MHM#33 The 5 Pillars of Therapy Practice Marketing

Back at university, when I was studying marketing, the focus was mainly on industries like FMCG—fast-moving consumer goods. Products like shampoo, tea, soft drinks, toothpaste. These are products that people buy regularly, often use daily, and make quick decisions about (hence fast-moving). There's little emotional investment in choosing toothpaste, but it's a goldmine when it comes to data and analysis. The short sales cycles and high frequency of purchase mean market researchers can analyse huge amounts of data to build predictive consumer behaviour models and refine marketing strategies.

I loved marketing from the start. It combined everything I enjoyed—strategy, creativity, psychology, and data. It lets you switch between right and left brain thinking, blending logic and imagination.

At the time—over 20 years ago—marketing still had a bit of a bad reputation. A reputation it still hasn't completely shaken—and in some cases, quite rightly so. There was a perception that it was all about manipulation or based more on gut feel than on evidence. But I was fortunate to study at a university that challenged that. They had (and still have) a Marketing Science Centre, which approached marketing as a science—one where decisions should be backed by data, not just instinct. That approach stuck with me.

The core principle was this: use marketing tactics and strategies that are evidence-based and proven to work. Ideally, from your industry, but if that data doesn't exist, draw from other industries, test and try things out, and then adjust based on your findings.

When I started working in private healthcare marketing, I noticed that although a lot of what I had learnt transferred, there were some important differences. Healthcare decisions are not like toothpaste. They carry weight. There's more risk involved, and the consequences of choosing the wrong healthcare provider can be significant. That means connection, relationships and trust play a much bigger role in someone deciding whether to book with a healthcare provider— and even more so with a therapist compared to a physiotherapist, for example.

And unlike toothpaste, the goal isn't a lifetime of repeat purchases. The goal is healing. Ideally, people come to therapy, get the support they need, and walk away with tools to manage their mental health going forward.

Another important difference is that therapists care about who is buying their service. Toothpaste companies might target different audiences with their advertising campaigns, but at the end of the day, they don't really care if it's young adults or parents buying the product—as long as someone is. In therapy, it matters a lot. You want to work with the right people—the people you're best equipped to help and who you genuinely enjoy working with. This means that connection, relationships, and trust matter, and it also matters who that trust is being built with - your ideal client.

Lately, I've been thinking about how to distil the core elements of effective therapy practice marketing into a framework grounded in real-world results and evidence-based principles. So, I'd like to introduce you to a framework I'm calling the 5 Pillars of Therapy Practice Marketing.

5 Pillars of Therapy Practice Marketing Framework

1. Niche and Offer

Your niche / ideal client (who you help) and your offer (how you help them) are the foundation of all your marketing. They provide direction to everything—your website content, colours and images, social media posts, and conversations with referrers.

Trying to speak to multiple types of clients—say, young male adults with anxiety, new mums struggling with their identity, and neurodivergent adults navigating the workplace—is incredibly hard to do. You either end up being too general and not connecting with anyone, or the message becomes confusing.

2. Awareness

Once you're clear on your niche and offer, the next step is building awareness. People can't work with you, and referrers can't refer to you if they don't know you exist. Marketing activities like Google Ads, Search Engine Optimisation, and Instagram—help your ideal clients discover you. That's one of the core purposes of therapy marketing: helping the right people find you.

3. Connection and Trust

This is the heart of therapy practice marketing. Once people know you exist, they ask themselves, "Is it safe to approach?" That's not necessarily a conscious thought but the underlying decision-making process they're going through.

Will I be judged? Misunderstood? What if I open up and nothing changes? Will they "get me"? What will a session be like with them? Do I believe that this therapist is best suited to help me?

Marketing's job is to ease those fears. Your content, your website, your tone—it all works together to build trust and safety. When done well, clients feel like they already know you before they even reach out.

The same goes for referrers. Referrers won't send a client your way unless they know and trust you.

4. Action

Once an ideal prospective client is aware of you and feels confident taking the next step, will they know what the next step is? Sometimes we think it's obvious what the next step is, but that's not always the case, particularly if someone hasn't seen a therapist before and they're feeling nervous.

For example, if you offer a free 15-minute consult, include it everywhere—on your website, Instagram bio, Psychology Today profile, Google Business page etc. And make it super easy for people to book.

Same with referrers—let them know how to refer, what type of clients to refer and what other information you need from them.

5. Conversion

This is about turning those right-fit enquiries into booked appointments. And remember, it's okay to say no to people who aren't the right fit. When someone is the right fit, good enquiry management—quick responses and initial free video or phone calls to help them connect with you—can make all the difference in their decision to book an appointment.

Toothpaste, while essential, is a different marketing ball game compared to marketing a therapy practice. In therapy practice marketing, the goal is to help the right people find the right support at the right time. It's about helping the right-fit clients discover you, trust you, and feel safe to take that courageous first step of booking an appointment.

By viewing marketing through the lens of this framework—and using the Solo Therapist Marketing Checklist as a practical tool to help put it into action you'll hopefully find more clarity and structure in what can often feel like an overwhelming part of growing your practice.