3 Brand Strategy Tactics Therapists Can Use to Make Their Psychology Today Profile Stand Out
As a therapist, you know that creating a profile on Psychology Today is a great opportunity to advertise your practice in a place where new clients are actively searching and seeking you out. But, with the number of competitors crowding the marketplace you may be wondering if it’s still worth it or effective.
Creating a profile on Psychology Today is absolutely worth the time and financial investment for therapists wanting to grow their practice.
That is, if they apply personal branding techniques that help their profile stand out in the crowded marketplace.
It Starts with Understanding Your Personal Brand
The key to creating a profile - or a website, social media profile, anything! - is to build everything as an outpouring of your personal brand.
Your personal brand is how others perceive you. You have one, even now without thinking about it.
Crafting a personal brand simply means you’re taking charge of how you are perceived online, and the ultimate goal of any good brand is to accurately reflect who you are here and now onto the online space.
As a brand designer for service providers, coaches and therapists, this is the crux of my design process, the Dawn Approach. The first step in my branding design process is digging into the heart, the “why,” and the purpose that fuels your business.
See, the branding process itself is meant to develop a framework that ensures your communications, marketing, strategy and business development all flow from a consistent identity.
Without a strong and effective brand foundation, the rest of the pieces you build your business with are inconsistent and you end up building a house of cards. The best way to build a strong and effective brand is to begin with your own identity.
This is the heart of crafting a personal brand and the secret to making your profile - or any component of your marketing strategy - stand out.
3 Ways to Make Your Profile Stand Out on Psychology Today - and Attract Your Future Clients!
Yes, the marketplace may be crowded, but you can leverage that to your advantage by applying these three strong branding strategy techniques to make your ideal clients gravitate toward you and away from your competitors.
A Professional, Clean Headshot
This may sound like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised (or, perhaps, not) by how many profiles on Psychology Today feature a headshot clearly taken from a cellphone. Let’s be selfie-free, shall we?
Your headshot creates the first impression your future clients have of you, so make sure it is on-brand, professional, and reflects your personality. If you’re thinking, “can one single photo do all that?” the answer is a resounding, “yes!”
A Powerful, Attention-Grabbing Introduction Message
Following your headshot, your introduction message is the next piece of your profile that either supports or deteriorates your personal brand.
It’s important to create a powerful, attention-grabbing message to communicate the heart of your brand, who you are, and how you serve your clients. You do this by creating a help statement, a short 1-3 sentence paragraph sharing who you are, who you help, how you help them, and why it matters.
Here are a few questions to help you create a powerful help statement:
Who, specifically, do you support?
What, specifically, are they searching for? How do they want their life to feel, look and flow differently on the other side of transformation?
How, specifically, do you help them navigate the journey of transformation?
What can they expect to experience on the other side of the journey? Or, rather, through the journey itself?
You can also use my favorite exercise that I use with all of my clients through my identity-led brand design process - the 5 Why’s.
Have an On-Brand, Well-Designed Website
Psychology Today may advertise their marketplace profiles as an alternative to having a website, but if you really want to stand out as a strong, professional, and personable brand, you need to have a well-designed website that is a testament to your practice.
Consider the Psychology Today marketplace as the first point of contact you have with your future clients. They see your headshot, read your help statement, and want to get to know you better and conduct some research to see if you are the right space holder for them.
Where do they go next? Your website. What will they find? Hopefully, a website that continues to strongly reflect your personal brand, clarify your message, and showcase exactly how you can help them achieve the results they’re after.
Are you excited or nervous about what your future clients will find on your website? Let’s make sure your branding and website presence are a strong reflection of you - learn more about the Dawn Approach, a unique, identity-led brand and website design process for service providers, coaches and therapists.
