Want to put your website to work for you beyond marketing? Sure, we love it when new clients find us through our website, or when we get a boost in website SEO. But, what if you find yourself repeating similar information over and over to clients? Perhaps in an initial phone call, or perhaps you have specific strategies, psychoeducation, or other material that you often share with clients early in therapy. Why not put your website to work with a fact sheet to which you can direct clients?
I recently did just that, and thought it would be a great example to share. Very limited tech skills needed! I noticed that I had a laundry list of telehealth do-s and don’t-s that I share with new clients, which is probably information overload for them during an initial scheduling phone call. I also lamented that my clients didn’t seem to remember some of the important facts (again, I probably overloaded them with information). Most importantly, they need the link to my telehealth platform, and my phone number in the event of an issue. While these two pieces of information are in my appointment reminders, somehow it wasn’t always sinking in. And when most of my details are accessed by clients on line, it is hard if they are having tech issues to find the information they need, and if they become flustered, it’s even harder to think rationally.
I realized I needed a good old fashioned piece of paper that clients can print and hold on to in the event that they need to troubleshoot.
Enter my friend, Canva. I love to use Canva for graphic design. For a pretty basic one sheet flyer, it gets the job done and is way spiffier than a text doc. BUT don’t let that stop you–a text doc can work just fine and you can use whatever word processing program you prefer. If you do make your page a PDF in Canva or a similar design program, you’ll have the added benefit of being able to fancy it up a bit with your brand colors and logo.
I created my document in Canva and included all the facts that I share about telehealth. I recognize that I put a lot of information in it, so I bolded some of the info that I wanted to emphasize, and I put a live link to my telehealth platform so anyone viewing the PDF online can just click and link. When I was done, I uploaded my PDF to my website in the media and image gallery. While this allows me to put the PDF on a page, that is not what I did with it. Instead, I then went to my media gallery in my website and copied the URL for the PDF. That allows anyone with the URL, or with a link to the URL, to open the PDF. I then embedded a link to the PDF’s URL on my website where I talk about telehealth. I also added the link to my appointment reminder automated emails and to my telehealth consent form. 
Now when I have an initial scheduling conversation, I’ll point out to clients to please read carefully through the tips and considerations for telehealth on my document. I’ll remind them how they can find the document–on the consent form, on my website, and on their appointment reminders. I’ll strongly recommend they print out and bookmark the document for easy reference. Don’t forget to add your branding and contact deets to these PDFs–let them work for you out in the world!
Want to get even more impact from these documents you create? Each time you produce a new piece of helpful content, write a blog post about it and share it with the world! Tease your blog post on social media (if you use it) and you’ll get your followers to click through to your website to see your new content and learn more about your practice. You can see an example of how I did this recently with a PDF about sleep hygiene and then wrote a blog article referencing it, by clicking here.
What easy access PDFs would work best in your practice? I can think of a lot of applications for these PDFs that would create added value for my clients, and I’m sure you can, too. Put them to work for you to save time, increase client connection and value, and share your work with the world!
