Ask Joe: How do I create a marketing plan? | POP 720

Share this content
Image of Joe Sanok is captured. On this therapist podcast, Joe Sanok, podcaster, consultant and author, talk about how to create a marketing plan.

Do you need to spread awareness of your business in your local community? How do you get folks in your community to know, like, and trust you? How can you be strategic about your marketing efforts?

In this podcast episode, Joe Sanok speaks about the fundamentals of marketing and how to create a marketing plan.

Podcast Sponsor: Heard

An image of the Practice of the Practice podcast sponsor, Heard, is captured. Heard offers affordable bookkeeping services, personalized financial reporting, and tax assistance.

As a therapist, you’re probably too preoccupied with your caseload to want to think about bookkeeping or tax filing. Heard can help you out with that. Heard is a bookkeeping and tax platform built specifically for therapists in private practice that helps you track and improve your practice’s financial health. Regardless of whether you’re a seasoned clinician or are in the first year of your practice, Heard will help you to identify areas for growth and streamline best financial practices for your business.

When you sign up with Heard, you’ll work directly with financial specialists to track your income and expenses, file taxes online, and grow your business. You’ll also receive financial insights such as profit and loss statements and personalized monthly reports. You can say goodbye to poring over spreadsheets and guessing your tax deductions or quarterly payments; focus on your clients, and Heard will take care of the rest.

Plans begin at $149 per month and can easily be tailored to fit your business’ financial needs. Sign up now at joinheard.com/partners/joe.

In This Podcast

  • The basics of business and marketing
  • Who is your ideal client?
  • Where is your ideal client spending their time?
  • How many people do you have to attract to your business to be successful?
  • What are you known for?

The basics of business and marketing

When you boil it down, a business is an overlap between someone’s needs, your skillset, and an agreed-upon price.

Marketing is getting people in the community to know your name because when they know you, they can get to like you, and then when they like you, they are more likely to decide to work with you.

It’s hard [for clients] to see you as an expert if they have never heard your name, and that is what marketing is, it’s getting people to go from, “I have no idea that you exist” to, “Oh! I know you exist”. That’s it, that’s all marketing is. (Joe Sanok)

Marketing is awareness building around the services that you can provide to the needs of the people within your community.

Who is your ideal client?

The very first step to creating a marketing plan is to figure out to whom you are marketing. Who is your ideal client? They are your business avatar.

Have a good idea of who [your ideal client] is so that the language of your website, your marketing, and how your intake coordinator talks to [them] when [they] call in needs to be defined. (Joe Sanok)

Joe’s tip: when speaking with your ideal client, keep notes of themes or common issues that they struggle with to use in future marketing efforts to connect with more potential clients.

Where is your ideal client spending their time?

  • On which social media platforms do they spend their time?
  • In which public places (if you work directly within the local community) do they spend their time?
  • How can you optimize your SEO and rank higher so that they see your name on Google when they search for services?

Joe’s tip: experiment with your niche by typing in keywords that relate to your practice into Google and seeing what comes up first.

How many people do you have to attract to your business to be successful?

Marketing can be expensive, so you can be strategic about it by working with the numbers.

Set your financial goal out, and do some math to find out how many clients you will need to work with per day or per week to hit that goal.

You can say, “Okay, I need 17 to 30 clients (depending on if they’re weekly), how do I find the best 17 to 30 clients that want to work with me?” Now you have a goal for your marketing. (Joe Sanok)

What are you known for?

This is your niche, and you must niche down into something.

Once you have your niche, your marketing efforts will skyrocket, because then you have something specific to focus on, market for, and a direct need for your clients to fulfill.

Remember that promoting is better than creating.

Useful Links mentioned in this episode:

  • When you sign up with Heard, you’ll work directly with financial specialists to track your income and expenses, file taxes online, and grow your business.  Sign up now at joinheard.com/partners/joe.
  • Ask Joe A Question!

Check out these additional resources:

Meet Joe Sanok

A photo of Joe Sanok is displayed. Joe, private practice consultant, offers helpful advice for group practice owners to grow their private practice. His therapist podcast, Practice of the Practice, offers this advice.

Joe Sanok helps counselors to create thriving practices that are the envy of other counselors. He has helped counselors to grow their businesses by 50-500% and is proud of all the private practice owners that are growing their income, influence, and impact on the world. Click here to explore consulting with Joe.

Thanks For Listening!

Feel free to leave a comment below or share this podcast on social media by clicking on one of the social media links below! Alternatively, leave a review on iTunes and subscribe!