March 26, 2024 • 22 mins
In this episode of "Animals and Aquatics in OT," host Gina explores effective marketing strategies for unique private practices incorporating hippotherapy or aquatics. Reflecting on recent conferences attended and the significance of marketing, Gina discusses the concept of brand storytelling, emphasizing values and mission over traditional branding elements. She shares insights into failed marketing strategies like flyers and doctor referrals and highlights pitfalls to avoid, including focusing solely on animals or aquatics and inconsistent marketing efforts. Gina reveals the practice's number one successful strategy. Additional successful strategies like networking with other therapists and tracking client sources are discussed. Listeners are encouraged to rate and review the podcast to support future episodes.
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Microphone (2- Logitech (00:00):
Hello?
(00:00):
Hello?
Hello.
March has been at absolutelywild month.
And if you've been followingalong, you know, that the
American hippotherapyassociation conference happened
this month, as well as theAmerican occupational therapy
association AOTA conferencehappened this month.
(00:21):
And it has been an amazinglearning journey.
It really feels like a quantumleap in being able to put some
new pieces.
Into our practice into our viewof occupational therapy.
And I don't want to shortchangethat.
So we are going to do.
Some deep dive episodes in ourexperiences from conference.
(00:45):
So that's just a little bit ofan update.
Today.
I want to take some time to talkabout something that's really
becoming very current for us,and that is marketing.
So today we're going to talkabout some strategies that are
working for marketing ourprivate practice.
And for you that may work foryou in marketing.
(01:08):
Your practice or your programthat is incorporating animals or
aquatics.
Welcome to animals and aquaticsand OT, where we explore
strategies for unique privatepractices, incorporating
(01:30):
hippotherapy or aquatics.
I'm your host Gina and intoday's episode, we'll delve
into the most effectivemarketing tactics that have
worked for us, some pitfalls toavoid.
And the importance of craftingyour own brand story for your
practice.
So when we talk about brandstory, most people think about
that's just your logo.
(01:51):
It's your colors.
It's the look and feel.
Maybe you have a tagline.
And well, those can be importantcomponents of your brand.
Often there are things that yourclients don't really care about
all that much.
I'm sure if you pulled ourclients for our business about
what was our logo or what areour brand colors?
(02:12):
I am 99%.
Sure.
None of them would know whatthey are.
And.
I think that points to somethings that are really important
that.
What we think about as ourbrand, the colors and logos and.
That part.
Is not near as important asexplaining to people.
(02:35):
What we do.
Why we do it and how it canhelp.
So beyond the services youoffer, your brand story is
really about your practice and.
How it explains your values,your mission.
How did you come to work in thisarea of practice?
(02:57):
Why are you doing the work thatyou're doing?
It really is a compelling storythat encourages clients to come
alongside us and see if thatresonates with them because.
Unlike.
A big name company, that'sselling shoes or soda.
When we're talking abouttherapy, it's something that is
(03:17):
very personal.
It's very connecting to people.
And they want to know who thatthey're, who they are working
with.
And they want to get a feelingif you're going to be a good fit
for them often before they reachout the first time, or this
could also be part of an emailsequence or an email exchange
that you're having with them.
(03:37):
And for us, we found that peoplewill come alongside us in our
email and social media for 6, 9,12 months sometimes before
they're ready to work with us.
And we want to be able to conveysome of the same.
Values that we hold some thingsabout our practice that are
really important to us over andover again.
(04:00):
I just want to give you a littlehint.
Not the whole thing that in afuture episode, we are going to
talk about our experience ofworking with a copywriter to
craft our own new, updated brandstory and so in our experience,
we're learning a lot as we gothrough the process.
(04:23):
And three things really came upfor us that were really big.
And we've never talked aboutthem, but as we were working
through this process with ouramazing copywriter, we found
like, wow, there's these themesthat keep coming up and we've
never talked about them.
So again, let's just a littlesneak peek, but we're going to
(04:44):
be getting into that moredeeply.
So.
You want to be able to explain.
Who you can help.
Who you enjoy working with whatyou do and all in very client
friendly terms.
And so when I look at a lot ofmarketing pieces for clients
(05:06):
that are part of business barnraising.
It's often written in therapistsspeak.
And so we need to be able todeconstruct our therapists speak
and really speak to our targetaudience.
So my target audience is oftenparents, so I need to speak to
parents right.
And being a parent myself, if Ican switch between those two
modes, right.
(05:26):
I can think about if I wasreading at therapist's website,
what might be some of the thingsthat I would want to know?
And then, having a parent, who'sa friend who is not a potential
client and say like, Hey, canyou just read through this?
What questions do you have?
And our mom buddies can bereally helpful in giving us some
feedback.
(05:46):
As far as the clarity ofinformation that we're
providing.
So next, I want to go over threestrategies that have failed us,
and these strategies arerecommended fairly often.
They might work for you, butthey have not worked for us.
So it's important to experimentwith different marketing
strategies.
(06:08):
And not all of them are going togive you the results that you
want.
And I find myself sometimescoming back to these strategies,
because you see them recommendedas the things you should do.
And so we've encountered thesethree approaches that did not
hit the mark for us.
Maybe we just, we did not getany return on investment for
them.
(06:28):
We had zero.
Zero client conversions.
The first one that I would sayis flyers.
May we make a beautiful flyerabout our therapy services.
We go around the community or wehave people who are helping us
willing to help us interns,fieldwork students.
Who are going to hang them uparound the community.
(06:48):
And again, sometimes I'm stilllike, oh, I would love to hang
up a flyer or, put a flyer andhang it up here.
I see some of my potentialclients here at this playground
or at the library.
And for us, it just, it has notbeen effective.
So flyers have a good.
Visual image.
(07:09):
Right?
You can include the informationin them.
But for us, they haven'tactually converted to actual
clients.
Now the next one.
Again, this may be verydifferent if you work in a state
that is not direct access.
So we're in New Jersey.
We have direct access to ourclients for occupational therapy
(07:30):
services.
And so for us, doctor referralshave not been effective now,
forming partnerships with otherhealthcare preferred.
Forming partnerships with otherhealthcare professionals can be
super beneficial.
But relying solely on doctorreferrals did not generate any
(07:50):
clients for us.
And it may not generate aconsistent stream of clients.
We certainly have a few doctorsthat we know that are very much
believers in.
Therapist who incorporatehippotherapy or aquatic therapy.
And they will make generalrecommendations to their clients
(08:11):
that they see you should lookand see if you can find a
therapist that incorporateshippotherapy, you should look
for aquatic therapy, but theywon't recommend specific
practices.
And that's okay.
There's a number of providers inour area and families can, find
us that way.
But we, I remember being soexcited for that first phone
(08:33):
call with the neurodevelopmentalpediatrician.
In my town.
She is the number one.
Developmental bougie is the onlydevelopmental pediatrician in my
town.
And I got a one-on-one phonecall with her from LinkedIn.
I reached out via LinkedIn and Igot a one-on-one phone call with
her.
I didn't have to go through theoffice staff.
(08:55):
And I was just, I was soexcited.
I thought like this is going tobe amazing.
We're to tell her about ourpractice.
We're right here in her, in, intheir town.
And.
I do see some of her.
Patients, but not because shereferred them to us.
So they find us other ways.
And I'm going to talk about thatin a minute.
The last thing that really seemslike something you should be
(09:17):
doing and maybe in your area ofthe country, you should be doing
it.
But for us.
It has not been successful inconverting to clients.
So it has had some othersuccesses and I'll jump into
that.
And that's live events.
And what do I mean by liveevents?
I mean, going to community days,going to vendor fairs, going to.
(09:41):
Any of those events where,people are coming to see.
Programs and services in theirarea, as well as we have run our
own live events, like a sensorySaturday event, where we bring
our therapy, goats out, weshowcase some of the stuff we
do.
We offer to lead a little hike.
We've had a quest where if thefamilies went through and
(10:02):
completed the quest and broughtthe quest back to us through
some of the trails that we usefor nature-based services, then
the child could get a littleprize and then we would talk
about our services.
And those were extremely wellattended.
And so from that perspective,they were very successful, but
they didn't actually convert toclients.
So we weren't drawing the rightpeople in at that time by using
(10:26):
live events.
So live events definitely offerus an opportunity to engage with
our community face-to-face.
But there for us, they're very,very resource heavy because we
have, we are, we don't have to,but we are bringing our therapy
goats along.
So that requires everything thatmeans bringing live animals to
(10:47):
an event and everything that weneed to do to protect their
welfare.
As well as.
Managing the face of therapy, soto speak, so interacting with
people as they're coming up andtalking with us.
So.
We haven't found live events tobe incredibly beneficial and
(11:09):
actually converting to clients,increasing community awareness.
Yes.
That's certainly part of it, butagain, they were extremely well
attended.
We had a number of interest fromsome of the live events.
People who gave us their emailaddresses told us they were
interested, but they didn'tactually convert into clients.
(11:29):
So there could be a number ofthings that went wrong along
that process.
But we just haven't found forthe amount of effort.
It takes us to attend a liveevent.
That it has been a very goodreturn on investment yet.
Now, before we jump into thenumber one thing that has
absolutely been successful forus.
(11:50):
I just want to cover twopitfalls to avoid.
And when you're working in aniche practice that incorporates
animals or aquatics, there aredefinitely some things that you
really want to be careful about.
So, although.
Incorporating hippotherapyaquatics, animal assisted
therapy or nature-based might bereally central to your practice.
(12:12):
Focusing solely on them in yourmarketing efforts can make it
look like the tools are theservices.
And you do not want to go there.
You do not want to go there withthird party payers.
You do not want to go there withyour marketing efforts.
You really, really, really wantto be very clear.
That your service isoccupational therapy.
(12:34):
So you can highlight theholistic benefits.
You can look at the outcomes ofyour unique approach.
That is going to be offered toclients within the realm of
occupational therapy.
And if you're going to beattending the Business Barn
Raising coming up in June, wereally take a deep dive into
active strategies, passivestrategies when you're marketing
(12:55):
your business without riskingthese inaccuracies in how you
represent yourself or having anyterminology mishaps.
So that's something to be awareof.
Now, another common pitfall isonly marketing when you need
clients.
And it's so easy to either letthe marketing slide, or it can
(13:19):
be a financial decision.
We have clients you.
Our program is full right now.
And so we're not going to spendthe money on marketing, but then
as that cycle turns and clientsare coming up on discharge.
Or the season is changing,right?
If you haven't listened to ourseasonality podcast episode, go
back and listen to that.
Right.
As the season changes, then.
(13:39):
By the time you're ramping backup your marketing efforts.
It'll have a gap right in yourclient's pipeline.
And you really want to thinkabout that.
So finding a way to find a happymedium and having a steady
presence in your marketing.
Is really key.
This allows you to have more ofa low.
(14:03):
A longer period nurturing.
People who are coming into youraudience, coming into your
world, learning about yourpractice.
As I said, we definitely havepeople who have been with us
from six months to 12 months.
So a half a year to a full yearbefore they become a client.
And so if we just have spurtswhere we're out doing outreach
(14:26):
and marketing, and then wecompletely stop.
Then we really lose thatopportunity to bring people
along with us on the journey.
And have them feel ready.
When they are ready to becomeour clients.
So you can have a more reliablestream of referrals, inquiries,
and conversions to clients.
If you maintain some sort ofmarketing presence as you go
(14:48):
along.
And I know that can be hard todo, but it's really important
just to have something going on.
In forms of your marketing.
Now, I'm going to get to it,right.
Get to it already.
The number one effectivestrategy we've had.
And part of me cringes to saythis, but is Facebook.
So for us, Facebook has been themost effective return on
(15:13):
investment.
And I mean that by both organic,so non-paid outreach as well as
paid Facebook ads.
So.
Two options here.
Right?
Is Facebook has allowed us toconnect with our ideal clients.
By being in their community.
So I would look for a specialneeds group of blank, my county,
(15:37):
right.
And I joined those groups and Ispend time there.
And that's the downside, right?
Is you're spending time thereand you're contributing and
you're answering people'squestions and you're sharing
your marketing materials.
You're sharing any events thatyou have.
You're sharing, you know, springsession, summer session coming
up like this is our newschedule.
(15:58):
You're just being there.
You're being part of thatcommunity.
And that has been reallyeffective in.
When people are interested inus, like they can just DM me.
They sent me a message onFacebook messenger.
We start to have thatconversation when they're ready,
they go to our EMR, create aprofile and there they are.
(16:18):
And so.
It's just very easy because alot of families.
Are already on Facebook.
Like that's where they are.
That's where they're hangingout.
They're making referrals.
Like we're just starting to see.
Our client's now starting tospeak for us.
And that is the best feeling.
Ever.
When you pop into a group andsomebody asked about.
(16:42):
Aquatic OT or adaptive swimminglessons.
And.
You see, one of your clientsrecommend you and they're saying
like how great you are and thatpeople should really check it
out.
And it's like, oh, that'samazing.
I don't have to be the one inthere.
Hey, we offer this.
And even with that ability forus to go in and say, Hey, we
(17:04):
offer this.
Most people are like, well,yeah, of course.
You're going to recommendyourself, but it's even better
when you start to have clientswho are recommending you.
So being in those groups, then Ican have follow up when my
client says, Hey, Epona Therapyservices does this and I can
follow up and say, do you haveany questions?
Let me like, here's my emailaddress, right?
(17:27):
Here's our process.
I can just follow up with thatperson.
And give them a little bit moreinformation.
So that's the organic strategyof being in groups, answering
people's questions.
And it's super easy if you're amom or dad.
Are ready to be in thosecommunities.
If you're not, it's definitelydifferent.
(17:48):
It's definitely different.
If you're only coming in as aclinician.
Some groups don't allow.
You into the group, if you'renot a parent.
So that can be a barrier to thatstrategy, working for you and a
number of groups don't allowself promotion and that's fine.
You just have to read the grouprules and see if there is any
promotion.
(18:08):
So some of them will have likeone day a week or one day a
month where you can go ahead andself promote.
So you just, I keep aspreadsheet and it lets me know
like which groups do which days.
So when I go on kind of amarketing blitz, that set
pitfall, number two, I justsaid, don't do.
When I do do that.
I go back to that spreadsheet.
And I just look through, youknow, which groups have, which
(18:29):
rules.
So that way I'm not violatingany of the community standards
because you don't want to belike that person or that
business.
And then Facebook ads.
This is, sounds so mysterious toso many people and I'm sure I
could be better at it.
I am not an expert in any way,shape or form, but I.
I.
get along.
All right.
(18:49):
right.
I am able to set up a campaign.
Set up my ad sets.
I set up my individual ads.
I'm able to turn them on andoff.
I'm able to set my ad spend.
I know.
I know.
roughly what it will cost me toget a client from an ad and we
have pretty good conversions.
So Facebook loves it when youkeep people on Facebook.
(19:11):
So a lot of times we found nowthat using the Facebook forms,
Works pretty well in getting theinformation, then we can just
download the leads at the end.
And reach out to them, but mostpeople as they go through.
They're ready to.
After we've answered a fewquestions for us go to our EMR
and create a profile.
(19:32):
And so I think part of that isthey're in a certain phase of
readiness to click on that link.
And so by strategically runningads, we've been able to not only
increase our visibility in avery local market.
So that's a nice thing becauseyou can really target within
five miles or 10 miles of yourtown.
And attract more clients intoour practice.
(19:55):
Some other strategies that havealso worked for us might work
for you to networking with othertherapists, especially if they
share a similar philosophy hasbeen really helpful.
So, working with other SLPs andPTs can be really helpful if
you're an OT.
Because then as long as youshare again, that sort of
philosophy.
(20:16):
That you may have come up inyour brand story.
They can be great referralpartners because clients are
already going to have a knowlike, and trust with their
provider.
And so if their provider'srecommending you, if you're
recommending them, it works wellbecause you already know there's
a certain level ofcompatibility.
So that's something else that Iwould certainly say, look into.
(20:41):
Now we want to be able to trackwhere our clients are coming
from.
So you need a reliable way toget that information.
We have several touch points togain this information in our
intake process.
I know where many of my leadsare coming from because I've had
a conversation with them onFacebook messenger that leads to
a profile in our EMR.
So I see that right.
I see that name in Facebookmessenger.
(21:03):
and then I see it in our EMR.
But sometimes we do have a newclient email us, reach out to
us.
And in this case, How did youhear about us?
That question it's on our intakeforms, but then we also try to
ask in person during theevaluation with a few additional
questions.
So we can gather informationabout not only like, how did
they hear about us, but then whythey chose to work with us.
(21:23):
So there are other things thatyou can measure, like website
clicks, view times.
How long are people spending onyour website?
Conversions from Facebook orGoogle ads, signups from a free
event, the number of emailaddresses you added to your
list, or even referrals fromword of mouth.
Those are all good things totrack and see.
(21:44):
So that way eventually, youknow, like I do what things work
and what things don't work.
And this helps you focus yourtime on things that really are
working for your uniquepractice.
We've figured out what works forus.
So as we wrap up today'sepisode, remember that effective
marketing is more than justpromoting your services.
It's really about connectingwith your audience, sharing your
(22:05):
story, providing value.
I hope you'll join us next time.
As we jump in with both feet toApril as occupational therapy
month to spotlight some greatOTs.
We would really love it if youcould take a minute and rate us
on your favorite podcastplatform.
I know it takes a few minutes,but it really does help us.
I recently went through a 20minute scroll on Spotify and
(22:25):
left reviews for my mostfavorite weekly podcasts.
So next time you find yourselfdoom scrolling.
Stop.
Take a moment and please leaveus a review.
Talk to you next week.
Hello?
(00:00):
Hello?
Hello.
March has been at absolutelywild month.
And if you've been followingalong, you know, that the
American hippotherapyassociation conference happened
this month, as well as theAmerican occupational therapy
association AOTA conferencehappened this month.
(00:21):
And it has been an amazinglearning journey.
It really feels like a quantumleap in being able to put some
new pieces.
Into our practice into our viewof occupational therapy.
And I don't want to shortchangethat.
So we are going to do.
Some deep dive episodes in ourexperiences from conference.
(00:45):
So that's just a little bit ofan update.
Today.
I want to take some time to talkabout something that's really
becoming very current for us,and that is marketing.
So today we're going to talkabout some strategies that are
working for marketing ourprivate practice.
And for you that may work foryou in marketing.
(01:08):
Your practice or your programthat is incorporating animals or
aquatics.
Welcome to animals and aquaticsand OT, where we explore
strategies for unique privatepractices, incorporating
(01:30):
hippotherapy or aquatics.
I'm your host Gina and intoday's episode, we'll delve
into the most effectivemarketing tactics that have
worked for us, some pitfalls toavoid.
And the importance of craftingyour own brand story for your
practice.
So when we talk about brandstory, most people think about
that's just your logo.
(01:51):
It's your colors.
It's the look and feel.
Maybe you have a tagline.
And well, those can be importantcomponents of your brand.
Often there are things that yourclients don't really care about
all that much.
I'm sure if you pulled ourclients for our business about
what was our logo or what areour brand colors?
(02:12):
I am 99%.
Sure.
None of them would know whatthey are.
And.
I think that points to somethings that are really important
that.
What we think about as ourbrand, the colors and logos and.
That part.
Is not near as important asexplaining to people.
(02:35):
What we do.
Why we do it and how it canhelp.
So beyond the services youoffer, your brand story is
really about your practice and.
How it explains your values,your mission.
How did you come to work in thisarea of practice?
(02:57):
Why are you doing the work thatyou're doing?
It really is a compelling storythat encourages clients to come
alongside us and see if thatresonates with them because.
Unlike.
A big name company, that'sselling shoes or soda.
When we're talking abouttherapy, it's something that is
(03:17):
very personal.
It's very connecting to people.
And they want to know who thatthey're, who they are working
with.
And they want to get a feelingif you're going to be a good fit
for them often before they reachout the first time, or this
could also be part of an emailsequence or an email exchange
that you're having with them.
(03:37):
And for us, we found that peoplewill come alongside us in our
email and social media for 6, 9,12 months sometimes before
they're ready to work with us.
And we want to be able to conveysome of the same.
Values that we hold some thingsabout our practice that are
really important to us over andover again.
(04:00):
I just want to give you a littlehint.
Not the whole thing that in afuture episode, we are going to
talk about our experience ofworking with a copywriter to
craft our own new, updated brandstory and so in our experience,
we're learning a lot as we gothrough the process.
(04:23):
And three things really came upfor us that were really big.
And we've never talked aboutthem, but as we were working
through this process with ouramazing copywriter, we found
like, wow, there's these themesthat keep coming up and we've
never talked about them.
So again, let's just a littlesneak peek, but we're going to
(04:44):
be getting into that moredeeply.
So.
You want to be able to explain.
Who you can help.
Who you enjoy working with whatyou do and all in very client
friendly terms.
And so when I look at a lot ofmarketing pieces for clients
(05:06):
that are part of business barnraising.
It's often written in therapistsspeak.
And so we need to be able todeconstruct our therapists speak
and really speak to our targetaudience.
So my target audience is oftenparents, so I need to speak to
parents right.
And being a parent myself, if Ican switch between those two
modes, right.
(05:26):
I can think about if I wasreading at therapist's website,
what might be some of the thingsthat I would want to know?
And then, having a parent, who'sa friend who is not a potential
client and say like, Hey, canyou just read through this?
What questions do you have?
And our mom buddies can bereally helpful in giving us some
feedback.
(05:46):
As far as the clarity ofinformation that we're
providing.
So next, I want to go over threestrategies that have failed us,
and these strategies arerecommended fairly often.
They might work for you, butthey have not worked for us.
So it's important to experimentwith different marketing
strategies.
(06:08):
And not all of them are going togive you the results that you
want.
And I find myself sometimescoming back to these strategies,
because you see them recommendedas the things you should do.
And so we've encountered thesethree approaches that did not
hit the mark for us.
Maybe we just, we did not getany return on investment for
them.
(06:28):
We had zero.
Zero client conversions.
The first one that I would sayis flyers.
May we make a beautiful flyerabout our therapy services.
We go around the community or wehave people who are helping us
willing to help us interns,fieldwork students.
Who are going to hang them uparound the community.
(06:48):
And again, sometimes I'm stilllike, oh, I would love to hang
up a flyer or, put a flyer andhang it up here.
I see some of my potentialclients here at this playground
or at the library.
And for us, it just, it has notbeen effective.
So flyers have a good.
Visual image.
(07:09):
Right?
You can include the informationin them.
But for us, they haven'tactually converted to actual
clients.
Now the next one.
Again, this may be verydifferent if you work in a state
that is not direct access.
So we're in New Jersey.
We have direct access to ourclients for occupational therapy
(07:30):
services.
And so for us, doctor referralshave not been effective now,
forming partnerships with otherhealthcare preferred.
Forming partnerships with otherhealthcare professionals can be
super beneficial.
But relying solely on doctorreferrals did not generate any
(07:50):
clients for us.
And it may not generate aconsistent stream of clients.
We certainly have a few doctorsthat we know that are very much
believers in.
Therapist who incorporatehippotherapy or aquatic therapy.
And they will make generalrecommendations to their clients
(08:11):
that they see you should lookand see if you can find a
therapist that incorporateshippotherapy, you should look
for aquatic therapy, but theywon't recommend specific
practices.
And that's okay.
There's a number of providers inour area and families can, find
us that way.
But we, I remember being soexcited for that first phone
(08:33):
call with the neurodevelopmentalpediatrician.
In my town.
She is the number one.
Developmental bougie is the onlydevelopmental pediatrician in my
town.
And I got a one-on-one phonecall with her from LinkedIn.
I reached out via LinkedIn and Igot a one-on-one phone call with
her.
I didn't have to go through theoffice staff.
(08:55):
And I was just, I was soexcited.
I thought like this is going tobe amazing.
We're to tell her about ourpractice.
We're right here in her, in, intheir town.
And.
I do see some of her.
Patients, but not because shereferred them to us.
So they find us other ways.
And I'm going to talk about thatin a minute.
The last thing that really seemslike something you should be
(09:17):
doing and maybe in your area ofthe country, you should be doing
it.
But for us.
It has not been successful inconverting to clients.
So it has had some othersuccesses and I'll jump into
that.
And that's live events.
And what do I mean by liveevents?
I mean, going to community days,going to vendor fairs, going to.
(09:41):
Any of those events where,people are coming to see.
Programs and services in theirarea, as well as we have run our
own live events, like a sensorySaturday event, where we bring
our therapy, goats out, weshowcase some of the stuff we
do.
We offer to lead a little hike.
We've had a quest where if thefamilies went through and
(10:02):
completed the quest and broughtthe quest back to us through
some of the trails that we usefor nature-based services, then
the child could get a littleprize and then we would talk
about our services.
And those were extremely wellattended.
And so from that perspective,they were very successful, but
they didn't actually convert toclients.
So we weren't drawing the rightpeople in at that time by using
(10:26):
live events.
So live events definitely offerus an opportunity to engage with
our community face-to-face.
But there for us, they're very,very resource heavy because we
have, we are, we don't have to,but we are bringing our therapy
goats along.
So that requires everything thatmeans bringing live animals to
(10:47):
an event and everything that weneed to do to protect their
welfare.
As well as.
Managing the face of therapy, soto speak, so interacting with
people as they're coming up andtalking with us.
So.
We haven't found live events tobe incredibly beneficial and
(11:09):
actually converting to clients,increasing community awareness.
Yes.
That's certainly part of it, butagain, they were extremely well
attended.
We had a number of interest fromsome of the live events.
People who gave us their emailaddresses told us they were
interested, but they didn'tactually convert into clients.
(11:29):
So there could be a number ofthings that went wrong along
that process.
But we just haven't found forthe amount of effort.
It takes us to attend a liveevent.
That it has been a very goodreturn on investment yet.
Now, before we jump into thenumber one thing that has
absolutely been successful forus.
(11:50):
I just want to cover twopitfalls to avoid.
And when you're working in aniche practice that incorporates
animals or aquatics, there aredefinitely some things that you
really want to be careful about.
So, although.
Incorporating hippotherapyaquatics, animal assisted
therapy or nature-based might bereally central to your practice.
(12:12):
Focusing solely on them in yourmarketing efforts can make it
look like the tools are theservices.
And you do not want to go there.
You do not want to go there withthird party payers.
You do not want to go there withyour marketing efforts.
You really, really, really wantto be very clear.
That your service isoccupational therapy.
(12:34):
So you can highlight theholistic benefits.
You can look at the outcomes ofyour unique approach.
That is going to be offered toclients within the realm of
occupational therapy.
And if you're going to beattending the Business Barn
Raising coming up in June, wereally take a deep dive into
active strategies, passivestrategies when you're marketing
(12:55):
your business without riskingthese inaccuracies in how you
represent yourself or having anyterminology mishaps.
So that's something to be awareof.
Now, another common pitfall isonly marketing when you need
clients.
And it's so easy to either letthe marketing slide, or it can
(13:19):
be a financial decision.
We have clients you.
Our program is full right now.
And so we're not going to spendthe money on marketing, but then
as that cycle turns and clientsare coming up on discharge.
Or the season is changing,right?
If you haven't listened to ourseasonality podcast episode, go
back and listen to that.
Right.
As the season changes, then.
(13:39):
By the time you're ramping backup your marketing efforts.
It'll have a gap right in yourclient's pipeline.
And you really want to thinkabout that.
So finding a way to find a happymedium and having a steady
presence in your marketing.
Is really key.
This allows you to have more ofa low.
(14:03):
A longer period nurturing.
People who are coming into youraudience, coming into your
world, learning about yourpractice.
As I said, we definitely havepeople who have been with us
from six months to 12 months.
So a half a year to a full yearbefore they become a client.
And so if we just have spurtswhere we're out doing outreach
(14:26):
and marketing, and then wecompletely stop.
Then we really lose thatopportunity to bring people
along with us on the journey.
And have them feel ready.
When they are ready to becomeour clients.
So you can have a more reliablestream of referrals, inquiries,
and conversions to clients.
If you maintain some sort ofmarketing presence as you go
(14:48):
along.
And I know that can be hard todo, but it's really important
just to have something going on.
In forms of your marketing.
Now, I'm going to get to it,right.
Get to it already.
The number one effectivestrategy we've had.
And part of me cringes to saythis, but is Facebook.
So for us, Facebook has been themost effective return on
(15:13):
investment.
And I mean that by both organic,so non-paid outreach as well as
paid Facebook ads.
So.
Two options here.
Right?
Is Facebook has allowed us toconnect with our ideal clients.
By being in their community.
So I would look for a specialneeds group of blank, my county,
(15:37):
right.
And I joined those groups and Ispend time there.
And that's the downside, right?
Is you're spending time thereand you're contributing and
you're answering people'squestions and you're sharing
your marketing materials.
You're sharing any events thatyou have.
You're sharing, you know, springsession, summer session coming
up like this is our newschedule.
(15:58):
You're just being there.
You're being part of thatcommunity.
And that has been reallyeffective in.
When people are interested inus, like they can just DM me.
They sent me a message onFacebook messenger.
We start to have thatconversation when they're ready,
they go to our EMR, create aprofile and there they are.
(16:18):
And so.
It's just very easy because alot of families.
Are already on Facebook.
Like that's where they are.
That's where they're hangingout.
They're making referrals.
Like we're just starting to see.
Our client's now starting tospeak for us.
And that is the best feeling.
Ever.
When you pop into a group andsomebody asked about.
(16:42):
Aquatic OT or adaptive swimminglessons.
And.
You see, one of your clientsrecommend you and they're saying
like how great you are and thatpeople should really check it
out.
And it's like, oh, that'samazing.
I don't have to be the one inthere.
Hey, we offer this.
And even with that ability forus to go in and say, Hey, we
(17:04):
offer this.
Most people are like, well,yeah, of course.
You're going to recommendyourself, but it's even better
when you start to have clientswho are recommending you.
So being in those groups, then Ican have follow up when my
client says, Hey, Epona Therapyservices does this and I can
follow up and say, do you haveany questions?
Let me like, here's my emailaddress, right?
(17:27):
Here's our process.
I can just follow up with thatperson.
And give them a little bit moreinformation.
So that's the organic strategyof being in groups, answering
people's questions.
And it's super easy if you're amom or dad.
Are ready to be in thosecommunities.
If you're not, it's definitelydifferent.
(17:48):
It's definitely different.
If you're only coming in as aclinician.
Some groups don't allow.
You into the group, if you'renot a parent.
So that can be a barrier to thatstrategy, working for you and a
number of groups don't allowself promotion and that's fine.
You just have to read the grouprules and see if there is any
promotion.
(18:08):
So some of them will have likeone day a week or one day a
month where you can go ahead andself promote.
So you just, I keep aspreadsheet and it lets me know
like which groups do which days.
So when I go on kind of amarketing blitz, that set
pitfall, number two, I justsaid, don't do.
When I do do that.
I go back to that spreadsheet.
And I just look through, youknow, which groups have, which
(18:29):
rules.
So that way I'm not violatingany of the community standards
because you don't want to belike that person or that
business.
And then Facebook ads.
This is, sounds so mysterious toso many people and I'm sure I
could be better at it.
I am not an expert in any way,shape or form, but I.
I.
get along.
All right.
(18:49):
right.
I am able to set up a campaign.
Set up my ad sets.
I set up my individual ads.
I'm able to turn them on andoff.
I'm able to set my ad spend.
I know.
I know.
roughly what it will cost me toget a client from an ad and we
have pretty good conversions.
So Facebook loves it when youkeep people on Facebook.
(19:11):
So a lot of times we found nowthat using the Facebook forms,
Works pretty well in getting theinformation, then we can just
download the leads at the end.
And reach out to them, but mostpeople as they go through.
They're ready to.
After we've answered a fewquestions for us go to our EMR
and create a profile.
(19:32):
And so I think part of that isthey're in a certain phase of
readiness to click on that link.
And so by strategically runningads, we've been able to not only
increase our visibility in avery local market.
So that's a nice thing becauseyou can really target within
five miles or 10 miles of yourtown.
And attract more clients intoour practice.
(19:55):
Some other strategies that havealso worked for us might work
for you to networking with othertherapists, especially if they
share a similar philosophy hasbeen really helpful.
So, working with other SLPs andPTs can be really helpful if
you're an OT.
Because then as long as youshare again, that sort of
philosophy.
(20:16):
That you may have come up inyour brand story.
They can be great referralpartners because clients are
already going to have a knowlike, and trust with their
provider.
And so if their provider'srecommending you, if you're
recommending them, it works wellbecause you already know there's
a certain level ofcompatibility.
So that's something else that Iwould certainly say, look into.
(20:41):
Now we want to be able to trackwhere our clients are coming
from.
So you need a reliable way toget that information.
We have several touch points togain this information in our
intake process.
I know where many of my leadsare coming from because I've had
a conversation with them onFacebook messenger that leads to
a profile in our EMR.
So I see that right.
I see that name in Facebookmessenger.
(21:03):
and then I see it in our EMR.
But sometimes we do have a newclient email us, reach out to
us.
And in this case, How did youhear about us?
That question it's on our intakeforms, but then we also try to
ask in person during theevaluation with a few additional
questions.
So we can gather informationabout not only like, how did
they hear about us, but then whythey chose to work with us.
(21:23):
So there are other things thatyou can measure, like website
clicks, view times.
How long are people spending onyour website?
Conversions from Facebook orGoogle ads, signups from a free
event, the number of emailaddresses you added to your
list, or even referrals fromword of mouth.
Those are all good things totrack and see.
(21:44):
So that way eventually, youknow, like I do what things work
and what things don't work.
And this helps you focus yourtime on things that really are
working for your uniquepractice.
We've figured out what works forus.
So as we wrap up today'sepisode, remember that effective
marketing is more than justpromoting your services.
It's really about connectingwith your audience, sharing your
(22:05):
story, providing value.
I hope you'll join us next time.
As we jump in with both feet toApril as occupational therapy
month to spotlight some greatOTs.
We would really love it if youcould take a minute and rate us
on your favorite podcastplatform.
I know it takes a few minutes,but it really does help us.
I recently went through a 20minute scroll on Spotify and
(22:25):
left reviews for my mostfavorite weekly podcasts.
So next time you find yourselfdoom scrolling.
Stop.
Take a moment and please leaveus a review.
Talk to you next week.
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