Are You Making This No. 1 Visibility Mistake?

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a clinician in a nearby community to ask me about some ideas for revitalizing her practice. This person is someone who has been in business for some time. While I didn’t know her well, we had had enough professional interactions for me to know that she is a very well respected clinician who is highly trained, skilled, and experienced. I had assumed she enjoys a thriving private practice.

During our conversation, she painfully acknowledged that her business has taken a nose dive, with an average week consisting of about six client contacts. She had never actively promoted her practice because she had enjoyed a steady stream of referrals from various organizations and clients. The decline had been gradual, and she had just kept telling herself things were slow for the usual reasons and would pick up again.

In her words, “while I was confidently enjoying working with my clients in my lovely office, Rome had started to burn around me.”

The first thing I asked her about was her website. (Based on what she had already told me, I knew that she wasn’t doing anything active to attract new clients.) When did you last update it? Are you happy with it? How much traffic are you getting?

Her answer? “I don’t have a web site.”

I can’t tell you how often I hear that. What a HUGE MISTAKE.

Recent research conducted by Harris Interactive indicates that “nearly 70% of adults in the U.S. “rarely or never” use the phone book. Instead, most of them (60%) use the Internet to find contact information, a number that’s certain to continue to rise.”

Even if you are on every insurance and managed care panel there is, you need to be online. At the very minimum a small 3-4 page web site that is just a basic brochure about your business is a service to clients who are trying to find you.

Since there are several hundred names on most insurance lists, how will a client that has never accessed mental health services and doesn’t want to tell anyone they are looking recognize that you are the one for them if they have no way of checking you out?

So if you don’t have a web site and are interested in seeing more clients, then the No. 1 action to take today is to get online.

Next week I’ll talk about: What About If You Already Have A Web Site But Aren’t Getting Much Traffic?

If you want help creating a more effective web site or on-line presence, contact me and we’ll talk about it.

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