MHM#56 Is social media critical to filling your caseload?

Over the past few years, I’ve been strongly encouraging the therapists I work with to give Instagram a go, even when social media didn’t feel like their thing. 

This is because video content on Instagram plays a significant role in helping prospective clients get to know you. A video gives people a glimpse of what therapy with you might actually feel like. They can get a sense of your personality, see that you understand them, and start to imagine what a session might be like. 

All of this is incredibly important for connection and trust. In therapy marketing, feeling safe and trusting the therapist is everything. Prospective clients want to trust that they’ll feel safe with you, trust that you’ll get them, trust that you work with people just like them, and trust that they’ll feel comfortable opening up. All of this feeds into their decision to book an appointment with you.

At the same time, it’s just as important to make sure the marketing you set up is actually sustainable for you, and ideally something you don’t dread.

Running a business and marketing yourself can be hard, and you’re never going to love every part of it. But we also don’t want marketing to feel like this constant thing hanging over your head that you hate doing. That’s why, these days, when I work with therapists, I spend more time helping them think about what is truly realistic and sustainable for them in the long term.

If a therapist really feels they cannot imagine ever enjoying Instagram and is deeply uncomfortable with it, even if everything is set up perfectly, it’s unlikely they’ll keep creating content over time. And long-term consistency is what really matters on Instagram. If you can’t commit to it, there’s not much point, because the algorithm relies on ongoing, consistent posting.

So if you genuinely believe Instagram or any social media, just isn’t the right fit for you, the question becomes, how else can we create opportunities for people to connect with you and build trust?

One way is to create videos that live on your website. Not constantly creating new ones, but creating two or three key videos that play the same role as videos on Instagram - helping prospective clients get to know you and build trust. 

Of course, if you’re not on Instagram, you do miss out on the opportunity to get clients directly from that platform. But you don’t need to do every marketing activity to fill your caseload.

What you do want to avoid is relying on just one channel. You don’t want all your eggs in one marketing basket. For example, if you’re filling your caseload entirely through Google ads and something changes overnight, you don’t want to suddenly lose your main source of clients.

This is why diversifying your marketing matters. That doesn’t mean you must be on Instagram. It might look like a combination of Google ads, referral relationships and directories. The key is making sure you’re never relying entirely on one single channel to bring in new clients.

So if you’ve been feeling like you have to be on social media to fill your caseload, but everything in your body is pushing back against it, just know that it’s possible to fill your caseload without it. 

Yes, marketing always involves learning curves, and some discomfort at the beginning is normal. Discomfort alone doesn’t mean you should avoid something. But if you truly believe it’s not the right place for you, and you can’t see yourself creating content consistently over the long term, that’s okay.

Just make sure you still give prospective clients a way to connect with you. Because if they’re comparing you with other therapists who do have video content, we don’t want you to be overlooked simply because they haven’t had the same chance to get to know you and trust you.