Last week a therapist that I’ll call Donna spoke with me from her office in Ohio. She described her biggest challenge as not getting potential clients to call 
once they found their way to her website. Perhaps you can relate.
I took a while to read over her entire website and this is what I noticed . . . . She had a lot of information there about her qualifications. She used a lot of big words to describe how she works with clients. But she didn’t talk at all about how she could help clients increase their pleasure and avoid their pain. In other words, she forget to do the most important thing of all . . . talk about the benefits of working with Donna!
In 2000, Steven Reiss, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Ohio State University wrote a book called Who Am I? The 16 Basic Desires that Motivate Our Actions and Define our Personalities. It’s only one of many studies that the field of marketing references to underscore the need to talk about what your potential clients are concerned about. Reiss actually listed these sixteen desires as key motivators:
- Acceptance / Inclusion
- Curiosity
- Eating
- Family
- Honor / Loyalty to Parents & Heritage
- Idealism
- Independence
- Order / Organization
- Power / Influence
- Physical Exercise
- Romance i.e. Sex and Beauty
- Saving i.e. Collecting
- Social Contact / Companionship
- Status / Social Standing
- Tranquility
- Vengeance
And, all of these, of course, can be distilled into either the desire to achieve pleasure or the desire to avoid pain. If you are struggling to hold the attention of visitors to your website (and you can tell that by setting up Google Analytics), then take the time to review your website. It may just be that you failed to speak to the benefits of working with you by forgetting to speak the language of pleasure and pain.
This was great Tamara. In my small town I do not have the same problem as “Donna,” but this is helpful in writing the blogs on my sites as well as guest posting for others as well. I’ll be printing this off! Thank you so much.
Tamara G. Suttle, I just wanted to say “Thank-You” for posting the helpful information. Keep up the great work. I enjoy reading your blog.
Tamara: Thanks for this important reminder about how to “speak” to the client through our website. I think it can be hard to know how to create an appealing home page. For me, my home page should be visually easy to navigate, engaging, speak to the client, and have the right tags and keywords to get them there in the first place.
I have also appreciated when people put a video welcome that speaks to their ideal client. I think if I were looking for someone that this would really help me decide whether or not to pick up the phone or send an email to the therapist. In regards to the print and visual content, though, I feel like keeping things clean looking but also engaging is tricky!
Thanks for your good work,
Amy
Tamara-
Thanks for posting about this topic. I know that I changed and improved the wording of my website to what I offer instead of what I do- advice from the ladies at Mind Your Own Business Conference. I think this represents how I work as a counselor much better. I find that some people want to know all of my qualifications but most just care about what you do, not what you have. It seems that if we, as therapists, can speak to that part that is seeking help and then offer solution, we have a much better response for making an appointment.
Also- when is your advanced blogger class? I want to make sure I don’t miss it:)
Hi Tamara,
I see that you are going to be presenting” Blog Shop for Counselors” at the ACA Conference in Hawaii, March 28, 2014, at the Hawaii Convention Center which in within walking distance of Waikiki! Congratulations.
I will be at the conference and I hope to see you there—Here’s an idea—maybe “Tamara followers” (those of us who follow your PPIO) would like to gather socially that Friday evening to meet, greet and network. If this idea works for you, Tamara—–let’s have colleagues respond to your blog and we will figure out the logistics out from there.
Kristene Elmore, MA, LPC
Brighton, Colorado
303-659-6743
Kristene! What a lovely opportunity to see you again! In Hawaii, no less! Yes – I’ll put something up on the blog after the new year announcing that! Thanks so much for following me here and also making the suggestion to connect in Hawaii!
Hey! I just noticed that you don’t have a little picture of you – a gravatar – next to your comments yet! What’s up with that?! Here’s how you can set one up so that folks here can feel a little more connected to you.
Tamara,
I agree. I often see therapist websites where they only talk about themselves.
What helped me was to consider my ideal client. Then list her greatest fears, what keeps her up at night, and her dreams for an ideal future.
Tawnya, I see that mistake made often by therapists who say that “websites are useless” and “blogging is a waste of time.” Well . . . yes, that’s exactly right if your focus is all about you! My rule of thumb is that you shouldn’t be focused you – including your practices, your services, your products or anything else about you – more often than once every 8-10 posts. And, as you have noted, Tawnya, a much more effective focus is to identify your ideal client’s fears, wishes, hopes, worries, and dreams and provide solutions for them. That is what potential clients are looking for.
Thanks for dropping in, Tawnya, to chat. Happy new year to you and your loved ones!
Tawnya: I like how concretely you phrased thinking about what your ideal client needs to hear. That was part of what I needed to hear to help me as I am thinking about my niche! Thank you.
Cheers!
Amy