Your Clients Want the Whole Package [Here’s How to Deliver It)] (Episode 34)
Ever wonder why some therapists seem to get all the right-fit inquiries—even with less experience? Let’s talk about the role your website plays in that (and how to make yours finally pull its weight). In this episode, I’m walking you through the evolution I’ve seen in therapist websites over the past seven years and what today’s clients are really looking for when they land on your homepage.
You’ll hear why both copy and design matter (now more than ever), how they work together to build trust, and how to know when something’s not working. Whether you're going the DIY route or ready to hand it off, this episode will help you prioritize what actually matters so your website connects and converts.
Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:
1️⃣ Why copy is still king—and how it creates the emotional connection clients need before reaching out
2️⃣ How design acts like a first handshake, setting the tone for trust and professionalism
3️⃣ The simple shift that turns your website into a clear, welcoming, client-attracting experience
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Hey, hey, welcome back to Marketing Therapy. In today's episode, we're gonna look at the evolution that I have seen as I have supported clinicians. For almost seven years, specifically around their website.
Now, when I started Walker Strategy Co about seven years ago, it was while I was looking for a therapist myself. I was scrolling psych Today, I was Googling, I was looking at websites. And I noticed primarily the way that therapists weren't leveraging their opportunity to connect. I was seeing their words falling short in their marketing.
So they weren't using that Psych Today Profile to really catch my attention. The websites weren't communicating their niche. I didn't feel connected to them. And back then, way back in 2019, design of that website was kind of a nice to have, but I was really seeing the way that words were, everything. And that is why back in the day, copywriting for therapists was my bread and butter.
It is what I did day in and day out because at the end of the day, I saw the way that these therapists weren't leveraging their words the way that they could be. Now today, things have changed quite a bit, right? Copy is still what's ultimately forming connection.
But design is playing a part that it didn't use to. And so when I think about a website, it's in two primary buckets. It's the content, the words, the niche. Everything that's happening as it relates to language. And then there's the design, there's the experience of that site, and when we think of them together, the way that I summarize it is content or copy is king, but design today is queen.
And so here in this episode, I wanna talk about the fact that your client's expectations for your website, and therefore the expectations you need to be meeting in your marketing have changed and how today premium clients want and need, and are looking for the whole package. So we're gonna talk a little bit about how copy and design ultimately work together on your website, what matters now, how you should be prioritizing this.
And what next steps you can be taking if you're realizing that one or both of these areas is ultimately falling short. Now things really changed in the pandemic.
Not only did every single clinician move online and therefore need to market online in a way that they never did, but the rest of us just spent our lives online. And so we really saw the experience people expect to have online skyrocket through the pandemic because it was a time of a lot of innovation online and
at the same time as those standards were rising, we were also becoming more critical, more skeptical, more unsure than we have ever been. So what happens when these standards for web design and user experience go up and our skepticism goes up? You need to be thinking about that in your marketing. Your clients are more discerning than they've ever been.
They're also more visual than they've ever been, and we see the way that they're making really fast decisions based on subconscious cues, cues about safety and trust and professionalism. We really saw the way that the pandemic accelerated our sophistication as consumers. Today we are used to sleek, personalized experiences, whether we realize it or not, but the Starbucks app that you order your coffee on to the website, you click through from an Instagram ad and buy something you don't really need on.
It's shaping how we view everything and therapy is included in that.
I've met many clinicians who come to me with decades of experience saying, and I've never had to market before. I've never had to worry about my website before, but I'm looking around and I'm seeing all of these newer clinicians who don't necessarily have the same credentials and they seem to be having more success than me, and I'm realizing I need to be thinking about my marketing.
I need to be thinking about my website. I say, great. We pull up their website and it is a dated. Early two thousands. Design that is likely losing them inquiries despite being so incredibly capable as a clinician. Now, if we're not careful, this can feel very vain that this is all just about looking a certain way.
But I want to remind you that the end of the day, this is about trust, that clients are looking for signals that reassure them of the quality. Of your online presence reflecting the quality of your clinical work, they're simply looking for signals. And so what you're doing in your website is offering those signals so that they equate the experience on your website with the experience they're going to have with you as a therapist.
Now we have to start with talking about what Copy does here. So copy is the words on the page. It's everything from the headline at the top of your homepage to how you talk about your approach to what your specialties are. It's all of the words, and the main job of your copy is connection.
It's how you show your clients that you get them, that you deeply understand their experiences, that you can help them move toward the life change that they're ultimately seeking. It's about showing them, Hey, I get you. I get you so well that I can paint a picture of what it is that you're experiencing, and here's what we're gonna do together to make that different.
It's about helping clients see themselves in what it is that you're presenting, and to view you as an expert in the problems they themselves are facing. We cannot do this in any other way than we can with your words. Copy is what gives voice to your empathy and to your expertise as a clinician. And we were talking about how this is all about trust.
Copy is building trust through clarity. Clarity about who you help and what you specialize in, and what clients can expect in working with you. My Confident Copy students hear me say all the time that Good copy attracts your right fit clients and it blesses and releases those who are not the right fit.
Your copy's job is not to be all things to all people. It's not to make every single person want to reach out. It's job is to filter the right people from the wrong ones so that the right people realize it, see themselves in it, and are compelled to reach out to you. If you've ever heard someone. On a consult call, say something like, I feel like you were inside my head, or I've even had confident Copy students or Fill Your Practice Formula.
Students who say that clients quoted their copy back to them, that's when you know that your copy is working. But this is the job that only your copy can do. Your copy is in charge of whether or not you rank on Google or show up in AI results. Your copy is what communicates your niche and whether or not you are an expert.
Your copy is what connects with these clients and drives them toward conversion and a pretty design pretty words is not the same as substantial words, and so that's the job of your copy here. It's about driving conversion and SEO visibility and emotional connection, right? It's like the heartbeat of your site.
But design is the other side of the coin here. If copy is the conversation you're having with your clients, design is like the first H. Right, like you shake someone's hand, if it's firm and solid, that gives you one impression.
If it's not, it's like a limp fish that gives you another impression. Either way, you might continue the conversation, but you're gonna enter into that conversation with some sort of belief about that person. Okay? So design is your first hand handshake. It's about creating the first impression with your clients, that instant gut reaction when someone lands on your site.
We've talked before about the halo effect. This is actually a proven psychological concept. Imagine that you are walking in a cute little downtown somewhere. We have downtown Franklin here close to Nashville. If you've ever been there, there's a cute little boutique. You open up the door of that boutique, you walk in.
A candle is burning and it smells wonderful. Someone walks up to you and offers you a glass of champagne. All of the hangers are. Two finger widths apart. The clothes are beautifully folded, the bags are maybe backlit. Okay? I'm communicating an experience to you. The halo effect tells us that when you have that type of experience with a brand, you make judgments about the level of quality of that brand just based on the first reaction.
And so I would walk into that boutique and have that experience, and guess what? I would expect to pay more. I would expect that I'm gonna get higher quality products, that I'm gonna get better service, all because of that initial split second experience. That Halo effect translates to your website. So here is where you are creating that instant reaction, that instant belief about who you are as a therapist.
The hard thing here is that it might not be true. You might be an incredibly talented clinician, but not create that experience. We can't undo that, that first impression, you only get one of them. So your design here is about communicating professionalism and polish and care and the level of those things that people can expect.
It tells clients before they even start reading, before they start to the conversation with you, the level of service they can expect from you. Okay. Design also makes your copy easier to experience, easier to ingest, right? We have hierarchy of fonts and spacing and color and flow, all of these subconscious things that guide the reader through your website.
But what's interesting is that the best design kind of feels invisible because it's just drawing attention to what matters most without making you think about how you're reading it. So when we don't have good design, even strong copy can fall flat. It's like if you had a beautifully written book, an award-winning novel, but it was printed in comic sands or some unreadable typeface, the story's there, but no one's actually gonna read it.
That's what happens when we're missing design. So I wanna get really clear now about how copy and design are working together in this market. And again, why it's so critical because of your client's increased standards and increased skepticism. The cool thing is that when design and copy are working together, it feels effortless.
People aren't fighting to find what they need on your website. They land there. They can easily navigate to the information that's most relevant to them because no one's ever gonna read every word of your website. No one's ever gonna visit every single page. But what we need to do is create a journey that gets them to what they need in order to realize you're the therapist for them.
And that's the job of your words and your visuals working together, guiding your client to what is most important to them. That could be your approach. That could be what it's like to work with you. That could be one of your specialties or your micro niche, since no one's gonna read every word. Then your design and your formatting, and the way these work together is helping them get to the right ones as they scan, as they scroll.
Are they getting what they need and are they getting it quickly and easily? How do you know when your copy and your design are working together? Such a great question. You're gonna know this when your design is supporting your copy and not competing with it. Sometimes I'll land on a website of a confident copy student whose copy is so incredibly just brilliant.
It's fun to read, it's connecting, but the presentation of that copy on the page is making it really difficult to consume. We need both of these things to work together to not compete with one another, but to be in synergy. Your site needs to be easy to scan and navigate, and it needs to create that halo effect feeling.
How can I create the sense when I land on your website of the candle burning and someone walking up with a glass of champagne and the hangers and the placement of things, what can we do to create that experience? So it's about setting a tone of the visuals that matches the tone of the words.
It's about using your design to have that firm first handshake so that they actually want to engage in conversation with you.
Now, you're not in alignment here. If you layout is making it hard to read or it's overwhelming to look at, there might be mismatched colors or fonts. Things might be off center or off balance. When the vibe of the site doesn't match the copy, really warm words in a cold, black, and white design,
great copy in the wrong design is like putting the words in the wrong tone of voice.
But, when Both of these things are strong, your website feels like a high quality right fit consult. It's warm, it's clear, it's confident, it's easy. The conversation flows. That's what happens when these two things are in synergy.
But hey, I know no one taught you this stuff, right? You didn't go over this in grad school. You didn't become a therapist to learn copywriting. You definitely didn't become a therapist to learn website design. So if you're sitting here and you agree with all of this and you realize, Anna, I do want that positive halo effect, I know that these two things are important.
I have no idea how to get there. I want to assure you that there are tools now. That make this simpler than ever, simpler than seven years ago when I started Walker Strategy co technology has improved. And if you have the right tools in your toolbox, you can do this. You can create that effect. You can create that handshake and that conversation that is going to invite those right fit clients to say, Hey, I reached out because of your website.
It's the best compliment any of our clients and our students can get. But you do need a clear process first. And so when you're thinking about how do I tackle this massive project? Remember, content is king. Design is queen. Copy first. If you're going to prioritize anything with your time or your energy or your money, let it be copy first, design second, move in that order.
Let copy dictate, design, choose what you're gonna say, then how that is going to be laid out on the site. And please remember, your website is never gonna be perfect. It's never gonna be done. It is a work in progress just like all of us are, right?
So give grace to yourself. Let this be a work in progress. And certainly you can go full on done for you if you want. We love working with therapists who just hand their website over to us and we get to hand it back finished. It's one of the best things that we do. But for many clinicians, the DIY route can be incredibly empowering.
You learn new skills, you flex creative muscles. You get to take real ownership of your niche and your brand and your presence. It truly feels like you. I think back to the client of ours who came to us with such a personality. The first time I signed on to our call, she was just, she came through the screen with personality.
She was vibrant. She knew the clients she loved to work with, but when I pulled up her existing website, it had none of that. There was no personality. There was no clear niche whatsoever, and they felt in total disconnect between the therapist I was sitting on a call with and the therapist I was seeing in the website.
When her site was done, it was vibrant and full of personality, and you knew immediately that she loved doing her work with neurodivergent women. And within that first month, after launching, she booked four new clients, including her first private pay one, and every single one of them commented on her website.
That's what happens when your copy and your design are doing their jobs together. This synergy is more important than it's ever been. I remember seven years ago when I was primarily writing for clinicians that. Design was this nice to have? It was something you could think about and you should think about, but it didn't need to be a top priority.
That's changed now. And so whether you're hiring someone like myself and my team, you are using a template, like something in our Squarespace template shop, you're working with someone else, whatever that might be. Thinking about how people are experiencing your copy is as important as it's ever been.
Again, for those two reasons, not only have your clients' standards gone up, whether they know it or not, but their skepticism has two. So what can you be doing on your website to meet those standards and to decrease that skepticism? It's the job of your copy and your design done to. Your clients today, they want the total package.
They don't know that. They don't go out looking for a therapist thinking I need them to have a pretty website and good copy, but they are subconsciously seeking connection and professionalism and a premium level experience. And please know that you can absolutely deliver that without spending thousands of dollars without hiring someone if you don't want to.
It's possible today in ways it did not used to be.
Now we have our Black Friday sale coming up next month. If you're new around here, our Black Friday sale is the absolute biggest sale of our entire year. We do a really fun. A set up called the Five Days of Deals. And so every day, Monday through Friday, there's a different deal, and on Monday as usual, our best selling offer is our bundle.
Now, in the past, this has been the bundle of our Failure Practice formula, which is our DIY marketing course and one of our Squarespace templates. So you get to choose which template you want, you get lifetime access to the Fill Your Practice Formula. You have everything you need to go ahead and create that website.
This year we are upleveling that bundle. So we are creating the ultimate DIY bundle by adding in our therapist DIY brand kit. If you haven't heard me talk about our therapist, DIY brand kit, it's our newest program that we released here in 2025, and it's all about helping you create something that is truly custom.
That's been the best feedback I've gotten from students who've gone through it. They thought that they might sign up and pick from a color palette that other therapists might be using. No, no. In the DIY brand kit, I show you how to create an entirely custom color palette, font pairing stock images that feel totally on brand to you, and not just cherry picking something that other therapists might be using as well.
So this pairing the Fill Your Practice formula, which is our DIY course, all about figuring out your niche and writing your website, copy the DIY brand kit to really hone in on what that visual brand needs to be. And then that Squarespace website template to bring it all together are coming together in this ultimate DIY bundle.
And of course, it's gonna be at a crazy discount for that first day deal on Monday the 24th of November. These three pieces are about giving you everything you need to get clear on your niche, to write copy that connects, to design a site that really looks and feels like you. It's our biggest bundle of the year.
It's our biggest sale of the year at the biggest discount of the year. It's. It's the best. So like I said, if you're new around here, you're gonna love the five days of deals. And if you're realizing as you listen to this episode, wow, I need both copy and design, both of these pieces matter. They are two things that I need to be prioritizing in my practice.
This DIY bundle might be the absolute best fit for you. It's awesome for the clinician who wants to DIY this who wants to get in there and figure it out themselves to learn this new skillset. And I can't wait to offer it for the first time ever. Like I said. The best version of the bundle we've ever done.
If you want details on Black Friday, please make sure that you're on our email list. You can get on there walker strategy code.com/tfc to access our private podcast. Anyone who signed up for that will also receive details about Black Friday. We're gonna be releasing the opportunity to sign up for our early bird so you can get some doorbusters if you want.
All details are coming soon. Do make sure that you're on our list. But as I wrap up this episode, I want you to remember if this feels overwhelming, which I know the website thing can, if it feels daunting to think about copy and design and who am I and what am I, and how do I show that this is simply about helping that experience people have when they work with you.
That sense of relief they feel when they leave a session, that sigh of relief they have after a consult when they've realized you're the therapist they've been looking for. Your website is simply about recreating that and inviting them into it. You already know the work you do well, maybe you need some help putting words to that.
Maybe you need some help bringing that to life visually, but you're already good at the important piece here. Okay? Your clients are out there and when your copy and your design are finally in synergy and finally working together, they can recognize you as the therapist they've been looking for the moment.
They find you. You don't need bells and whistles. You just need synergy here. Copy that connects, design that supports. That's the total package you need today. I hope this one was helpful for you. Got your gears turning. Like I said, make sure you're on our email list. You can get all of that Black Friday info and I'll see you in our next episode.
Resources & Links Mentioned:
Confident Copy: walkerstrategyco.com/cc
Squarespace Templates: walkerstrategyco.com/templates
DIY Brand Kit (DBK): walkerstrategyco.com/dbk
Fill Your Practice Formula (part of the bundle): walkerstrategyco.com/fypf
Done-for-you website services: walkerstrategyco.com/services
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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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