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When therapists talk about how to make their practices more successful, the first thing they want to know is how to get more clients and referrals.
Good question, right? The best answer about how to get the word out about you, your practice, and your work so you can get more paying clients, is to make sure your practice and contact information is clear and readily accessible to potential clients, colleagues, and referral sources whenever they need it. It’s a well-known fact that prospective clients and referral sources will only contact you if they know what your services are and they can easily locate your phone number to call or text to you—or your email or social media page to write or message you. Pre-Covid, when professionals did a lot of face-to-face networking, business cards usually did the job of getting a therapist’s name, services, and contact information in front of people. Online, websites, directory listings, and social media pages did the heavy lifting of providing the therapist’s contact details so people could connect with them and make an appointment. With so many professional events happening virtually now, it’s rare for therapists to exchange business cards, flyers, and practice swag—pens, note pads, Post-its—so a clinician’s contact details aren’t always close at hand. Yes, the information is still online for people to look up with Google or another search engine but that takes another few clicks and more time. People are in a hurry and impatient these days. Think about how many times someone has emailed you or you read an email and wanted to contact the person by phone or text or look at their website or social media and none of that information was available, sometimes not even their last name because their email address didn’t include their full name either. Did you do a search or did you skip it? Most people skip it so these referrals and opportunities are lost. What can a therapist do today to get their practice information and contact details out and in front of everyone’s eyes so their services are always top of mind and people can easily access the details whenever they have a question, want to connect, send a referral, talk to you about an opportunity or schedule a session? Here’s where email signatures shine bright today. Email signatures are the savvy clinician’s new secret weapon for convenient online professional networking and practice marketing. Think about it. How many emails are you sending and receiving these days? Each person you write or reply to professionally or in your community has the power to become a referral source or a client—but only if they have the right information about your practice and how to contact you. Today, the quickest, easiest, and most cost-effective way to disseminate your contact information, let people know about your work, and fill your practice, is to make the most of your email signature. Email signatures are the new business cards. They’re one of the best ways to present you, your services, and your contact information so it’s available whenever needed. A thoughtfully crafted email signature is a small but powerful marketing tool that makes it easy for people to know more about you and what you offer—and to contact you or refer someone to you. It’s a recurring thing that recipients of your emails see over and over again and that develops trust and recognition. What contact info needs to be in an email signature so that prospective clients and potential referral sources can contact you or refer someone to you? Email signatures should include all the ways there are to contact you professionally. Here are some examples. The Basic Email Signature: Include each of these.
The More Complex Email Signature: All the above 1-6 plus any of these that your ideal clients, colleagues, and referral sources use and make it easy for them to contact you.
As you can see from the lists above, the information on your email signature can take many different forms. Depending on your target audience and preferred clients, you can also list new services, special offerings, free consultations, event information, specific blog content, awards, professional association positions, etc. Anything that delivers value to colleagues, prospective clients and referral sources, other professionals, community members, and yes, even friends, neighbors, and relatives, can be embodied in an email signature. It is absolutely amazing how much value can be put into such a few lines at the end of an email. Crafted with your client, services, and profession in mind, your email signature holds the power to create a positive, professional image, and reinforce and extend your branding and marketing efforts. An added bonus is that you don’t have to hire a graphic designer, an app developer or a coder to put together your email signature and add it to your email footer. Additionally, there are plenty of excellent templates, generators, and editors to explore, many which are free. Have some fun exploring other clinician’s email signatures and then crafting your own. Lynne Azpeitia, LMFT, AAMFT Approved Supervisor, is in private practice in Santa Monica where she works with Couples and Gifted, Talented, and Creative Adults across the lifespan. Lynne’s been doing business and clinical coaching with mental health professionals for more than 15 years, helping professionals develop even more successful careers and practices. To learn more about her in-person and online services, workshops or monthly no-cost Online Networking & Practice Development Lunch visit www.Gifted-Adults.com or www.LAPracticeDevelopment.com.
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The beginning of the year is always the time for resolutions. This year everywhere I go money is on is on therapist’s minds and in their New Year’s Resolutions. The top resolutions mental health professionals tell me they’re making this year are about money—mainly increasing their income so it covers the rising costs they’re facing in their practice and at home. Here are five tips for increasing your practice income. To make it interesting, these tips are selected from some of the articles I’ve been recommending to the therapists I’ve been doing practice coaching with. I’ve included links to the articles they’re from. Tip 1: How to Set Your Fee to Make Your Private Practice Profitable and Sustainable Overall, to know how to set your fees you need to be able to look at the big picture and what you need to cover your expenses and make a profit. Do your research. Find out what your actual expenses will be. Also keep in mind where you need to be financially. Then set your fees based on the cost of doing business, what the market will bear along with knowing what you need to make in order to be profitable and stay in practice. By doing these things, you can make your private practice as a counselor or therapist successful, profitable and sustainable over time. Gordon Brewer Article: Fees and Knowing What to Charge Tip 2: The Mistake Therapists Make When They Set Their Hourly Rate There is a mistake I see so many early career therapists make when they set their hourly rate in private practice: undercharging. In reality, here’s what actually happens with this strategy: when potential clients see that you charge much less than the other local therapists, they take it as a sign that you’re having trouble getting business. Most people then make the further assumption that you must not be a very good therapist if you’re unable to fill up your practice. Marie Fang Article: Set Your Hourly Rate in Psychotherapy Private Practice Tip 3: When to Offer Sliding Scale In a self-pay practice, sliding scales are a great way to help people who can’t afford your full fees. However, if you always offer it most prospective clients will take you up on it even if they don’t need one. In order to rectify this problem, I recommend only offering your scale when a client clearly demonstrates need. Always explore all of their potential resources with them before jumping to the conclusion they need a sliding scale. The client will take the easiest solution, however, there may be a mutually beneficial solution that takes a little exploration in order to get there. Keith Kurlander Article: 5 Ways to Earning More Money With Sliding Scales Tip 4: How to Set Private Practice Fees So Your Fee Allows . . . How to set private practice fees as a social worker, therapist, psychologist, or counselor means looking at what you need to earn to thrive. I teach my clients to look at what is sustainable, aligned, and values-based for them. That means making sure your private practice fee can cover the following things. Ask yourself, does my fee allow me to . . .
Consider how much money you need to be making annually to account for the above questions, then reverse-engineer your way there. Lindsay Bryan-Podvin Article: How To Set Fees In Private Practice Tip 5: Missed Session Fees In my consultations with therapists nationwide, we strategize on how to keep more of their hard-earned money—without working harder. While there are many factors we can’t control, I am struck by how often these therapists are leaving thousands of dollars on the table each year due to one thing they can control: their cancellation policy. It’s true, insurance generally won’t cover missed/late-cancelled sessions, and shouldn’t be billed for them. EAPs also don’t usually allow you to charge for a no-show, or it may count as one session (some EAPs will pay for part or all of the first no-show—check your contract). However, if you are in-network with the client’s insurance, you can usually charge the client for a missed or late-cancelled session. You may only charge your insurance session rate, and you must have gotten the client to sign your cancellation policy in advance. Out-of-network therapists can charge clients up to their full fee. So why aren’t we charging clients regularly for missed sessions? Barbara Griswold Article: Missed Sessions: Being Nice Can Cost You Thousands Hope you enjoyed the food for thought in these 5 tips for increasing your income—and found some inspiration and support for ways to increase your income in this next year. Lynne Azpeitia, LMFT, AAMFT Approved Supervisor, is in private practice in Santa Monica where she works with Couples and Gifted, Talented, and Creative Adults across the lifespan. Lynne’s been doing business and clinical coaching with mental health professionals for more than 15 years, helping professionals develop even more successful careers and practices. To learn more about her in-person and online services, workshops or monthly no-cost Online Networking & Practice Development Lunch visit www.Gifted-Adults.com or www.LAPracticeDevelopment.com. When therapists talk about how to make their practices more successful, the first thing they want to know is how to get more clients and referrals. Good question, right?
The best answer about how to get the word out about you, your practice, and your work so you can get more paying clients, is to make sure your practice and contact information is clear and readily accessible to potential clients, colleagues, and referral sources whenever they need it. It’s a well-known fact that prospective clients and referral sources will only contact you if they know what your services are and they can easily locate your phone number to call or text you—or your email or social media page to write or message you. Pre-Covid, when professionals did a lot of face-to-face networking, business cards usually did the job of getting a therapist’s name, services, and contact information in front of people. Online, websites, directory listings, and social media pages did the heavy lifting of providing the therapist’s contact details so people could connect with them and make an appointment. With just about all professional events happening virtually now, it’s rare for therapists to exchange business cards, flyers, and practice swag—pens, note pads, Post-its—so a clinician’s contact details aren’t always close at hand. Yes, the information is still online for people to look up with Google or another search engine but that takes another few clicks and more time. People are impatient these days. Think about how many times someone has emailed you or you read an email and wanted to contact the person by phone or text or look at their website or social media and none of that information was available, sometimes not even their last name because their email address didn’t include their full name either. Did you do a search or did you skip it? Most people skip it so these referrals and opportunities are lost. What can a therapist do today to get their practice information and contact details out and in front of everyone’s eyes so their services are always top of mind and people can easily access the details whenever they have a question, want to connect, send a referral, talk to you about an opportunity or schedule a session? Here’s where email signatures shine bright today. Email signatures are the savvy clinician’s new secret weapon for convenient online professional networking and practice marketing. Think about it. How many emails are you sending and receiving these days? Each person you write or reply to professionally or in your community has the power to become a referral source or a client—but only if they have the right information about your practice and how to contact you. Today, the quickest, easiest, and most cost-effective way to disseminate your contact information, let people know about your work, and fill your practice, is to make the most of your email signature. Email signatures are the new business cards. They’re one of the best ways to present you, your services, and your contact information so it’s available whenever needed. A thoughtfully crafted email signature is a small but powerful marketing tool that makes it easy for people to know more about you and what you offer—and to contact you or refer someone to you. It’s a recurring thing that recipients of your emails see over and over again and that develops trust and recognition. What contact info needs to be in an email signature so that prospective clients and potential referral sources can contact you or refer someone to you? Email signatures should include all the ways there are to contact you professionally. Here are some examples. The Basic Email Signature: Include each of these.
The More Complex Email Signature: All the above 1-6 plus any of these that your ideal clients, colleagues, and referral sources use and make it easy for them to contact you.
Depending on your target audience and preferred clients, you can also list new services, special offerings, free consultations, event information, specific blog content, awards, professional association positions, etc. Anything that delivers value to colleagues, prospective clients and referral sources, other professionals, community members, and yes, even friends, neighbors, and relatives, can be embodied in an email signature. It is absolutely amazing how much value can be put into such a few lines at the end of an email. Crafted with your client, services, and profession in mind, your email signature holds the power to create a positive, professional image, and reinforce and extend your branding and marketing efforts. An added bonus is that you don’t have to hire a graphic designer, an app developer or a coder to put together your email signature and add it to your email footer. Additionally, there are plenty of excellent templates, generators, and editors to explore, many which are free. Have some fun exploring other clinician’s email signatures and then crafting your own. Lynne Azpeitia, LMFT, AAMFT Approved Supervisor, is in private practice in Santa Monica where she works with Couples and Gifted, Talented, and Creative Adults across the lifespan. Lynne’s been doing business and clinical coaching with mental health professionals for more than 15 years, helping professionals develop even more successful careers and practices. To learn more about her in-person and online services, workshops or monthly no-cost Online Networking & Practice Development Lunch visit www.Gifted-Adults.com or www.LAPracticeDevelopment.com. “I wish I'd thought about networking this way from the very beginning.”
Building a referral network of trusted providers to refer clients to for adjunct services has turned out to be one of the best ways a therapist can keep their practice full—and it’s a sustainable strategy. Maybe you’ll think it’s obvious advice or too good to be true but going about creating a list of people you want to refer your clients to when they can benefit from adjunctive services is how many therapists successfully market their practice, network, and receive the ongoing referrals that keep their practice full. Yes, by getting to know another provider and how you can refer to them, they in turn will get to know you, and how to refer to you. Most therapists discover this by accident after they’ve begun building a referral network of professionals they’ve specifically contacted and gotten to know for this purpose—like good nutritionists, psychiatrists, PCPs, ADD-ADHD-OCD sensitive professional organizers, mediators, massage therapists, financial stress reduction specialists, acupuncturists, etc. Usually the therapist wasn’t looking to get more referrals because their practice was already full or thriving. However, it turns out that by creating a list of people a therapist wants to refer clients to naturally creates a relationship that is reciprocal. So, once a therapist has contacted, connected with, and become familiar with other providers and their services, they often begin receiving referrals from them. This works equally well whether the contact is in person or online. It was a revelation to each of these therapists that by getting to know another provider and looking at how the therapist could refer to them, those providers, had, in turn, gotten to know about the therapist and began to refer clients to them! Each therapist was very surprised to start receiving these referrals because that wasn’t the focus or goal of making contact with the provider. Therapists who’ve discovered this secret often believe that this is the only kind of marketing therapists truly need to do—besides having a website so people can find you online. They also say things like . . . “Gathering names of doctors and specialists who my clients and I like has been the best way of connecting and networking . . . Now I realize I should have done this from my first day of private practice! . . .This is how I initially built my practice and have stayed full.” Try it and see what happens . Lynne Azpeitia, LMFT, AAMFT Approved Supervisor, is in private practice in Santa Monica where she works, online and in-person, with Couples, and Gifted, Talented, and Creative Adults.For 10+ years Lynne has helped therapists to live richer and happier lives through her private practice and career coaching, workshops, and practice consultation groups that train, support, and coach licensed and pre-licensed therapists to create and maintain a successful, thriving, clinical practice and a profitable career. Learn more about Lynne’s in-person and online coaching and psychotherapy services, workshops, and monthly no-cost Online Networking & Practice Development Lunch at LAPracticeDevelopment.com and Gifted-Adults.com. Getting the word out about your therapy practice and the services you provide is important. To be successful in private practice, you need a steady stream of clients—QUALITY referrals that are a good match for both you and your practice.
Letting people know what you do therapeutically and how you can help them, not only helps fill your practice, it helps you help more people. The more people who know about your therapy services and expertise, the easier it will be for those who need your services to find you when they need you and to get the help they need. Consider the ways you can let colleagues, prospective clients, and referral sources know about you and your services.
Spring’s here and Summer’s on its way. I bet you could use some tips, inspiration, and encouragement to get your networking and marketing going so that you can fill your practice. So, let’s get right to it!
Okay, reading time is up. Now it’s time to get out there and increase your visibility in the community so that your new clients can find you when they need you! Happy practice-filling. Lynne Azpeitia, LMFT, AAMFT Approved Supervisor, is in private practice in Santa Monica where she works with Couples and Gifted, Talented, and Creative Adults across the lifespan. Lynne’s been doing business and clinical coaching with mental health professionals for more than 15 years, helping professionals develop even more successful careers and practices. To learn more about her in-person and online services, workshops or monthly no-cost Online Networking & Practice Development Lunch visit www.Gifted-Adults.com or www.LAPracticeDevelopment.com. People looking for therapy are not going to look very hard to find you or find out more about your services. To sustain private practice and career success, online or in person, convenience is the top priority for prospective clients, referral sources, and employers—so make the following six things convenient.
1. Make it convenient for people and your community to find out about you and your services. When people listen to your introduction, go to your website, look at an ad, directory listing, email signature, business card, or social media page, make sure you make it easy for them to find out Who you are What you can do for them Whether you see people online or in person What services you offer How they can contact you When looking for a position, make it easy to find needed information on your resume. In any interaction, conversation, listing or shared practice information, make sure you have made people aware that
Since the pandemic began, many things have changed about counseling—some practices closed, others moved, some are now only telehealth. Currently these four things are what people want to know right away when they are considering you as a therapist or referring. When you make it convenient for prospective clients, referral sources, and employers to access this information right away, people have the feeling you’re helpful, responsive to their needs, and are taking care of them. This also gives people the sense that you are the best person to hire or refer to as a therapist. 2. Make it convenient for people to realize the value you provide. People want to consult with a therapist who has expertise in their specific condition, problem, challenge or issue. When that is you, make it easy for people to see that you are that therapist. Speak, write, connect, communicate, have conversations—online and in person—in a way that demonstrates your knowledge and experience, and builds trust, belief, and familiarity BUT MAKE SURE the information does not overwhelm or confuse people with technical jargon or all your credentials. Give Information—written or spoken, in print, online or in person—that responds to people’s interest and questions. Remember, the best information is tailored to people’s interest and curiosity—and connects them to you, informs them about their challenges or problems, and says, “I know what you’re going through, and I know how to help.” Your perceived value grows when your words, phrases, and presentation show that YOU have intimate knowledge, sensitivity, experience, training or certification—and you increase people’s awareness and perception of your expertise. This provides them with insight into who you are and why you are the professional they should choose for therapy or refer to or hire. 3. Make it convenient for prospective clients, referrers, and employers to contact you. Making it convenient to contact you so you have private practice and career success depends on four things:
Make sure this information is on—and easily visible and accessible—your website, directory listing, email signature, business card, Linked In, Tik Tok, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and more—depending what platform is best for you and your prospective clients, colleagues, referrers or employers. Depending on your preference and or your clientele’s, this could mean making sure your contact information includes any or all of the following: email, text, phone, dm, website form, video or audio message, etc. 4. Make it convenient for prospective clients, referrers, and employers to hear back from you. Many clients still report that therapists aren’t getting back to them. While most therapists with successful practices do return most calls, emails, and texts, many do not. It’s not a new phenomenon, however, a therapist’s practice can suffer if it becomes known they aren’t responding to calls, texts or emails from prospective clients and referrers. For sustainable practice and career success, it’s important for therapists to figure out methods for getting back to those who contact them by phone, email, and text. Here are some that therapists can use to briefly let the person know their message was received, and, if and when, there’s a time available for speaking:
This means to talk, have a text or email exchange, or make an appointment; drive and park, Uber/Lyft, or take the bus to the session. Or it can mean getting connected to you for a session by phone or through a video platform (Zoom, Doxy, VSee, Simple Practice or other EHR, etc.). Again, if it’s too complicated to make an appointment or to connect online for a session or the video or audio keeps failing, the call keeps dropping, clients are unlikely to continue therapy. When it just takes a few clicks to start or end the session, the line or feed is good, appointment times are doable, with their schedule, clients continue. 6. Make it convenient for clients to pay you for your services. Therapists today have many choices for accepting payment—debit, credit cards (Square, Stripe, Ivy, PayPal, ApplePay…), Zelle, Venmo, cash, handwritten or bank bill pay checks, and more. Which do your clients prefer? If paying for services is too many steps or cumbersome to clients, they may not book another session. Most clients prefer a very quick payment platform, this is why Zelle and Venmo are so popular. Clients pay with a click or two through an app—no work for the therapist and very little for the client. Some clients prefer that their credit card is on file with automatic billing after a session—many therapists prefer this, too. Some clients don’t like to do this, however, so it’s important to assess. Other clients like to receive a digital invoice and pay online. This can be before or after a session or a number of sessions. Sometimes, for convenience, clients will request an invoice to pay 4, 5, or 10 or more sessions in advance. As you can see, convenience for both clients and therapists—and always within legal and ethical and treatment guidelines—result in sustainable practice and career success. Remember you can ignore everything written here and still be successful. Discover what works for you—and your clients .Lynne Azpeitia, LMFT, AAMFT Approved Supervisor, is in private practice in Santa Monica where she works with Couples and Gifted, Talented, and Creative Adults across the lifespan. Lynne’s been doing business and clinical coaching with mental health professionals for more than 15 years, helping professionals develop even more successful careers and practices. To learn more about her in-person and online services, workshops or monthly no-cost Online Networking & Practice Development Lunch visit www.Gifted-Adults.com or www.LAPracticeDevelopment.com. Getting Paid: Setting The Hourly Rate in Your Private Practice. Is It Time To Set A New Fee?7/25/2022 Is it time for you to reevaluate whether you’re charging the right amount for your psychotherapy services?
With all the talk about money and prices due to the increased costs of goods and services—and the recent rise in inflation—that everyone is experiencing, many therapists are seriously thinking about, wondering, or seriously considering raising the prices for their services. It’s one of the main topics of conversation in professional circles these days. Since so many therapists are thinking of or increasing their rates, they are also concerning themselves with how to balance the humanistic and business side of running, growing, and sustaining a private practice at the same time. Do you need a better way to set your hourly fee—one based on your values and what you need to earn from your practice in order to thrive financially and emotionally? If so, here are four very practical articles that can help with that. Each article offers simple strategies and good advice for how to set your rate so that you are paid what you’re worth and you don’t burn out meeting with clients. Some of the helpful things you’ll find in the articles:
Consider these articles as new tools in your Fee-Setting Toolbox:
Whether you decide to increase your prices or not, there will most likely be a thing or two in these articles that will help facilitate your decision and comfort with it. Lynne Azpeitia, LMFT, AAMFT Approved Supervisor, is in private practice in Santa Monica where she works with Couples and Gifted, Talented, and Creative Adults across the lifespan. Lynne’s been doing business and clinical coaching with mental health professionals for more than 15 years, helping them develop even more successful careers and practices. To learn more about her in-person and online services, workshops or monthly no-cost Online Networking & Practice Development Lunch visit www.Gifted-Adults.com or www.LAPracticeDevelopment.com The use of a ListServ is one of the most overlooked resources available to licensed and pre-licensed therapists whether you’re in private practice or working for an agency, community mental health, or other mental health services organization. Good for introverts and extroverts alike, a ListServ is a great way for members of an organizational community to interact with each other online.
Using a ListServ allows you to communicate with a large group of users with a single message—and extends your reach in the organization as well as the professional community. It’s a quick and cost-effective solution to delivering a message or request and sharing the value of your services and expertise whether you are looking for clients, a job, a referral, hours for licensure or certification, training, exam prep, an office to sublet, to share a resource or presentation, and much more. ListServ, e-tree, e–list, email forum, member-to-member email service or communication—whatever you want to call it—is an easy way for a group of people—members of the organization’s community—to get to know each other, communicate, connect, and interact with each other online through the organization’s specialized e-mail channel. On a ListServ, users post messages that other group members can see, which further encourages the development of a professional community and increases the engagement of people over time. Subscribers can either respond to the individual or the whole list. While the amount of traffic for each ListServ varies, if you find the number of messages overwhelming, you can easily unsubscribe. Since the purpose of an organization’s Listserv is to facilitate collegial interaction and the exchange of professional and clinical information within the organization’s community, ListServs are available to members of associations or chapters of an association at no cost! They’re a benefit of membership. Yes, that’s right, this useful and popular resource is free! How a ListServ Works Messages delivered through a ListServ are received by individuals through their email accounts. You must be a member to participate—access, see, read, and receive messages, post a message, or reply to a ListServ posting. When you post to a ListServ, you send your email to the ListServ’s central email address and then your email is automatically sent out to all members who have subscribed or opted in to receive the emails sent to the ListServ community. With one email, your message—request, announcement, question, comment or reply, etc.—is sent out to everyone on the ListServ. All ListServ members can view the original e-mail and read it and respond or read it or delete it without reading. Listserv messages include announcements for office space, groups, workshops, jobs, internship opportunities, specialized services, and resources; case consultation and sharing techniques; announcement of chapter events; updates on topics relevant to our profession; dialogue and discussion regarding clinical, professional, and ethical questions or topics; as well as announcements about professional development and continuing education presentations, conferences, and events—and more! When someone responds to a message, unless they reply directly just to the person who sent the message, the responses are also received and viewed by all members of the community. This creates an open communication network among the ListServ members, and de facto, a virtual group discussion. Should you feel you’re receiving too many emails from the ListServ community, it’s easy to opt out. When you do, the emails stop immediately. ListServs are easy to join and to opt out. Here are some ListServs available locally, check them out: CAMFT Chapter ListServs San Gabriel Valley CAMFT E-Tree Long Beach-South Bay CAMFT Member-to-Member Email Service LA-CAMFT Private Facebook Group open to members of LA-CAMFT and non-members who are in or affiliated with Mental Health. With 1200 plus in the group, it’s a great place to get the word out about things, make requests, and have discussions. Glendale Area Mental Health Professionals ListServ GAMHPA ListServ Los Angeles County Psychological Association LACPA ListServ American Counseling Association ACA ListServ Joining ListServs in professional organizations and making and responding to posts is a wonderful way to market yourself, your expertise, your practice, or your services. Try it out and see for yourself! Lynne Azpeitia, LMFT, AAMFT Approved Supervisor, is in private practice in Santa Monica where she works with Couples and Gifted, Talented, and Creative Adults across the lifespan. Lynne’s been doing business and clinical coaching with mental health professionals for more than 15 years, helping them develop even more successful careers and practices. To learn more about her in-person and online services, workshops or monthly no-cost Online Networking & Practice Development Lunch visit www.Gifted-Adults.com or www.LAPracticeDevelopment.com When therapists talk about how to make their practices more successful, the first thing they want to know is how to get more clients and referrals. Good question, right?
The best answer about how to get the word out about you, your practice, and your work so you can get more paying clients, is to make sure your practice and contact information is clear and readily accessible to potential clients, colleagues, and referral sources whenever they need it. It’s a well-known fact that prospective clients and referral sources will only contact you if they know what your services are and they can easily locate your phone number to call or text you—or your email or social media page to write or message you. Pre-Covid, when professionals did a lot of face-to-face networking, business cards usually did the job of getting a therapist’s name, services, and contact information in front of people. Online, websites, directory listings, and social media pages did the heavy lifting of providing the therapist’s contact details so people could connect with them and make an appointment. With just about all professional events happening virtually now, it’s rare for therapists to exchange business cards, flyers, and practice swag—pens, note pads, Post-its—so a clinician’s contact details aren’t always close at hand. Yes, the information is still online for people to look up with Google or another search engine but that takes another few clicks and more time. People are impatient these days. Think about how many times someone has emailed you or you read an email and wanted to contact the person by phone or text or look at their website or social media and none of that information was available, sometimes not even their last name because their email address didn’t include their full name either. Did you do a search or did you skip it? Most people skip it so these referrals and opportunities are lost. What can a therapist do today to get their practice information and contact details out and in front of everyone’s eyes so their services are always top of mind and people can easily access the details whenever they have a question, want to connect, send a referral, talk to you about an opportunity or schedule a session? Here’s where email signatures shine bright today. Email signatures are the savvy clinician’s new secret weapon for convenient online professional networking and practice marketing. Think about it. How many emails are you sending and receiving these days? Each person you write or reply to professionally or in your community has the power to become a referral source or a client—but only if they have the right information about your practice and how to contact you. Today, the quickest, easiest, and most cost-effective way to disseminate your contact information, let people know about your work, and fill your practice, is to make the most of your email signature. Email signatures are the new business cards. They’re one of the best ways to present you, your services, and your contact information so it’s available whenever needed. A thoughtfully crafted email signature is a small but powerful marketing tool that makes it easy for people to know more about you and what you offer—and to contact you or refer someone to you. It’s a recurring thing that recipients of your emails see over and over again and that develops trust and recognition. What contact info needs to be in an email signature so that prospective clients and potential referral sources can contact you or refer someone to you? Email signatures should include all the ways there are to contact you professionally. Here are some examples. The Basic Email Signature: Include each of these.
The More Complex Email Signature: All the above 1-7 plus any of these that your ideal clients, colleagues, and referral sources use and make it easy for them to contact you.
Depending on your target audience and preferred clients, you can also list new services, special offerings, free consultations, event information, specific blog content, awards, professional association positions, etc. Anything that delivers value to colleagues, prospective clients and referral sources, other professionals, community members, and yes, even friends, neighbors, and relatives, can be embodied in an email signature. It is absolutely amazing how much value can be put into such a few lines at the end of an email. Crafted with your client, services, and profession in mind, your email signature holds the power to create a positive, professional image, and reinforce and extend your branding and marketing efforts. An added bonus is that you don’t have to hire a graphic designer, an app developer or a coder to put together your email signature and add it to your email footer. Additionally, there are plenty of excellent templates, generators, and editors to explore, many which are free. Have some fun exploring other clinician’s email signatures and then crafting your own. Lynne Azpeitia, LMFT, AAMFT Approved Supervisor, is in private practice in Santa Monica where she works with Couples and Gifted, Talented, and Creative Adults across the lifespan. Lynne’s been doing business and clinical coaching with mental health professionals for more than 15 years, helping professionals develop even more successful careers and practices. To learn more about her in-person and online services, workshops or monthly no-cost Online Networking & Practice Development Lunch visit www.Gifted-Adults.com or www.LAPracticeDevelopment.com. |
Lynne Azpeitia, LMFTFor 10+ years Lynne Azpeitia has helped therapists to live richer and happier lives through her workshops, private practice, clinical, and career coaching, and her practice consultation groups which train, support, and coach licensed and pre-licensed therapists, associates, & students how to create and maintain a successful, thriving clinical practice and a profitable and sustainable career, Archives
July 2024
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Lynne Azpeitia, LMFT (310) 828-7121
AAMFT Approved Supervisor
Coaching Clinicians for Practice & Career Success
Online and In-Person
3025 W. Olympic Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90404
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Phone, FaceTime, What's App & Video Sessions Available for Coaching & Psychotherapy
Coaching, Workshops, Training & Consultation
www.lapracticedevelopment.com
Psychotherapy
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Business, Personal, & Creative Coaching
Specializing in Coaching & Psychotherapy for
GIFTED, TALENTED & CREATIVE ADULTS
www.gifted-adults.com
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© 2017-2024 Lynne Azpeitia All Rights Reserved