Marketing Might Not Be Your Favourite Bit—But It IS the Important Bit

Now, you've probably heard this before, that marketing is the lifeblood of your business, and maybe you've had a little part of you that's gone, yeah, I know, I know. But honestly, I just—I just hate it. I just don't like doing it.

Look, I get it. When you trained to be a therapist, you didn't picture yourself, you know, creating counselling directory listings or writing blog posts. You pictured yourself helping people—sitting in a room or on Zoom—doing the work that actually changes people's lives, actually creates transformations.

But the problem is, if people can't find you, well, you can't help them. You know, it might sound a bit harsh, but that's just the way it is in business. So in today's episode, I want to share with you why marketing really is the lifeblood of your therapy business and how you can start giving it the time and the attention that it deserves—but in a way that actually works for you.

There'll be no jargon. There'll be no sales tactics. Just straight-talking, realistic support to help you get found by more of the right clients.

So hi, and welcome back to the Grow Your Private Practice Show, where we make marketing feel less like pulling teeth and more like something that you can actually do.

I'm Jane Travis. I'm an ex-therapist, I'm a private practice mentor, and your business's biggest fan. And today, we are diving into a topic that might just make you squirm a little bit—but in a good way. And that's marketing, because if you've been avoiding it or putting it off, or telling yourself that, “Oh, I'll get around to doing it when things are a bit quieter,” well, this episode is your nudge to do things differently.

We are gonna take a look at why marketing is essential, not optional, and how to start treating it like the vital part of your practice that it truly is.

So you are gonna walk away with some practical steps, some mindset shifts, and the permission to stop trying to do all the things all the time—and just do the right things. So let's get into it.

Now, when I first started my private practice—and crikey, it was a long time ago now—I honestly thought that the clients would just kind of find me, just turn up.

I knew plenty of people needed help. I had a website, I had a diploma, and I had business cards with a logo on. Now, surely that was gonna be enough, wasn't it?

So I kept waiting for the phone to ring, as if the counselling gods would spot me in my desperation and send a steady stream of clients straight to my inbox.

But spoiler alert—they didn't. They did not do that. And that's when I realised that marketing isn't a nice thing to do if I can find time—it's absolutely essential.

In fact, it really is the lifeblood of your business. So imagine that your practice is a body. The therapy—your craft—is the heart. But marketing is the circulation system. It's getting your work out there into the world and letting people know that you are there to help.

And if you haven't got that visibility, you are not gonna get the enquiries. If you're not getting the enquiries, there's not gonna be the bookings. That means you haven't got a business and you haven't got income.

But the thing is, surprisingly, marketing isn't just about getting clients. It's about how you build trust. It's about how you share your values and how you help people to feel safe enough to reach out to you. And I sometimes think that gets very, very missed. Because it's way more than just a fancy advert.

Basically, your marketing is the difference between a thriving practice and wondering whether a weekend job at the garden centre might be a better option for you.

So why does it always feel so, so bloody awkward—especially for counsellors?

Well, it's because most therapists weren't trained to be visible. You know, we were trained to hold space for other people, not to take up space.

So when you suddenly start needing to write blogs and bios and social media posts, well, there's no wonder that you freeze. There's no wonder it feels awkward and makes you go, “Oh my God, I can't do this.”

We have some common culprits, don't we? So we have that fear of being seen—“What if somebody sees me and judges me and criticises me?” Oh my goodness.

And then you've got imposter syndrome, where you think to yourself, “Well, who the hell am I to do this? I haven't been doing this very long. There's loads more people who know far more than me.”

And then you've got an ethical squeamishness, where marketing feels really icky or pushy or, you know, at odds with helping. You just want to help people—you don’t want to take their money off them.

And then of course, there's always overwhelm. You know, when you realise that you're juggling clients, sorting out all of your CPD, having to do your admin and your tax returns—that's enough to make you want to throw up.

And you've probably got a brain that likes to overthink, and then it feels too much, and then you start to panic. Ahh.

So none of this means that you are bad at business. It simply means that you need a fresh perspective and a practical plan.

And this is the mindset shift that is gonna take you from marketing being something that you really hate doing, to marketing being a core part of the job.

Because the thing is, taking marketing seriously is actually about taking your business seriously. Because when you treat it as an extra—like a separate job—that means that you stay hidden from the people that need you.

However, when you make it part of your weekly rhythm, everything changes. You'll start to get a steady stream of enquiries. You'll start to receive more income. And you'll start to receive a whole lot more confidence as well.

Because it really isn’t about “selling yourself”. So many times people say, “Oh crikey, I hate selling myself.” Look, please—please get that out of your head. You are not selling yourself. You don't have to sell your soul. It's about making your expertise visible and accessible.

So how can you take marketing seriously—without burning out?

Well, there are a few different things you can do.

The first one is: I would book it into my diary like it was a client session. So if you had a client at 2 o’clock on Tuesday, you would never change that, would you? You wouldn't think, “Oh, I'm gonna phone that client because I want to do something else at that time.” It's there—written in blood, really, isn't it?

So do the same when it comes to your marketing time. Book it like you would a client, okay? Book it in your diary. Block that time out. Protect it. Stay off emails. In fact, just hide your phone and concentrate on the marketing you're going to do.

So—book it in and turn it into a priority.

The next step is to know what success is going to look like here. So what is it you want from this marketing? Do you want more enquiries? Do you want to have a clearer niche? Do you want to find better-fit clients?

Think about what it is that you need in your marketing right now—and make your efforts fit with that.

And then what I suggest is that you pick one or two strategies and really learn how to do them well, and stick with them.

So it could be that you decide to do—and I highly recommend this, 'cause you know how much I... you know how powerful blogging is—so I would suggest maybe doing something like, you know, do a blog every month. We're talking about one blog a month. And I promise you, I've got loads of ways that I can help you with that.

So you could do one blog a month, and then you can update your directories, and then you can update your Google Business Profile. And you can keep those up to date and ready to go.

So choose your lane and stay in it.

I mean, you might not want to do Google Business Profile. You might want to do social media instead. But just pick the ones that you want to do, and just pick, you know, just a couple of things and really practise them so you get good at doing it and it takes less time.

Something else that you can do is you can automate things. You can make templates. And you can delegate some of the faff.

You know, there are scheduling tools out there. There are frameworks that exist—use them. And talking about frameworks, I have a brand new thing that I can't share with you fully yet, but I have something called the Framework First Blogging System. And I'll be sharing that with you in the next couple of weeks.

And what it is, is a low-priced monthly membership, and I will be helping you to write blogs more easily than you ever believed possible. Really looking forward to sharing that with you. So yeah, that’s gonna help you enormously.

And then also—review what’s working. What’s actually working for you at the moment? Track your enquiries. Find out how they found you.

You know, so if you write a blog or you’ve made a tweak to something and you notice that it started bringing people in—make a note of that. Repeat it. Do it again. Because the real-life results are from the consistent marketing.

Now I'm gonna share with you—so we’ll call her Sam—from the Grow Your Private Practice membership.

Now Sam really was not keen on visibility. You know, like most of us—well, not most of us, but many of us. Many of us just aren’t very keen on being, you know... being visible in public.

So she started off doing one small thing. She started off writing one blog a month. And every time she wrote a blog, she gradually got better at it. Gradually got quicker. She could write it more quickly. And so she just started doing that—every month she did it.

And then, once she'd got used to that, she started to get used to social media, so that then she had somewhere she could share her blogs. And she found out that that was gonna be the best way for her to spend her marketing time at that time.

So marketing started to give her predictability and healthier boundaries, and a little bit more breathing room to just focus on the therapy that she was doing.

So, you know, there is definitely—definitely—an advantage to finding some regular time and sticking with it.

Put it in your diary. Don’t change it. Make it something that you do.

Now, there are a few pitfalls I recommend you try to dodge.

And one of those is, you know, going AWOL when you’re busy.

So that means that sometimes, when you are not busy, you get quite good at doing your marketing. You know, you get out there, you do your blogs, you keep your Google My Business up to date, and you do all those things. And then you start to get more clients in, and you start to get a little bit more busy. And that means you think, “Oh crikey...”

Well, this is what happened to me.

I thought, “I've cracked it! I've cracked it! Everybody knows I'm here now. I've made the big time. I'm getting regular clients. I'm beating them off—there’s so many clients coming to me.”

The problem there is that you stop. You stop doing your consistent marketing. And that can lead to that feast and famine cycle.

So you go from loads and loads of enquiries to getting no enquiries.

And this is why it’s really important to make marketing a regular habit. It’s gonna help you enormously.

So when you start getting busy, by all means, give yourself a pat on the back—but please keep that date in your diary to do your marketing. Otherwise, those enquiries will tail off.

The other thing that will—could trap you, basically—is trying to do everything.

So an example of this would be, look, you don't need to be on all the social media channels. You just don't. Please trust me on this.

Pick one channel. It doesn’t really matter which one it is—they're all good, they all work. But just pick one channel, the one that you like the best, and stick with that. Learn how to use it well.

So for example, you might say, “Right, I'm gonna use Instagram.” So really learn how to use Instagram. Learn about how to do your grid, how to do a profile, how to do your caption. Learn about how to do Stories and how to do Reels—if you want to do that. Learn how to connect with people and start building your followers.

But really learn how to do it, instead of just thinking, “Right, I just need to put two posts out a week and everything will just happen.”

So throw yourself into it. So when you do your weekly marketing, you are really learning how to do it as well as you possibly can.

And that’s why I say: choose one and learn how to do it well. If you try to do that with all the social media platforms, then you'll find that it’s gonna take too long. It’s gonna be too difficult.

The other pitfall to try and avoid is vague messaging.

You know, if people can’t see who you are and who you help and how you help, the chances are they're just gonna scroll on by.

So the more that you can understand who your clients are, understand your clients’ problems, understand your clients’ hopes and their dreams—the more that you are gonna be able to speak to them in a way that will help them.

So it's really important to think about who these people are and what it is that they need.

So—keep it simple. Keep it kind. Keep it going. Just stick to doing the simplest form of marketing that you can do.

Now, if you are ready to take your marketing seriously, but you don’t really know where to start—your therapy directory listing is the perfect place.

Now, most counsellors have a directory entry, but if it's not clear, if it’s not compelling, or if it’s not up to date, you are probably going to be missing out on enquiries.

So I have a service called The Directory Revival—which is really hard to say! I really didn’t think that through. But it’s called The Directory Revival, and this is a support for your listing.

So I'm gonna help you with this. This is a one-to-one thing. And together, we’ll refresh your directory entry so that it works harder for you—bringing in more of the right clients, with less of the faff.

So if you want to check that out, go to my website, which is www.janetravis.co.uk/directory-revival/.

Because sometimes, the smallest changes can really make the biggest difference—and this one could mean more eyes on your practice and more people reaching out.

So in short—marketing might not be your favourite bit of being in business. It might not be your favourite bit of running a practice. But it is the important bit.

It’s not about being loud. It’s not about being salesy. It’s about being visible in a way that feels okay for you, so that the people who need you can find you—and feel safe about reaching out to you.

So if that feels hard, remember: you don’t have to do it all at once. Just start with one thing. Be consistent. Keep showing up in a way that feels human and doable—and then add another thing.

And if your therapy directory listing could do with a refresh, take a look at The Directory Revival, which is my one-to-one service that will help you turn your profile from overlooked to client-ready.

You’ll find all the details at www.janetravis.co.uk/directory-revival/.

So that’s it for today. Now, I do hope that you found this episode helpful. If you did, do make sure that you follow the show so that you don’t miss the next one.

And I’ll be here each week, sharing with you some practical, real-life support to help you grow a practice that works for you.

So until next time—take care, and take action.

Bye-bye.