Sober companions is a fast-growing occupation in the addiction treatment industry, but there are distinct differences between them depending on how you define them.
Sober Escorts Defined
Sober escorts are typically individuals who take recovering addicts to their recovery program appointments, which is especially popular for OP/IOP/PHP patients who are still exposed to outside forces with easy access to illicit drugs and alcohol. Sober escorts are great for ensuring recovering addicts get from point A to point B by driving them to appointments and overall “escorting” them around to places to ensure they don’t relapse by stopping at a “friends” house, liquor store, etc. where they can easily fall back into the addiction trap.
Sober Companions Defined
Sober companions, which are often confused with a “Sober Coach”, is different than sober escorts in that sober companions tend to be more active in a recovering addict’s life including participation in the home and in social situations. Sober companions can be critical for recovering addicts who may be prone to relapse, have little or no family support, or overall may not be able to remain sober by themselves.
Truth be told, both sober escorts and sober companions are commonly referred to as the same thing depending on who you ask. Regardless, these are now mainstream occupations and they need to be found online by potential clients seeking assistance outside the walls of a treatment center.
Digital Advertising for Sober Escorts & Sober Companions
If you’re operating a sober companion and/or sober escort service as a sole proprietor or as an agency, there are many ways you can go about advertising your services to your target audience.
Website Design
First and foremost, it’s important for your company or sole proprietorship to have an online presence by building a responsive website. After all, if you want to be found online and control your service’s messaging to potential clients, having your own website should be your very first step.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is one of the top channels among marketers and digital advertising agencies when it comes to promoting sober companion and escort services to a proactive audience already searching for your services. It’s just a matter of them finding you in search results.
SEO for sober companions and escorts isn’t nearly as competitive as going after “addiction treatment” and “drug rehab”-type phrases. However, it’s still competitive enough to the point where you need a sound website architecture, optimized coding and content, and a strong content marketing and link building strategy to glean top 10 results for your targeted phrases on Google.
Google My Business
Due to the nature of sober escort and companion services being locally-focused, creating a Google My Business (Google Maps) profile will be a critical marketing tactic that needs to be at the top of your list of marketing channel priorities. It’s through a proactive search at Google.com where Google My Business listings pop up and potential clients can see your business profile, a link to your site, your physical location (optional), your phone number, reviews, and much more.
Social Media Marketing
Social media profiles such as Facebook and LinkedIn are amazing tools your sober escort and/or sober companion company can use to strategically place content and messaging to an eager and targeted audience who frequent these sites on a regular basis. Social media marketing, when done correctly, can consistently stir up new business and at a fraction of the cost when compared to other advertising channels and endeavors.
Pay Per Click Marketing (PPC)
PPC addiction treatment ads are commonplace on search engines such as Google and on the right side of Facebook. These ads are an amazing way to laser target your marketing message to the right audience at the right time and can be incredibly effective for recovery centers and related service providers. The only caveat is sober companions and escorts need to be first LegitScript certified in order to advertise on these sites and affiliated networks.
The fees for LegitScript certification include a one-time review fee of $995 and an annual fee of $1,995/year/location which can be cost-prohibitive for sole proprietors and small business outfits. It’s worth it in our opinion, but it depends on your budget and pain threshold when it comes to paying these fees AND the cost-per-click fees at the search engines and Facebook.
There are other channels your sober services can endeavor such as email marketing, referral networking, etc. but the above digital advertising channels are a great place to start, and perhaps stay, depending on your desired growth.
Be Authentic With Your Content
Regardless of whether your a sole proprietor or a multi-state sober companion or sober escort service provider or referral company, please remember to keep all of your content and marketing messaging unique and authentic. Nothing will turn people off faster than being perceived as a faker or a “churn and burn” operation. In other words, keep it real people!
For a free consultation and how Lead to Recovery can help your sober companion or sober escort service get more clients, please call 855-876-7238.
