Now you’re forced to do some marketing. Seek out people who are looking for your personal strengths and skills. Those who are within your vicinity. Individuals and teams that are an all-round good fit with your vision and process.
Waiting on word-of-mouth referrals alone can feel a bit uncertain. Some months you can barely keep up, others are as dry as a desert. You’ve heard of how advertising on Google and Facebook can get you consistent leads if done well. But, you also know it can be a real money chugger if you don’t know what you’re doing. You find that social media is excellent for telling existing clients what you’re up to. However, it is often time consuming and tedious when you’re using it to get seen by fresh eyes.
If your internal narrative sounds like:
– “Oops, forgot to post on Facebook today.”
– “Maybe I can hire someone to manage Instagram. But, will the returns be worth the cost?”
– “Do I really have to post EVERY single day?”
– “Does it have to be at the exact same time?!”
– “Argh, I hate hashtags!”
– “If only I could go viral like that guy.”
– “Uh oh, now I’m running out of ideas for posts!!”
…Then you probably have a good understanding of how internet hyper-connectivity today is very much a double-edged sword. It’s awesome because the internet is a huge place with limitless potential clients. It’s terrible because it’s too easy to get swallowed by the noise, fail to rank, and get discouraged when your marketing efforts don’t yield the income you need to grow your business.
The proof is in your daily grind. How many times have you made instagram posts with carefully staged pictures of the office, happy client testimonials, and clever captions that don’t get any love? You may have taken great pains to snap a beautiful picture or even pay for stock photography. You took time to hum and haw over your choice of motivational quote. Then, you waited till 6pm and posted it on the dot with your fingers crossed.
Seventeen likes, zero comments, and no followers later – it can feel very rejecting.
You’ve heard that blogging will get you leads. You carve out time from your busy day. Draft out a blog during lunch. Take days agonizing over what to say. Your research tells you to optimize for search engines. Now, do you need to hire an SEO specialist? How would they know anything about the trials, tribulations, joys, and triumphs of being an OT?
All right. You can do it yourself. Subscribe to one of the many “premium” tools that all promise the “best” keywords to drive traffic, clicks, and sales. Where do you start? Too many choices.
Fine, maybe figure it out with a free tool to start. It’s not the best, but you should eventually be able to weave in all those similar sounding keywords it spits out. You persevere and finally finish your blog late into the night, managing to squeeze in some time after drafting up a bunch of patient plans and cleaning up after dinner,
You post it and wait. You’ve followed all the right steps, but you’re rewarded with crickets. No views, no click throughs, and certainly no bookings.
It can feel super frustrating after putting in so much time attempting your own marketing. Time that you could’ve used to catch up on admin, spend with family outside work, or catch up on sleep. There are occupational therapists you might see on Youtube, TikTok, and Instagram with tons of followers. Wow. How much are these guys making?
You may have thought about trying to build up a presence the same way, but it usually ended after a couple of posts despite your resolute intentions. You can’t help but wonder how those OT rockstars do it. There must be a formula.
There is.
Unfortunately, it’s one that requires you clone yourself so you have enough time to learn how to master multiple skills, then execute each one religiously on a strict schedule.
It’s one that relies on a thorough understanding of the OT industry (check), your target audience (got kind of a good idea), their internet usage behavior (What? How could you possibly know that?) – all localized to the area of town they live in (You’re an OT, not the census).
It’s a mix of content marketing in the form of blogs and landing pages. You need to learn a little more than the basics of search engine optimization. You’d have to push out your practice through multiple social media apps. And when they finally bite and click on over, you need a killer website with persuasive copy that not only explains who you are and what you do – but how it intimately relates to making your future clients’ lives much better.
Your copy needs to tell people you know their pain points. Express your understanding that they are entering a new phase of their life. One that needs a little extra adjustment to live comfortably, and that it’s going to be okay.
For a parent struggling with their sensory child’s meltdowns, knowing immediately that you can help the young ‘un calm down is going to be an instant lead. For families seeking an OT to be part of an intervention team, they’ll book that first consultation not only if you can explain how your work merges with that of the physio, speech therapist, behavioral consultant, and therapists; but also what it means for their son or daughter’s progress and wellbeing.
Telling people isn’t enough. Humans are visual and need to be shown. Since we know conversion ramps up significantly with good photography, and again with good videography – filling your site with free stock photography from Unsplash won’t be enough to get seen. You need something that features YOU. Not images hundreds of other OTs use. You must consider going professional for your practice. It’s the only way to showcase your skills and your unique way of communicating with your clients for that final bit of convincing.
When all the above is set up, you can wait weeks to rank, or you can put yourself in front of your ideal audience now. These are the people who are already actively looking for you. They’re either willing and ready to spend on their wellbeing, or are desperate to find someone suitable to work with their specific challenges.
Whether these individuals are private clients or NDIS referred, this is where paid advertising comes in handy. There are several avenues that cannot be ignored simply because of how fertile the advertising grounds are, and how targetted you can make your ads.
Tap into different age groups, buying behaviors, education levels and more. Keep in mind that whether you choose to do Facebook advertising, Instagram, or Google ads – each needs its own technical proficiency and “feel” for the platform to run at the most profitable returns for investment.
IF you can do all the above, you’ve just created a safety net.
It’s one that you implement once – and it ensures you have leads indefinitely.
It’s a formula that lets you work worry free – and keep working – while it churns out client after client for your OT business in the background. It’ll keep you working at full capacity, doing what you do best with people that really need you, and boom your demand. If you’ve always dreamed of having a partner or two, or managing your own branches – this is the formula you need in your life.
It means you won’t be dependent on NDIS referrals alone.
You’ll have the flexibility of putting your services in front of the most high value clients for your occupational therapy niche. Those with the right “willingness to pay”. Those that “get” and appreciate your approach.
However, make no mistake that it’ll take months or even years to get all this working just right.
If you don’t fancy slogging away at your own marketing for years or you can’t see yourself spending months trying to pick up new online marketing skills on top of your day job…
That’s where I come in.
I’m Casey Jones. I’m a full-stack online marketer. That means I do all the above from end to end.
This, in turn, means I’ll be your one point of contact who works closely with your business. Once I understand everything about it, I’ll know how to put it in front of the precise clientele that is actively looking for you.
When you have a constant stream of clients, you won’t be threatened by the ever changing landscape of the occupational therapy industry. You’ll be too busy to think about the various competitors, new businesses popping up, and ambitious fresh graduates that show up year after year. The ever-changing nature of the NDIS, it’s constant compliance issues, audits, increasing fees, and complex legislations will suddenly be optional or at most a minor inconvenience because you’re not so reliant on it anymore.
You are keenly aware of how focusing on small, specific improvements has the ability to make life-changing benefits. Like you, my specialty is doing this exact same thing – but with the online marketing for your OT practice.
Feel ready to make a change? If you want to go from having a minimum online presence to wondering how you can scale your business so you don’t have to keep turning away clients every week…
Make an appointment to hop on a consultation call. Let’s talk about what you do and what you want. I can’t wait to meet you!
