Mental health treatment providers are faced with a difficult task. Approximately half the population will experience some form of illness in their lifetime. Yet 60% of them won’t actually pursue treatment. As a result, mental health marketing must accomplish the enormous feat of getting them into treatment.
Are you marketing mental health services the right way? Is your mental health marketing up to the task of getting prospective patients to your website? Let’s take a closer look at some digital marketing channels that must be kicked into high gear if you expect to generate qualified leads:
- Website Design & Development
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Google My Business (Local SEO)
Website Design & Development
You know when you’ve landed on an outdated website. Everything about it probably screams, “Created and never changed since 2002.” Such websites clearly aren’t optimized for mobile viewing. In today’s competition for Google ranking, an un-optimized website that is never updated is doomed to fall far behind other websites that are leading edge.
You never want your mental health treatment center website to be viewed as out of date. Your website needs to meet the current expectations of viewers. Marketing for mental health professionals requires a website that captivates its viewers with an outstanding web design. Does your website do this?
The marketing plan for a mental health agency always includes the design and development of an excellent website. A reputable mental health marketing agency understands why you need a visually dynamic website and knows how to create one.
PPC
Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) is the first stop for many behavioral health providers. It’s a way to quickly get eyes on your website, which is especially important if you’re in the start-up phase.
Unlike SEO, PPC brings results almost immediately. Many healthcare providers enjoy the appeal of immediate gratification. However, it’s important to remember that PPC should never be the sole marketing tool to attract leads. Mental health treatment centers relying solely on PPC run the great risk of being overly reliant on it. Your mental health marketing requires much more in order to succeed.
PPC can easily become a money pit that continues to take more and more of your marketing dollars. Also, don’t forget that PPC results end the second you stop paying for them. A smart digital marketing strategy employs PPC as part of a larger marketing campaign that includes SEO.
SEO
Search engine optimization is needed in order for Google’s algorithm to look at your website and say, “Yes, this is a good website to direct our viewers to.” Obviously, some SEO will be more successful than others.
For SEO to work, it takes patience and an excellent plan. It also takes experience in order to know what works and what doesn’t in terms of SEO.
Many things contribute to excellent SEO. Excellent keyword research and a commitment to constantly upload relevant content are among the most important. Unlike SEO, the ranking you achieve with good SEO happens because your web pages are good, not because you paid for the positioning. SEO also helps power your local SEO as well. In short, mental health marketing depends on great SEO.
Google My Business (Local SEO)
Local SEO is all about proximity and relevance. By leveraging the power of local SEO, a digital marketer can help mental health treatment centers find more new patients.
Google well understands the importance of local businesses. In fact, it uses a set of local ranking factors to determine whether a company is geographically relevant to a web user making a “near me” inquiry. This helps local businesses because it screens out irrelevant competitors who are too far away from your physical location to ever compete.
Mental health treatment center operators know that their Google My Business (GMB) listing is important. However, they may not realize their GWB listing power is directly affected by the effectiveness of their website’s local SEO content.
Your GWB listing is also influenced by the number of positive reviews you receive. How do you get them? Through your website and your social media presence. Being more visible on Google Maps means prospective patients or their relatives are more likely to click through to your website. How does that happen? By deploying excellent local SEO and fully optimizing your Google My Business account.
Take Your Mental Health Marketing to the Next Level of Success
Mental health practice marketing uses all of the above components to give you a powerful return on your investment. PPC, of course, works quickly. SEO, on the other hand, takes several months to begin taking effect. Collectively, these elements of digital marketing will make it easier to increase website traffic and capture qualified leads.
If your marketing strategies aren’t making your objectives, give Dreamscape Marketing a call at 888.307.7304. We’ll show you how your mental health marketing can achieve so much more than it is right now.