The Drug Rehab Marketing Strategy That Works

Laying The Foundation Of Your Treatment Center Brand Identity

Your Drug Rehab Center's Name

Naming your treatment center seems mundane to someone looking to open a treatment center, but should be carefully thought through for your entire marketing strategy. Name your center something meaningful that you can explain in an elevator pitch: 30 seconds or less.

Having a name with a story will make your marketing goals simpler to reach down the line.

Your Addiction Treatment Center's Domain Registry

After naming your center, go to GoDaddy or SiteGround to register your .com domain. If yours is taken, consider a plural word, abbreviating, or adding your state.

If you are having trouble, you can discuss it with our team in a strategy call. We will help you name your center in our first call free.

A Logo That Sets Your Center Apart

It's possible to find a graphic designer to help you make an inexpensive logo you like on something like Fiverr. But we do not recommend this.

At The Drug Rehab Agency, we utilize dozens of graphic artists who will compete to make the best logo for your brand. Don't skimp on your branding. This logo can set you apart from the centers who fail.

Designing A Website That Converts

The biggest reason most treatment centers fail is they believe, "If I build it they will come." Your mindset should be on creating a treatment program in tandem with marketing that works.

When your rehab facility's website is launched, it should be an asset you want to send people to that communicates exactly what your center believes and does to serve the addiction community.

Your drug rehab’s Social Media Platform

Having a presence on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube are vital for long term brand recognition and success. Create a social media marketing strategy that is posting quality content consistently.

Don't worry about social media posts going viral. Just having social media content for people to find is how many potential clients decide where to go for treatment services. There is social media management software like Sprout Social your team can utilize to begin your social media marketing, but when you hire your marketing agency, ensure they have rehab marketing services specifically for social media channels with a track record of success.

Important Subscriptions & Certifications For Drug Rehab Marketing

Online Rehab Directories

Websites like PsychologyToday.com, AddictionResource.com, SAMHSA.gov (Mental Health Services Administration) and Rehabs.com are directories that will place your rehab facility on their site to introduce you to people seeking treatment.

Some of these sites have a fee and some are at no cost. Getting your website placed in every directory you can find within your marketing budget will help boost brand awareness and credibility as a trusted treatment service.

LegitScript Certification

LegitScript is a a certification that allows you to run paid ads and shows the visitors to your website you are licensed as an addiction service. LegitScript is an alliance between companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon, that ensures targeted healthcare ads are legal and ethical.

Having the LegitScript Certified stamp on your website also helps with brand trust for web traffic. The application fee is around $1,500 with an annual fee of about $3,000. You can do this yourself or hire an agency with experience to ensure your quick acceptance.

Ongoing Digital Marketing Efforts for addiction treatment

Search Engine Optimization

There are few industries as competitive as drug rehab marketing. Optimizing your website to be on the front pages of Google is essential for long-term success. A user experience on your site with internal links taking them to information they want is the first strategy to employ on your SEO efforts.

Quality content that keeps the user watching a video or reading a blog post, will continue to boost your brand and domain authority. There are many more strategies for web optimization that could be another ten blog posts alone.

We share best strategies for you and your digital marketing journey in a free strategy call.

Local SEO Campaigns

Local SEO campaigns are a crucial component of successful digital marketing for rehab centers. By optimizing your website and content for local searches, you increase the chances of attracting potential clients in your geographical area who are actively seeking your services.

This strategy enhances your online visibility and drives targeted traffic to your site, ultimately leading to higher conversion rates and lower costs per acquisition.

Press Releases & Feature Stories

Press releases and local feature stories offer a unique opportunity to elevate your rehab center's profile within the community. Well-timed press releases share valuable news about your center, including advancements in treatment, new staff, or upcoming events.

Being featured in local newspapers and magazines improves your reputation and creates a positive image of your center in the public eye.

Pay Per Click drug rehab Marketing (PPC)

Pay Per Click Marketing has proven to be the most effective digital marketing strategy when used to amplify the groundwork you have done with your brand identity. It involves creating targeted ad campaigns paying a fee when your ad is clicked, buying visits to your site.

Utilizing PPC allows rehab centers to reach potential clients who are actively searching for their services, delivering immediate traffic. Carefully crafted PPC campaigns will significantly improve your CPA, enhancing the return on investment. If you do not have extensive experience with running paid Google ads, do not do this on your own.

If you are at this stage of your center's marketing strategy and are looking for an agency to run your paid ads, we will look at your account in a Free Strategy Call to share the best ways to utilize your PPC marketing budget.

Top 3 Components Of Customer Relations Management (CRM)

Lead Generation & Lead Capture

When running social media marketing campaigns, PPC, or even many PR campaigns, having an effective landing page to capture leads who may be looking for information about their drug & alcohol use, but aren't ready to seek treatment yet, is an effective way of building a community of potential clients.

Giving a free gift like How To Tell If Your Child Needs Addiction Treatment or 18 Questions To Tell If Your Drug Use Is A Problem, and collecting a name and email to send the gift to gives you the opportunity to email them in the future. This is a way to set you apart with your own strategy of communicating with your network.

Email Marketing Campaigns

They may not have been ready for treatment when they found the free gift, but an email campaign you send out later to all your leads could find them at the perfect time.

Running continued monthly news letters, client success testimonial stories, and new in-network contract emails are a perfect way to continue to inspire those needing help to seek help.

This 3-minute video testimonial shows what is possible when you work with the right social media marketing team so you don't always pay top dollar for social media advertising.

The Best Social Media Marketing Platforms For Addiction Treatment Centers

Business Accounts On Facebook for rehab centers

Facebook continues to be the social media platform with the most active users and best ad center: Meta Business Suite.  With a social media marketing team running your content and ads on social media, you will gain a following to build awareness of your brand and build an audience of people who are interested in watching content about addiction and your rehab center.

To generate leads for your rehab center on social media, it is different than a social media marketing campaign to increase sales for a clothing brand. Social ads for rehabs are all about brand awareness and a first touch social media marketing strategy.

YouTube Shorts & Clips Accounts

94% of content consumption on phones is done vertically. After the rise of TikTok-like short-form content, building a YouTube content plan into your social media strategy can do wonders for your brand recognition long-term.

YouTube is one of the largest and most used search engines on the web. It is also a subsidiary of Google, making it perfect for one of your social media marketing platforms.

Clips of informational videos shot 8-25 minutes long covering topics within addiction treatment, with a consistent posting schedule, will boost the visibility of your brand and center. There is also the possibility of one of these videos going viral.

Posting testimonial videos of alumni, when produced and told powerfully, lets your social media audience see change in front of their eyes. Again, there is always the chance of one of these videos going viral at the right time for your brand.

This video of The Drug Rehab Agency's Director of Marketing reached hundreds of thousands of people, sold over 1,000 copies of his book, and inspired hundreds of people to email for help.

Vertical TikTok Videos

Although TikTok's algorithm has changed from the early days of anyone going viral with the right dance, it is still one of the most consumed social media platforms on the market. Their paid advertising and TikTok Marketplace failed and upset many users, but the platform is enormous. With the right team staying committed to content, you will be prepared when the app bounces back.

The content with the best chance of virality on TikTok for 2024 is creative, entertaining, and informational. It is important you use quality equipment with solid 3 second hook points.

This 8 second TikTok video was viewed over 3.5 million times and liked over 180,000 times. Free social media marketing is possible in a long-term strategy for drug rehab marketing. TikTok will rise again as one of the top social media marketing platforms.

Instagram Reels & Photo Stories about addiction treatment

Instagram is owned by Facebook and able to be ran from the same account in your rehab center's Meta Business Suite. Instagram, like most social media apps, has moved to pushing more of the short-form vertical video content called Instagram Reels. By following a regular schedule of reels in your social media marketing plan, you will continue to grow brand awareness for your rehab center.

Photo story posts with headshots or active photos of your alumni, coupled with short testimonials written in the captions, will build engagement with others in the community wanting to support people in recovery.

Engagement is when someone likes, comments, or shares your post. Each of these has a score within the algorithm for how many more people to show the content to due to that action.

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE DRUG REHAB AGENCY'S ADDICTION TREATMENT MARKETING TEAM

ADAM VIBE GUNTON | DIRECTOR OF MARKETING | THE DRUG REHAB AGENCY

In this exclusive interview, Adam and his team of experts share why they are passionate about marketing drug rehabs, how they built their nonprofit's social media to reaching 50 million people per month organically, and expert tips every drug rehab should have in their social media marketing strategy.

A Story Of Addiction & Recovery

Can you tell us a bit about your story and why you are passionate about marketing drug rehabs?

I was a Middle-American kid in Littleton, Colorado and All-State athlete at Columbine High School.

I had a hidden drug habit that started when I was introduced to cocaine at a young age. After a traumatic event my freshman year of college, I went off the deep end with drugs and alcohol.

I remember a time near the end of my active addiction when I was looking for treatment and I was unable to find any. I was homeless in a state not my own, and I had no money or insurance coverage for drug rehab. I think about how many are out there like myself in that moment who don't know where to go to find the help they need.

After finding freedom from addiction I didn't know was possible for me on November 6, 2017, I knew it was my life's purpose to help others find that same freedom.

How did you start helping others struggling with addiction?

It started with my traditional 12 step program I still work to this day. However, what I have found with the program message I use, "Read the book! Do the steps! Talk to God! Help Others!" - doesn't work for everyone.

On November 6, 2019, I published my book From Chains To Saved: One Man's Journey Through The Spiritual Realm of Addiction and it became a #1 Bestseller.

Messages and emails were coming in from all over the world from people my story was helping. Seeing the reach a book had, I began coaching and training other people in recovery to write and publish books.

The more recovery stories I heard, the more pathways to recovery I learned. I have seen people recover from fentanyl addiction with a medically assisted treatment program, taper off and go on to be successful. I have seen hundreds of success stories coming out of all different kinds of treatment programs. And I have seen people recover with their church fellowship and family.

I believe every pathway, every inpatient treatment program and every outpatient treatment program, has people out there that are meant to find that pathway in order to recover - I just need to continue filling the gap of helping them find the best pathways for them to recover.

Reaching Millions In Addiction With Social Media & Video Content

CONSISTENT CONTENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS FOR DRUG REHAB MARKETING ORGANIC TRAFFIC

How did you start filling the gap to help addicts find the programs they need to recover?

While writing my book, I started my nonprofit Recovered On Purpose. I began making content on social media to try to reach people suffering in addiction with a message of hope. In the beginning, I was excited about reaching a few hundred people on my new Facebook page and getting four or five messages per month for help.

I stayed consistent with posting content while learning all the new ways to reach more people with it. I built relationships in the industry with people who had been doing it for years and, really, just kept grinding.

On November 6, 2020, I started my video podcast The Recovered On Purpose Show and things began taking off from there. The messages per month I was receiving for help was growing into the dozens. I had a successful healthcare marketing company at the time so I was able to do this all free of profit-motive.

Top industry magazines like Treatment Magazine, Recovery Today Magazine, and Addiction Treatment Magazine started to publish feature stories about the work I was doing. And all this press continued to help the message of my nonprofit get out there so more and more people came for help.

I personally message every single person that reaches out for and talk with all of them myself. I have helped some find the right fellowships to connect with, some be connected with detoxes, and some with inpatient rehab centers. The thing is, I always had a message that there are multiple pathways to recovery - whatever is the best for the person that messages me is the route I provide for them.

Public Relations & Features Can Be A Free Form Of Addiction Treatment Marketing

How did you choose which addiction treatment centers to tell people to go to?

That is a great question. At the beginning, this was never about drug rehab marketing. This was about using my social media platforms to reach people out there suffering like I was with a message of hope and helping them recover.

Often times someone suffering in addiction needs, well, addiction treatment! So with my Director Of Resources, Heather Fitzsimmons, and her amazing team of volunteers, we created a 50 state resource guide for addicts and alcoholics who do not have private insurance or finances to pay  for drug rehab.

This includes Medicaid facilities, nonprofit facilities and other nonprofits doing great work. In essence, my nonprofit's social media strategy is to reach a target audience of individuals struggling like I was when I needed help.

What do you like most about the work you do with your social media platforms? 

What's really great about having a social media presence and personal brand message like this is that Facebook users are always able to use direct messaging to reach me. I call them brothers and sisters, but Facebook calls them social media "followers". Twitter users aren't able to get as deep with each other as I can with my brothers and sisters.

What a lot of people don't realize is how much it helps me personally when they reach out. They may not know that I reached out to Kerwin Rae on his largest social media platform when I was in addiction and he messaged back. I know the feeling of emailing Johann Hari after his TED Talk Everything You Think You Know About Addiction Is Wrong came out, while I was really sick in my addiction, and he emailed me back.

I guess what I like most about it is humanizing social media. The numbers of views and reach, all that stuff means nothing without the heart behind it. When someone reaches out to me,  I make sure they know I am another guy in recovery who has been right where they are.

Kerwin Rae (Left) and Johann Hari (Right)

What brings you to your position at The Drug Rehab Agency?

I went full time with social media marketing in 2021 after exiting my health care marketing company. I lived abroad while studying online marketing, taking social media marketing courses, and learning how to make more effective content.

Some months, my social media posts were reaching as many as 50 million people organically without paid traffic. And with my team of geniuses, we created social media marketing campaigns to connect with and help more people. Together, we have helped over 1,000 addicts find recovery.

Doing this work is incredibly rewarding and getting messages like the ones in these screenshots is worth more than anything.

After working with Jon McMinn and The Drug Rehab Agency for a few months, we really clicked on shared values. We know who it is we are here to serve and who we steer clear from in the industry.

The Drug Rehab Agency is the perfect place where my nonprofit's online marketing team can flourish in an industry desperate for good players. We are able to utilize the same skills we developed for Recovered On Purpose to brand and build treatment centers into industry leaders helping 1,000's more to come.

The Best Drug Rehab Marketing Team In The Game

Search Engine Optimization Expert | Cameron Sprenger

What makes you passionate about drug rehab marketing?

I am in recovery from addiction. I went to many inpatient addiction treatment centers, but I couldn't find recovery there. I used an alternative route to recovery I want people to know about. I love helping people like me find the drug rehab facility that will help them recover.

When Adam was getting ready to launch Recovered On Purpose and asked me to be the President, I was excited about the vision and using the skills I developed in my marketing agency Growth Marketing Media.

Getting results for clients by helping with their seo strategy, local marketing, online advertising and organic search results has become second nature. It is simple to do if you follow the steps my team and I do. We keep our drug rehab marketing strategy pretty close to the chest because our results beat the competition.

What are three tips for search engine optimization you can share?

Number one is having someone who can consistently create good content. Most agencies are trying to sell the best "hack" for seo, but nothing beats the ability to talk in depth about your industry with content. I put our team against any of the top teams when it comes to creating content and getting results.

Number two is giving your potential customers a user experience on your website that converts to calls. What good is having an online advertising company that will generate leads if your website doesn't convert.

Clients come to us from other agencies with really high costs per acquisition because their ads point them to a website that has a different message from the advertisement. It's like gambling. These agencies are charging thousands of dollars for website traffic and are using your entire budget for paid lead generation. We have dropped the amount a client was paying in month one and increased the calls they were getting from their target audience.

Number three is increasing brand awareness through PR marketing, features in news and other sites, and backlinking to your website. Not only does this increase brand awareness but it also helps the search engines see you as a relevant business within your niche.

There are over 17,000 recovery centers in the United States. You need to stick out.

Social Media Marketing & PPC Expert | Frank Hernandez

What excites you about social media marketing for substance abuse?

Well, I never really struggled with it myself because I had plenty of examples around me growing up that helped me realize I didn't want drugs in my life. But as a kid, I didn't have a way to help the people around me and this is something I can do to help people. Social media marketing is way cooler in the back end than it sounds.

Adam and I spent a weekend rooming at a business conference back in 2019 and I really jived with what he was out to do. End addiction. I think that's something we can all get behind. We can all be a part of making sure anyone struggling with addiction will have a way to get help. 92.7% of people with internet are on social media so social media marketing is a way we get to speak to the world.

The marketing efforts we have done with Recovered On Purpose have helped over 1,000 people find recovery. That's pretty cool. The unique strategy we have here beats any of the traditional marketing you see other addiction treatment services use. Keep using PPC, but invest in your social media marketing to make sure you have a chance of much lower CPAs in the future.

What are the top three things needed for an effective social media marketing strategy?

You want me to give you the super duper secret sauce for any rehab center to generate leads and boost brand awareness?

Number one is create engaging content your target audience will actually read or watch. With our social media analytics tool, I can see exactly how long people are watching videos. The days of, 'post 46 times per day and reach a gazillion people' are over, baby. You need to create content that keeps viewers around for >80% of the whole video. There are content creation tools out there that help, but are time consuming to learn.

Number two, you need a social media marketing campaign that builds a relevant audience for your social media platform. If we run a small budget towards social media with video content made for people with substance abuse and their loved ones, it will build a target audience we can then retarget everywhere online.

Number three is having a good funnel for content marketing and touch marketing to follow up with your target audience. Sending out an email could touch the potential customers at the perfect moment for them to say, 'I'm having a hard time right now and recognize this brand. I am going to call them today.'

Once we have this data collected for who calls, we can create a look alike audience to target and start again from number one.

This is a long-play strategy creating the audience, but with social media platforms being the top way 84% of young adults consume content, this is well worth the social media marketing efforts up front for any recovery center that wants to be successful.

Build your brand awareness to increase your organic search results. People see your social media videos and go to Google to look you up. BOOM.

Video Content Creation Expert | Trevor Huster

What do you love about creating videos to help people with substance abuse?

I met Adam and started working with him on videos for his poetry back when he wasn't in recovery yet. The poems he was doing were really dark and the mood we made for the videos matched. I didn't know he was struggling with addiction. I just loved working with him to create quality content for social media.

After he recovered and started sharing his story on social media, I saw a totally different side of him. It was like a light turned on. I actually thought he was getting taller every time I saw him. I say that because I know people struggling. I know people who have died from overdoses back home in Pennsylvania.

When I saw the social media videos we were making reaching hundreds of thousands of people and sometimes millions, it made me think about how many people needing addiction treatment or any kind of help were inspired by those. I don't know much about social media marketing, but I love making great videos.

There is nothing like knowing the work you are doing is to help someone out of their hardest times.

Who knew videos on social media were the new key to transformation?

What are the top three things needed to create relevant content for drug rehab marketing on social media?

First, you need someone who knows what that relevant content is. The digital landscape is always changing; especially for drug rehab marketing. I remember when all you heard about was Passages Malibu saying come here and you won't be an addict anymore.

That was before we had social media marketing to reach a much wider and more relevant audience who are not afraid to call someone out in comments.

Could you imagine the comments that Passages Malibu commercial would get if it ran on social media platforms to increase brand awareness? They would be ruthless.

Second, you've got to have something that stands out from the competition. What do you offer that others don't? This could be a treatment modality, a unique location, a highly qualified staff, or a successful track record. It is essential to make creative videos shot with content creation tools that say why your rehab center is best suited for someone seeking treatment.

Third, recovery stories are the most compelling stories I've ever heard. Creating client testimonials for social media that aren't made as a commercial, but are clients telling their story of your center. Social media users see these stories and want recovery.

That's what's great about working with Adam. He can pull stories out of people in recovery like I haven't seen any director do. He does an hour training with a group of alumni and then they are camera and interview ready. I can focus on producing the most visually captivating shots of the stories. Instead of selfie video social media posts, we are making dynamic and quality videos.

Your content should not only inform but evoke emotion and inspire action, ultimately guiding potential clients towards choosing your center for their recovery.

By Adam Vibe Gunton, founder of Recovered On Purpose and author of From Chains To Saved