I hear from time to time:

“I do not know who I am speaking to.”

or

“I am trying to get clients, but they keep running away after they hear they have to do art in a therapy session.”

The behaviour reflects the act of not understanding the client you want to work with and how to connect with them to build trust and shift any doubts or fears their experiencing about art therapy.

Your brand relies on your audience because they are your true supporters that will keep the brand alive. It’s important to understand your ideal client, to attract the same people and build an audience of the same mold and loyalty. It will strengthen the brand and build a community that will continue to grow and nourish the relationship. Without an audience, your art therapy brand will not be sustainable and fall apart. You need support to surround your brand and help you grow together. Understanding your ideal client inside and out will give you the advantage of speaking to them on a relatable note and standing out from others. You will also deliver the best services or products to your people because took time to understand their wants, needs, inner desires, goals, pain points, and aspirations.

Your art therapy brand needs to be interactive with your people to keep them engaged with you. The benefit of keeping your audience engaged is allowing your people to be a part of your brand and build it together. They feel their doing their part and part taking in something bigger than themselves, like a movement or a cause they support. Keeping them involved also keeps the conversation moving, gaining insights and learning about their journey and how you can help them. You are walking beside them every step of the way. You also have the opportunity to hear directly from them what they want at this given moment and how you can step up and fill that gap. Build something that will help solve a problem.

1. Build a client profile to identify who they are and use it as a compass.

The first step to creating engagement with your audience is to identify the ideal client to attract like-minded people and build a whole audience with the same needs.

Build a basic client profile that covers:

• Demographics

• Their story

• Needs

• Inner Desires

• Pain points

• Challenges

• Where they hang out (where you will show up to engage with them. ) Solutions to bring to them.

Journal your goals and objectives

Before starting to engage with your audience. Know what you want to achieve first!

Examples of some goals:

• Brand awareness
• Generating leads
• Client loyalty

Get the goal in place and to help build your engagement strategy to align with your goals and objectives, or you might waste your time.

2. Building out marketing strategies for the highest level of engagement

A. Focus on creating value-based content.

A good start in engaging with your audience is to ask them what is stressing them out right now. It needs be around the topic/problem you are the best at solving. Starting here, gives you a chance to talk with your people and collectively understand what is coming up for them. Make a note of their questions so that you can build content that answers those questions. Bring them value that will solve a minor problem or shift their mindset. Interactive content means you will be constantly asking your people questions, allowing you to create aligned and personal content just for them. In the content, you can encourage them to save the post, share it, or even comment below to get a conversation going. This approach is golden for creating content that connects.

B. Encourage feedback and comments.

As said in the previous paragraph, the goal is to get as much interaction with your people as possible. Giving you the opportunity to upscale your brand by pivoting or making adjustments so you feel more aligned with them. With every post or video you create, ensure that there is a call to action for each. Some examples of calls to action can be shared with friends, commenting below, or liking the post. Everything needs to have a purpose so that your people participate and feel they’re part of your brand. How you can do this is to ask for feedback with questions in Instagram stories or simple video responses. The more feedback you receive, the better you can position yourself, understand your ideal client and how to communicate and connect with them. Push to be more interactive on social media via IG stories, reels, or posts. You will see that exposing yourself more and showcasing your personality, will boost the know you, like you, and trust you factor. People want to see you as a person, that will encourage them to talk to you. Your IG stories do not need to be business 24/7, it’s up to you, the key is to simply talk and start conversations.

C. Host Live Webinars and Events.

I know this one can be a bit daunting, but this is where the best engagements happens. You put together a free class that matches what your ideal client needs. It creates interest and people will sign up, and not only that, but you are providing value LIVE. The people on the call get first access to talking with you live and interacting that way. It’s very exclusive and only happens a few times a year, depending on how many times you want to show up live. No right or wrong answer here. Hosting these live events allows you to collaborate with another professionals who share the same audience as you. Not only are you helping each other by exchanging audiences and marketing each other, but you are also maximizing the content you deliver and boosting the value and engagement. You will be surprised at how excited people get when they see two people interacting live together, stimulating a great conversation and watching how they interact. There is some strange psychology behind that, but these events are so fulfilling! It’s an opportunity to showcase your personality and humanity, you are not the art therapist hiding behind a screen anymore. You are coming forth and being vulnerable, which is so powerful. I encourage you to create events online to build your audience and create an interactive experiences for your people. They will be super excited and want to show up with their friends to listen to your presentation.

D. Run Surveys and Polls Quarterly.

The feedback from your people matters the most because this will tell you if you need to make changes, or improve an area in your brand. I would craft different types of surveys and polls, such as content performance, event performance, content ideas, and offer ideas. Get your people involved as much as possible because they like to feel heard and make a difference to feel valuable. They want to feel included as your co-creator to make this brand and business grow. Establishing a schedule for feedback in the year is essential to keep fresh in the market and up to date. Now, with any survey or poll you run, usually to drive their motives to complete it, you would need to provide an incentive to get them to participate. Some tools for surveys are, Google Forms, AirTable, Instagram polls and question function, and Survey Monkey. Here are a few incentive examples, a discount on one of your services, a gift card, a contest, money, a giveaway, etc. You need to boost the attraction and make it irresistible for them to participate in the survey. They want to know what is in it for them because their thoughts are valuable, and you need to provide a good trade-off.

3. Analyze the Audience Engagement

With anything large that you’ve done in your business, for example, you just finished rolling out quarter one of your content marketing or you a live event. You need to review the stats and analytics behind it to see what is working and what is not. Then repeat was is working and remove what is not working to keep striving in the right direction. You can find your analytics for Instagram in your professional dashboard, look for the reach and the engagement levels. If the engagement dropped, how can you raise it? Can you switch up your content and try video? Can I make my conent more interactive for my people? Should I create stronger content topics and discussions by asking better questions to my people? These are all things to think about when it comes to encouraging people to respond or react to your content. Even in your email marketing, you need to look at click and open rates of each email. Whethers its from an event you recently did or content in quarter one that you just completed. Reviewing these quarterly, allows you to stop, think and review your performance and evaluate where improvements need to happen. Giving you time to make the changes for your next go around, so you avoid repeating the same mistake. Any feedback from your people, keep them in a document for reviewing. You can find ways to integrate their ideas into your brand in the next round of marketing campaigns. You don’t want to ignore their advice and insights because these are clues to where to shift your focus. Your energy should be where they are point you to go and keep things moving in a good direction. Through all metrics and data you collected, keep this close to you and use them for future strategies.

Your audience matters to your brand and you need to listen to them consistently, for they are the people that keep your art therapy brand alive. Include them as much as possible because in return, they will be your best marketers and speak highly of you. Boost your audience engagement by first identifying who they are in building a profile of them to use as a compass, creating value-based content, asking for feedback and comments consistently, hosting live events and webinars, running surveys and polls quarterly, and lastly, reviewing and analyzing the audience engagement. These techniques will help you focus on including audience engagement in all areas of your art therapy brand and focus on strategies that will boost your engagement; with your people. Leads to creating a highly engaging art therapy brand that will look attractive to potential clients.