This edition of our Industry Report series is about Therapists.
We’re specifically focusing on the city of Austin for this report for two reasons.
1. We live in Austin and love this city. Yes, we’re biased.
2. Mental health practices usually need local clients to visit their office. This means in order to properly analyze the marketing potential, we have to focus on one city to get accurate numbers.
In this report, we dive into:
Search opportunities. These are the keywords that people are typing into Google when searching for a therapist, along with how many times per month these searches happen. This gives us a strong idea of the growth potential, since searches like “best therapist in austin” are most likely being typed by someone who is actively looking for a therapist – obviously, right?
Accessibility. How easy it is for someone to find a therapist in Austin? Are websites making it clear how to book an appointment, or which insurances they accept? Do local therapists have clear pricing? Phone counselling options? Free consultations? Live chat? This will all be revealed soon.
Let’s get on with the goods.
Keywords & Search Opportunities
Our keyword research shows that there’s very little competitive online advertising going on for therapists and counselors in Austin.
Yelp shows 1124 listings for mental health providers in Austin. (between the first draft of this report, and it’s publishing that number has already gone up from 1119 to 1124)
You can see in the chart below that there are a lot of high search volume keywords.
This is quite a bit of competition, so you can understand how important it is to stand out, and get in front of your prospects as they are looking for a therapy or counselling provider.
Below is a screenshot analyzing the searches that people are currently using in the Austin area.
Note: The Search Volume is a monthly average number of searches for the given keyword.
Everyone one of the above searches is specific to Austin, and represents a potential new patient.
It’s a lot of searches, but none of these matter if the people aren’t finding your practice as a result.
So how do you get your business in front of these searches?
The Search Experience
When someone searches for a therapist in Austin, here’s what they see.
It’s obvious that Google is giving advertisers the best placements – even putting their results above the local map option.
If you’re not running advertisements towards relevant searches for your practice, then clearly you’re missing out on a ton of opportunity.
Securing top ad placements is simple in practice: Write a good ad, have specific keyword targeting (such as the terms in the table above), and then beat the other advertisers in ad quality & bid.
However getting in front of potential leads while they are searching is only the beginning of the process.
Once you’ve managed to get a click on your ad, it’s time to make sure that the visitor actually books an appointment.
Which brings us to…
The Website & Booking Experience
When someone is looking for a therapist, they are in need right now and want to quickly find somebody who they are comfortable with, and able to reach.
During this study, we spent some time searching through Google looking for therapists, just like a prospective patient would.
Here’s what we found: Finding the right therapist can be a huge pain.
On one attempt we spent nearly an hour trying to find a therapist with good reviews and who actually answered the phone instead of sending us to voicemail.
When someone is calling on the phone, your prospect has consciously made a decision to give you a shot.
If a lead feels like you don’t have the time for them, it’s likely just they call the next number on Google – there are plenty to choose from, after all.
Another popular intake method is the online contact form, which comes with its own flaws.
Most Austin-area therapists are relying on, and even prioritizing contact forms with a message like:
“Fill out these required fields, and we’ll reach out to you.”
How personal, right?
Some fo