Before You Worry About SEO or Social Media…Fix This (Episode 20)
You’re showing up. You’ve got a website, an Instagram, maybe even tried networking or Google Ads—but the clients aren’t coming. What gives? In this episode, we’re digging into a quiet culprit behind ineffective marketing: your language.
If your copy feels generic, vague, or disconnected from how you actually show up in the room, it’s likely not doing the heavy lifting your marketing needs. I’ll walk you through why even solid strategies fall flat without the right words—and how realigned language can flip the switch from “no traction” to “my clients finally get me.”
Whether you’re DIY-ing your copy or considering a full revamp, this episode will help you understand what might be getting lost in translation—and what to do about it.
Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:
1️⃣ Why “doing all the things” might not be the issue—and how to tell if language is your real marketing block
2️⃣ How common strategies like SEO, Google Ads, social media, and networking hinge on your words more than you think
3️⃣ What happens when your copy actually reflects your voice, your values, and your work—and how that changes everything
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Hey y'all. Welcome back to Marketing Therapy episode 20. I heard that if you make it to 20 podcast episodes, you are gonna keep going. Most people quit before 20, so buckle up. We're, we're in this for the long haul. Um, I'm excited about today's episode. I wanna talk about something that I see so many therapists overlooking in their marketing, and it makes a lot of sense why we're gonna look at that.
When therapists decide they want to fill their caseload, they're like, all right, I'm gonna do this private practice thing. I'm gonna commit, I'm gonna do the things. Then their focus usually goes straight to strategy, right? Tactics, SEO, Google Ads, networking, Instagram, TikTok, whatever that might be.
Psychology Today. None of those instincts are wrong. Of course, we need those tactics and strategies, right? But what I've seen. After working with thousands of therapists at this point is that so often they do the things and still don't get the results they want.
That's when I know that this isn't a visibility problem for that therapist. It's a language problem because everything you're trying to do to grow your practice ads, blog posts, networking. Depends on what you are saying and how you are saying it. So that's the thing that I see way too many therapists skipping right on past.
There words, and if your words aren't working, if they are vague, if they're generic, if they're out of sync with how you actually show up, then let me tell you, no tactic or strategy is gonna fix that. So in this episode, I wanna dig into why the words you use matter more than you probably think, and how getting them right can really start to change the results you're seeing from your marketing.
So what do I mean when I say everything you're trying? Depends on your words. Because I really do hear this all the time. Therapists come to me saying, Anna, I'm doing all the things. I have a website. I created an Instagram account. I even went to a networking event. I hated it, but I went to it last month.
I'm still not getting the kinds of clients I want. And here's what I tell them. It's not that you're not showing up, of course, it's not that you're not trying, it is that your language, the words you're using to describe what you do and who you help, aren't doing the job they need to do.
All right. I wanna actually break this down strategy by strategy. So the most common tactics or strategies therapists think they need in order to get clients and what's actually underneath them. So, SEO, we've all heard it, the big three letters, search engine optimization. This is how you get clients through Google.
And people often think of SEO as this very kind of techie behind the scenes thing, and in some ways it is. But at the end of the day, you know what it's about language. Google more than ever is scanning your website and trying to figure out what it's about based on your words. How authoritative are you?
How much expertise do you have in this specialty? Are you trustworthy? Do you know enough to actually be rankable? Not just the headlines you're using, not just the little places you plug in a quote unquote keyword, but the actual phrases you are using to talk about your work. What's interesting with the onset of ai, and you may have heard of clinicians getting clients through chat, GBT and things like that, chat, GBT is even more so looking at how you talk on your website.
So if how you talk is vague or full of feel good generalities like. I create a safe space or a laundry list of specialties or things that you treat. Google has no idea what to do with that, and neither does any AI model, and more importantly, neither does your ideal client. So even SEO is about words, Google ads.
Maybe I'll just run out and spend some money on Google ads. Great. Same thing. When it comes to Google Ads, you are literally paying money to put a small block of copy in front of potential clients and then invite them to read more copy on your website in order to decide if you're the therapist that they're looking for.
So if the words in that ad and the words on that website don't resonate, if they don't grab attention or create connection or really speak to the specific need that has led that person to type in that query. Into Google in the first place, then you're literally throwing money into the void. You're flushing it down the toilet ads don't work if you don't have the words right, Instagram, social media.
Okay. Powerful strategy when done, right? Absolutely. Great tactic.
It is easy to assume. Social media is mostly visual, right? Especially Instagram, but even TikTok. Things like that. And design matters, no doubt about it, but it's your caption, your story, your voice that's ultimately building connection. I've seen therapists with beautifully branded Instagrams, I'm talking stunning aesthetically, who are still not getting inquiries because their content isn't really saying anything real.
No one's reading it and thinking, oh, this is for me. And again, that comes back to language. What about networking? Networking is, as I consider it, an absolute non-negotiable when it comes to getting clients, particularly full fee clients in this market. And that can feel like it's all dependent on how professional you are or who you know, or how well connected you are.
And again, all those things influence it, but even in face-to-face conversations, one-on-one coffee chats with other therapists, it's the same problem. What do you say when someone asks you what you do? If your answer sounds like everyone else's, oh, I work with women with anxiety or adults with relationship issues.
People don't mean to, but they tune you out. They don't remember you, and if they don't remember you, they can't refer to you. Not because you're not skilled, not because you're an introvert, not because they don't like you, but because you haven't said anything distinct. Even those referrals rely on your work.
And that surprises a lot of people. A lot of times they'll think of referrals as kind of automatic. I'm good at what I do, I share it. I get clients. The only way that system works is if people understand what you do, and it's your job to communicate that. If your referral partners can't clearly articulate who you help and why you're the go-to for that population or the person they're thinking of sending your way.
Then they're not gonna be able to send the right people your way, or they'll send clients your way that are totally misaligned and not the right fit, which is just a draining experience for everyone involved. Right? Even networking is about your words. So that's the pattern that I see. Therapists show up, they try quote unquote, all the things, the number of times I've heard that, all the things.
And then when it doesn't work, they blame. The tactic. Well, Instagram doesn't work. SEO isn't for me. It's too hard to rank on Google, I guess. No one's using psych today these days. But the truth is, if your words aren't working, your strategies won't either. Whether you're writing an email or posting on social or updating your website, introducing yourself at a lunch and learn whatever you're doing, your results are only as strong as the language you're using.
So this is where I wanna pause and say something directly to you. If you are sitting here listening and have been putting in effort to your marketing, good on you. That is huge. Not every therapist does that. Some therapists expect this to happen on autopilot. But if you have been putting in effort, congratulations.
Seriously, that's wonderful. If you've shown up and posted and written and reached out. Then you have started to build an important muscle in your marketing. But if you are still not getting the traction you want, then it's probably not a strategy problem. It's probably a language problem. It's because the way you're describing your work isn't landing.
It's not connecting. It's not clear or distinct or memorable enough for the right people to say, this is what I've been looking for. And that's where everything else can start to unravel because the words you use don't just describe what you do, although of course they do serve that purpose, but they signal who you are as a therapist.
Language tells people who you work with, whether or not you are for them, whether or not you are safe. And especially in private pay work, whether or not you are worth the fee you charge, this isn't actually about your worth, right? You're worth the fee that you charge no matter how good or bad your words are.
But people are assigning worth based on your words. Clients are constantly scanning for clues. Do I belong here? Does this therapist get me? Can I picture myself actually opening up to this person and sharing the things I've never said out loud? And here's what a lot of therapists forget your marketing.
It's the first session. It's when clients are already starting to make meaning. They're on your website, your PT profile, your social media, and they're reading between the lines. Just like they do in the therapy room, they're making decisions based on what you're saying and how you're saying it. So if your language is vague or feels like it could belong to any other therapist in your city, any of the other 10 plus tabs they have open on their browser right now.
You're not just losing people, you are losing the right people, the ones you actually want to work with and want to work with you. I had a conversation about this recently with a group practice team. Uh, they were trying to decide whether to invest in copy design or both with our done for you service, and I told them we'd love to support you in both areas, but if you are deciding on one or the other, copy is king, and design is queen.
Design matters when it comes to your website, probably more than ever, but I will always stand by this, that it is your words. That ultimately determine whether or not someone reaches out to you. And one of the clinicians on the call actually pushed back on that a little bit, which I appreciated. He said that he would've argued the opposite.
And I get it because beautiful design builds trust, it matters, it does provide signals to people about the experience they can expect. But you can have the most visually stunning website in the whole wide world. But if the copy doesn't speak to the client's experience. If it doesn't help them see that you understand them and how you'll help them with the problems they're facing.
They won't book a consult. They will not book a consult because your website is beautiful. They'll book a consult because your copy connected with them. They'll click away, not because you're not good at what you do, not because you can't serve them well, but because your language didn't do its job.
But I've seen the reverse happen too. A therapist we worked with had been marketing herself in a way that was kind of soft and supportive. Um, that was the tone we were using. That was the feel of what we'd created for her. But when we talked more about how she was actually beginning to show up in session and she'd really experienced kind of an evolution as a clinician, it was clear that her style these days was far more direct.
Practical, no. BS telling it like it is, and her clients love her for that. She had for so long been sounding quite gentle in her copy, but the reality was it didn't reflect what people could actually expect from her. Her clients didn't need more handholding. Her clients are responding to that direct result, focused style, and so we made some really.
Strategic changes to her copy to reflect what she was actually doing in the room. We didn't make her more intense than she was. We just kind of stopped hiding it. Right, and almost immediately she started hearing this is exactly the type of therapist I've been looking for, or I've worked with other therapists before, but no one described it quite like this.
That's the type of experience I want. That's what happens when your language matches your work. There's not that disconnect anymore. You're not doing the over-explaining. You're not trying to land the plane on a console, right? Because clients are already aligned from the start, so it's a small shift.
Sometimes it can feel like my words like how could they really matter that much, but it can change everything. Usually the words aren't working because they're just a little bit off. Not usually because they're vastly wrong, but because they're too soft or too broad. Too focused on the therapist instead of the client too afraid to say what actually makes you different.
But when you get the words right, it can be like flipping a switch because suddenly the same strategy you've been using, those tactics that you have been building the muscle around you website, your networking, your directory profiles, your social media, it starts working because now your words are actually doing the heavy lifting.
They should be. They're showing people who you are, how you help, if you're the right fit, why it matters, how to take action. That's the power of language.
What happens if you're sitting here right now and your words don't match your work? It's where I see a lot of really skilled therapists get stuck. I mean, really skilled. All the trainings, all the background still get stuck here. They're doing powerful and nuanced, transformational work in the room, but the way they show up in their marketing is generic and safe, boring, overly buttoned up, and what that creates, whether they realize it or not, is friction.
Clients come in expecting one thing based on the website and get something totally different in the consult or the intake session. The therapists find themselves over explaining or trying to course correct doing that, landing the plane in real time or worse, clients don't reach out at all because the language didn't give them a reason to.
So sometimes clinicians don't realize it's happening, but sometimes they do know that there's a mismatch. They can kind of feel it. I'll hear things like, my website doesn't really sound like me. Or I feel like I have to explain what I really do once I'm on the phone with people.
Sometimes this comes because they've tried to reverse engineer what they've seen other people do. Filled in templates, borrowed phrases, dropped a prompt or two into chat. GBT tried to quote, unquote, sound like a therapist, and in the process they've lost the actual voice of their work and that has real consequences.
More of that friction in consults, more wrong fit inquiries, less confidence in how they show up. And this one's important, a lack of connection with their own marketing. 'cause when your website doesn't sound like you, when your Psyched Today profile could belong to literally any other therapist in your zip code, it's really hard to feel good about sending people there.
Am I right? And I get it. And I think what's actually happening here, this disconnect is often rooted in fear. Fear of being too specific or saying the wrong thing of standing out, of being visible, of excluding people. A very common one that I hear, I hear this, especially when we start working on writing the about page in Confident Copy, we have a specific framework for each of the pages on the website and the about page when you come up against having to write.
What it is that you do, why you do it well, why clients trust you. There's some serious moments of self-exploration and discovery required, right? When a therapist has to get really honest about why they're good at what they do and what makes them different and what they wanna be known for. 'cause a lot of the time they haven't done that before.
It's hard to put that into words. It's often quite uncomfortable. And so it's no wonder that the copy can end up vague or watered down 'cause that fear is showing up. Right? And now with the rise of AI and fill in the blank templates, it's easier than ever to default to language that looks polished, but doesn't actually say anything meaningful.
And I love ai. I think it's a powerful tool in many ways, but it is the huge culprit of this issue. It looks good, but it doesn't say much
Safe copy will not make you stand out. In fact, it might make you forgettable because your clients right now are wading through a sea of sameness. They're waiting through countless websites. Where someone slaps something into chat GBT or threw together a fill in the blank template or reverse engineered what they think worked on another website, and it all starts to feel the same.
The only way we break out of that is if your words reflect you, what you bring to the table, what you do differently. Otherwise you just blend in.
Let me give you an example of this. Earlier this year, we worked with a therapist. Who honestly is one of the most magnetic personalities of, of any of the clients that we've served. And we've served many. She's really bold, she's expressive.
She swears in session her clients get results from their work together. And of course, the clients that love her, love that about her, right? Her website, when she chose to work with us, was. Flat and generic and outdated, and so stripped down and sanitized that I honestly wouldn't have recognized her.
The person I met on our first call versus what I saw on the website, completely different, wildly different. It read like any other therapist site and not in a good way. So we threw it out. With all due respect, started Fresh. Wrote a site that actually sounded like her, that brought that personality forth.
We used the language her clients were already using to describe their experience to her with neurodivergence and trauma. We made sure people knew exactly who she best worked with and why that work mattered, what they could expect from it. Within a month, she had four new clients, one of them being her first private pay client ever, and every single one of them mentioned her website to her on the console call.
Yeah. Not because we invented something new or manufactured something, but because we finally brought her to life in her marketing, that's what happens when your words finally reflect who you are. You get to stop over explaining. You stop attracting the wrong people, and you start hearing, I felt like you were talking directly to me.
It's when marketing can start to feel easier. And aligned and natural and a whole lot more effective. When your copy sounds like you, when it clearly communicates what you do and who you help, and how you help them, when it reflects the real version of your expertise authentically, not just some polished or professional one, everything's gonna get easier.
I hear things like consult calls, feeling more natural, 'cause clients kind of already have a sense of what you're like. Not having to sell them or overexplain 'cause they're already on board. Referrals getting stronger because your colleagues finally understand who to send your way. You are memorable. But above all, the best thing I hear when these changes are made is the confidence that comes with it.
And I know confidence isn't necessarily what you set out to find, right? You want clients, I get it. You want a full caseload, you wanna stop second guessing your entire marketing strategy every day the week. But I've seen again and again that confidence is the thing that makes all of those things possible.
It comes first. It precedes the clients and the caseload confidence in your voice, in your expertise, in your ability to say what makes you good at what you do. That confidence shows up everywhere. Because you actually want to send people to your website. You're proud of it.
You don't hesitate to say what you charge. 'cause the copy already set that expectation and communicated your value. You know how to spot your right fit clients and also how to say no when it's not aligned. Even networking feels more enjoyable because you finally have the words to describe your work in a way that really clicks and resonates with people.
And of course those internal shifts lead to external results. It's when you start hearing things like, I read your website and it spoke to me, or your profile jumped off the page, and I just feel like you get me, or I know someone I need to refer to you because now your copy isn't just saying I'm a therapist, it's saying I'm the therapist for you.
I think there's also something that comes that people don't always expect from this, and that is the mental bandwidth, the relief, the fact that you don't have to tweak your website every two weeks. You're not agonizing over Instagram captions. Not trying to convince people you're worth your rate. 'cause the right people already see it ' cause you're proud of this now.
This isn't just a marketing win, but it's a, it's a practice wide win. Practice changing, career shifting when we finally get the words right.
So again, this episode is for you. If you have been showing up, posting, tweaking, trying, but still not getting the results you want, it might not be your visibility, it probably isn't your fees. It might not even be the strategy. It might just be that your words aren't doing their job, because marketing doesn't have to be about doing more.
It can be about doing better, clearer, more specific, more aligned, more you. When your copy finally reflects that more aligned, more you more clear. Everything starts to work better. The consults feeling smoother, the right people reaching out, feeling proud of how you're showing up. That's what's possible here.
This is exactly what we do inside of Confident Copy, where we help you write a website and a Psych Today profile along with a clear marketing roadmap that doesn't just sound professional but actually works, communicates your expertise, attracts and converts. The kinds of clients you love working with, bringing your marketing into alignment with the incredible work you're already doing in the room.
So if this episode brought up that little voice in your head, the one that says, maybe it's time to revisit how I'm talking about what I do, you're not wrong. And when you get this part right, everything else can change. Now, if you're listening to this in real time, we are reopening the Doors to Confident Copy next month at a reduced price and with some really great extra bonuses.
There's a little bit more information as the episode ends here. But head to walker strategy code.com/waitlist to qualify for an extra discount and an extra bonus you won't find anywhere else. I wanna see you get your words right, because I want to see your strategies and the work you're putting in actually turn into results.
I want you hearing from people that they read your website and it spoke to them that they're already ready to work with you, that they're excited to refer people to you. That is possible, and that starts with your words. I hope this one was helpful for you today, has got your gears turning again. Head to walker strategy co.com/waitlist If you're interested in joining us in Confident copy.
But if nothing else, please know I'm cheering for you. You can do this and I'll see you in the next episode.
Resources & Links Mentioned:
Join the waitlist for Confident Copy (special pricing + bonus): walkerstrategyco.com/waitlist
The Walker Strategy Co website: walkerstrategyco.com
Natasha's website: goldenhour-counseling.com
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About Marketing Therapy
Marketing Therapy is the podcast where therapists learn how to market their private practices without burnout, self-doubt, or sleazy tactics. Hosted by Anna Walker—marketing coach, strategist, and founder of Walker Strategy Co—each episode brings you clear, grounded advice to help you attract the right-fit, full-fee clients and grow a practice you feel proud of.
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