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Creating a work-life balance isn’t a new thing. And it could honestly go without saying that many people are desperately trying to find this balance – and they have been for a while.

Just like the great resignation that we saw occur during 2020 when the pandemic caused many people to rethink their lives – and their jobs – mental health practitioners today are looking for a company that speaks to their core values, and for a place to work where they’re going to feel comfortable and valued. Essentially, today’s job candidates in the mental health space are on the hunt for much more than a “job.”

With so many people looking for more than a paycheck, creative and forward-thinking marketing is critical today for meeting the recruitment challenges in mental health. And while it’s safe to say that incentives such as profit sharing, health benefits, and a modest 401K are nice to place on the table, job candidates are looking for a deeper connection to what they do and with the companies they choose to work for.

Through a combination of creative marketing and truly understanding the desires and needs of your target candidates, you can fill your empty positions with quality job candidates who will likely enjoy their work and what your company can offer. And studies have proven that if your company culture meets their needs, they even might stick around for a while.

Could Your Mental Health Practice Benefit from Recruitment Marketing? Reach out to Beacon Media + Marketing today and schedule a free consultation.

Unique Recruitment Challenges for Mental Health Providers

Recruitment in the mental health space has become much more challenging today than it ever has been. And this is primarily because the number of available positions is disproportionately higher than the number of qualified candidates. Essentially, there just aren’t enough therapists to go around – and this can make recruitment especially difficult.

Between a large number of in-house positions without remote or telehealth options and the high burnout rate among many therapists, retention of qualified therapists has also become a big challenge in the mental health space. But this is where the role of marketing can be a game-changer when it comes to mental health recruitment.

Quality messaging and focusing your marketing efforts where they can be the most effective is just the beginning of your marketing journey when attempting to boost candidate engagement. However, just the bare tip of this iceberg won’t get the job done entirely.

How important is Company Culture Messaging in Recruitment?

In the same way that sales practices have transformed over the last decade with the influx of digital marketing, everyone wants to research online before they decide if they’re going to do business with you or not. And the same transition has crossed over into recruiting. People want to research a prospective employer or company thoroughly before they decide if they want to work for you or not.

Consider the questions that today’s job candidates are asking about your company before they make their decision:

• How do they treat their staff?
• Is this a place where I’m going to be cared about?
• Will I be just another number?
• What is it really like to work there?

If you want your recruitment efforts to be successful, all of this need-to-know information needs to be put out in online marketing. While the website is the core of this marketing strategy, and a website should contain plentiful information about your team, values, and culture, you also have to be able to showcase these same elements on social channels and show prospective employees who you really are in a genuine framework.

At the end of the day, you can claim to have the greatest company culture in the world, but if it’s not genuine and you can’t showcase it, people will pick up on it and likely look elsewhere for employment.

Additionally, mental health companies that are showcasing their culture online are actually attracting 80 percent more applicants than those who do not. And these companies actually have a 50 percent higher retention rate as well. So, they’re not just attracting more people, they’re keeping people longer than their direct competitors who forego highlighting their company culture online.

Making Your Company Culture Shine

Company culture is a primary attractor that job candidates are looking for as we head into 2023. And in order to highlight your company culture, you have to talk about your internal culture online through all of the same channels that you’re using to attract clients – blogging, video, social media, ads, and the like. Basically, your internal culture needs to become part of your messaging to the world. And by doing so, you’re going to have a better chance of attracting the right people who want what your culture offers.

In order to highlight your company culture, you need to clearly understand what your ideal job candidates are looking for beyond the obvious – like having a day off on occasion and a boss that doesn’t take advantage of those who passionately go above and beyond in their work. And a few examples of an attractive company culture might include:

• Flexibility – hybrid/remote options, 4-day workweeks, PTO
• Human qualities – respect and understanding
• Accountability – including both staff and leadership
• Empathy – understanding what a therapist does and working to provide the best environment for both clients and employees.

Many businesses have attempted to commoditize mental health, and this can make the process of providing care feel mechanical for both the practitioner and the patient. Essentially, where there is a lack of understanding between the investors and the people actually providing the service, there will be a company culture that repels rather than attracts applicants.

Trends in Mental Health Recruitment

Today, job applicants are wearing their detective hats. They’re looking under every rock for the finest details about your company and what you could offer them. And with all of the information and insider reviews proliferating online such as on sites like Indeed and Glassdoor, you have to paint a truly genuine and inviting picture of your company if you hope for anyone to apply.

Basically, you can spend millions of dollars on ads for recruitment, but if you don’t showcase your culture and show that you’re different – that you can provide a good experience for a potential employee – it’s going to be a very expensive endeavor and not as effective.

De-Siloing HR from marketing

Most businesses see HR and marketing as completely separate fields. But people are not siloed anymore. And for a recruitment campaign to be successful, the full force of marketing needs to be utilized to develop a complete strategy for recruitment instead of having HR only utilize marketing for bits and pieces of your hiring efforts.

Quality marketing highlights your culture, speaks about what makes your company different, and actually develops the strategy around the target candidates you’re looking to hire. This process will also target what job candidates actually care about and what they’re looking for. And if successful, you’re likely going to see 80 percent more applicants, and 50 percent better retention.

It may seem simple, but by using the same strategic skills that you use to bring on new clients as you would get new employees, you’ll find that more qualified applicants will be curious to see what you really have to offer.

Scale Your Recruitment Program with Beacon Media + Marketing

Building a recruitment strategy that gets you the people you’re looking for isn’t an impossible dream. And just like you’re looking for the best applicants, there are many qualified candidates in the mental health space that are looking for you – as long as you can offer and highlight a culture that offers a better quality of life.

With our team of creatives, social media experts, and marketing professionals, here at Beacon Media + Marketing, we will go to work for you and scale your recruitment efforts and get you the results you’re looking for.

Are you ready to scale your recruitment program with strategic marketing? Reach out to Beacon Media + Marketing today and schedule a free consultation.

The competition for consumer attention has never been as vast as it is in the modern digital age. And with the average consumer’s attention being directed and redirected thousands of ways any given day, compassionate messaging has become extremely valuable – and necessary.

Successful marketing is often the product of a recipe containing many essential ingredients. With today’s focus on social good, social justice, and being sensitive to emotional needs, consumers have their ears tuned to the primary ingredient – compassion. And if you’re not actively showing that your company holds compassion and accountability to the highest standard, you could easily face a downturn in profit and a reduced customer base.

Brands need to show the consumer that they’re doing more than taking their specific needs into consideration. And when marketing for eating disorder treatment centers, you need to show consumers that you understand their struggle – and that you’re not simply trying to make a profit.

Ready to let Beacon go to work to help you develop compassionate messaging for your eating disorder treatment center? Learn how we can help your clinic thrive with our mental health marketing services.

What Is Compassionate Marketing?

It may seem puzzling to think of marketing as compassionate. After all, the primary goal of marketing is always to achieve the greatest ROI, right? Well, not exactly.

Without the element of compassion, a marketing message may easily fall on deaf ears, or fall flat on the page. Without a deep, authentic meaning in your messaging, you’ll likely fail at establishing a deeper connection with your target audience.

Compassionate content marketing is concerned more with kindness and honesty than with numbers or conversion. This is a message that places the humanity of your audience as the center focus of your efforts. Essentially, compassionate marketing is an intuitive and creative way to help your audience identify with your brand, and not feel like outsiders looking in.

At the end of the day, you want your audience to already feel like they’re a part of the family before they ever step through the doors of your clinic. And empathic messaging is the key to establishing this level of trust and understanding.

Normalize the Struggle

Those with eating disorders are already protective of their condition. In fact, many eating disorder patients have trouble coming forward and admitting to anyone that they have a problem. This type of disorder is often held as a secret, and this is why compassionate messaging will allow an eating disorder treatment center to offer the level of comfort that an eating disorder patient is looking for.

At the most basic level, as an eating disorder treatment center, you need to normalize the struggle and let it be known to the world that these problems are not the dirty little secrets that many patients attempt to keep buried. This is a condition that needs to be talked about, and the following methods offer an opportunity for doing so:

• Start inclusive conversations about eating disorders on social media
• Ask your audience to offer their ideas about eating disorders through surveys
• Use a podcast to help spread positive and compassionate messaging about eating disorders
• Invite social influencers with eating disorders to promote your clinic
• Offer free ebooks or guides for those struggling with eating disorders
• Provide stigma-breaking, informative blogs on eating disorders

People suffering from eating disorders need to feel welcomed and understood. As an eating disorder brand, you need to not only accommodate your patients, you need to let them know that they’re not black sheep – that they’re safe and welcome. And by doing so, the more effective and compassionate your messaging will be.

Eliminating the Shame

Shame is something we’ve all experienced at some point in our lives in moments of social rejection, failed connection, or when we’ve exercised poor judgment and made a critical mistake. In fact, the feeling of shame often occurs when our highest ideal of self differs from how we perceive ourselves. And an eating disorder can make one feel riddled with shame, guilt, and even self-hatred.

As a mental health brand specializing in eating disorder treatment, eliminating the element of shame is often a primary goal when treating a patient, and the same should be true when developing your marketing message.

Messages promoting self-compassion, self-love, and body positivity may offer the best hope for eliminating the shame that many of those with eating disorders feel throughout the day. And the more you can connect with your audience and deliver messages full of love and empathy, the greater the response from potential patients you’ll see.

Setting the Tone With Visual Empathy

A primary method for truly showing the consumer that you’re a compassionate brand is through a combination of messaging and visually authentic designs that work to reinforce your message. And in order to achieve this effect, the imagery needs to suit the message.

The following examples of imagery may prove quite effective and inviting for potential eating disorder patients:

• Images of people enjoying food together
• Images highlighting a compassionate patient/clinician relationship
• Images of diversity
• Images of togetherness
• Images of embracing one another

The most effective imagery when it comes to compassionate messaging embodies the principles of kindness, common humanity, mindfulness, thoughtfulness, and inclusiveness. And when implemented in a design, this imagery can help to alleviate the internalized feelings of shame and self-criticism that many sufferers of eating disorders face on a daily basis.

Address the Tough Issues with a Gentle Touch

As mentioned, we all know that eating disorders can be a difficult topic to discuss openly. And with the American Society for Nutrition noting that eating disorders are on the rise, this leaves you with a larger audience and many sensitive issues to discuss. Whether in blogs, email content, ebooks, or guides, these discussions need to be open, honest, inviting, and gentle to those sensitive about their eating disorder.

Potential areas to discuss in your digital platforms may include:

• Social anxiety caused by eating disorders
• Mood disorders
• Body dysmorphia
• Depression
• Binge eating
• Anorexia
• Bulimia

A gentle and compassionate voice can go a long way in the effort to help reduce the stigma and cultural stereotypes that often come along with eating disorders. Essentially, when your marketing message focuses more on helping than selling, this changes the focus of the campaign and highlights your brand’s core values. And this is where partnering with a marketing company can be a powerful tool for focusing your brand’s voice and delivering compassionate messaging.

Scaling Your Eating Disorder Treatment Practice with Beacon Media + Marketing

At Beacon, we know how difficult it can be to come up with the right messaging and deliver that compassionate voice that your audience is looking for. But this is why our team is here.

From web design, paid ads, social media marketing, monthly blog posts, and developing your entire marketing strategy, growing your eating disorder treatment practice can be left in our capable hands. And you can sit back and relax (or focus on other areas of your business) while Beacon Media + Marketing creates your next successful eating disorder marketing campaign.

Our team of creatives and digital marketing experts each knows exactly what to do to develop compassionate messaging and allow you to reach your business goals, and we can’t wait to see your eating disorder treatment center thrive!

Ready to see how Beacon Media + Marketing can help your eating disorder treatment center thrive? Reach out and schedule your free consultation today!

Marketing your pediatric therapy practice with the wrong strategy can feel like you’re just not getting through to people. Or worse, you’re met with outright rejection. Here’s the thing – promoting therapy services for children requires unique strategies when marketing to adults.

For one, your target audience is parents and caregivers, and that makes things a bit tricky. But growing your pediatric therapy practice doesn’t have to be difficult. Read on for some expert tips to help in your mental health marketing for pediatric practices.

Ready to leave the work of growing your therapy practice to someone else? Learn how we can help with our mental health marketing services.

1) Know Your Audience

Children’s toy companies seem to have it so much easier when it comes to marketing. Their products can easily be promoted on kids’ TV shows, displayed on the lowest shelves of store aisles, or seen with their friends at school. But when it comes to pediatric therapy services, you’re out of luck marketing to children.

So, does that mean your therapy practice is relegated to dusty doctor’s office pamphlets? Absolutely not. You just need to shift your focus to a not-so-obvious (at first) target audience: Parents and caregivers.

This “indirect” target audience is nothing new in the world of marketing. Think about it. Are senior care services talking to seniors? No, they focus on their adult children. Are Valentine’s Day gift commercials for you (the recipient) or are they meant to reach your significant other?

In the same way, parents, guardians, and other caregivers should be your main focus.

2) Go Where They Are

The easiest way to connect with your target audience is to show up in related areas that don’t compete with your practice. These spaces can be in-person or online, but the key is to leverage an existing audience that is more readily available than the one you can build on your own at this stage.

Parental Blogs, Podcasts, and Forums

Caregivers and guardians are constantly looking for advice and resources to guide them in raising children. If you’re able to use guest posts and other partnerships to boost your content marketing and PR, it can bring in many new clients. Why? Because there’s already an existing audience that trusts the authority of the person or platform. Be featured in their space, and you can instantly gain credibility.

Schools and Daycare Services

When kids aren’t at home with their parents or another caregiver, they’re at school or in daycare services. So, chances are, these adults interact with the children often and may even see a difference in behavior from home life. Partnering with these facilities provides a good opportunity to get new business from referrals.

Pediatric Hospitals & Doctor Offices

Similar to schools and daycares, medical centers interact with children in a different context. But there’s one key “advantage” here: hospitals and doctors’ offices are focused on healthcare. That includes behavioral and mental health as well. If a concerned parent brings their child in for an annual checkup, they are likely to bring up issues they’ve noticed. It isn’t rare for a child’s primary care doctor to recommend therapy as a solution, and they could very well recommend your pediatric practice. That is, if they know about your services. (Hint: that was an action item).

Camps and Recreational Activities

This strategy is repeated here also. While you’re unlikely to get direct therapy referrals from these places, they are where your target audience is at. It’s a smart move to figure out a way to get in front of their eyeballs!

3) Focus on (Search) Intention

Given the nature of your practice, it’s smart to target parents who are actively looking for answers to their children’s struggles. At least at first – once you grow our practice, you can broaden your scope. The idea of search intention is usually referring to the use of paid advertising. For instance, Facebook ads are often presented on your feed without you intentionally searching for that product or service. This can sound confusing because good ad targeting will result in you seeing highly relevant ads. (Think ads for baking tools in your feed because you read cooking blogs, like social media posts for baking, or place an order for a cake recipe’s ingredients.)

But no matter how relevant or timely these ads may seem, they don’t use search intention. You never went to Facebook, typed in “large whisk” and then expected to see a paid ad for that product – even if it was something you wanted to buy once you saw it.

Advertising with search intention is different. For example, if a water pipe bursts in your home, you might immediately Google “plumbers [city] [state]” or “fix water pipe near me.” In that case, you will be shown paid search result ads from companies in your area. And generally speaking, companies are more likely to get your business when they present themselves as the solution to a problem you were already searching for. That’s the power of search intention.

Likewise, it may help to use marketing strategies that focus on this for your pediatric practice. And while it’s not direct marketing/advertising, blog posts are a great way to bring visitors to your website based on search intention. For example, an informative post for someone searching “how much does children’s therapy cost?” could bring in traffic and more leads to your practice.

4) Target Values in Your Messaging

Perhaps this tip sounds obvious to you. But many practices in the health and wellness space, end up revolving their message around “shoulds.” You should be eating this instead of your favorite comfort food. You should be doing cardio 3-5x a week instead of watching the entire season on Netflix. You should be reading a book to keep your brain sharp or you should schedule that doctor’s appointment.

Are all of these positive, healthy things? Yes, but it ends up sounding like another chore of a to-do list, or worse a judgment. That’s why the key to successful messaging is to focus on parent/caregiver values, which would naturally lead to seeking therapy for their children if needed.

Here are a couple of examples of values:

Empathy: Most people are actively trying to be good parents to their kids. Show you understand the issues they may face, too.

Nurturing: Frame therapy as something to be proactive about as well as nurturing for a child’s well-being. In other words, change the notion that therapy is a last resort or only when problems get out of control.

What core values and emotions can you connect with in your marketing?

5) Reputation, Reputation, Reputation

Lastly, this is possibly one of the most important points in growing your pediatric therapy practice. While every business needs to maintain credibility and reputation, you will have to put more emphasis on it. Why? You’re asking parents to take a risk anytime they entrust you with their child’s care.

Even if a bad review is only a disgruntled parent or an unrelated comment like an insurance complaint, it can still damage your practice’s reputation. As you grow, these things will be less of a blow compared to your overall positive feedback and credibility. However, when you’re still scaling, you must be more vigilant in managing your therapy practice’s reputation.

Scaling Your Pediatric Therapy Practice with Beacon

From monthly blog posts and running ads to marketing strategy and web design, growing your therapy practice can feel overwhelming! That’s why we’re here to step in. You can sit back and relax while Beacon Media + Marketing launches your next successful mental health marketing campaign. Our team of experts knows exactly what to do reach your business goals, and we can’t wait to see your pediatric therapy practice thrive!

Are you ready to see how Beacon Media + Marketing can help your behavioral health practice? Schedule your free consultation!