Latest / The Clinic Marketing Podcast | Local SEO & Healthcare Online Marketing Tips for Clinic Owners & Wellness Providers / How To Market Your Clinic Without Feeling Salesy with Michelle Grasek | Ep. 140

Transcript

How To Market Your Clinic Without Feeling Salesy with Michelle Grasek | Ep. 140 · The Clinic Marketing Podcast | Local SEO & Healthcare Online Marketing Tips for Clinic Owners & Wellness Providers

• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Hey there, it's Darcy Sullivan from Propel Marketing and Design, and you're listening to the Clinic Marketing podcast.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Today I'm joined by someone who spends a lot of time in the marketing trenches with clinics, especially acupuncturist, Michelle Gressig.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Michelle is a practicing acupuncturist, a marketing strategist, and the host of the acupuncture marketing school podcast, where she shares practical ideas to help practitioners get visible in their communities and fill their schedules with patients.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're not an acupuncturist, don't skip this one.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to pull a lot of value from this conversation.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Great marketing is rooted in connection and clarity, and that applies across the board.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: In this episode, Michelle and I talk about some of the biggest myths and misconceptions when it comes to marketing.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: How to show up in your community in a way that feels authentic and aligned with your personality.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Simple ways to use AI without it sounding generic.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Why email marketing is such a powerful channel and how to repurpose your content so you're not stuck on the marketing hamster wheel.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: You can find a link to learn more about Michelle in the show notes associated with this episode.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let's dive into my conversation with Michelle.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Michelle, I'm so excited to have you on today's episode.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: You and I have chatted a lot about marketing in the past.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: We have.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I am so excited.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: I know that we're gonna be talking a lot as it relates to acupuncturists, but really any clinic owner can pick up some helpful tips in this episode.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I always feel like great marketing applies across the board.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And there's just so many avenues for great marketing today that sometimes it can feel overwhelming.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, I've got to have a website, social media, email marketing.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Should I be doing video?
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: How do I use AI with all this?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I am so excited to have you here for us to kind of chat about all of that.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that leads me to my first question is what are some of these myths that you hear or misconceptions that you hear about marketing all the time?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: I often hear from my marketing students and my marketing clients that this assumption that marketing is inherently pushy or salesy, it's gonna make them feel gross to like put it out in their community.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: And they're also assuming along these same lines that their community is going to interpret any marketing they produce as like a money grab, right?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's all sealed, all salesy, it's all gross.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: And this is such a shame because there are so many different kinds of marketing that we can do that are authentic.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: I know authentic is kind of a an overused buzzword, but it's real, right?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like it became a popular buzzword for a reason where we can show up as ourselves and our community will recognize that and it will help build a connection with them.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: So there's so many ways to do that and not come across as pushy or salesy.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: Most of I don't know if I've ever seen a wellness person like a chiropractor, a physical therapist, an acupuncturist produce marketing that's truly gross because everyone's so worried about it, they're just incapable of producing that kind of marketing.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: I agree with you.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I also think it's interesting because I know and I'm sure the same, where maybe you run a promotion and you send out a bunch of email blasts for your own company, and then somebody later is like, oh, I had no idea you had that going on.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Or, oh, I had no idea you offered that service.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, really?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because I felt like I've yelled it from the top of the roof really loud.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I think that it's really important too to make sure that your marketing is including, you know, all realms and all places without feeling the overwhelm that some people can feel, feeling like they have to, for instance, do video marketing when they don't feel comfortable doing video marketing.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Or they're like, I'm not a writer, or completely on the other end, they go and rely too much on AI.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you've seen a lot of that floating around as well.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yes and no.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think, you know, I mostly work with acupuncturists, although I certainly have like chiropractors and naturopaths who are within my universe.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: I love having them as well.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: But I feel like a lot of acupuncturists are still afraid to use AI.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: And partly because they're afraid to produce that really generic content that does not tend to do well, that gets flagged by SEO.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: But then we can have these wonderful conversations about like how can you use AI and teach it about your business and your ideal patient and the outcome you want?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what's all the information you need to give it in the prompt so that it can produce something that actually sounds like you that's relevant for your target market?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: So, yes, I mean, there's so many questions out there about AI, but there's some people who are using it, as you said, to produce really kind of flat generic content that Google knows is not authentic.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't include any of your personal experience, et cetera.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, there's certainly ways to use AI, better ways to use AI, I guess I would say.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I know on our website, and we'll include it in the show notes, we have a download specific for that, like specific for clinics where they can download some of these prompts to help make sure that they're not going rogue and just asking for this generic content.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: But do you have any um specific tips when it comes to the way that you suggest people use AI or your for marketing?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: My favorite approach to sort of walk my through students through is to copy all of the text from the homepage of their website and put it into I use Chat GPT.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: I know there's there's so many other different ones, but I'm pretty basic.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just using chat, which my mom has just started using recently, and she calls it chatty for short.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'd love that.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: So just text me randomly throughout the day and be like, Chatty just wrote me a meal plan.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, it's so smart, isn't it?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure you're giving it details so it gives you a reasonable meal plan.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, so Chatty should copy all the text from your homepage of your website and pop it into Chatty and ask it, you know, based on this information from my website, I'm an I'm an acupuncturist or chiropractor, you know, I practice here.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: What can you tell me about my target market, about my ideal patient, and about my tone of voice that I'm using, etc.?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: And just see what it tells you.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: And this can be a great litmus test to really to figure out is your website reflecting your target market?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like if someone that you love to treat, like fertility, lands on your website, are they gonna recognize themselves in your website copy?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: And if not, then you probably want to have some tweaks.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: So you can kind of start there.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: But once you have established with chatty, and now I'm remembering I have a friend who calls his chat GPT Carl because he likes to yell at it when it doesn't do what he wants.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, if it's not doing what you want, it's because you're not using it properly.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: You're not giving enough information.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: So go back and forth with it.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: And when it when you've explained, like, okay, this is actually the target market and my ideal patient, and let me describe it, this person to you.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: Then you can start asking it questions like, could you give me a content calendar for blog posts for the year, right?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it will give you, you know, 12 months worth of blog posts.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then you get to kind of interact with it and say, okay, well, these ones are definite yes for my target market.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then these ones are not really hitting the mark.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to treat these things, or my people aren't worried about this.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then you tell it that and say, like, hey, I'd like to go with, you know, numbers one, four, and six.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then the others are not spot on.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: We need to keep working on it.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because what happens, I think, is people get really stuck when they see information.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: They're like, oh, that's not relevant.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: This is dumb.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't understand.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, okay, it's because it's called chat because you're supposed to have a conversation and tell it.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: You're supposed to help it understand you.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: I I interviewed an AI expert, uh, I think it was last year, and he really had a, he gave me a light bulb moment where he said, think of Chat GPT as a really almost like an over-eager intern, because it's this person, this intern's so smart and it really, really wants to help, but you need to teach it exactly what you want it to do.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, it's just gonna go off the rails in your business and it's gonna create all this stuff for you that's not relevant because it's so green, right?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like an intern.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: They just graduated, they don't really know what they're doing.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: It needs you to give it instructions.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: So then you can go through and you can say, okay, let's create the blog post that you mentioned number four, about like how many treatments do I need for fertility for someone who's, I don't know, like they're 38 and they've been trying for two years, et cetera, et cetera.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then ask it to give you like an outline.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then you can go through the outline and say, okay, this part is important to include, but you forgot this, and don't include this section here.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then you can ask it to write you the blog post.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: So you've kind of come a long way, right?
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: And it is time consuming.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: One of my students recently said, if I'm gonna spend this much time creating specific prompts and teaching Chat GPT, why don't I just write the blog post?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, girl, go for it.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Go for it.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can do that.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I I love what you some of the things that you said in there.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I think too, like sometimes blog posts can have a little bit of a different tone than maybe your home page.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if you do have another blog post that you want to feed it, be like to say, hey, this is our style of writing, or you know, you can the more information, obviously, you can give it the better.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: But also, you know, like you said, like what would be great content for the next year?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, ask it for double the number of topics so that that way when you start weeding stuff out, you don't feel like you're weeding out that you still have so much left over that you can kind of pick and choose from.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, it's it's really it's coming a long way, but I love what you said that it is.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's like that eager little intern that just wants to please you, but just needs enough direction.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, do you find that um a lot of your marketing students are are they focusing more on blogging, social media, email marketing, SEO, which I know you and I have obviously talked a lot about before?
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Love it, love it.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll link some of the episodes to your podcast where we chatted about that in the show notes as well.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: But where do you think they are currently focusing and where should they be focusing that maybe they're not focusing on?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Well, so in my I have a big class called Wellness Marketing School or Acupuncture Marketing School, and we cover everything that you listed.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: But I would say that people are most interested in um email marketing and social media.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: And their, I mean, their question for social media is always how do I do this without burning out?
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: And how do I actually turn followers into patients?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so it becomes it's a lot of information for social media.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: It depends on the platform.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many strategies.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: Content creation is its own thing.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like, are you doing graphic design?
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Are you creating reels?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Can you edit video?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: So we almost always come back to email marketing because it is it's so much simpler in a lot of ways.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I do find that I don't know if if it's true that most acupuncturists are introverts, or if it's just that most of the acupuncturists in my orbit are introverts, because I also am an introvert and I talk about that.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: But I find that most introverts are good at writing or enjoy writing as something you can do behind the scenes in your pajamas with your cat, right?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't involve like getting dressed up and going to a networking meeting and then standing there awkwardly because you don't know anybody.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: So email newsletters are something we talk about email newsletters and also like email funnels and creating a lead magnet.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: So that becomes multi-layered as well.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: But the newsletter is such a nice starting point to educate people, to let them kind of like build your know-like trust factor just from the way that you write something or teach about your topic, like acupuncture for knee pain or herbal medicine for fertility, people get to know you and really understand like what kind of provider are you?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have shared values?
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Can they relate to you, et cetera?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: I once heard somewhere where they said that once you've heard somebody's voice, whether like you've seen them in a movie or on social media, then it sticks with you.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: So when you get an email from them, like when you read it, you read it in their voice.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure I'm kind of butchering, butchering that a little bit, but I do feel like it's a way to be so personal, like you're talking directly to them without you having to talk directly to them.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing that I love about email too is once you kind of have the formula down, and I know you've got some some email templates on your website, but I love templates, whether it's like, oh, here's a blog template or a page template or an email template or social media template, then you don't feel like you're starting with nothing.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the the blinking cursor syndrome is real, right?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: Where you're like, oh my God, I have no idea how I thought I was gonna write this email, especially if you have like a limited amount of time, you're trying to write something in between patients, and you're like, I have 20 minutes and I got nothing.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I also think it's nice that you know you can recycle that.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like if there was an email that performed really well eight, nine months ago, you can just push it out again.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody is gonna be offended that you already sent them that specific an email about that specific topic.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: I send the same email about acupuncture for osteoarthritis of the knee every single year, and it does so well every single year.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: It has great open rates, it has great click-through rates, and um that's one of the emails that's in.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: I have a three groups of templates.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: One is sort of generic like pain management, digestion, and anxiety focus.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: The other is for women's health, and then the last one is for cosmetic acupuncture.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: So the knee pain email is in the generic group.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes my marketing clients will be like, Can we really send that again?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like, my patients are smart, they're gonna remember.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, maybe they'll remember that you sent them a knee pain email, but like, why would anyone ever be like personally offended?
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's what people are really worried about is the trolls are gonna come out and someone's gonna hit reply and be like, I remember this research from last year.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: How dare you send it again?
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like, your emails are not ruining anybody's day.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: The same goes for social media, right?
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I and to that point, I'm very curious.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I hate to put you on the spot.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't know the answer, it's fine.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: But let's say that that specific topic, you you know that the email blast performs really, really well.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: My question then to you is do you see the same results on that topic with your blog post and social media post around that topic, or is it just wow, that really does good as an email?
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that is such a great question.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I've ever really chased the analytics for the social media for like knee pain in the same way that I have checked the the email.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I will say that the things that tend to do best on social are including either my face or my associate Melody's face, the other acupuncturist.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no matter what the topic is.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, social media whole whole nother animal.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um but do you find with your marketing students that Instagram is a better resource that they drive that Instagram drives more leads versus YouTube or Facebook?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Or does it just depend?
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think it I think it depends, but I will I will say that I see words, I seem to see two groups.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: There's like the Instagram camp, they're really into it and they like it.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then there's the Facebook camp.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I find that the people who have the most success on Facebooks are the ones who are active in their local groups.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that is like a totally different animal than the person who's creating reels with the algorithm and their audience in mind, right?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: Because on Facebook, you're not you're not doing any of that.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: If you're just in the groups, kind of trolling for like questions I can answer, where can I be a useful resource?
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then maybe eventually I'll have the opportunity to drop in, like, oh yeah, we do pediatric acupuncture for ear infections at my office, right?
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like, here's the link if you want to check it out.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a very different type of social media.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that sometimes people try to just throw it all together and they're like, we're just gonna do the same thing for everything.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: But the type that you're talking about, I call it other people's audiences.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like where it's like you're you're leveraging your connections, your positioning strategy, whether it's through participating in events or even putting back together a lead magnet where you're jumping into some of those local groups where you've got value to add that isn't saying, come and book an appointment with me right this second.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: Buy for me, buy from me, buy for me.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's saying I add value in a very, you know, easy format.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I find that those people who are successful in those local Facebook groups, they are answering lots of kinds of questions that are not necessarily related to their practice all the time.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: So if someone's like, hey, I'm new and I need to get the roof on my house done, who can you recommend?
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: They're going into their mental Rolodex and saying, like, oh, I know a roofing guy from the Chamber of Commerce meeting, I'm gonna pop their name in so that their clinic account is like regularly visible.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so they're seen as like a resource, yeah, yes, and a connector.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: So that when the opportunity comes up for them to mention their own business, it doesn't feel spammy because they're just participating all the time.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's the definition of social media, right?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that also takes a personality.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like I can think of in my past years of people that have come and gone out of my life, and I'm like, that is a connector through that one person.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm at 87 people, or you know, I'm still going to the dentist that I'm going to because they recommend it, like they're that person.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I think you also, when it comes to marketing, outside of SEO, which is, you know, and your website that has to has to represent your brand and make sure that your brand's findable online, that you have these other avenues where you can say what fits our brand's personality.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, are we the ones that are just gonna knock all these reels out and just out of the park?
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Or are we that connector personality, or do we enjoy the email blast that we are like 20 minutes, did it really quick, get it out there while also trying to make sure that you're testing the waters and then trying all these other, you know, avenues.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so when it comes to this content, like how, because it can just you can feel like you're on a hamster wheel where you're like, let's go.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta, we feel like we have to do it all.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, what do you suggest to your marketing students when it comes to how to make the it not feel like a hamster wheel?
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think that repurposing content is absolutely required in order to maintain your sanity in the digital age.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like you can't, I don't think it's reasonable to not be repurposing content anymore.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I love, I think the clinics who have the best success with this are very strategic because they then they have a plan to follow and it takes off some of the mental burden.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: So they will, for example, start by writing a blog post about a topic.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: So they'll say, okay, this month it's um carpal tunnel.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: So they'll write their blog post and then they'll repurpose that for an email newsletter, they'll repurpose it into an Instagram reel of some kind, or maybe a carousel post, and then and then they'll make it into a Facebook post.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: And they'll also say to themselves, like, okay, you know, I wrote this content for my blog, and I'm not just gonna share it once, but I'm also gonna take a look at, you know, I like later app, but there's like Sprout Social and you can use the um native apps inside Meta.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how can I reshare this blog post in the future?
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna go out a month, two months, three months, and reschedule these Facebook posts, for example, where I'm sharing that I wrote this blog post on this topic.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: So you're getting so much mileage out of this one thing, and you're just kind of churning out that repurposed content every month because you have a plan.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: You're like okie dokie, I wrote a blog post.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Next is email, next is social.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not so overwhelming.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't have to necessarily be done on that order.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you're a person that loves video, like you can create the video and then turn the video into the blog post and this and that.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: I just you don't want it to be like the cheese stands alone where you spend all of your energy like just putting forth social or just putting forth email.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then because I hear that all the time where people are like, oh, we have this one email blast that does so well.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, well, why don't you turn it into a blog post?
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, I've never thought of that.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the one of my favorite tools, and I don't know if you've played around with it, is repurposeio.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I have not.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get down like a crazy rabbit hole here.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so repurpose I.O.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: You can use it to repurpose your social media content.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: So if you create a social media, like an Instagram reel, you can take it and set up all these fancy systems where you can take your Instagram reel, post it to LinkedIn, post it to TikTok, post it to all the other social platforms, YouTube short, all the things, but then also make a copy of it.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: So then you can go back and reschedule and repost it.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Love it.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: So that that way it's like, oh, well, you know, if you've done three months of content, you can go back to month one, some of the early stuff, and start resprinkling it in because again, people aren't gonna remember that, especially if it's if it's evergreen content, right?
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you wouldn't do that with like events happening this week, but but for evergreen quality content, you can really start to take your repurposing to the next level.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: You can take then your blog post and the next year, update it and give it a little once-over, improve some SEO, drop in some new information, and you really it doesn't feel so overwhelming.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I think people really underestimate how useful repurposing is across platforms because sometimes they're like, Well, if somebody saw it on Instagram, do they really need to see it again on Facebook?
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: So, two thoughts.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: One is yes, it would be good for them to see it again on Facebook, maybe the next day or the next week, it doesn't matter, but it's reinforcing your message.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe they didn't have time to watch the whole reel on Instagram, but when they see it on Facebook, they're you know sitting in a stoplight, which they probably shouldn't be on their phone, but we know they are.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: So they're gonna watch the whole thing, right?
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then, second, a lot of people are only on one platform, or that's where they spend the most time.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I have the best example of this recently, I think it was last week.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: I have a patient who's maybe 66 or 68, like in that range.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so she's really only on Facebook.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I always reshare my Instagram reels on Facebook, but I hadn't been doing it for a while.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: I think I just I really dropped the ball.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I started doing it again.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: So she was like, I've been seeing all of your videos, they are so educational.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, I didn't know that your associate Melody is a doula.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then she's like, What is a doula?
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Okay, well, we'll have to make a video about that.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: And she was like, I also didn't know that, you know, acupuncture could help with XYZ.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, So I have that, and I was wondering if we could work on it today.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: And then the best part was she was like, Should I be on Instagram?
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me why I should be on Instagram, Michelle.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, you know what?
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: I think if you're seeing stuff on Facebook, I think you're good.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: You don't unless you really have an interest, like you're all set.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're all set, but I do think you're right.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like people tend to favor one platform over another.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're sending it out everywhere, because I get people the time that are like, oh, I see your videos on LinkedIn.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I see your videos on YouTube.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I see your videos on Instagram.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: They're never like on social media, it's always one specific their favorite, their favorite, or it's I read your email.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's usually just one avenue, or oh, the podcast, which of course we're gonna repurpose this.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be a blog post, an email blast, social media posts, all the things.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I I think that you really have to have that overall kind of omnipresence as we like to talk about it, because even if you don't necessarily like Facebook, it doesn't mean that your audience doesn't like Facebook.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: I saw a statistic, I think it's a little out of date actually, but there's roughly 8 billion people in the world, and about 3 billion of them are on Facebook.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I always tell my students, your patience and your competition are on Facebook.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and you know, to that extent, it's also always a great idea to make sure that you do have a couple reviews on Facebook, even though that's not if that's not your primary social media platform, it doesn't matter because again, it's other people's primary social media platform.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I love all of that.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, um, what would you say would be a tip that you would give because somebody who is either just getting started or scared of technology that would help them take the right steps without feeling overwhelmed?
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's such a good question.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: Cause in my mind, my first question is do they have a website?
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like are we at that level where we're still we're convincing them to m to have a website?
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: To have a website, okay.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody listening, you have to have A website full stop.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: And please do.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Please.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to have a Google Business Profile listing if you have a physical location.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say they have those two things.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: Then when it comes to content and marketing, what would you suggest would be how they should start?
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: Should they start with email?
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: Should they start with social media?
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: What do you feel is like the easiest way?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: Gotcha.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's like the lowest hanging fruit.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: I would say go with email because I think a lot of people are actually collecting emails either from the new patient intake or they have a newsletter opt-in on their website that they are ignoring.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: I see you are collecting emails.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be.
• 31:17
  unknown: Yes.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: I see you out there, the people whose websites say we send out a monthly email, join us for recipes and seasonal health tips.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then they never send a monthly email, but they're collecting those emails.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_01: So that's great.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: So dip your toe in the water and pick.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, to be super simple, just pick either MailChimp or Constant Contact.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: Those are pretty basic.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: I like constant contact.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think MailChimp is a little, it's not intuitive to use.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's not my favorite on the back end.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then just use a pre-made template inside one of those platforms and don't overthink it and just introduce yourself, even.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like if you've never sent an email before, you can probably repurpose some of the content from the about page of your website.
• 32:07
  unknown: Yeah.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: And just say, like, hi, I'm so and so.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining me.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: I here's the symptoms that I love to treat.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad you're here.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: And here's how you book an appointment.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: I I think there's a couple of things there.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: One, it's really important to make sure that you always have that call to action to drive them to book an appointment.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: Two, if you haven't, like, let's say started blogging, but you've got specific conditions that you treat, specific modalities, anything specific that you can take from your services page or your conditions pages, that it doesn't have to be a blog post that you send via email.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think that's kind of where some people get hung up.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Same with social media, is they're like, well, I don't have a new blog post to share.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know what to do.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's still tons of content.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: I always tell people if you are stuck for content in on any platform, go to your frequently asked questions page on your website, which most people have, and just pick one and say, okay, well, today's email is going to be about why do I need so many treatments for cosmetic acupuncture?
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: Or that's what today's real is going to be, or some your carousel post.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't have that FAQ, just start noting.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like this week, these were the questions that kept coming up in my appointments.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: And even if it's just one person asking, and you're like, that's a really great question.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you have to say to them, that's not exactly the question you should be asking, there's what you really should be asking.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: But then that gives you some content to start to develop your content plan.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, you can ask AI, but again, as we've said, use AI as if it was your intern that knows nothing, but just wants to really provide you with everything.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then um, because I think we can kind of start to wrap things up here.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: If you had just like one takeaway that you want listeners to have when it comes to marketing, what would that be well the way that I like to teach marketing is that marketing is simply letting the people who need you know that you exist.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: And this includes teaching them that your specialty, you know, or your modality, acupuncture in this case, can help with their specific symptoms, right?
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_01: So educating them and also letting them know that your clinic conveniently exists in their community, right?
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't do this, if you don't share this basic information, acupuncture can help you with X.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: And here we are ready to help you choose us, then how how can people know?
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like you can't help people who don't know that you exist.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so all marketing is doing is just giving them this information.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I find that it's a huge help for people to remind them that they can, once they release their marketing into the world, they can sort of let go of the outcome.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: Now I always want them to like review your data, and it's like that's always important, but it it's like if you if you don't get an immediate response, that's okay, right?
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: You put the info out there, people process it in different ways.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: They might not be in a place where they're ready to use it, but maybe they'll use it later or share it with someone else, but release your marketing into the world and let it percolate without um taking the result personally.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: So, and then I think that like relieves some burden where like, oh, I I don't know if I did it right, so I'm just not gonna do it anymore.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's like nope, nope.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: You're teaching people, you're putting it out there, you've got your call to action.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_01: Keep going, right?
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: Do not give up.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I mean, I know there are oftentimes when we send out email blasts, and then like weeks or a month later, somebody opens up that email and clicks through.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: So isn't that amazing?
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: So just because something, yeah, I I know, right?
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like just one, it's important to make sure that you do have tracking systems set up so that you know what's working.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, don't take yourself so seriously, basically.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: Don't don't take the outcome personally.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: Marketing should be an experiment.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be honest, I do marketing for my clinic all the time.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_01: I love trying random stuff.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: Some of it does not work.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think of myself as a mad scientist.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like if I'm a scientist, I know that some of my experiments are just not gonna work out.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: Something's gonna explode, and then we'll have to clean it up and be like, okay, okay, not that one.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: And just no problem.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now we know what to do in the future.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: And just because something works for another company doesn't mean it's necessarily right for your clinic.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, and I know, especially with social media, when you're starting to post stuff and you're like, we have three followers, and two of them are my relatives.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like, thanks, mom.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, mom.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: That it can be like a little like nerve-wracking.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: But if you, you know, one thing, and we will wrap this up, but one thing we didn't necessarily go into detail about is working on batch content and batching your content.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, if you are gonna do a reel, instead of being like, okay, I'm gonna do one reel, okay.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: Next week now, I'm gonna record another one, setting like a two-hour timer and saying, okay, let me record as many as possible and just have them saved and then ready to use when you're ready.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's so helpful.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: So helpful because otherwise you're like, oh, I have to do it again.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: I just did it yesterday.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: We we do a trade with a patient who's a small business owner.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: So we know that her Instagram is quite good and she knows what she's doing.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: And she comes and she records one treatment a month, and we have the patient sign release paperwork, like we're gonna use this in our marketing, and she just records video for an hour, and she does seven second videos, and then she uploads it into a shared Google Drive, and then I give her a treatment that's the trade.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and then we just whenever I'm going to make an Instagram reel, I have an enormous amount of video that she has recorded.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I just like pick something, yeah.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that super simple, super simple.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like, don't try to be crazy, don't try to jump on all the trends and all the cuts and all the things that people try to do to be fancy.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: Just start, start with the ease and like it.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much for joining me today, and we will include all of your information on in the show notes on the webpage.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having me.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is fun.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.