Welcome therapists and group practice owners! I’m Nicole McCance, a psychologist turned business coach for therapists. I built my group practice to 55 therapists and multiple 7-figures, and then I sold it.
I’ve coached over 1,000 therapists, and the biggest pain point I hear is “the clients are coming in, but I don’t really know where they’re coming from” (it was the exact same for me). When you can’t tell which therapy practice marketing is working, you end up doing what I did, which was spending way too much on Google Ads and way too much time on things that weren’t bringing anyone in. I’m walking you through the marketing and referral dashboard inside ClinicMonk™, my CRM for therapy practices, so you can finally work smarter.
P.S. Not a huge fan of reading blogs? (I’m more of a podcast girl myself) You can listen to my podcast episode all about this topic by clicking here or watching the video below!
What Should You Check Before Spending More on Marketing?
Before you turn up the marketing tap (AKA: invest more of your valuable time and money), I want you to look at four numbers, because there’s no point working so hard to bring people to your website if they aren’t booking once they get there.
4 Metrics to Check Before You Turn Up the Tap
- Booking rate. The percentage of your inquiries that booked a free consult call. The goal should be 70%.
- Show rate. How many of those people showed up for the consult, which we want at 90%.
- Consult call conversion rate. How many consult calls turned into booked clients. The goal is at least 70%.
- Direct booking rate. The people who skip the consult and book straight in. (If you’re American and in-network, yours will be higher.)
If any of these are low, please fix that first.
A lot of you have the people coming in and your marketing IS working, but you don’t know it because they aren’t booking. Therapists using ClinicMonk™ keep telling me they were blaming their marketing when the real bottleneck was sitting behind it, and once they focused on the right thing, their growth took off like rocket fuel.
Once your leads are showing up and converting, the next question is what’s bringing those clients in. The most important number for you is new clients by source.
ClinicMonk™ sorts your new clients by digital marketing source:
- Paid search. These clients came from your Google Ads.
- Organic search. These clients went to Google and found you, so that’s your SEO.
- Direct traffic. They typed your URL straight in, so that’s probably somebody very warm, like someone whose friend goes to your clinic.
- Social media. Your regular posting, plus paid social if you’re running it.
- Referrals. Another website linked to yours, and typically that’s Psychology Today or another directory.
Even if you haven’t fully started digital marketing, keep your eyes on SEO, because yours might naturally be good. Mine was, because I did a lot of media, but I wasn’t investing in it. If it’s working, do more of it!
How to Track Referral Sources in Your Therapy Practice
The dashboard also tracks your referral sources, which come straight from what people tell you on your contact form. You’ll see how many clients came from friends and family, physicians, other therapists, directories like Psychology Today, Instagram, Facebook and email marketing.
If physicians are referring to you, you know to stay on top of following up with them. (Every time you add a faxed physician referral, ClinicMonk™ automatically sends them a thank you that I’ve written for you and offers to meet with them!)
Hot Tip: AI search is still a bit hard to track. It usually shows up as organic search, or sometimes as a referral. I do think better tracking is coming, and in the meantime you can listen to my podcast episode on getting your therapy practice found on AI search.
Here’s a sneak peak at the Digital Marketing & Referrals dashboard inside of ClinicMonk™
Are Your Google Ads Bringing in Qualified Leads?
I once hired a Google Ads company that was sending me “leads,” or what they call conversions, and these people weren’t booking (they were actually a lot of paperwork!). That’s why the dashboard shows leads and qualified leads separately.
If you’re paying for Google Ads, please share this information with your ads company. You can say, “Thank you so much for the leads. It looks like you brought me 80, but inside my CRM only 61 of them were actually qualified.”
The same applies everywhere else, so if Psychology Today only sends you a few referrals but they’re qualified and they’re becoming clients, you’re not going to cancel it.
Which Google Ads Ad Groups Are Working for Your Practice?
Let’s say your anxiety ad group is outperforming depression and couples therapy. Give that data to your Google Ads company and they’re going to invest more in what’s working (it’s really that easy).
It also tells you what to talk about. If most people find your clinic by searching for anxiety, that’s your topic for emails, social media posts, blogs and your Google Business Profile, and because it’s all in real time, the moment it shifts, you shift.
Track Your Therapy Practice Marketing, Then Turn Up the Tap
Having eyes on what’s working, paying the right people to bring in the clients and then turning up the tap is how I built a multiple 7-figure practice, and my coaching company too.
By 2027 I think almost everybody will have a CRM, and we’ll all be asking how we ever did marketing without knowing what was working. (Aren’t we lucky to run a business in this era?!)
Want more strategies for growing your therapy practice? Follow me on Instagram and listen to the Business Savvy Therapist podcast for strategies and real talk about scaling a 7-figure group practice without burning out.
Your Business Bestie,
Nicole
