Since Al Gore extolled the virtues of the internet, more and more businesses have realized the potential that the World Wide Web can offer. The internet has reached more clients, customers, and businesses far better and faster than average conventional media can. Realizing this powerful potential, multinational companies to small mom & pop businesses have set up websites of their own to better communicate with their audience and reach potential markets and buyers.
How has the healthcare industry fared in all this hype? When it comes to mental health, major medical institutions such as hospitals and research centers have their own online gateway but many mental health practitioners in private practice have not transitioned to the internet.
There are many benefits for private practice psychotherapists to have their own website. Private practice marketing jumps leaps and bounds just by introducing your practice through a website. Mental health practitioners from psychiatrists, to marriage and family therapists to licensed professional counsel to psychiatrists can extend their reach beyond beyond word of mouth referrals and offline advertising.
First of all, to establish an online presence you must create marketing strategies. For therapists, even making small changes can pay dividends. One simple step is to put your web address on small scale print advertisement such as business cards, brochures and flyers. Using the internet to contact a therapist is fast becoming routine.
The website can provide several more marketing strategies for therapists. One of these strategies is reaching out to newer markets such as netizens. This new demographic is specific to the internet. Netizens are people who use the internet to do everything from dating, business meetings, blogging, playing online games and shopping.
There are many ways for netizens to know about your website-through RSS feeds, bookmarking, online journals and magazines as well as search engine optimization (SEO). Writing keyword specific articles on topics related to your work and the clients that you want to attract, should be an essential part of your marketing strategy. Submitting articles to the above mentioned events will reach neitzens and often search engines very quickly.
The possibilities of marketing your private practice on the Internet are as vast as the World Wide Web itself. If you have an entrepreneurial spirit or do not mind putting in good old fashioned sweat equity you can really go far on your own. However, if the prospect overwhelms you, there are marketing coaches for therapists who can create marketing strategies specifically designed for your private practice.
