When Washington, D.C., private practitioner Kathleen Smith, PhD, launched her weekly electronic newsletter, The Anxious Overachieveropens in new window, in 2017, she saw it mostly as a way to flesh out her own thinking about her work. But the newsletter—which now has 10,000 subscribers—has also proven to be a useful way to market her practice. About half of Smith’s patients connect to her via her newsletter, her articles on websites such as Salon and Slate, or her book, Everything Isn’t Terrible: Conquer Your Insecurities, Interrupt Your Anxiety, and Finally Calm Down (Hachette Books, 2019). And they’re more likely to stay in therapy because they have a better idea of what they are signing up for, she said.
Creating a newsletter, or any other type of content, might sound like a lot of extra work on top of your “real” work, said Katy Hill, marketing manager at Brighter Vision, a firm that helps clinicians market their practices. But it’s an investment in your career, she emphasized. “Content marketing is one of the most powerful—and cheapest—ways to market your practice,” she said. “It establishes trust with prospective and current clients, builds relationships, and proves you’re an expert in a topic.”
If you’re interested in launching a newsletter or podcast, starting a blog, or writing an ebook or online course, follow these psychologists’ tips on getting started:
Determine the purpose of your content. “A lot of people create content because they think they should, or they do a podcast just because they want to have a podcast,” said West L.A.–based private practitioner Elisha Goldstein, PhD, who has created online courses like “Uncover the Power Withinopens in new window” to promote mindfulness and mental health and launched the Mindful Living Collectiveopens in new window to serve as an online community for those interested in learning about and practicing mindfulness. Instead, he suggested, consider how creating content can help you. Are you trying to expand your practice, for example, or build a platform that will make your book proposal more attractive to publishers?
Also think about how your content can help your patients. Smith’s newsletter on managing anxiety has several purposes: It serves her current patients—whom she describes as “Type A overachievers who want therapy homework”—by keeping them engaged between sessions without making them do anything more taxing than reading. For former patients, the newsletter is a way to stay connected and remind people that Smith is available to help them face new challenges. For people who are thinking about therapy, the newsletter gives them a sense of what the work looks like and Smith’s theoretical orientation without having to schedule an appointment.
Smith’s newsletter also shows publishers—both the publisher of her own book and publishers of books she reviews—that she already has a platform. It also gives her a way to stay in touch with the audience anytime she gives a talk to the public. “If you’re speaking somewhere or being interviewed and you don’t have something to connect listeners or the audience to, that’s just a lost opportunity,” she said.
Once you clarify why you want to create content, choose the platform that best suits your personality so that you won’t contribute to the plethora of blogs and podcasts that haven’t been updated in years. Your preferred platform may change over time as your interests and technology evolve. Goldstein was creating CDs with guided mindfulness meditations in 2005 before he became a blogger. He is now creating videos for his YouTube channelopens in new window, where he offers what he calls “simple mental health hacks” for using meditation to battle anxiety and promote mental health. “I personally enjoy going in front of a camera,” he said, adding that it’s helpful to go “all in” on one platform at a time to avoid spreading yourself too thin.
Use content to build relationships. Your content can help move people along what marketing gurus call your “funnel,” from becoming aware of you as a provider to becoming your patient or somehow involved with your work.
Daniel José Gaztambide, PsyD, a Manhattan private practitioner and assistant professor of clinical practice at the New School for Social Research, starts by offering a free ebook with tips for managing anxiety to new and potential patients or anyone else who wants it. “It’s both a gift and a way of starting a relationship before we’ve even gotten on a call,” he said. Recipients then receive an invitation to join Gaztambide’s mailing list, which he uses to share blog posts and other news items that help him promote his expertise and give a sense of his personality. Increased blogopens in new window readership brings more traffic to his practice websiteopens in new window, which features a video in which Gaztambide introduces himself. “The video seems to clinch the deal,” he said. The result of Gaztambide’s integrated, client-centered approach? His practice is currently full.
And just like in any good relationship, Gaztambide added, don’t monopolize the conversation by talking too much about yourself in your content. Instead, focus on how you can help would-be clients.
Repurpose your content often. If you’re going to take the time to create content, reuse it across multiple platforms, suggested Amanda Zelechoski, JD, PhD, an associate psychology professor at Valparaiso University who, along with colleague Lindsay Malloy, PhD, cofounded Pandemic Parentingopens in new window, a digital web platform to share free psychology-based resources, including the Pandemic Parenting Podcastopens in new window.
Many parents don’t have time to read a 300-page book, said Zelechoski. “What can we give them in a few minutes when they’re Googling in the middle of the night?” she said, adding that there aren’t nearly enough psychologists and other clinicians to meet the demand for help. Zelechoski and Malloy share content—which they try to keep “evergreen,” or non–time sensitive—on as many platforms as possible as a way of meeting people where they are, she said. Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, podcasts, and other platforms all reach different users, Zelechoski noted.
There are plenty of tools to help you reuse your content. Canvaopens in new window is an online design and publishing tool that can help you pull bullet points from your blog and transform them into a social media post, for example. You can turn your blog into a podcast with a tool like Anchoropens in new window by Spotify. And a site called Ubersuggestopens in new window helps identify keywords that work best for search engine optimization (SEO).
Be mindful of your license. Keep in mind that most content goes out to a broad audience, not just the people in the jurisdictions where you are licensed to practice, said Adia Gooden, PhD, a Chicago private practitioner who offers the Unconditionally Worthy podcastopens in new window and a related ecourseopens in new window on overcoming anxiety, perfectionism, and low self-worth. Keep your content general, focusing on psychoeducation, she advised.
Some psychologists also add disclaimers to their podcasts, blog posts, and other content emphasizing that the information is psychoeducation, not a substitute for mental health treatment. Others are careful to avoid engaging with their audience on questions so specific that answers could be perceived as clinical advice.
At the same time, said Gooden, you may want to encourage members of your audience in the state or states where you’re licensed to join your practice as a patient. Communicating the limits of your license can be a challenge, she admitted, noting that the public often doesn’t understand those limits, especially with the rise in teletherapy. “There’s an assumption that if you do teletherapy, you should be able to work with anyone anywhere,” she said. “But that’s not the case.” In general, you can only provide psychological services—via telehealthopens in new window or in-person—to patients who are located in the jurisdictions where you are licensed.
Take a team approach. To help support their content creation efforts, Zelechoski and Malloy set up a nonprofitopens in new window with a nine-person staff that includes an executive director, marketing director, and digital content producer.
But getting help with your content creation doesn’t have to be elaborate. Denver private practitioner Debbie Sorensen, PhD, for instance, is one of the four hosts of the Psychologists Off the Clockopens in new window podcast. “Having a team helps a lot,” said Sorensen, who now hosts one episode a month. “If one of us is too busy or burned out, we know the podcast will still go on.” Plus, she said, learning all the new skills involved in podcasting—everything from editing audio to figuring out how to get your podcast on popular apps and directories—has been more fun to do with colleagues. The hosts, who are all clinical psychologists with a similar theoretical orientation, recently added behind-the-scenes volunteers to the team to help with social media, show notes, and a newsletter. Sorensen also credits the Facebook group She Podcastsopens in new window as a helpful source of information and support as the podcast has grown to 70,000 downloads a month in less than 5 years.
Getting help can also make it more likely that you will be consistent and live up to your audience’s expectation that they can count on your content, added Gooden. “You’re building trust through the content you share and how you share it, and that includes consistency,” she said. Gooden has hired a podcast manager who handles editing, scheduling, uploading, graphics, show notes, and other administrative details. In addition to making your audience happy, regular updates help push your content toward the top of Google searches.
Don’t get caught up in metrics. It’s easy to get distracted by how many people unsubscribe or don’t bother to open your email, said Smith. Don’t let that negative feedback derail you. “It doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong; it just means they’re not your audience,” she said. “We all unsubscribe from mailing lists all the time.” Think about which metrics are important to you, such as the number of patients your content brings to your practice, and ignore the rest, recommended Smith, who follows other psychologists’ content so she can see what appeals to audiences and what doesn’t and then build off that for her own work.
You also need to decide how much you want to engage with your audience, said Smith. “You’ll get mean emails from people,” she said. Smith usually sends a brief response to readers’ emails. She also limits her marketing-oriented calls to action to a small section at the bottom of each newsletter, where she invites readers to listen to an interview she has done or email her for more information about working with her in therapy. “People can be annoyed by that, but they don’t have to read the newsletter until the very end,” she pointed out.
Do it because you like it. Don’t waste energy on something you’re not enjoying, said Seattle practitioner Jon Reeves, PhD, who experimented with a podcast during the pandemic. He wanted to improve the SEO for his website by adding audio and to help would-be patients find the right therapist for them. After four episodes of the podcast, Reeves ditched The Sound of Therapyopens in new window. “I was doing it because I thought it was a good idea, not because I wanted to do it. I was having to force myself to do it,” said Reeves, who ultimately redirected his energies back to his blogopens in new window.
Reeves was transparent about the podcast’s experimental nature from the get-go. “New episodes will come out every . . . sometimes,” he wrote in his introduction. “As a new project, it may just not work out.”
Still, his brief foray into podcasting was worth it. “It’s something I encourage my own patients to do—to try things out and see how they like them, how it feels,” he said. “It’s important for me to do the same.”
