How we helped make this LA family therapist’s new website feel inviting
Picture this: you’re a parent whose child is struggling, and you decide to begin searching for a therapist. You visit a local clinic’s website, and it’s stacked with industry-specific resources and long paragraphs explaining their services.
You feel more overwhelmed, but you don’t quite know why.
I’ll look into this tomorrow, you think to yourself.
Stacey Sampo, a licensed family therapist in Los Angeles, approached Lemay Story Studio wanting help creating a website that would have the opposite effect on parents.
Picture walking into a cluttered basement vs. entering a clean, cozy, cheerful room with neatly organized bookshelves. The latter is the vibe she wanted.
How did we help Stacey accomplish this on a website that someone may only be spending a few seconds visiting?
This case study explores how we offered the strategic direction and website copy to turn Stacey Sampo’s website into a reflection of her practice.
The Challenge:
Stacey has several types of patients she meets with: young children, adolescents, and parents. Her treatment methods are different depending on who she’s meeting with, which is common for therapists like Stacey.
We conducted an informal competitive analysis of other therapists’ websites who offer similar services to Stacey. Many of them mentioned specific diagnoses, went into detail about how they treat those diagnoses, and discussed therapeutic services as menu items.
Stacey wanted to stay away from this, because she felt throwing out diagnoses and treatments right away would be overwhelming for the parent. (We agreed with her.)
Another challenge we ran into was addressing the treatments she offers for adolescents vs. younger children. We felt strongly that these audiences were too different to combine on the same page.
The Solution
Here’s what we did to make Stacey’s website stand out and speak to parents in a way that would be received well.
- The entire website is geared towards parents, Stacey’s target audience. Because of that, our tone is soft and empathetic, and the UX is forgiving. It is not easy to find a therapist for your child, and we wanted parents to feel as comfortable as possible before they even set up a call or walked into Stacey’s office.
- We created one landing page for adolescents, and another for young children, so parents could click on the most applicable option for their situation. This is better than creating landing pages for each “service,” because a parent may not know which service their child needs.
- On each landing page, instead of listing diagnoses Stacey can treat, we listed behaviors she can help address. Although it seems small, this is a big difference. Listing behaviors invites the parent to relate. Listing diagnoses invites the parent to wonder and potentially worry.
After I wrote the copy and created a strategic direction for the website’s layout, we handed it over to website designer Regan Awbrey, who brought the words to life on the website. Isn’t it beautiful?
View the full website here!
The Results
Here’s what Stacey had to say about the website after we sent her the first draft:
“WOW! This looks incredible! I love it!!! It’s dynamic, inviting and the copy is engaging and hits the key points.
Really amazing work you two. It’s rare that my expectations are exceeded. I’m super proud to get to share this website with my community.”
Now that Stacey has a website she’s proud of, we’re confident she’ll find it easier to send it to prospects, networking groups, and to anyone who might need her services.
We’re looking forward to cheering Stacey on as she continues to make a big difference in the lives of her clients.
Have a private practice and need help communicating your expertise to an audience that may not know the lingo?
