The Pre-Summer Slump Playbook [Part 2]: Your Diagnosis (Episode 70)
If things feel off in your marketing heading into summer, this episode will help you stop spiraling and start diagnosing what your practice actually needs. In part two of the Summer Slump Playbook series, Anna walks through how to determine whether your issue is visibility, conversion, or something else entirely—so you can stop throwing energy at the wrong problem.
Instead of overhauling everything or jumping to “more” marketing, this episode will help you use real data to make grounded, strategic decisions about your next steps. You’ll learn how to assess what’s working, what’s underperforming, and where to focus first so you can move through a slower season with more clarity and confidence.
Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:
1️⃣ The three marketing scenarios therapists commonly face when inquiries slow down—and how to identify which one you’re in
2️⃣ How to determine whether your issue is website traffic or website conversion
3️⃣ What to audit on your website if people are visiting but not reaching out
4️⃣ Why optimizing what’s already working is often more effective than constantly adding new marketing strategies
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Hey, hey, welcome back to part two of our Pre-Summer Slump Playbook series. So this is just a quick mini series. Our last episode was all about understanding the levers available to you. So before you get into that panic hair on fire, what am I gonna do? Is my practice failing space? We are looked at what is.
Available to you. How can you remain in the driver's seat of your practice? What could you do? What could you implement, especially based on your bandwidth, your time, your energy, your money, if and when things slow down? This summer, this episode is all about diagnosing where you need to be focusing your.
First, so you have been equipped with what is available to you. We talked a little bit about the fact that we need to think about conversion and then traffic in that order today is, okay, what does your practice actually need? So last episode was kind of theory. This episode is auditing and then deciding what steps you need to take here as it relates to your practice specifically.
All right. So if you're heading into the summer and something feels off in your marketing, or if you get into the summer, you notice things slow down, then this episode is sort of your diagnostic, all right? The goal is not, it is never to overhaul everything all at once. If you have had some success in your practice, guess what? Marketing doesn't break overnight. And thank goodness what has worked before will likely work again. And if your brand new to private practice, then. Let's take some really meaningful steps forward as opposed to trying to do it all.
Okay? So know that, that we're looking at what action to take first and then what action to take second. Not here's exactly, not here's this big long list. Go do it. Be overwhelmed, right? That's what we're trying to eliminate. So I want to help you in this episode, get clear on what the actual problem is, if there's a problem in your marketing, so that you're not just throwing effort at the wrong thing or in the wrong direction.
Many therapists I know skip this step. They go straight to doing quote unquote, more and more looks different for everyone. More looks like changing the colors of the buttons on your website again, or changing the copy on your about page again, or posting on social media because you feel like everyone is there and you have to, or whatever.
Okay, more looks different for everyone, but this is where I see therapists just jump to as opposed to slowing down and being like, wait. What actually deserves needs my attention right now. That's what I want to look at today. So a reminder, the summer slump is literally the best time of year to invest in your marketing.
Truly, if things are gonna slow down in your caseload, that can be a gift to the long term sustainability of your practice. This is the best time to be thinking about things. It's the perfect time to do this work, so welcome that. As opposed to being afraid of it, the stakes are a little bit lower. There's some.
Extra space to think clearly, like all good things if we reframe the way that we view this. Okay? Now there's really three situations that therapists find themselves in if they realize that something isn't right in their marketing and they call for very, very different responses. Okay? So first and foremost is understanding which one of these scenarios you are in.
Scenario number one, you have little to no traffic to your website and little to no inquiries. So no one knows you exist and no one's reaching out. No one's finding you. And this is primarily a visibility problem, but we also have to make sure that if you're gonna go out and get visible, that we also have the conversion engine in place first before we're pouring energy into that.
That's what we talked about at the beginning of last episode. Make sure you go back and listen to that if you haven't yet. But we talked about how conversion has to come before traffic because if you're gonna go out and spend time, energy, or money on getting people to your website, we better be sure that website is gonna do its job, okay?
So we wanna make sure that the conversion engine is in place, but if you have little to no traffic and little to no inquiries, and your conversion engine is in place, that's pointing straight to visibility, and that's where you can leverage the levers we talked about in last episode. Scenario number two, this is the tricky one.
You have some traffic to your website, some people are getting there, but inquiries aren't following. At least as much as you'd like. This is kind of a chicken or egg scenario, and honestly it's the trickiest to diagnose. So I'm gonna get more into that in a moment.
Maybe you're in scenario two, but then there's scenario three where inquiries are coming in, but they're not becoming clients. So you're hearing from people, but you're not converting them. I wanna be clear that this is a different problem. This isn't necessarily a traffic or conversion issue. It's likely living in your consult conversations, your fee communication, potentially wrong fit people landing on your website, which.
Could indicate potential conversion issues. So it's not exactly what we're covering here today, but if you're realizing that inquiries are coming in, you are talking to people, but they're not converting, that's probably pointing to a different part of the inquiry to.
Client process that you want to address. Now, it might not be exactly what we're covering today, but I do think if you stay with us, you'll find some helpful things here in this episode. So this episode is really for scenarios one and two. Either you have little to no traffic and little to no inquiries, or you have some traffic but the inquiries aren't following.
Okay. Now, like I mentioned, that second scenario is the trickiest to diagnose. I call it the chicken or the egg scenario. And it really is grounded in the question, is it my website that's the issue? Or am I just not getting enough traffic? Do I not have enough eyeballs on the site? And these feel similar from the outside, but they're ultimately different problems, right?
And the way that we would address them would, would differ as well. So here's how I wanna help you diagnose this. I want you to actually look at the data. Yes. I want you to actually look at your numbers. If you don't have a regular practice of this. You need to make one. We want to be making decisions that are grounded in data, not just running on vibes or gut checks.
So I want you to pull up maybe the backend of your Squarespace, Google Analytics, whatever. You've got to understand how many people are coming to your website on a monthly basis. Now, I wish that I could give you an exact number of visits that you should be shooting for, and once you hit that, you're golden. Unfortunately, I can't do that. However, there is a benchmark that I recommend for most solo practices, and that's between 150 and 200 visits a month.
Again, this is not a magical number. I know people that are very successful and get less than a hundred. Visits to their website a month. I know people that get thousands, especially if they are regular bloggers that don't necessarily get as many clients as they want. So again, this is not a magic number, but it is a good benchmark to target.
So 150 to 200 visits a month, if you are getting around there, if you're getting, say, we'll say a hundred to 200 visits a month, and. Very, very few, if any inquiries that points us straight to a conversion issue that says a lot of people are landing here. Not everyone's gonna be a perfect fit, but enough people are landing here that we would expect to see some conversions.
So that tells us the website might be where you need to be focusing your attention in this season if you are getting some traffic. And some inquiries. Okay, so maybe we're in the a hundred, 150 range, maybe not quite that high, but you are getting some clients just not as many as you want. Then it's time to look at the quality of the feedback.
So a little bit more of the qualitative data. Have right fit. People found you and said good things, told you that your website resonated with them, even if there just aren't as many as you'd like. Then that tells us, okay, the website is likely doing its job.
We just need some more volume. But if you haven't gotten that feedback, if the people that have reached out haven't been the right fit, if they haven't followed through, then I would definitely wanna make sure that the website is set up as successfully as possible before devoting too much energy to increasing that volume.
Now what we know is that people are visiting more websites than they used to before reaching out. They're taking longer to make decisions. They're probably coming back to your website before reaching out to you multiple times. So you're gonna need more traffic than you used to. We need the volume to support that shift. Okay, so like I said, if you're getting some traffic and some inquiries, then it's time to look at the feedback that you've gotten from those inquiries that have come in, and that's gonna point you with greater confidence toward which area conversion or traffic to be focusing on.
Now, if you pull up your data and you're getting almost no traffic at all, then it's really, really challenging to know if your website is set up well. Because it's almost impossible to know if it is the website that's the issue. So in that case, I would recommend getting a few more eyeballs on it, if that's where you find yourself.
Again, I would wanna make sure that your conversion engine is set up well. It's why we love watching our students go through Confident Copy and then. Start marketing themselves because they can know with really high confidence, no pun intended, that the website is gonna be set up well. So if they get into this scenario where they aren't getting as many inquiries as they want, they can know with, again, pretty high confidence.
That the website is set up well, that their conversion engine is set up the way that they need it to, and that this is likely more just a visibility thing. So I would wanna make sure if you're in that camp of not getting much traffic, if any, that the website is set up well, you know, that you believe that, you trust that, and then it's time.
Alright, let's just go get eyeballs on it and get some more data to, to really determine how the website is performing. What I want to point out here is that this is about using the data to tell you where to look and where to focus.
Rather than, I'm not getting enough inquiries. Oh no, I'm not getting enough inquiries. What, where should I be focusing? What are the numbers saying? What is asking for my attention? What could I be optimizing? That's the attitude to approach this with. You cannot diagnose this on gut feel or vibes.
All right. I want you to make sure that you are checking your numbers, as I mentioned, on a regular basis, not just something you do when you're worried, okay? But a regular practice and a rhythm just like many of the other parts of running your practice. Okay? So if the data is pointing to a conversion issue, if you are saying, huh, I don't think my website is doing what it needs to, then here's what I want you to look for.
I want you to go to your website either right now or after this episode, and I want you to ask if my ideal client landed here for the first time, the first time, they've never heard about me. They've never read any other pages before, would they immediately know this is for them?
Is your niche stated clearly. I'm not just just talking clinically accurate, but deeply emotionally resident with your ideal client. Does the person you're trying to reach actually see themselves on this page? Could they say, oh my goodness, that's me. Is the language too broad? I help adults navigate life transitions.
Yeah, so do most therapists, right? Versus speaking directly to the specific experience that your ideal client is living. Your kids have left the house, your relationship feels foreign, and you don't know who you are anymore.
So is the language too broad? Is it obvious what to do next? This is something that is so easy to gloss over and miss in your website, but it is so critical that your clients know exactly what they should do in order to engage with you. We're talking clear call to action buttons.
We're talking some summary of the process of reaching out to you in Confident copy. We have what's called the process block that we devote to this. Make sure there's no dead ends. Every page should have a next step. We should make it easy for people whenever they're on your website, whether that is on the middle of the about page, the bottom of your homepage, the.
Top your FAQ, whatever, they should be able to take action as soon as they realize you're the therapist for them. And then ultimately ask yourself this final question, does the site build enough trust that someone who's nervous about reaching out would actually do it? Are there signals here that would breed trust in your ideal client?
A really great exercise here is to ask a non therapist friend, okay? Partner, a friend whoever that might be, to spend 60 seconds just on your homepage and then tell you reflect back to you who you help and how to get in touch. What they say back to you is gonna tell you a lot. Okay? So if the data, again, points to conversion your website is not pulling its weight, it's not getting people from landing on the site to reaching out.
I want you to go through this exercise. Now, if you're in the other. Side, and it is more of a visibility problem. Nope, I know that my website is set up well. Maybe you've been through a confident copy. Maybe you have gotten great feedback from your clients that your website does resonate with them and we just need more of them.
Then that's pointing to traffic. Or if you're in that scenario one with almost no visibility that we were talking about, then here's where I want you to look. Start with what you already have. Marketing wise. Whenever I meet a new therapist and we're talking about their marketing, I ask, what does your current marketing rhythm look like?
What are you already doing? How do we make sure that that's well optimized before you just again, go adding on? Because Joe Schmo in that Facebook group said that they did this. Okay. So is your site today profile updated? We talked in the last episode about how directories are really low hanging fruit, whatever directories you're using.
Have those been optimized? Right. Are those pulling as much weight as they possibly can? Have you optimized your Google business profile? If you are an in-person practice again, as mentioned in the last episode, go do that right now. Please don't wait until the summertime go do that. Really low hanging fruit, really meaningful for SEO and ai, are there any niche specific directories that you could be thinking about?
And then of course we have to look at that referral network. That's the other non-negotiable here. You can use the four categories from the last episode, those being same niche therapists, adjacent niche therapists, complimentary professionals, and then that full fee wellness sort of ecosystem we talked about.
But how are things going there? Are you in touch with them? How can you be circling back with your existing contacts? Okay. What I'm encouraging you to do here is make use of what already exists. Sometimes the answer isn't to go and add on more and more and more, but just to optimize what's currently in place.
Revisit, and water. Nurture the seeds you've already planted. Okay. It doesn't always mean more. So identify where you're already kind of partially present, but maybe underperforming a little bit and shore that up first. Then. Then you can implement the levers we talked about last week.
So here's the process as we consider the this two part series one conversion, then traffic. We have to make sure your conversion engine is set up well in order to start meaningfully driving traffic and that traffic actually doing something for you. Okay? So first and foremost, we gotta diagnose is your issue conversion or traffic?
If it's conversion, we have to get that absolutely in tip top shape. If you're gonna go into a season where there are fewer people seeking therapy, where traffic is going to inevitably drop, whatever that might be, we have to absolutely capitalize onto every single eyeball we can.
And to do that, we have to get that conversion engine in place. It's why we're so passionate about Confident Copy as the foundation for your marketing. So we make sure conversion is in place. Then it's about visibility. And so if you're in that visibility camp where you know that that's the issue, you're gonna audit what you're already doing, and then you're gonna decide what levers to leverage, like we talked about in last episode.
Okay? So that's the process here. When it comes to those levers, things like Google Ads, local marketing, Instagram, whatever it might be. We want you to be mindful of your bandwidth, of your time, your energy, your budget, to make sure that you're choosing something that actually aligns with you, not again, with what the shiny object syndrome is or what that six figure therapist said in that Facebook group.
It's about you. It's about your niche, it's about your bandwidth when it comes to those three things. So that's the process here. Now, the final note I wanna leave you with as we head into the summertime is that this diagnosis. This plan, this process, these levers only matter if you do something with it.
Okay. I met with a clinician recently and I asked her what was going on in her marketing. I asked her, like I mentioned earlier, kind of what her marketing rhythm was like. 'cause she had all these really cool ideas for how her practice could grow. And I was like, well, what are you actually doing? And she said, I guess I'm just hoping and wishing.
And I was like. I think that's where we can make some changes. You know, you have to actually do something here, especially in this market. All right? We've talked recently about how you have to be more engaged in your marketing than perhaps you were used to. Perhaps you expected to get clients. Right? Now, those clients are out there, but you do have to be more engaged.
Most therapists have the intention, right? Most therapists have the goal and the vision and the desire. They've even sometimes taken that first step. But intention doesn't move the needle, right? Intention does not equal inquiries. Action does. So the momentum that you're looking to build in your practice requires repetition, requires engagement, requires showing up, requires moving through disappointment or discouragement, right?
Consistency is critical. I am going to encourage you to pick one thing you're gonna do as a result of this little series, and then actually do it. Actually do it. And if it's one of the levers that you're gonna pull, then you're gonna need to do that repeatedly.
It's not a set it and forget it. It's not a try it once and leave it. It's do it repeatedly, even when you don't see the results yet. This summer could be a gift to your practice. In this regard, this summer could be a really, really dedicated opportunity to invest in the long-term growth of your practice.
If you let it, you have time, you have a lower pressure season, hopefully, to build the habit of marketing, to build the muscle of consistency before things pick back up so that you can feel in a regular natural rhythm in your marketing as we get back into the fall and things pick back up.
A slow season with a consistent plan is how you can set yourself up for months, years of success moving forward. Okay, so I really encourage you if the summer slump feels daunting, if you get into it, you feel discouraged, come back to this episode and remember, this could be a gift to your practice if you let it.
All right, so I'm leaving you with that first conversion, then traffic. Which one is the data telling you you need to focus on, optimize what's currently there, and then pull levers accordingly. That's my recommendation. That is my summer slump playbook for you. And it's gonna look a little bit different, clinician to clinician, but if you use this process, you will be making the most of your slower season.
You will be avoiding overwhelm and you'll be taking action, moving you in the direction of where you want your practice to go. I'm cheering you on Happy Summer to you, and I'll see you in our next episode.
Resources & Links Mentioned:
Confident Copy: https://walkerstrategyco.com/cc
Squarespace Templates: https://walkerstrategyco.com/templates
The Walker Strategy Co website: https://walkerstrategyco.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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