Find Your Mental Health Niche to Supercharge Practice Growth

Have you decided on your niche? The specialty that you’ll focus on in practice? If not, it’s time.

In our rollercoaster world, it might seem counterintuitive to rule out treating a range of conditions or challenges. After all, that’s what specializing does. It says, “I’m all in” for one niche. By default, that means you’re “all-out” for others. But before you head for the hills, let me explain.

A niche that is sufficiently large and has motivated clients is full of opportunity. It contains an abundance of potential clients seeking expert therapy. Clients who are willing to pay for their care. Let’s look at two hypotheticals …

First, pretend you have a brain tumor. Will you turn to a family doctor for treatment or a neuro-oncologist? Will dollars be the determining factor in who you consult or their expertise?

Second, imagine that you develop depression. Would you prefer to see a therapist who specializes in this condition — an expert with a vast depth of knowledge, expansive training, and condition-specific experience — or would you seek support from an unqualified neighbor?

Yes, the last example is an exaggeration. But I hope to underpin two points: One, people want care from an expert. Two, the funds and willingness to pay for specialized care absolutely exist. But being the expert in a niche has greater benefits than these two factors alone. It elevates care, allows for magnetic marketing, and streamlines practice and marketing systems.

How?

Deeper expertise leads to elevated care

When you work solely in one niche, your inch-wide purview morphs into a mile-deep expanse. You gain knowledge that others, particularly generalists, cannot possess. You’re able to exponentially explode your competence to become better able to serve those in your care. You can offer more nuanced therapy and gain superior results.

The greater your results, the more people will talk. Word of mouth will spread. Testimonials will flood in, which you can use in authentic, persuasive — “magnetic” — marketing.

This can open opportunities for media coverage, speaking engagements, referrals from other health professionals, and compelling website copy that converts more visitors into clients.

New clients will be more open to care; preconditioned to believe they will recover. In effect, their knowledge of your expertise creates a self-fulfilling prophecy; The Pygmalion Effect in clinical action.

It’s a powerful, virtuous cycle. And this cycle has legs.

Once you’ve pushed this ball from the top of the hill, inertia takes hold. Momentum mounts. So long as you continue to further your expertise, lead the pack, and provide wonderful care the traction will grow… Potentially endlessly.

You’ll become a sought-after expert; a valuable necessity worth investing in. Whereas a generalist remains a price-sensitive commodity; one that can be exchanged for a cheaper, more convenient therapist.

For these reasons, it’s easier to sustain and grow a specialized practice. It’s infinitely more profitable too.

Tip: If you’re thinking about or ready to launch into a solo specialized practice, our article, How to Seamlessly Transition From Group to Solo Practice, is a must-read.

Superior quality of care

As we’ve touched on already, being a specialist leads to superior quality care. We, humans, only have a certain amount of time. As much as we wish it were otherwise, our capacity to learn is finite. So, how we spend our time matters.

To put this into context, imagine you have 20 units. One unit is required to purchase one ounce of wisdom. You can spend one unit on 20 disparate areas and have a broad, superficial understanding. Or you can combine all 20 units into a single niche, leading to deeply impactful knowledge. The knowledge that is required for complex cases, for uncovering root causes, for getting results where others have failed.

That’s why we, at BrighterVision, focus solely on website creation and marketing for therapists. We could take our 20 units and offer services for everyone. But, we know that concentrating our time and resources in this niche brings infinitely higher quality to our therapy clients. It’s why we can truly make a massive difference, even for clients that other companies have failed.

Streamline your practice and marketing systems

Every practice should have systems in place that make life easier while providing amazing service. This is simpler when you niche.

Let’s look at a digital marketing example…

A marriage counselor could offer a free report on their website. Say, “19 secret habits to keep (or restore) the sizzle in your marriage”. Because the therapist specializes in this niche, their blog posts and advertising will be aimed at attracting those interested in marriage counseling. So, there’s a great chance this report will pique visitors’ curiosity.

Once the visitor provides their name and email, the report and a follow-up email series are sent; automatically. This provides useful information and builds rapport over time. Yes, the ingredients required to cultivate a potential clinical relationship. This runs on auto-pilot after the initial setup.

Now, imagine a generalist. What do they target? Visitors are only interested in WIIFM (“what’s in it for me”) and need a persuasive incentive to hand over their name and email. “The top 10 tips for mental wellbeing” isn’t as compelling as the “The top 10 tips proven to stop anxiety in its tracks.”

Can you see how the latter targets a specific problem with advice someone might desperately need? This topic would entice an opt-in from a person with this complaint. Now compare this to the former; a “nice to know” resource they can take or leave.

See how the specialist can set up a system that targets visitors with effective, persuasive laser focus.

While the generalist either has one ineffective marketing process. Or needs to create multiple opt-ins for various conditions and set up a separate system for each. That’s a great deal of work for a lower return.

Given you may have countless practice and marketing systems, a niche can make for simpler, more effective processes.

The power of magnetic marketing

We’ve just talked about one marketing strategy in the form of a free opt-in: a digital gift that someone gains by “opting-in” with their name and email. But magnetic niche-specific marketing runs deeper than a single approach.

Being a specialist has the power to transfix and attract your audience like the Death Star’s tractor beam. When everything you do is targeted toward one niche, your focus is obvious and consistent. This leaves little room for doubt; people know what condition or challenge your treatment is geared towards.

When you speak and blog about this topic, when your social media is uniform, or when you produce a book in this niche, you magnetize and multiply your appeal. You’ll draw in people like moths to a flame. This is the potency of magnetic marketing.

The more you speak about your niche, the greater the pulling power you wield. When people see you repetitively talking about your specialty, you will become synonymous with it. You will become known as the *niche* expert. This is a position you want to hold. This is a position of power and influence. This is required to rapidly explode your practice growth!

So…

Which niche should you choose?

There’s a range of ways to choose your niche. These 10 questions will begin the process of identifying a suitable choice.

1. What challenges, conditions, and illnesses are you passionate about?
2. What is your educational background?
3. What niches do you have experience and expertise in treating?
4. What conditions appear to be underserved?
5. Who do you enjoy working with?
6. Have you conducted research into potential competition, patient needs, and search engine search volume? If yes, what does your research tell you? If not, do; this is an important step in the assessment process to ensure there is sufficient demand.
7. Are there any niches where you can position yourself uniquely? Where you hold a unique selling point or USP?
8. Are there gaps in the market where you could deliver more successful care than is the current norm?
9. Will your niche allow expansion in the future, and should you choose to widen your net?
10. What does your gut say?

Choosing your niche is best decided by a mix of intellect and intuition, need and value, experience and expertise, research and passion. Here are some potential niche examples to spark your imagination:

• Addiction
• Anger management
• Eating disorders
• Grief
• Marriage counseling
• Mood disorders
• Pain management
• Performance coaching
• Personality disorders
• Phobias
• Post-traumatic
• Stress disorders
• Sexual disorders

The mental health niche takeaway

Whether you are soon to graduate, have recently begun in practice, or are looking for a change, identifying your niche is key. Becoming known as an expert within a specific field can supercharge your practice. It may initially feel counterintuitive, but I see the power in this approach; day-in, day-out.

A niche will help you to stand out, elevate your therapy, create magnetic marketing, and streamline practice and marketing systems. Always remember, people want and are willing to pay for expert care.

With the right approaches and structure, your niche can act as the rocket fuel that propels you from where you are now to where you wish to be!

Want the beautiful therapist website you deserve? Then you’re in the perfect place.

Brighter Vision is the ultimate marketing package for therapists, centered around the best therapist website you’ve ever had. Fill out the form below to learn more about our team of professionals who can’t wait to help your practice grow like never before 🙂

About Jocelyn Van Saun

Jocelyn is a Marketing Manager at Brighter Vision. When she's not creating and sharing content for our network of therapists, she loves spending time outdoors - rock climbing, trail running, hiking, camping, mountain biking, and skiing!