“Niching down” is a term you may often seen thrown around when it comes to marketing a private practice. Focusing on very specific populations of people or services is a great way to be the go-to expert in an area of therapy you love. But what if you’re just starting out or enjoy working with many types of people? How can you reflect that in your website and still attract clients?
In this article, we’ll talk about ways to approach your website marketing when you haven’t yet found your niche.
Do I Even Need A “Niche” In My Private Practice?
When it comes to any type of marketing, I truly believe that each business is unique.
What works for one therapist, may not work or even feel good to another therapist.
I encourage you to try new marketing approaches, test them for a time and see what works for you.
And it’s not just about the number of clients. If you’re doing anything in your business that drains your energy or doesn’t feel right, I encourage you to drop it.
I think that also applies to niching as well.
I’ve spoken to many therapist that work with all kinds of people in many different modalities and their practices are doing just fine.
The place where finding your niche can be so powerful for your marketing is when you want to really focus your practice and attract more of a very specific type of client.
When I started my website design business, I had many conversations with friends and family that thought that focusing ONLY on doing websites for therapists meant that I was limiting my growth.
But I knew that if I wanted to really help people, I needed to understand the challenges of my clients, inside and out.
If a restaurant came to me and said they’d love to work with me, would I turn them away?
Probably not – I’d love the challenge – but my understanding of what a restaurant needs in a website is much more limited than what a therapist would need.
For me niching has helped my provide a better service and product to my clients.
So what’s the point?
If you want your caseload to be filled with a very specific type of client, because that’s the work you love to do and you want to grow your expertise in that area… then go for it. Niche down!
But if you’re still finding out who you like to work with or just enjoy seeing all types of clients, then don’t try and force it.
How To Handle Your Private Practice Website Copy When You Don’t Have A Niche
Ok, so you’re not yet ready or feel the need to niche down in your private practice.
How can you use your website to get more clients?
While you may not be able to have an uber specific headline on your homepage like “I help new moms cope with anxiety and become the moms they’ve always dreamt they’d be,” I think there are still some strategic things you can do to make sure you’re connecting with potential clients.
1: Get to The Core of What You Love Doing
My wife went through the same struggle of wondering how/if she should find a niche in her private practice and market toward it.
She loves seeing a number of different types of clients – male, female and couples.
She also loves helping them with various challenges such as anxiety, family of origin and discovering their identity.
So when it came time to write copy for her website, we were a bit unsure where to begin.
But the more we peeled back the layers of what she loved doing – the more she listened to what made her feel alive in her work – the more she realized it all boiled down to one thing: relationships.
My wife loves helping her clients have better relationships.
So on her homepage, we created this title:
It’s broad enough to attract many types of clients (individuals and couples) but just specific enough to connect with any potential client who is struggling in their relationships.
So I encourage you to pay attention to the type of work you love doing. Think about the common denominator and use that as a headline on your homepage.
You’ve only got a few seconds to entice someone to stay on that page, so give them something to connect to.
It doesn’t have to be calling out a specific population (i.e. dads in their 40s who own a business) but it should give a sense of what you do.
2: Focus On The Types of Services/Specialties You Offer in Your Private Practice
Another way to attract many types of clients and work in your private practice is to give each potential client they need in order to feel comfortable reaching out to you.
To do this, you can create individual landing pages for all the services and specialties you offer.
If you enjoy doing some couples therapy, then create a specific page just for that. Really give them all they need to know about what therapy will look like.
Take them from a place of struggle (the reason they’re looking for a therapist in the first place) to a place of hope.
Another thing you can do is focus on the various specialties you address in your practice.
For instance, if you learn many people are coming to your for help with anxiety, create a specific page all about that.
These pages can help convert all sorts of clients. Plus they’re great for search engine optimization (SEO).
Check out this post to learn more about creating specialty pages that Google loves: How I Used SEO to go From Zero Clients to Too Many Clients
Tips For Discovering Your Private Practice Niche
I’ll be honest… having a specific niche makes marketing a lot easier.
It allows you speak directly to people and really connect with them.
You can use the tips above to get started creating website pages and copy, but if you think you’d like to eventually narrow your niche, I’ll leave you with a few tips:
- Think about the clients you’ve been working with that you REALLY love. What is it about them that you love so much? Write it down.
- Think about the types of challenges you love helping your clients with and what really excites you. Make a list.
- Identify how the type of client intersects with the challenge you really want to be known for.
- Keep a spreadsheet of notes on how your favorite clients describe their challenges so you can use it in your marketing copy.
- Practice writing some headlines that capture who you help and what you help them do. You can use the best one on your homepage.
Conclusion
Having a niche can certainly simplify your marketing message, however, you can still be successful with your marketing without niching waaaay down.
If you don’t have a niche or even want a niche, I hope the tips above give you some direction as you think about the copy and marketing on your private practice website.
At the end of the day, you have to do what feels good and what works for you!
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