says, "You want one?" You can already taste the fruity flavors as you imagine your teeth sinking into the powder-covered softness. You say, "Yes! Thanks," and reach for it, but the minute that your fingers grasp the stick of gum, you realize you've been duped. It is nothing but an empty shell, the foil refolded and stuffed into the yellow sleeve to appear solid and real. Your friend laughs, "Ha! I fooled you!"
Have you had this experience before? Maybe with a sibling, if not with a friend? Most of us experienced it in elementary school and have long since forgotten it.
But, what if I told you that you're playing this trick on your potential clients everyday? If your website is lacking in content, you are doing exactly that.
What Do We Mean by Content, Anyway?
When potential clients search for help with their problems on the internet, they are looking for information. Odds are high that they are not simply looking for the name of a therapist. No. They're actually looking to get answers to the following questions:
* Will someone out there know what I'm going through? * Even if I find someone who knows about it, will I feel comfortable with him or her? * What is it, exactly, that is making me feel pain? * How can I deal with this problem? * How have others dealt with this problem? * Do I really need therapy? Isn't that for crazy people? * What is it like to go to therapy? * Is there someone who is an expert in this issue?
Why Do You Need Quality Content?
In order for potential clients to feel safe enough to call you, they need to get their questions answered. Making the decision to call a therapist is one of the scariest things that people can do. You can take a lot of fear out of this process for your potential clients by giving them everything they need to answer the above questions.
How Do You Create Quality Content?
Here are some tips for making sure you provide everything your potential clients needs in order to make that call.
Grab Your Reader's Attention
Research continues to show that you have only a few seconds to grab your reader's attention before they click away. Do you realize how fast that time goes by? For this reason, your home page must be highly targeted to the exact person you are addressing and must speak directly to their problem. From the very beginning, you want your site visitor to think, "Whoa, that person is talking to me! He/she really gets me.
Whatever you do, don't have your home page start with:
"My mission is to assist those in need by providing a safe and caring environment in which to explore their emotional selves and to develop new ..."
First of all, it is verrrryyyyy boring! Secondly, it's about YOU, not about your reader!
Make it about them! If you are successful at pulling your reader in, they will gladly stay to see what else you have to say.
Provide Great Information
On your home page, as well as on other pages, educate your client. Discuss the client's problem from various angles. If you are talking to parents of troubled teens, then address the emotional turmoil that the parents are most likely feeling.
On a different page, include an article about the angst that the teen most likely feels, too.
Perhaps elsewhere you can address the effect of this family stress on younger children. Provide some guidance for parents as to how to deal with this issue.
The more information you provide, the more credibility you will earn. And your readers will keep coming back if you continue to add helpful and interesting articles.
Last, but very important: Quality information will help your reader feel less stigmatized. If they can read about what is going on for them, they'll feel as if they aren't the only ones experiencing it.
Show Your Personality
If you can let your readers know that you get them, and then provide them with great information, they'll be fairly confident that you can actually help them! The next thing you want to do is to make them feel comfortable with you. Heck - let's get real - you want them to like you! This requires that you show yourself.
On your About Me page, share a little bit about yourself. Tell them why you like being a therapist. Share something meaningful about your life. Let them get a feel for you as a person, not just your credentials.
Will Content Really Help?
I recently did a random search for a therapist. I Googled "Marriage Counseling Tulsa." Why I picked Tulsa, I can't say : ). The search engine reported 728,000 results! At first blush, that might look like a lot of competition.
Take a Closer LookOn the first page, of course, there were sponsored ads, but most of them were cheesy.
Marriage Saving Secrets
Revealed Here. Start Now! www.SaveTheMarriage.com
Then, there were the organic (or REAL) search results. Unfortunately, most of them were severely lacking, as well. Amongst the directory listings and other distractions, there appeared ONE LONE therapist who'd made it to the first page. What did this guy have to do to end up at the top of the heap of 728,000 listings?
This virtuoso had done just a little bit of work in content creation. Trust me - what he wrote was NOT rocket science. It wouldn't have razzle-dazzled you at all. But it was content that would be valuable to someone looking for marriage counseling in Tulsa.
But My City is More Competitive Than Tulsa!
That may be true. But, go ahead and look at the listings that rank in the top 3 pages in your city. My guess is that very few of them really provide what your potential clients seek to find.
It's Really Quite SimpleIf you're offering Juicy Fruit gum, then deliver Juicy Fruit gum. Tell your potential clients all they need to know in order to trust that you're the real thing.
If you do, your phone will start ringing with potential clients, hungry for your services.
Becky DeGrossa is behind New Generation Practices, and an expert at bringing online and offline marketing strategies to the mental health industry. If you’re passionate about creating a successful private practice, subscribe to the free weekly newsletter at www.newgenerationpractices.com.
