Latest / The Mental Health Evolution / Ep 35: Ethical Marketing Strategies for Mental Health Practices with Adrienne Wilkerson
Transcript
- 0:00(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) This podcast is part of the Frederick Podcast
- 0:02Network.
- 0:03Learn more at listenfrederick.com.
- 0:05Welcome to Mental Health Evolution, a podcast about
- 0:08what's changing in mental health and why it
- 0:11matters.
- 0:12I'm your host, Rachel Harrison, inviting you into
- 0:15honest conversations with people from all perspectives in
- 0:18the field, clinicians, tech founders, investors, insurance companies,
- 0:22and all the folks in between.
- 0:24Let's explore what's working, what's not, and what's
- 0:27next.
- 0:32Welcome back, everyone, to the Mental Health Evolution
- 0:36podcast.
- 0:38I am here with my guest today, Adrienne
- 0:40Wilkerson, and we are talking about how the
- 0:43landscape is quickly evolving in the mental health
- 0:46industry.
- 0:47Today, Adrienne is going to give us her
- 0:50expert perspective on marketing in particular.
- 0:55She is the founder and CEO of Beacon
- 0:57Media and Marketing, and she focuses specifically on
- 1:01helping mental and behavioral health organizations grow their
- 1:04visibility, communicate effectively, and connect with the people
- 1:08who need care.
- 1:09Her work centers on translating marketing strategies into
- 1:13practical, ethical approaches that small and independent practices
- 1:17can actually use, especially in a competitive environment
- 1:20where larger corporate and tech-enabled organizations are
- 1:24increasingly present.
- 1:26She is also the author of Digital Marketing
- 1:28for Mental Health, where she shares actionable strategies
- 1:32tailored specifically to behavioral health organizations, and we
- 1:36will definitely link that in the show notes
- 1:39for you if you wanna find out more
- 1:40about her book.
- 1:42So as always, I wanna go ahead and
- 1:44start this podcast with some articles relevant to
- 1:48our conversation for today.
- 1:50The first one is called Inside the Consolidation
- 1:53Renaissance Across Digital Behavioral Health, and this article
- 1:57talks about how corporate and private equity-backed
- 2:00organizations are increasingly acquiring smaller behavioral health providers.
- 2:05It highlights how consolidation is reshaping the competitive
- 2:09landscape and creating challenges for independent practices trying
- 2:13to maintain visibility and sustainability.
- 2:17So when Adrienne and I have a chance
- 2:18to dig in a little bit more, we'll
- 2:20definitely look at that, but just understanding that
- 2:22a lot of these consolidations are happening.
- 2:25I just read about three more this week.
- 2:27So every week, the landscape is changing.
- 2:31Article number two is called How AI is
- 2:34Changing Online Marketing for Small Businesses, and this
- 2:37article by Forbes talks about how AI tools
- 2:41are being used to streamline marketing tasks like
- 2:45content creation, audience targeting, and campaign optimization.
- 2:49It also talks about how small businesses can
- 2:52leverage AI to compete more effectively with larger
- 2:56organizations that have bigger marketing budgets.
- 2:59So I'm excited to dive into that one
- 3:01a little bit more too.
- 3:03And last but not least is Ethical Principles
- 3:06of Psychologists and Code of Conduct.
- 3:09And I love, love that Adrienne likes to
- 3:12focus on ethics too, because as we all
- 3:15know, just as a reminder for those of
- 3:17us that do have a license in mental
- 3:19health, there are certain things we're required to
- 3:23do to market ourselves in ethical ways.
- 3:26So we wanna make sure that that is
- 3:28a part of this conversation as well.
- 3:31So without further ado, Adrienne, welcome for being
- 3:35here.
- 3:36Thank you, I'm so excited to be here.
- 3:39Yes, so let's dig in.
- 3:41I wanna talk about a little bit about
- 3:43you.
- 3:44I would love to know, how did you
- 3:47kind of get into this niche of marketing?
- 3:50That's a fantastic question and a great story
- 3:53that we probably don't have a ton of
- 3:55time for, but the cliff note version is,
- 3:58my father is a therapist and an entrepreneur.
- 4:01He just retired after 30 years of running
- 4:05his own.
- 4:06He actually did a medical and counseling practice.
- 4:09And so the idea was care for the
- 4:11whole person and being able to pair the
- 4:15medical and the mental health together.
- 4:18So it was one of my first jobs
- 4:20was working on the medical side actually, but
- 4:23kind of back and forth.
- 4:25So I got kind of a real in
- 4:27-depth look of what the backend of running
- 4:30a practice looks like, the billing side of
- 4:33it, just the logistics and everything behind the
- 4:37curtain.
- 4:38So I also watched him grow this practice
- 4:42and really struggle with the balance of, I
- 4:45just wanna help people and how can I
- 4:47help more people?
- 4:48But then also really struggling to promote himself
- 4:51and his clinicians and that kind of like,
- 4:54I don't wanna talk about myself.
- 4:56I don't wanna brag.
- 4:57I don't wanna put myself out there and
- 4:59just really watched him struggle with that.
- 5:03And we had a lot, many, many conversations,
- 5:06and I think he was really hoping I
- 5:07would follow in his footsteps.
- 5:09But I'm like, my path runs parallel to
- 5:12yours.
- 5:13So really taking that experience and my giftings
- 5:18in communication and solving complex problems and really
- 5:22trying to address something that I really watched
- 5:25him struggle with for a long time.
- 5:27And then my husband was actually a behavioral
- 5:29health counselor for many years as well.
- 5:31So I got the addiction recovery side of
- 5:33it, as well as growing up with a
- 5:35therapist as a father and getting to work
- 5:37in the clinic.
- 5:38So all of that kind of put it
- 5:40together.
- 5:41And in 2019, when we realized we really
- 5:43needed to niche down, we started in Alaska
- 5:46and worked with a lot of small businesses
- 5:49up there.
- 5:49I was born and raised there.
- 5:50So it was kind of a natural transition
- 5:52place to start.
- 5:54So that also feeds into some of the
- 5:56reason why we're in this, just the mental
- 5:58toughness and really wanting to be able to
- 6:01help other people on their journey too.
- 6:04Cause in Alaska, we're pretty isolated.
- 6:05You kind of have to depend on each
- 6:07other a lot of times.
- 6:08And so being able to help each other
- 6:10through things, but, you know, really we expanded
- 6:13out of Alaska in 2019 or 2017, sorry.
- 6:17And by 2019, we realized we really needed
- 6:19to pick a niche.
- 6:20And it's funny cause we tell our clients
- 6:22this all the time.
- 6:22You know, you gotta niche down.
- 6:24Everybody is nobody.
- 6:25You gotta niche down.
- 6:26And we realized we weren't really living by
- 6:28our own, you know, weren't walking out what
- 6:31we were preaching.
- 6:32So we niched down.
- 6:33We were already kind of specialized in the
- 6:35healthcare industry, but we realized that really wasn't
- 6:38enough when we were marketing on a national
- 6:41scale.
- 6:42So we decided to niche down in mental
- 6:44and behavioral health and in part because of
- 6:47my background.
- 6:47And that was really a lot of where
- 6:49my heart was, but also being able to
- 6:51speak the language.
- 6:52So a lot of the business owners we
- 6:54work with and they don't have to explain
- 6:56all the acronyms.
- 6:57They don't have to explain the frustrations of
- 7:00insurance billing and the delays and just all
- 7:03of the intricacy that's unique to the mental
- 7:06and behavioral health world.
- 7:07So it was kind of a natural transition,
- 7:10I guess, if you were.
- 7:11Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
- 7:13So let's dig into that a little bit
- 7:15more.
- 7:16What would you describe as some of the
- 7:18differences in marketing for behavioral health versus other
- 7:22industries?
- 7:23Well, I think some of the articles that
- 7:25you brought up kind of touch on it
- 7:27too.
- 7:28There's a unique ethical component to marketing for
- 7:31mental health.
- 7:32Unlike some industries, this is not like you're
- 7:35buying a new pair of tennis shoes.
- 7:38This is, you're in crisis.
- 7:39Either you or the loved one that's reaching
- 7:42out, trying to find that answer at two
- 7:45o'clock in the morning because they can't
- 7:46sleep because they don't know where their teenager
- 7:48is.
- 7:49They don't know if they're strung out somewhere.
- 7:52Or they're just at the end of the
- 7:53rope communicating with their spouse or with their...
- 7:56We're dealing with people in a very serious
- 8:00place.
- 8:01And so it's a very vulnerable population.
- 8:04And so marketing has to be approached in
- 8:07a very specific way.
- 8:09It has to be marketing with empathy.
- 8:11This is, again, this is not transactional.
- 8:14This is somebody's mental health.
- 8:15This is somebody's addiction recovery side.
- 8:17I mean, this is life or death for
- 8:19some people.
- 8:20So it carries a whole different weight than
- 8:22say e-commerce does, for example.
- 8:24So understanding the impact and the responsibility that
- 8:30we as marketers carry in this, like I
- 8:33said, it's not selling tennis shoes.
- 8:36So there is a different perspective, a different
- 8:39point of view, a different tone, a different
- 8:41sensitivity.
- 8:42I really say all the time that marketing
- 8:44is about connection and it should always be
- 8:47about connection.
- 8:48Whatever tool you're using, paid ads, AI, content,
- 8:51it has to be about connection first.
- 8:55And when you make the right connections, the
- 8:57right clients will follow.
- 8:59But if you're not choosing to make that
- 9:01connection first, you're gonna get a broad sweep.
- 9:05It's not gonna really help your ROI because
- 9:08you're gonna get a lot of clients that
- 9:09may or may not be a good fit
- 9:10for you.
- 9:11And you'll get a lot of tire kickers.
- 9:13And again, in the mental health space, you
- 9:15just probably won't get as many leads because
- 9:17you're not connecting with a person who is
- 9:20in need.
- 9:21And guess what?
- 9:21They're gonna bounce to the next listing that
- 9:23AI gave them.
- 9:24Definitely.
- 9:25They're gonna bounce because they're looking for that
- 9:27connection.
- 9:28And if you're not genuinely meeting them where
- 9:30they're at and connecting with them there, whether
- 9:32that is the actual patient themselves or the
- 9:35loved one or whomever it is, or even
- 9:37the referring doctor who's looking desperately for something
- 9:40else to help this patient, you're gonna miss
- 9:43really valuable leads of people who could really,
- 9:47really help.
- 9:47So there's that whole component, which we could
- 9:49probably pontificate on for a long time, but
- 9:52there's also the HIPAA, the PHI side that
- 9:55has gotten much more stringent, which is not
- 9:59a bad thing at all, but it does
- 10:01make it more challenging for marketers.
- 10:02We have to be cognizant of it.
- 10:04We have to be respectful of it.
- 10:05And like I said, I think it's a
- 10:07good thing, but it is a thing that
- 10:10marketers who aren't used to it get very
- 10:12frustrated by it.
- 10:13Don't even know it exists half the time.
- 10:15I mean, I was talking to one marketer
- 10:17who works in e-commerce.
- 10:19And when I told him we can't track
- 10:20IP addresses, his jaw hit the floor.
- 10:23He's like, well, how do you retarget?
- 10:24How do you even do your job?
- 10:26And I'm like, very creatively, because a lot
- 10:29of tools that are available to other marketers,
- 10:32you can't use in our industry, at least
- 10:34not the same way.
- 10:35You can't ask for reviews like you can
- 10:38in most other industries.
- 10:40I mean, everybody asks for reviews.
- 10:42They are a cornerstone of marketing.
- 10:45And yet in the mental behavioral health field,
- 10:46you have to tread very carefully and very
- 10:50respectfully.
- 10:51And so it's a real balancing act in
- 10:54some areas.
- 10:55And if you don't understand what you're getting
- 10:57into when you get into marketing and the
- 10:59mental health, you can do some real damage,
- 11:01not just to the public at large, but
- 11:04legally to your company.
- 11:05If you're not respecting the HIPAA, the PHI,
- 11:09if you don't even understand the intricacies which
- 11:11are getting more and more significant.
- 11:13We've had clients that are trying to do
- 11:15paid ads and they do med management.
- 11:18And if they don't have legit scripts, Google's
- 11:21gonna pull your website and blacklist it.
- 11:23And it's almost impossible to get off the
- 11:26blacklist once you're on.
- 11:27So we've had to rebuild whole websites, whole
- 11:30brands, whole presences for clients, because they didn't
- 11:33even know when they were working with a
- 11:34marketing agency that did not know that you
- 11:37had to have legit scripts if you're gonna
- 11:39do paid ads.
- 11:39So there's some very interesting nuances that I
- 11:44enjoy and I appreciate for what they are,
- 11:46but it is definitely unique.
- 11:50Yeah.
- 11:50And you mentioned AI.
- 11:52I'm really curious how you think AI is
- 11:56intersecting with marketing in this space particularly.
- 12:01It's messy.
- 12:03Yeah.
- 12:05I know.
- 12:06That was a huge question too, but yeah.
- 12:09It is.
- 12:11It's a really important question though.
- 12:14And I've spoken at the Mental Health Marketing
- 12:17Conference in Nashville many years, many different years
- 12:20on this, because it is really important that
- 12:23we in the mental health industry understand the
- 12:26pluses and the minuses of what AI can
- 12:28do, not just in the marketing space, but
- 12:30just kind of across the board.
- 12:32But in the mental health space specifically, I
- 12:35think one of the big dangers, especially for
- 12:38smaller clinics, is AI almost feels like this
- 12:40golden bullet at the beginning.
- 12:42Oh, I can use this to do all
- 12:44this ad copy and write all my social
- 12:47media posts and do all my blogs.
- 12:49This is amazing.
- 12:51And it is, except you have to be
- 12:54very, very careful.
- 12:55And there's lots of layers to that.
- 12:57AI is great at pattern recognition.
- 13:00It has no empathy.
- 13:02It does not know what empathy is.
- 13:05It might mimic it if the pattern's there,
- 13:08but it's not true empathy.
- 13:10It's not true connection.
- 13:11And so I think it's a trap for
- 13:13a lot of smaller agencies and smaller clinics
- 13:17where we wanna use it to be able
- 13:20to keep up with the big boys.
- 13:22You mentioned that of getting gobbled up, a
- 13:24lot of companies getting gobbled up.
- 13:26We're seeing it on the marketing side, by
- 13:29the way, too.
- 13:30The marketing industry is saying the same trend,
- 13:32very, very rapid growth with some agencies gobbling
- 13:36up a lot of the smaller ones.
- 13:38And some of the same problems in our
- 13:39industry is with the mental health industry around
- 13:42that too.
- 13:43But back to AI.
- 13:44So with AI, you have to humanize it.
- 13:48And this is the piece that a lot
- 13:50of companies miss.
- 13:52AI is, again, great at pattern recognition.
- 13:54So it's really great at taking a lot
- 13:57of data, recognizing patterns that we probably would
- 14:00never see because we can't assimilate that much
- 14:03data, much less analyze it.
- 14:05But it can only analyze it from its
- 14:07context of patterns.
- 14:10It doesn't analyze it from an empathetic human
- 14:13standpoint.
- 14:15Now, some engineers would probably argue with me
- 14:18that the AI way is better, but those
- 14:20of us in mental health understand that that
- 14:22empathy is what sets us apart, if you
- 14:25will.
- 14:25And so what I advise a lot of
- 14:28people is, yes, leverage AI is a powerful
- 14:32tool, but don't advocate your humanness, your thought
- 14:36authority to that AI.
- 14:40And I think that that's usually my bottom
- 14:43line on AI.
- 14:44It's a great copilot.
- 14:45It's great for doing research.
- 14:47It's great for writing blog outlines and blog
- 14:50drafts, but read that draft out loud to
- 14:53yourself.
- 14:54Would you really speak like that to another
- 14:56human being?
- 14:57More often than not, probably no.
- 15:00There might be some parts that just sound
- 15:02fine, and then you're gonna run across a
- 15:04sentence, you're like, okay, that sounds like it
- 15:06came right out of the matrix.
- 15:07That was not me, kind of a thing.
- 15:10So oftentimes when we read out loud, we
- 15:13can catch stuff that when we read it
- 15:15just silently, our brains tend to plug in
- 15:18automatically some of those empathetic pieces.
- 15:21But we tend to catch them better when
- 15:23we read out loud.
- 15:24Don't know exactly why that is.
- 15:25I'm sure there's a scientific, something or other
- 15:28around it somewhere, but it's one of the
- 15:30things that I experience quite often in that
- 15:34arena, that there's just something about reading it
- 15:36out loud.
- 15:36So yes, AI can level the playing field,
- 15:40but only if you use it in a
- 15:42way that's empathetic.
- 15:43If you're not, what ends up happening is
- 15:45you damage yourself more than you help.
- 15:49Because now that image that starts going out
- 15:51online in your blogs, in your social media
- 15:54copy, it presents something probably I'm going to
- 15:58assume you don't wanna present.
- 16:00It's a cold front.
- 16:02It's not caring.
- 16:04It's kind of shallow is the word I
- 16:07hear a lot of people use.
- 16:08They're like, it's just kind of two dimensional.
- 16:11It doesn't have any depth.
- 16:12And people can't always pick out why.
- 16:15Now people pick on em dashes all the
- 16:17time, which drive me nuts.
- 16:18Cause I've been using em dashes since long
- 16:21before AI was using them, but now I
- 16:23can't use them anymore.
- 16:24Cause everyone's like, that's AI.
- 16:27Cause AI loves them.
- 16:28They're good tools, but they're overused.
- 16:31So, but there's, you know, there's just certain
- 16:34things people be like, it just doesn't feel
- 16:36right.
- 16:37And usually what they're picking up on it,
- 16:40it just doesn't have that human connection part.
- 16:42There's not empathy there.
- 16:44It's a mimic of what a human would
- 16:48do.
- 16:49And that's, I think that's still the differentiator.
- 16:53That differentiator might disappear in the future, the
- 16:56way things are going, God, I hope not,
- 16:58but it is becoming harder and harder.
- 17:01I think to differentiate video is getting better
- 17:05and better deep fakes are getting better and
- 17:07better.
- 17:07And that just creates more and more distrust
- 17:10in the public about what the content that's
- 17:14being put out.
- 17:15So again, that human to human connection becomes
- 17:19even more important as that distrust grows because
- 17:25of what AI is bringing to the marketplace.
- 17:30You mentioned some parallels to what's happening in
- 17:35the marketing industry, as well as the mental
- 17:37health industry.
- 17:38And because you probably work with a lot
- 17:40of mental health providers, groups, even larger organizations,
- 17:46I'm curious, what are you seeing as patterns,
- 17:50both for like what people are looking for
- 17:54in a therapy provider, and also what do
- 17:58you see shifting in the industry?
- 18:00In the mental health industry specifically?
- 18:03Yeah.
- 18:04One interesting trend that we're seeing, which I
- 18:08find scary, is the amount of men that
- 18:12are turning to AI for therapy.
- 18:16And it's not growing like in leaps and
- 18:20bounds, but it is steadily growing.
- 18:23The amount of men that are reporting that
- 18:26they've found relief, they've found help from AI.
- 18:30They would prefer AI to a therapist.
- 18:34And I think men have always historically struggled
- 18:38with going to see therapy, which is interesting
- 18:41considering my father is a therapist, but even
- 18:43he would talk about this.
- 18:44Like you have to approach treating a guy
- 18:47often differently than a woman because there's a
- 18:49different thought process.
- 18:50There's a different way that they process emotions
- 18:55or they view things.
- 18:57And everybody's individual and different too.
- 19:00But that stigma of men don't go see
- 19:03therapy kind of a thing has, I think,
- 19:06opened up this back door to men using
- 19:09AI.
- 19:09They don't feel judged.
- 19:10Nobody knows that they're getting help.
- 19:14My husband thoroughly enjoys trying to trip AI
- 19:17up because his background as a counselor, he's
- 19:19just like, okay, I'm gonna test this out
- 19:21and see how good it actually is.
- 19:23And he's like, on the surface, it's okay.
- 19:26On the surface, it appears to give good
- 19:28answers.
- 19:29But he's like, when you dig any deeper
- 19:31than that, again, it's just, there's not a
- 19:34human component.
- 19:35It is pattern recognition.
- 19:38And so it's easy to mislead it, to
- 19:41be honest.
- 19:42And we've seen lots of lawsuits and they're
- 19:44growing, unfortunately, of AI convincing people to kill
- 19:48themselves or to do bodily harm or some
- 19:51really scary stuff.
- 19:54So I think that's a very worrisome trend
- 19:57that we're seeing.
- 19:58I think there's a lot of men that
- 20:01are really hurting that are turning to this
- 20:04when traditional therapy would probably be better more
- 20:07often than not.
- 20:08So that's an interesting trend that we're combating
- 20:12a lot with our clients of how do
- 20:15you do that with a positive angle?
- 20:16You don't wanna judge, don't go AI.
- 20:19But bringing up the positive sides of talking
- 20:23to a therapist, helping break down the barriers
- 20:26that there shouldn't be a stigma for a
- 20:30guy to see therapy.
- 20:31Now, this is not so true of the
- 20:32younger generations, but the older millennials, the Xennials,
- 20:38all the different names, the Gen Xers, all
- 20:40of the, that generation, they definitely struggle.
- 20:43And they're actually adopting AI faster than a
- 20:47lot of the Gen Z generations are, which
- 20:50is also interesting.
- 20:51My son's 18, hates AI, doesn't wanna use
- 20:55it.
- 20:55He's like, it's fake, it's all fake.
- 20:58So there's like this baked in mistrust of
- 21:01AI that doesn't exist in some of the
- 21:05older generations.
- 21:07So that's a really, they have different mistrust,
- 21:10I should say, maybe more specifically.
- 21:12So that's an interesting trend.
- 21:14We're seeing just the flood of content that
- 21:19AI is dumping into the internet, creating a
- 21:23massive fatigue with people.
- 21:25So one of the interesting ways that's manifesting
- 21:28in mental health marketing specifically is the people
- 21:33aren't liking things as much.
- 21:35They're not commenting as much.
- 21:38They're just scrolling.
- 21:40And they might save that video.
- 21:43We're seeing a bigger increase of people saying,
- 21:45oh yeah, I saved one of your videos,
- 21:47or I saved an article that popped up
- 21:48in my newsfeed, you know, and I came
- 21:50back to it a month later, or I
- 21:51sent it to a friend of mine.
- 21:53So we're seeing an increase of that, but
- 21:56it's really hard to track because the only
- 21:57way you get that information is if they
- 22:00share it to you by the time they
- 22:02become a patient, which can be six to
- 22:05nine months after they saw your original piece
- 22:08of content.
- 22:08Right, yeah.
- 22:10So that attribution arc that used to be
- 22:14really short with paid ads specifically, you know,
- 22:17you put this ad out, it goes to
- 22:18this page, they sign up, they book an
- 22:21appointment.
- 22:21It's a very clear attribution chain.
- 22:23I spent this much for this ad, I
- 22:26got this many clients, new clients in, and
- 22:28we converted this many of them.
- 22:30Made marketing really easy from that standpoint.
- 22:33Those days are gone.
- 22:35And it's killing us marketers, and it's not
- 22:38easy for business owners either because how do
- 22:40you quantify your ROI when you can't track
- 22:44attribution very well?
- 22:45Now, this was the problem we all dealt
- 22:47with in the early days of digital marketing.
- 22:49And frankly, this is what we dealt with
- 22:51forever in advertising too.
- 22:53It's really hard, you can't track how many
- 22:55people listen to your radio program or saw
- 22:58your TV commercial.
- 22:59You just kind of had to generally watch
- 23:01is this rising tide lifting all ships.
- 23:04We're back to that world, which is really
- 23:07interesting because for six years-ish, we had
- 23:10really clear tracking.
- 23:11And so this is a really hard trend
- 23:14for marketers and for business owners alike.
- 23:17And it's a conversation we're having a lot,
- 23:20and it's brutal because I don't have a
- 23:23good answer.
- 23:24And anybody out there in the industry who
- 23:25says they do, I would seriously question their
- 23:29expertise because the tracking just isn't there the
- 23:34way it has been.
- 23:36It's evolving, it's becoming different, but we're still
- 23:39all guessing as to what AI is going
- 23:41to pull when and where.
- 23:43We have some good ideas, but it is
- 23:47not as clean as what paid ads was.
- 23:51Paid ads, even especially Google ads.
- 23:53I mean, Google pushes those down below their
- 23:55Gemini recommendations now.
- 23:57I know.
- 23:58Yeah, I mean, if you're looking on a
- 24:00smaller screen, they're not even on the screen
- 24:02anymore.
- 24:03I know, like on the phone, all you
- 24:05see is the Gemini, right?
- 24:06Yeah.
- 24:07Yes, exactly.
- 24:08So if you're not showing up there, nobody's
- 24:11even seeing your paid ads, the way we
- 24:14used to.
- 24:14So are they dead?
- 24:16No.
- 24:17Are they evolving?
- 24:18Absolutely.
- 24:19And for right now, it's a very messy
- 24:22attribution chain, which again is uncomfortable for marketers
- 24:26and business owners alike, especially small business owners
- 24:30and small practice owners where every dollar is
- 24:33so valuable.
- 24:35We talk in marketing that, and they say
- 24:39this in business consulting a lot too, but
- 24:41you should expect to spend about five to
- 24:437% of your overall revenue on marketing.
- 24:46That's kind of your benchmark.
- 24:48If you're wanting to grow really aggressively, more
- 24:50than that.
- 24:51But that's a big chunk for small businesses.
- 24:55And that's a hard check to write.
- 24:58And if you're not seeing direct ROI on
- 25:01that, or you're having a marketing agency telling
- 25:03you it's gonna be six months of paying
- 25:05this before you may ever see a return
- 25:07on that investment, that's not what you wanna
- 25:10hear.
- 25:11It's not what I wanna tell clients either,
- 25:14but unfortunately it is the reality of where
- 25:16we're at right now.
- 25:17And I do think things will continue to
- 25:20evolve and get to where we can track
- 25:22attribution better, but there's almost no consistent tracking
- 25:26out there for ROI through AI.
- 25:28We'll have a lot of the reputable marketing
- 25:31places are scrambling to get caught, or reporting
- 25:33places are scrambling to get caught up, but
- 25:36they almost all contradict each other.
- 25:39HubSpot reports one thing, SEMrush reports something else.
- 25:43There's all these other AIs popping up going,
- 25:45we can do it better.
- 25:46And some of them have some parts better
- 25:48than others, or they track Gemini really well,
- 25:51but not perplexity.
- 25:52So it's the Wild West of marketing all
- 25:55over again.
- 25:56And it's brutal.
- 25:58I mean, like I said, we started in
- 25:592012.
- 26:00We were the first digital marketing agency in
- 26:03Alaska, and it was a Wild West then.
- 26:06We never knew quite what was going to
- 26:08happen or when Facebook was gonna change something
- 26:10and make it all miserable.
- 26:13So we're kind of back in that world
- 26:16again.
- 26:17And it's not a comfortable place to be
- 26:19for anybody, to be honest.
- 26:21Yeah, and it's interesting that you mentioned, like
- 26:24the smaller business owners.
- 26:25I think the other trend I'm seeing, because
- 26:28I interact with a lot of people in
- 26:30this space is people utilizing marketing for the
- 26:34first time.
- 26:35Because a lot of providers, a lot of
- 26:38businesses in the mental health space, my business
- 26:41also never needed to do marketing.
- 26:45Right, yeah.
- 26:47But no, that's really true.
- 26:48Like you said, you gotta compete with the
- 26:50big boys.
- 26:50And all of these different things coming in
- 26:53that's starting to shift.
- 26:55So looking at, oh, we might have to
- 26:58market now.
- 26:58Like we didn't even have to think about
- 27:00that before.
- 27:01Right, well, and we saw a really interesting
- 27:03trend.
- 27:05So we decided to niche down on mental
- 27:07health right before COVID.
- 27:09And the need for mental health services obviously
- 27:12skyrocketed during COVID.
- 27:14And so a lot of people started, they
- 27:16left a group practice, started their own practice
- 27:19during that time.
- 27:20And like you said, there really was very
- 27:22little marketing needed.
- 27:24And by about 2022, 2023, we were watching
- 27:30trends start to kind of go back to
- 27:32pre-COVID norms.
- 27:34So the cost per lead, cost per click,
- 27:36all of that started kind of drifting back
- 27:38to that kind of telehealth spiked and then
- 27:41kind of came back down.
- 27:43It's reached a new kind of level ground
- 27:46that's higher than it was before, but definitely
- 27:48not as high as it was during COVID.
- 27:50So that's also pushed a lot of people
- 27:53toward needing marketing.
- 27:54Like you said, all you had to do
- 27:56was hang out a shingle, unfortunately or fortunately
- 27:59during COVID because people were so aware of
- 28:02the need for mental health services.
- 28:05And that really has decreased some, but not
- 28:08in comparison to the cost per lead, cost
- 28:12per click, that kind of thing.
- 28:14So clinics that were around before COVID, they're
- 28:16like, oh yeah, we get this, this feels
- 28:18familiar.
- 28:18But the clinics that started during that time,
- 28:20it's sticker shock, you know, kind of a
- 28:22thing.
- 28:22So that's kind of tapered down, but kind
- 28:25of just to your point, yeah.
- 28:28Marketing is a need now that didn't exist
- 28:31in as urgent of a way before.
- 28:34Yeah, yeah, definitely.
- 28:36Well, we are getting to the end of
- 28:38our time together, but I would just like
- 28:41to kind of ask you a final question
- 28:43is just if you could leave something for
- 28:47anyone in this space from a marketing perspective,
- 28:50like what is a message you would like
- 28:53either independent clinicians, small practice owners, or even
- 28:56larger entities in the space?
- 28:58What is the thing that people really need
- 29:01to know?
- 29:02What's your kind of last word or inspiration
- 29:05for our listeners today?
- 29:07I think I'll go back to what I
- 29:08harp on that at the end of the
- 29:10day, marketing has to be about connection first.
- 29:13The conversions will follow, but if you focused
- 29:16on conversions first, you're never gonna get a
- 29:19good second chance to make that connection.
- 29:23And you're going to invest a lot more
- 29:25money because you're going to have to dig
- 29:28through a lot that you might not be
- 29:30able to help a lot of clients that
- 29:32aren't your ideal client.
- 29:34And, but when you make that connection first,
- 29:36the leads convert at a higher rate.
- 29:39They are stickier clients because you made a
- 29:42connection with them and it's a real connection.
- 29:44So that's something that frequently gets lost in
- 29:48marketing.
- 29:48We talk conversions, we talk data, we talk
- 29:51numbers, all of that's important, but marketing has
- 29:54to start and end with connection.
- 29:57Otherwise you won't get the right.