MHM#63 How to build a strong therapy practice brand

In this article, I thought I’d explain what we mean by “growing a strong brand” and how it relates to growing a therapy practice.

To grow a brand, you need your ideal client to first be aware of you and to then develop positive and accurate brand associations about you.

As a therapist, you’ll be familiar with the idea that our memory works as a network of associations. Each new piece of knowledge doesn’t sit in isolation, it becomes part of a larger network of ideas.

When you encounter something for the first time and pay sufficient attention, it can create a new “node” to represent that knowledge. This node then connects to your existing memory network, linking it to what you already know, think and feel.

This idea is well established in psychology and is often referred to as associative memory networks (Anderson & Bower, 1979). This process of building a network also describes how a brand is created in your memory (Keller, 1993).

For example, the first time you heard about the brand 'Uber'. You may have thought that it meant something extreme with vague German connotations. You then learned Uber is like a taxi, which helped you put the brand Uber in the “things I pay for that take me places” part of your brain, currently occupied by taxis, buses, trains, etc.

Over time, your memory evolved with other associations as you encountered and experienced the brand, the mobile app, the black and white logo, the drivers you had, and the pricing system. Associations also develop from advertising, stories in the media, conversations with other people, and so on. The broader memory network of the brand starts to take form and becomes a reservoir of knowledge that you can utilise whenever you encounter the brand, such as seeing an advertisement or needing to travel to the airport.

“Memories are defined by the company they keep.” (Romaniuk, 2018). The associations you create aren't always going to be positive. The driver was rude, the car was late, and I heard Uber treats their staff really badly. Enough negative associations will result in you making a different decision. Negative associations are also very hard to erode.

Each time you need to travel to the airport, Uber enters your consideration set. I could get an Uber, a taxi, or drive and park at the airport. If your thoughts about Uber trigger you to remember all your bad experiences and perceptions, you may decide to order a taxi instead. If the taxi ride is a really positive experience, you create positive associations about taxis, and so on.

A strong brand is a brand that has created numerous positive and accurate associations in the minds of its ideal customers. When a prospective customer encounters the brand or is considering which brand to buy, the brand they are aware of and that has the most positive associations will typically win the sale.

What this looks like when someone is choosing a therapist

• When a prospective client is deciding which therapist to book with, they are rarely making a purely rational decision.
• They are often sitting with multiple tabs open, looking at a few different therapists, and trying to work out who feels like the right fit.
• At that point, they are not just comparing qualifications or years of experience. They are responding to what comes up for them as they read your website or look at your profile.

Things like:

• Do I feel safe with this person?
• Do they understand what I’m going through?
• Will I feel judged?
• Can they actually help me?
• Why does this one feel different?

These are not logical checklists. They are emotional and intuitive responses, shaped by the associations your marketing has created.

The therapist who feels like the best fit is often the one whose brand has created the strongest and most relevant associations for that client.

How does this relate to you as a therapist and growing a private therapy practice?

For a prospective client to consider you when thinking about which therapist to book an appointment with, they need to be aware of you. The job of marketing is to create this awareness, helping you to get in front of prospective clients by becoming more visible in Google, being present on social media, building relationships with referrers, and so on.

Secondly, we need your prospective clients to create numerous positive associations about you, ideally more than the other therapists they're considering booking an appointment with.

As a therapist, how do you create positive associations?

• Creating a look and feel, your logo, colour palette, font, images, that accurately reflects your practice, resonates with your ideal clients, and is consistently used across your website, Instagram account and other platforms.
• Website content that provides enormous value, resonates with your ideal clients and accurately describes your practice and what clients can expect.
• Instagram content that enables prospective clients to get to know you and connect with you. This is why video content is so important.
• Developing free resources that provide lots of value to your ideal clients.
• Nurturing relationships with referrers.
• The touchpoints that sit around your therapy sessions, ensuring the intake process is seamless, checking in with clients after their initial appointment, and so on.

So next time you’re writing content for your website, speaking with a referrer, or creating a video for Instagram, take a moment to consider what your ideal client needs to think, feel and believe about you to trust that you’re the right therapist to help them, and create content that intentionally builds those associations.

References

Anderson, JR & Bower, GH (1979) Human Associative Memory, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillside, NJ

Keller, KL (1993) ‘Conceptualizing, measuring and managing customer-based brand enquiry’, Journal of Marketing, vol. 57, pp. 1-22

Romaniuk, J (2018) Building Distinctive Brand Assets, Oxford University Press, Victoria, Australia

Sharp, B & Romaniuk, J (2022) How Brands Grow Part 2, Oxford University Press, Victoria, Australia