THERAPIST MARKETING
Therapist Marketing for Private Practices
You’re booked solid some months and staring at open slots in others, and most of your referrals come from a Psychology Today profile you don’t control. Therapist marketing shouldn’t mean choosing between that and turning into a full-time content creator. In2itive Biz Solutions builds the website, local search presence and intake follow-up that get the right clients to your calendar, and we do it in a way that fits the ethics codes you already work under.
We work with solo therapists, group practices, counselors and psychologists. Here’s how we think about it.
Based in Cary, NC · Working with clients nationwide
Websites · SEO · Social · Email · CRM
You own every account and asset
Monthly reports on leads, not likes
Based in Cary, NC
WHERE IT USUALLY BREAKS
Therapist marketing: what usually goes wrong
Most private practices don’t have a marketing problem so much as a plumbing problem. A few patterns show up again and again:
The directory is doing all the work
Psychology Today is useful. It’s also rented space. You’re listed next to every other clinician in your zip code, sorted by an algorithm you don’t see, and the day you stop paying, that traffic stops too.
The website is a brochure nobody finds
It says “individualized, compassionate care” (so does everyone else’s) and doesn’t say who you actually help, what you treat, whether you take their insurance, or how to book.
The Google Business Profile is half-finished
Wrong hours, no categories beyond the default, no photos. That’s the listing people see when they search “therapist near me,” so it matters more than it looks.
Intake leaks
Someone finally works up the nerve to reach out on a Tuesday night. The form goes to a general inbox. Somebody replies Friday. By then they’ve booked with whoever answered first.
The contact form asks too much
A web form that asks for a diagnosis, medications and history before you’ve even spoken is a privacy risk and a conversion killer at the same time.
Group practices can't hire fast enough
Demand isn’t the bottleneck. Clinicians are, and the careers page (if there is one) is a single paragraph and an email address.
WHAT WE DO
What we do for private practices
A website that works harder than your directory profile
Your own site is the one asset you fully own. We build or rebuild practice websites with a page for each specialty or population you serve, clinician bio pages that sound like humans wrote them, clear insurance and fee information, and a booking path that works on a phone. Keep your Psychology Today profile. Just make it one door into your practice instead of the only one.
Local SEO and Google Business Profile
Most therapy searches are local. We set up and clean up your Google Business Profile, fix name/address/phone consistency across directories, and build service and location pages through our SEO work so you show up for the things people actually search, like “couples counseling in Raleigh” or “teen therapist near me.”
Privacy-aware intake and follow-up
Through our CRM implementation (on our Build Beautiful platform, or the tools you already use), new inquiries get routed to the right person, acknowledged right away, and followed up on without anyone digging through an inbox. We keep public-facing forms to the minimum you need to call someone back, and send anything clinical into your EHR or secure portal instead.
Ads, carefully
Paid search can fill a new clinician’s caseload quickly. It also has healthcare-specific rules (more below). Our ads management is built around those rules, not around cramming the budget into remarketing.
Email and social, without oversharing
Email works well for workshops, groups and referral-partner updates. Social media is good for showing how you think and who you are, which is a lot of why someone picks a therapist. It is not a place for client stories.
Recruiting clinicians for group practices
For group practices, we treat hiring as a marketing funnel too: a real careers page that explains caseload, supervision, pay structure and culture, job posts that don’t read like everyone else’s, and a lead-capture flow so applicants get a response the same week they apply.
THE FINE PRINT, IN PLAIN ENGLISH
Ethics and compliance: the part other agencies skip
A lot of generic marketing advice will get a therapist in trouble. A few things to know:
Why testimonials are an ethics problem for therapists
In most industries, “get more reviews” is standard advice. For therapists, it runs straight into your ethics code. The APA Ethics Code, Standard 5.05, says psychologists “do not solicit testimonials from current therapy clients/patients or other persons who because of their particular circumstances are vulnerable to undue influence.” The ACA Code of Ethics, C.3.b, says counselors “do not solicit testimonials from current clients and/or former clients.” So we don’t build review-request automations for therapy clients, and we don’t write “client success stories.” We build trust with things that are allowed: your credentials, your approach, clear information about what working with you looks like, and content that actually helps people.
HIPAA-aware forms and email
There’s no such thing as an official “HIPAA certification,” for an agency or a form builder, so be wary of anyone selling one. What matters is what data you collect, where it goes, and whether the vendors handling it will sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA). HHS says providers can email patients as long as they use reasonable safeguards and accommodate patients who want a more secure method. In practice, our default is simple: the website form collects contact information and a preferred time to talk, and nothing clinical goes through marketing tools. Tracking pixels stay off anything that works like a patient portal, in line with HHS’s guidance on online tracking technologies.
Google Ads healthcare restrictions
Google’s personalized advertising policy treats health as a sensitive category, which limits using your own audience lists (remarketing, customer match) to advertise health services. And if your practice treats drug or alcohol addiction, Google’s healthcare and medicines policy requires certification (in the US, through LegitScript) before you can run ads for those services. We plan campaigns around those limits from day one.
This isn’t legal advice. Confirm specifics with your licensing board, professional association or counsel.
THE PROCESS
How we work
1Audit and baselineWhere do new clients come from today, what does your site and Google profile look like, and how fast does an inquiry get a reply? We write down the real numbers before we change anything.
2Fix the foundationsGoogle Business Profile, directory consistency, forms, tracking settings, and the obvious website problems.
3BuildSpecialty pages, clinician bios, SEO content, and ads if they make sense for your goals.
4Set up follow-upInquiry routing, fast acknowledgments and reminders so nobody falls through the cracks.
5Report monthly on what mattersInquiries, consultations and new clients, not likes and impressions.
If you want to see what this looks like for a professional practice, our Gailor Hunt case study walks through a website rebuild for a Raleigh family law firm, including bio pages, practice-area pages, and consultation requests routed straight into the CRM. Different profession, same problem: people in a hard moment trying to find the right person to call. Not sure where to start? Our marketing strategy work is a good first step.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Have a question that isn’t here? Ask us directly. A real person answers.
Should I drop my Psychology Today listing?
Usually not. If it’s sending you clients, keep it. The goal is to stop relying on it alone, so your own website and Google profile carry more of the load over time.
How long until SEO works?
Google Business Profile fixes can show up in weeks. Organic rankings for competitive terms typically take several months of steady work. Anyone promising a specific ranking by a specific date is guessing.
Do you build HIPAA-compliant forms?
We build forms that are designed to keep clinical information out of marketing tools, and we connect them to systems that offer a BAA when you need one. Whether your overall setup is compliant depends on your policies and vendors too, so we’ll work with whoever handles compliance for your practice.
Can you get me more reviews?
Not from clients, for the ethics reasons above. We can help you build credibility in other ways and make sure your profile is complete and accurate. If a review shows up on its own, we can help you think through a response that doesn’t confirm someone was a client.
Who owns the website and accounts?
You do. Your domain, website, Google Business Profile, ad accounts and analytics should be in your name, with us added as a user. If we part ways, you keep everything.
Can you help us hire therapists?
Yes. For group practices we build careers pages, job posts and applicant follow-up. We don’t act as a recruiter or screen candidates, but we can make sure good applicants find you and hear back quickly.
What does it cost?
It depends on scope. A solo practice that needs a cleaner website and Google profile is a very different project from a multi-location group practice running ads and hiring. Book a call and we’ll give you a straight answer for your situation.
Let's talk about your practice
If your calendar depends too much on one directory, or inquiries are slipping through the cracks, let’s look at it together. Book a free consultation and we’ll tell you what we’d fix first and what can wait.
In2itive Biz Solutions · Cary, North Carolina