Marni Feuerman, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker & Licensed Marriage and Family Therapy, joined our podcast to teach us all about content marketing, and ways that Startup Nation can reach their ideal client!
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This former San Fernando Valley local specializes in emotionally focused therapy in Boca Raton, Florida. She works with couples with relationship issues, and has massive success targeting these clients through her content marketing. After successfully blogging, she was vetted to be the marriage expert on About.com, and is a frequently quoted expert on marriage, divorce, dating, relationships, and love.
“Marni, what led you into the business you are in now?”
Marni always knew she wanted to be a therapist and study Psychology. She even admitted that in high school, she loved reading through PsychologyToday.com! She ended up thinking, if she was reading everything so frequently and enjoying it so much, why not put together the two? From this epiphany, Marni’s expert content marketing was created. She took a chance and started out on YourTango.com, a website that offers a blogging platform for their users. Her success took off, and one of her blogs actually ended up going viral, with 13,000 shares and half a million views! Wow!
“Marni, what exactly is the definition of content marketing?”
Content Marketing: A marketing approach that focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract an audience, and ultimately achieve a profit from those efforts.
“How does Content Marketing help your Private Practice, and anyone else’s Private Practice?”
This helps you attract your ideal client! The content you are going to write about is going to be designed the people you are interested in working with. Picture this – a mother laying in bed at night Googling “getting kids to sleep” and your blog pops up… or a wife desperately trying to find advice on relationship issues. Ask yourself the question, “What is your ideal client doing up at 2, 3, or 4 AM and searching for?” People aren’t searching in a clinical way, they are searching from their source of pain. Target that clientele, and watch the content marketing link you with people in need. Not after long, if you write about a topic enough, you will start to come up organically in Google searches without having to pay for Google Ads, etc. This is a great way to become set apart from your competition on the web!
*Psst! Check out Jeff Geunther’s podcast for even more expert tips on this!!
Go check out the content that’s already out there and see what is needed! If you went to Google and started typing in the same keywords that your ideal client might be, that is where to start. Remember, organizations are desperate for content so do NOT be discouraged in blogging, you are needed!
Remember about vindication! Someone else is going to like that article you wrote, and going to try to pick it up to another site that's going to run it. That's what YourTango.com offers. Partners with so many other sites. They push out articles they like.
Don’t be discouraged when you have to put in tons of work and don’t get a lot of pay, or even any pay at all. The key to this is patience. You may not get that cash in your pocket until a year or even a year and a half! There are no immediate results with content marketing; it is a plan that results in pay. Your clients WILL come!
“How do you find your blog voice that will capture your ideal client?”
In order to find your voice, you just START! -Marni’s tips: 1. 1-2 blogs a month, with around 600-1000 words. 2. Remember, getting feedback is really helpful when you’re starting up and putting stuff out there! 3. Every website does have a voice; some are personal touches, some are snarky and serious. You will want to read what is on there already and find an outlet that appeals to you!
Obtain the skills! 1. Enjoy writing! If you love it, that’s all you need. 2. Have an understanding of social media. You will have to promote your blogs frequently. Here are some of Marni’s tips on doing this!
Newsletters – Put a little excerpt of your work on, and link them back to your website! Teach the clients to hang out on your website, not the newsletter.
Time Mastery – Blogs are often inspired when life happens. Try and incorporate a way of writing down your thoughts right when they happen! Katie’s tip was to dictate words to your phone when the inspiration hits, and then transcribe later on!
Social Media – Make sure if you have a blog to get a widget to push out to social media!
Helpful Tips from Marni:
Branding: This will help to really define your brand! This is the bread and butter of the client that you really want to attract and have come to you.
Keywords: Let’s say you are on the topic of anxiety. If you try and incorporate this word for your SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and type it fifty times, you are going to get penalized. Have the word come up a couple of times, and make sure the writing is great quality. Like we said earlier, it will organically pop up, it just takes time!
Plagiarism: Do NOT plagiarize, do not duplicate content, and do not copy. Just don’t do it!
Call to Action: Always have a CTA in your blog! Marni says to put something specific at the very end in order to have a way to capture the people who are visiting your site and convert them into contacts. Use two to three sentences that are concise, and will drive that traffic straight to your website! In order to get the value that you’re offering, try and get the name, contact info and email as well.
“What do you want to make sure our listeners take away from this message?”
Marni wanted us to realize that there are a lot of ways to market, and content marketing can really be a successful way to get your message out. We, as clinicians, are fantastic at having resources for people and helping people. You can get what you offer publicized to a large audience that you wouldn't necessarily be able to reach without these resources.
We like how she ended the whole podcast with this – “This is what content marketing allows – to let other people get your message and hear what you have to offer.”
The giveaway for this podcast is a free e-book download from Marni herself! Right now, you could receive “Marriage Therapy 101”. All you have to do is go to TheTalkingSolution.com, and signup for her newsletter (scroll to the bottom on the home page). It’s THAT simple.
CLICK HERE to listen to Marni’s podcast, and be sure to check out her recommendations! Assure you subscribe so you can stay in the loop of ALL the podcasts we release. The Private Practice Startup would also be super grateful if you could rate and review our podcasts. Thanks again for allowing us to Inspire YOU from Startup to Mastery!