November 24, 2025 • 40 mins
Struggling to market your clinic without feeling pushy or salesy? This episode is for you.
We dive deep into practical, authentic marketing strategies that actually work for anyone who wants a full schedule without compromising their values.
You’ll learn:
- Why most clinicians are incapable of creating truly “salesy” marketing (and how to stop worrying about it)
- The simplest way to use AI so your content sounds like YOU, not a robot
- Why email marketing is the quiet powerhouse most clinics are sleeping on (and how to reuse your best emails guilt-free)
- How to repurpose one piece of content across blog, email, and social without living on the hamster wheel
- The batching and repurposing tricks that save sanity
- Real-world social media strategies (including local Facebook groups) that turn followers into patients
- The one mindset shift that makes marketing feel like service instead of selling
Perfect for introverts, tech-shy practitioners, or anyone who’s ever thought, “I just don’t want to be that person.” Spoiler: you don’t have to be.
If you want to get visible, build trust, and fill your books while staying 100% yourself—this episode will give you the exact roadmap.
Episode webpage, show notes, and blog post: https://propelyourcompany.com/market-your-clinic-without-feeling-salesy/
Send in your questions. ❤ We'd love to hear from you!
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In this 1-Hour SEO Planning Session, you’ll learn what it takes to thrive online and convert online traffic into foot traffic.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (01:10):
Hey there, it's Darcy Sullivan from Propel
Marketing and Design, and you'relistening to the Clinic
Marketing podcast.
Today I'm joined by someone whospends a lot of time in the
marketing trenches with clinics,especially acupuncturist,
Michelle Gressig.
Michelle is a practicingacupuncturist, a marketing
(01:31):
strategist, and the host of theacupuncture marketing school
podcast, where she sharespractical ideas to help
practitioners get visible intheir communities and fill their
schedules with patients.
Now, if you're not anacupuncturist, don't skip this
(01:51):
one.
You're going to pull a lot ofvalue from this conversation.
Great marketing is rooted inconnection and clarity, and that
applies across the board.
In this episode, Michelle and Italk about some of the biggest
myths and misconceptions when itcomes to marketing.
How to show up in your communityin a way that feels authentic
(02:15):
and aligned with yourpersonality.
Simple ways to use AI without itsounding generic.
Why email marketing is such apowerful channel and how to
repurpose your content so you'renot stuck on the marketing
hamster wheel.
You can find a link to learnmore about Michelle in the show
(02:37):
notes associated with thisepisode.
Let's dive into my conversationwith Michelle.
All right.
Well, Michelle, I'm so excitedto have you on today's episode.
You and I have chatted a lotabout marketing in the past.
SPEAKER_01 (02:57):
We have.
Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_00 (02:59):
Absolutely.
And I am so excited.
I know that we're gonna betalking a lot as it relates to
acupuncturists, but really anyclinic owner can pick up some
helpful tips in this episode.
SPEAKER_01 (03:14):
Yeah, I always feel like great marketing applies
across the board.
SPEAKER_00 (03:19):
Absolutely.
And there's just so many avenuesfor great marketing today that
sometimes it can feeloverwhelming.
You're like, I've got to have awebsite, social media, email
marketing.
Should I be doing video?
How do I use AI with all this?
So I am so excited to have youhere for us to kind of chat
(03:41):
about all of that.
And that leads me to my firstquestion is what are some of
these myths that you hear ormisconceptions that you hear
about marketing all the time?
SPEAKER_01 (03:54):
I often hear from my marketing students and my
marketing clients that thisassumption that marketing is
inherently pushy or salesy, it'sgonna make them feel gross to
like put it out in theircommunity.
And they're also assuming alongthese same lines that their
(04:14):
community is going to interpretany marketing they produce as
like a money grab, right?
It's all sealed, all salesy,it's all gross.
And this is such a shame becausethere are so many different
kinds of marketing that we cando that are authentic.
I know authentic is kind of a anoverused buzzword, but it's
real, right?
(04:34):
Like it became a popularbuzzword for a reason where we
can show up as ourselves and ourcommunity will recognize that
and it will help build aconnection with them.
So there's so many ways to dothat and not come across as
pushy or salesy.
Most of I don't know if I'veever seen a wellness person like
a chiropractor, a physicaltherapist, an acupuncturist
(04:55):
produce marketing that's trulygross because everyone's so
worried about it, they're justincapable of producing that kind
of marketing.
SPEAKER_00 (05:04):
I agree with you.
And I also think it'sinteresting because I know and
I'm sure the same, where maybeyou run a promotion and you send
out a bunch of email blasts foryour own company, and then
somebody later is like, oh, Ihad no idea you had that going
on.
Or, oh, I had no idea youoffered that service.
And you're like, really?
Because I felt like I've yelledit from the top of the roof
(05:27):
really loud.
But yeah, I think that it'sreally important too to make
sure that your marketing isincluding, you know, all realms
and all places without feelingthe overwhelm that some people
can feel, feeling like they haveto, for instance, do video
(05:49):
marketing when they don't feelcomfortable doing video
marketing.
Or they're like, I'm not awriter, or completely on the
other end, they go and rely toomuch on AI.
I'm sure you've seen a lot ofthat floating around as well.
SPEAKER_01 (06:07):
Yeah, yes and no.
I think, you know, I mostly workwith acupuncturists, although I
certainly have likechiropractors and naturopaths
who are within my universe.
I love having them as well.
But I feel like a lot ofacupuncturists are still afraid
to use AI.
And partly because they'reafraid to produce that really
(06:28):
generic content that does nottend to do well, that gets
flagged by SEO.
But then we can have thesewonderful conversations about
like how can you use AI andteach it about your business and
your ideal patient and theoutcome you want?
Like, what's all the informationyou need to give it in the
prompt so that it can producesomething that actually sounds
(06:48):
like you that's relevant foryour target market?
So, yes, I mean, there's so manyquestions out there about AI,
but there's some people who areusing it, as you said, to
produce really kind of flatgeneric content that Google
knows is not authentic.
It doesn't include any of yourpersonal experience, et cetera.
(07:10):
Um, but yeah, there's certainlyways to use AI, better ways to
use AI, I guess I would say.
SPEAKER_00 (07:16):
Absolutely.
And I know on our website, andwe'll include it in the show
notes, we have a downloadspecific for that, like specific
for clinics where they candownload some of these prompts
to help make sure that they'renot going rogue and just asking
for this generic content.
But do you have any um specifictips when it comes to the way
(07:40):
that you suggest people use AIor your for marketing?
SPEAKER_01 (07:47):
My favorite approach to sort of walk my through
students through is to copy allof the text from the homepage of
their website and put it into Iuse Chat GPT.
I know there's there's so manyother different ones, but I'm
pretty basic.
I'm just using chat, which mymom has just started using
recently, and she calls itchatty for short.
(08:08):
I'd love that.
So just text me randomlythroughout the day and be like,
Chatty just wrote me a mealplan.
I'm like, it's so smart, isn'tit?
Make sure you're giving itdetails so it gives you a
reasonable meal plan.
But anyway, so Chatty shouldcopy all the text from your
homepage of your website and popit into Chatty and ask it, you
(08:28):
know, based on this informationfrom my website, I'm an I'm an
acupuncturist or chiropractor,you know, I practice here.
What can you tell me about mytarget market, about my ideal
patient, and about my tone ofvoice that I'm using, etc.?
And just see what it tells you.
And this can be a great litmustest to really to figure out is
(08:49):
your website reflecting yourtarget market?
Like if someone that you love totreat, like fertility, lands on
your website, are they gonnarecognize themselves in your
website copy?
And if not, then you probablywant to have some tweaks.
So you can kind of start there.
But once you have establishedwith chatty, and now I'm
remembering I have a friend whocalls his chat GPT Carl because
(09:13):
he likes to yell at it when itdoesn't do what he wants.
And I'm like, if it's not doingwhat you want, it's because
you're not using it properly.
You're not giving enoughinformation.
So go back and forth with it.
And when it when you'veexplained, like, okay, this is
actually the target market andmy ideal patient, and let me
describe it, this person to you.
(09:35):
Then you can start asking itquestions like, could you give
me a content calendar for blogposts for the year, right?
And it will give you, you know,12 months worth of blog posts.
And then you get to kind ofinteract with it and say, okay,
well, these ones are definiteyes for my target market.
(09:55):
And then these ones are notreally hitting the mark.
I don't want to treat thesethings, or my people aren't
worried about this.
And then you tell it that andsay, like, hey, I'd like to go
with, you know, numbers one,four, and six.
And then the others are not spoton.
We need to keep working on it.
Because what happens, I think,is people get really stuck when
they see information.
(10:16):
They're like, oh, that's notrelevant.
This is dumb.
It doesn't understand.
It's like, okay, it's becauseit's called chat because you're
supposed to have a conversationand tell it.
You're supposed to help itunderstand you.
I I interviewed an AI expert,uh, I think it was last year,
and he really had a, he gave mea light bulb moment where he
said, think of Chat GPT as areally almost like an over-eager
(10:41):
intern, because it's thisperson, this intern's so smart
and it really, really wants tohelp, but you need to teach it
exactly what you want it to do.
Otherwise, it's just gonna gooff the rails in your business
and it's gonna create all thisstuff for you that's not
relevant because it's so green,right?
Like an intern.
They just graduated, they don'treally know what they're doing.
(11:03):
It needs you to give itinstructions.
So then you can go through andyou can say, okay, let's create
the blog post that you mentionednumber four, about like how many
treatments do I need forfertility for someone who's, I
don't know, like they're 38 andthey've been trying for two
years, et cetera, et cetera.
And then ask it to give you likean outline.
(11:24):
And then you can go through theoutline and say, okay, this part
is important to include, but youforgot this, and don't include
this section here.
And then you can ask it to writeyou the blog post.
So you've kind of come a longway, right?
And it is time consuming.
One of my students recentlysaid, if I'm gonna spend this
much time creating specificprompts and teaching Chat GPT,
(11:47):
why don't I just write the blogpost?
SPEAKER_00 (11:49):
And I was like, girl, go for it.
Go for it.
Yeah, you can do that.
You know, I I I love what yousome of the things that you said
in there.
And I think too, like sometimesblog posts can have a little bit
of a different tone than maybeyour home page.
So if you do have another blogpost that you want to feed it,
(12:11):
be like to say, hey, this is ourstyle of writing, or you know,
you can the more information,obviously, you can give it the
better.
But also, you know, like yousaid, like what would be great
content for the next year?
Like, ask it for double thenumber of topics so that that
way when you start weeding stuffout, you don't feel like you're
(12:35):
weeding out that you still haveso much left over that you can
kind of pick and choose from.
But yeah, it's it's really it'scoming a long way, but I love
what you said that it is.
It's like that eager littleintern that just wants to please
you, but just needs enoughdirection.
(12:57):
Now, do you find that um a lotof your marketing students are
are they focusing more onblogging, social media, email
marketing, SEO, which I know youand I have obviously talked a
lot about before?
Love it, love it.
(13:17):
And we'll link some of theepisodes to your podcast where
we chatted about that in theshow notes as well.
But where do you think they arecurrently focusing and where
should they be focusing thatmaybe they're not focusing on?
SPEAKER_01 (13:34):
Well, so in my I have a big class called Wellness
Marketing School or AcupunctureMarketing School, and we cover
everything that you listed.
But I would say that people aremost interested in um email
marketing and social media.
And their, I mean, theirquestion for social media is
always how do I do this withoutburning out?
(13:56):
And how do I actually turnfollowers into patients?
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (14:00):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (14:00):
And so it becomes it's a lot of information for
social media.
It depends on the platform.
There's so many strategies.
Content creation is its ownthing.
Like, are you doing graphicdesign?
Are you creating reels?
Can you edit video?
So we almost always come back toemail marketing because it is
it's so much simpler in a lot ofways.
(14:22):
And I do find that I don't knowif if it's true that most
acupuncturists are introverts,or if it's just that most of the
acupuncturists in my orbit areintroverts, because I also am an
introvert and I talk about that.
But I find that most introvertsare good at writing or enjoy
writing as something you can dobehind the scenes in your
(14:43):
pajamas with your cat, right?
It doesn't involve like gettingdressed up and going to a
networking meeting and thenstanding there awkwardly because
you don't know anybody.
Right.
So email newsletters aresomething we talk about email
newsletters and also like emailfunnels and creating a lead
magnet.
So that becomes multi-layered aswell.
(15:03):
But the newsletter is such anice starting point to educate
people, to let them kind of likebuild your know-like trust
factor just from the way thatyou write something or teach
about your topic, likeacupuncture for knee pain or
herbal medicine for fertility,people get to know you and
(15:25):
really understand like what kindof provider are you?
Do you have shared values?
Can they relate to you, etcetera?
SPEAKER_00 (15:32):
I once heard somewhere where they said that
once you've heard somebody'svoice, whether like you've seen
them in a movie or on socialmedia, then it sticks with you.
So when you get an email fromthem, like when you read it, you
read it in their voice.
Yes.
And I'm sure I'm kind ofbutchering, butchering that a
(15:53):
little bit, but I do feel likeit's a way to be so personal,
like you're talking directly tothem without you having to talk
directly to them.
Yes.
And one thing that I love aboutemail too is once you kind of
have the formula down, and Iknow you've got some some email
templates on your website, but Ilove templates, whether it's
like, oh, here's a blog templateor a page template or an email
(16:16):
template or social mediatemplate, then you don't feel
like you're starting withnothing.
SPEAKER_01 (16:24):
Yes.
Yeah, the the blinking cursorsyndrome is real, right?
Where you're like, oh my God, Ihave no idea how I thought I was
gonna write this email,especially if you have like a
limited amount of time, you'retrying to write something in
between patients, and you'relike, I have 20 minutes and I
got nothing.
SPEAKER_00 (16:41):
Yeah.
And I also think it's nice thatyou know you can recycle that.
Like if there was an email thatperformed really well eight,
nine months ago, you can justpush it out again.
Nobody is gonna be offended thatyou already sent them that
specific an email about thatspecific topic.
SPEAKER_01 (17:00):
I send the same email about acupuncture for
osteoarthritis of the knee everysingle year, and it does so well
every single year.
It has great open rates, it hasgreat click-through rates, and
um that's one of the emailsthat's in.
I have a three groups oftemplates.
One is sort of generic like painmanagement, digestion, and
(17:25):
anxiety focus.
The other is for women's health,and then the last one is for
cosmetic acupuncture.
So the knee pain email is in thegeneric group.
SPEAKER_00 (17:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (17:36):
And sometimes my marketing clients will be like,
Can we really send that again?
Like, my patients are smart,they're gonna remember.
I'm like, maybe they'll rememberthat you sent them a knee pain
email, but like, why wouldanyone ever be like personally
offended?
I think that's what people arereally worried about is the
trolls are gonna come out andsomeone's gonna hit reply and be
(17:59):
like, I remember this researchfrom last year.
How dare you send it again?
Like, your emails are notruining anybody's day.
SPEAKER_00 (18:07):
The same goes for social media, right?
Like, I and to that point, I'mvery curious.
And I hate to put you on thespot.
And if you don't know theanswer, it's fine.
But let's say that that specifictopic, you you know that the
email blast performs really,really well.
My question then to you is doyou see the same results on that
(18:30):
topic with your blog post andsocial media post around that
topic, or is it just wow, thatreally does good as an email?
SPEAKER_01 (18:39):
Oh, that is such a great question.
I don't know.
I don't know if I've ever reallychased the analytics for the
social media for like knee painin the same way that I have
checked the the email.
Um, I will say that the thingsthat tend to do best on social
are including either my face ormy associate Melody's face, the
(19:05):
other acupuncturist.
Yeah, no matter what the topicis.
SPEAKER_00 (19:10):
Yeah.
And I mean, social media wholewhole nother animal.
Um but do you find with yourmarketing students that
Instagram is a better resourcethat they drive that Instagram
drives more leads versus YouTubeor Facebook?
(19:30):
Or does it just depend?
SPEAKER_01 (19:33):
I think it I think it depends, but I will I will
say that I see words, I seem tosee two groups.
There's like the Instagram camp,they're really into it and they
like it.
And then there's the Facebookcamp.
And I find that the people whohave the most success on
Facebooks are the ones who areactive in their local groups.
(19:54):
And that is like a totallydifferent animal than the person
who's creating reels with thealgorithm and their audience in
mind, right?
Because on Facebook, you're notyou're not doing any of that.
If you're just in the groups,kind of trolling for like
questions I can answer, wherecan I be a useful resource?
Right.
And then maybe eventually I'llhave the opportunity to drop in,
(20:17):
like, oh yeah, we do pediatricacupuncture for ear infections
at my office, right?
Like, here's the link if youwant to check it out.
It's just a very different typeof social media.
SPEAKER_00 (20:27):
It is.
And I think that sometimespeople try to just throw it all
together and they're like, we'rejust gonna do the same thing for
everything.
But the type that you're talkingabout, I call it other people's
audiences.
Like where it's like you'reyou're leveraging your
connections, your positioningstrategy, whether it's through
participating in events or evenputting back together a lead
(20:50):
magnet where you're jumping intosome of those local groups where
you've got value to add thatisn't saying, come and book an
appointment with me right thissecond.
Buy for me, buy from me, buy forme.
It's saying I add value in avery, you know, easy format.
SPEAKER_01 (21:11):
Yeah.
And I find that those people whoare successful in those local
Facebook groups, they areanswering lots of kinds of
questions that are notnecessarily related to their
practice all the time.
So if someone's like, hey, I'mnew and I need to get the roof
on my house done, who can yourecommend?
They're going into their mentalRolodex and saying, like, oh, I
(21:33):
know a roofing guy from theChamber of Commerce meeting, I'm
gonna pop their name in so thattheir clinic account is like
regularly visible.
And so they're seen as like aresource, yeah, yes, and a
connector.
So that when the opportunitycomes up for them to mention
their own business, it doesn'tfeel spammy because they're just
(21:55):
participating all the time.
I mean, it's the definition ofsocial media, right?
SPEAKER_00 (22:00):
But I think that also takes a personality.
Like I can think of in my pastyears of people that have come
and gone out of my life, and I'mlike, that is a connector
through that one person.
I'm at 87 people, or you know,I'm still going to the dentist
(23:14):
that I'm going to because theyrecommend it, like they're that
person.
So I think you also, when itcomes to marketing, outside of
SEO, which is, you know, andyour website that has to has to
represent your brand and makesure that your brand's findable
online, that you have theseother avenues where you can say
what fits our brand'spersonality.
(23:36):
Like, are we the ones that arejust gonna knock all these reels
out and just out of the park?
Or are we that connectorpersonality, or do we enjoy the
email blast that we are like 20minutes, did it really quick,
get it out there while alsotrying to make sure that you're
(23:57):
testing the waters and thentrying all these other, you
know, avenues.
And so when it comes to thiscontent, like how, because it
can just you can feel likeyou're on a hamster wheel where
you're like, let's go.
We gotta, we feel like we haveto do it all.
And you know, what do yousuggest to your marketing
(24:18):
students when it comes to how tomake the it not feel like a
hamster wheel?
SPEAKER_01 (24:25):
I think that repurposing content is
absolutely required in order tomaintain your sanity in the
digital age.
Like you can't, I don't thinkit's reasonable to not be
repurposing content anymore.
And I love, I think the clinicswho have the best success with
this are very strategic becausethey then they have a plan to
(24:48):
follow and it takes off some ofthe mental burden.
So they will, for example, startby writing a blog post about a
topic.
So they'll say, okay, this monthit's um carpal tunnel.
So they'll write their blog postand then they'll repurpose that
for an email newsletter, they'llrepurpose it into an Instagram
reel of some kind, or maybe acarousel post, and then and then
(25:10):
they'll make it into a Facebookpost.
And they'll also say tothemselves, like, okay, you
know, I wrote this content formy blog, and I'm not just gonna
share it once, but I'm alsogonna take a look at, you know,
I like later app, but there'slike Sprout Social and you can
use the um native apps insideMeta.
Like, how can I reshare thisblog post in the future?
(25:32):
So I'm gonna go out a month, twomonths, three months, and
reschedule these Facebook posts,for example, where I'm sharing
that I wrote this blog post onthis topic.
So you're getting so muchmileage out of this one thing,
and you're just kind of churningout that repurposed content
(25:53):
every month because you have aplan.
You're like okie dokie, I wrotea blog post.
Next is email, next is social.
So it's not so overwhelming.
SPEAKER_00 (26:02):
And it doesn't have to necessarily be done on that
order.
Like if you're a person thatloves video, like you can create
the video and then turn thevideo into the blog post and
this and that.
I just you don't want it to belike the cheese stands alone
where you spend all of yourenergy like just putting forth
social or just putting forthemail.
(26:23):
And then because I hear that allthe time where people are like,
oh, we have this one email blastthat does so well.
I'm like, well, why don't youturn it into a blog post?
And they're like, I've neverthought of that.
And one of the one of myfavorite tools, and I don't know
if you've played around with it,is repurposeio.
Oh, I have not.
Oh, okay.
(26:44):
We're gonna get down like acrazy rabbit hole here.
Um, so repurpose I.O.
You can use it to repurpose yoursocial media content.
So if you create a social media,like an Instagram reel, you can
take it and set up all thesefancy systems where you can take
your Instagram reel, post it toLinkedIn, post it to TikTok,
(27:07):
post it to all the other socialplatforms, YouTube short, all
the things, but then also make acopy of it.
So then you can go back andreschedule and repost it.
Love it.
So that that way it's like, oh,well, you know, if you've done
three months of content, you cango back to month one, some of
(27:28):
the early stuff, and startresprinkling it in because
again, people aren't gonnaremember that, especially if
it's if it's evergreen content,right?
Obviously, you wouldn't do thatwith like events happening this
week, but but for evergreenquality content, you can really
start to take your repurposingto the next level.
(27:50):
You can take then your blog postand the next year, update it and
give it a little once-over,improve some SEO, drop in some
new information, and you reallyit doesn't feel so overwhelming.
SPEAKER_01 (28:05):
Yes.
And I think people reallyunderestimate how useful
repurposing is across platformsbecause sometimes they're like,
Well, if somebody saw it onInstagram, do they really need
to see it again on Facebook?
So, two thoughts.
One is yes, it would be good forthem to see it again on
Facebook, maybe the next day orthe next week, it doesn't
(28:27):
matter, but it's reinforcingyour message.
Maybe they didn't have time towatch the whole reel on
Instagram, but when they see iton Facebook, they're you know
sitting in a stoplight, whichthey probably shouldn't be on
their phone, but we know theyare.
So they're gonna watch the wholething, right?
And then, second, a lot ofpeople are only on one platform,
or that's where they spend themost time.
(28:49):
And I have the best example ofthis recently, I think it was
last week.
I have a patient who's maybe 66or 68, like in that range.
And so she's really only onFacebook.
And I always reshare myInstagram reels on Facebook, but
I hadn't been doing it for awhile.
I think I just I really droppedthe ball.
(29:10):
So I started doing it again.
So she was like, I've beenseeing all of your videos, they
are so educational.
She's like, I didn't know thatyour associate Melody is a
doula.
And then she's like, What is adoula?
And I was like, Okay, well,we'll have to make a video about
that.
And she was like, I also didn'tknow that, you know, acupuncture
(29:34):
could help with XYZ.
She's like, So I have that, andI was wondering if we could work
on it today.
And then the best part was shewas like, Should I be on
Instagram?
Tell me why I should be onInstagram, Michelle.
And I was like, you know what?
I think if you're seeing stuffon Facebook, I think you're
good.
You don't unless you really havean interest, like you're all
(29:55):
set.
SPEAKER_00 (29:55):
You're all set, but I do think you're right.
Like people tend to favor oneplatform over another.
So if you're sending it outeverywhere, because I get people
the time that are like, oh, Isee your videos on LinkedIn.
Oh, I see your videos onYouTube.
Oh, I see your videos onInstagram.
They're never like on socialmedia, it's always one specific
(30:15):
their favorite, their favorite,or it's I read your email.
You know, it's it's usually justone avenue, or oh, the podcast,
which of course we're gonnarepurpose this.
It's gonna be a blog post, anemail blast, social media posts,
all the things.
So I I think that you reallyhave to have that overall kind
(30:39):
of omnipresence as we like totalk about it, because even if
you don't necessarily likeFacebook, it doesn't mean that
your audience doesn't likeFacebook.
SPEAKER_01 (30:51):
Yeah, yeah.
I saw a statistic, I think it'sa little out of date actually,
but there's roughly 8 billionpeople in the world, and about 3
billion of them are on Facebook.
So I always tell my students,your patience and your
competition are on Facebook.
SPEAKER_00 (31:08):
Yes, and you know, to that extent, it's also always
a great idea to make sure thatyou do have a couple reviews on
Facebook, even though that's notif that's not your primary
social media platform, itdoesn't matter because again,
it's other people's primarysocial media platform.
(31:29):
So I love all of that.
Now, um, what would you saywould be a tip that you would
give because somebody who iseither just getting started or
scared of technology that wouldhelp them take the right steps
(31:50):
without feeling overwhelmed?
SPEAKER_01 (31:53):
Oh, it's such a good question.
Cause in my mind, my firstquestion is do they have a
website?
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (32:00):
Like are we at that level where we're still we're
convincing them to m to have awebsite?
To have a website, okay.
Everybody listening, you have tohave A website full stop.
And please do.
Please.
And you have to have a GoogleBusiness Profile listing if you
have a physical location.
Let's say they have those twothings.
Then when it comes to contentand marketing, what would you
(32:23):
suggest would be how they shouldstart?
Should they start with email?
Should they start with socialmedia?
What do you feel is like theeasiest way?
SPEAKER_01 (32:36):
Gotcha.
It's like the lowest hangingfruit.
Yeah.
I would say go with emailbecause I think a lot of people
are actually collecting emailseither from the new patient
intake or they have a newsletteropt-in on their website that
they are ignoring.
SPEAKER_00 (32:55):
I see you are collecting emails.
You have to be.
unknown (32:58):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (32:59):
I see you out there, the people whose websites say we
send out a monthly email, joinus for recipes and seasonal
health tips.
And then they never send amonthly email, but they're
collecting those emails.
So that's great.
Right.
So dip your toe in the water andpick.
I mean, to be super simple, justpick either MailChimp or
Constant Contact.
(33:21):
Those are pretty basic.
I like constant contact.
I think MailChimp is a little,it's not intuitive to use.
It's not my favorite on the backend.
And then just use a pre-madetemplate inside one of those
platforms and don't overthink itand just introduce yourself,
even.
Like if you've never sent anemail before, you can probably
(33:44):
repurpose some of the contentfrom the about page of your
website.
unknown (33:48):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (33:49):
And just say, like, hi, I'm so and so.
Thank you for joining me.
I here's the symptoms that Ilove to treat.
I'm so glad you're here.
And here's how you book anappointment.
SPEAKER_00 (33:58):
I I think there's a couple of things there.
One, it's really important tomake sure that you always have
that call to action to drivethem to book an appointment.
Two, if you haven't, like, let'ssay started blogging, but you've
got specific conditions that youtreat, specific modalities,
anything specific that you cantake from your services page or
your conditions pages, that itdoesn't have to be a blog post
(34:23):
that you send via email.
Because I think that's kind ofwhere some people get hung up.
Same with social media, isthey're like, well, I don't have
a new blog post to share.
So I don't know what to do.
You know, there's still tons ofcontent.
SPEAKER_01 (34:39):
Yes.
I always tell people if you arestuck for content in on any
platform, go to your frequentlyasked questions page on your
website, which most people have,and just pick one and say, okay,
well, today's email is going tobe about why do I need so many
treatments for cosmeticacupuncture?
Or that's what today's real isgoing to be, or some your
(34:59):
carousel post.
SPEAKER_00 (35:00):
And if you don't have that FAQ, just start
noting.
Like this week, these were thequestions that kept coming up in
my appointments.
And even if it's just one personasking, and you're like, that's
a really great question.
Even if you have to say to them,that's not exactly the question
you should be asking, there'swhat you really should be
(35:20):
asking.
But then that gives you somecontent to start to develop your
content plan.
And of course, you can ask AI,but again, as we've said, use AI
as if it was your intern thatknows nothing, but just wants to
really provide you witheverything.
(35:42):
Yes.
And then um, because I think wecan kind of start to wrap things
up here.
SPEAKER_01 (35:48):
If you had just like one takeaway that you want
listeners to have when it comesto marketing, what would that be
well the way that I like toteach marketing is that
marketing is simply letting thepeople who need you know that
you exist.
And this includes teaching themthat your specialty, you know,
(36:13):
or your modality, acupuncture inthis case, can help with their
specific symptoms, right?
So educating them and alsoletting them know that your
clinic conveniently exists intheir community, right?
And if you don't do this, if youdon't share this basic
information, acupuncture canhelp you with X.
And here we are ready to helpyou choose us, then how how can
(36:38):
people know?
Like you can't help people whodon't know that you exist.
And so all marketing is doing isjust giving them this
information.
And I find that it's a huge helpfor people to remind them that
they can, once they releasetheir marketing into the world,
they can sort of let go of theoutcome.
Now I always want them to likereview your data, and it's like
(36:59):
that's always important, but itit's like if you if you don't
get an immediate response,that's okay, right?
You put the info out there,people process it in different
ways.
They might not be in a placewhere they're ready to use it,
but maybe they'll use it lateror share it with someone else,
but release your marketing intothe world and let it percolate
(37:23):
without um taking the resultpersonally.
So, and then I think that likerelieves some burden where like,
oh, I I don't know if I did itright, so I'm just not gonna do
it anymore.
It's like nope, nope.
You're teaching people, you'reputting it out there, you've got
your call to action.
Keep going, right?
SPEAKER_00 (37:42):
Do not give up.
Yeah, and I mean, I know thereare oftentimes when we send out
email blasts, and then likeweeks or a month later, somebody
opens up that email and clicksthrough.
So isn't that amazing?
So just because something, yeah,I I know, right?
Like just one, it's important tomake sure that you do have
(38:04):
tracking systems set up so thatyou know what's working.
Yep.
But yeah, don't take yourself soseriously, basically.
Right?
SPEAKER_01 (38:12):
Don't don't take the outcome personally.
Marketing should be anexperiment.
I'll be honest, I do marketingfor my clinic all the time.
I love trying random stuff.
Some of it does not work.
I think of myself as a madscientist.
Like if I'm a scientist, I knowthat some of my experiments are
just not gonna work out.
Something's gonna explode, andthen we'll have to clean it up
(38:32):
and be like, okay, okay, notthat one.
SPEAKER_00 (38:35):
Right.
And just no problem.
Now we know what to do in thefuture.
Yeah.
And just because something worksfor another company doesn't mean
it's necessarily right for yourclinic.
So, you know, and I know,especially with social media,
when you're starting to poststuff and you're like, we have
three followers, and two of themare my relatives.
Like, thanks, mom.
(38:55):
Thanks, mom.
That it can be like a littlelike nerve-wracking.
But if you, you know, one thing,and we will wrap this up, but
one thing we didn't necessarilygo into detail about is working
on batch content and batchingyour content.
So, like, if you are gonna do areel, instead of being like,
(39:17):
okay, I'm gonna do one reel,okay.
Next week now, I'm gonna recordanother one, setting like a
two-hour timer and saying, okay,let me record as many as
possible and just have themsaved and then ready to use when
you're ready.
SPEAKER_01 (39:30):
Yep.
That's so helpful.
SPEAKER_00 (39:32):
So helpful because otherwise you're like, oh, I
have to do it again.
I just did it yesterday.
SPEAKER_01 (39:40):
We we do a trade with a patient who's a small
business owner.
So we know that her Instagram isquite good and she knows what
she's doing.
And she comes and she recordsone treatment a month, and we
have the patient sign releasepaperwork, like we're gonna use
this in our marketing, and shejust records video for an hour,
(40:00):
and she does seven secondvideos, and then she uploads it
into a shared Google Drive, andthen I give her a treatment
that's the trade.
Okay, and then we just wheneverI'm going to make an Instagram
reel, I have an enormous amountof video that she has recorded.
So I just like pick something,yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (40:19):
And that super simple, super simple.
Like, don't try to be crazy,don't try to jump on all the
trends and all the cuts and allthe things that people try to do
to be fancy.
Just start, start with the easeand like it.
Well, thank you so much forjoining me today, and we will
(40:39):
include all of your informationon in the show notes on the
webpage.
Thank you so much for having me.
This is fun.
Absolutely.
Hey there, it's Darcy Sullivan from Propel
Marketing and Design, and you'relistening to the Clinic
Marketing podcast.
Today I'm joined by someone whospends a lot of time in the
marketing trenches with clinics,especially acupuncturist,
Michelle Gressig.
Michelle is a practicingacupuncturist, a marketing
(01:31):
strategist, and the host of theacupuncture marketing school
podcast, where she sharespractical ideas to help
practitioners get visible intheir communities and fill their
schedules with patients.
Now, if you're not anacupuncturist, don't skip this
(01:51):
one.
You're going to pull a lot ofvalue from this conversation.
Great marketing is rooted inconnection and clarity, and that
applies across the board.
In this episode, Michelle and Italk about some of the biggest
myths and misconceptions when itcomes to marketing.
How to show up in your communityin a way that feels authentic
(02:15):
and aligned with yourpersonality.
Simple ways to use AI without itsounding generic.
Why email marketing is such apowerful channel and how to
repurpose your content so you'renot stuck on the marketing
hamster wheel.
You can find a link to learnmore about Michelle in the show
(02:37):
notes associated with thisepisode.
Let's dive into my conversationwith Michelle.
All right.
Well, Michelle, I'm so excitedto have you on today's episode.
You and I have chatted a lotabout marketing in the past.
SPEAKER_01 (02:57):
We have.
Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_00 (02:59):
Absolutely.
And I am so excited.
I know that we're gonna betalking a lot as it relates to
acupuncturists, but really anyclinic owner can pick up some
helpful tips in this episode.
SPEAKER_01 (03:14):
Yeah, I always feel like great marketing applies
across the board.
SPEAKER_00 (03:19):
Absolutely.
And there's just so many avenuesfor great marketing today that
sometimes it can feeloverwhelming.
You're like, I've got to have awebsite, social media, email
marketing.
Should I be doing video?
How do I use AI with all this?
So I am so excited to have youhere for us to kind of chat
(03:41):
about all of that.
And that leads me to my firstquestion is what are some of
these myths that you hear ormisconceptions that you hear
about marketing all the time?
SPEAKER_01 (03:54):
I often hear from my marketing students and my
marketing clients that thisassumption that marketing is
inherently pushy or salesy, it'sgonna make them feel gross to
like put it out in theircommunity.
And they're also assuming alongthese same lines that their
(04:14):
community is going to interpretany marketing they produce as
like a money grab, right?
It's all sealed, all salesy,it's all gross.
And this is such a shame becausethere are so many different
kinds of marketing that we cando that are authentic.
I know authentic is kind of a anoverused buzzword, but it's
real, right?
(04:34):
Like it became a popularbuzzword for a reason where we
can show up as ourselves and ourcommunity will recognize that
and it will help build aconnection with them.
So there's so many ways to dothat and not come across as
pushy or salesy.
Most of I don't know if I'veever seen a wellness person like
a chiropractor, a physicaltherapist, an acupuncturist
(04:55):
produce marketing that's trulygross because everyone's so
worried about it, they're justincapable of producing that kind
of marketing.
SPEAKER_00 (05:04):
I agree with you.
And I also think it'sinteresting because I know and
I'm sure the same, where maybeyou run a promotion and you send
out a bunch of email blasts foryour own company, and then
somebody later is like, oh, Ihad no idea you had that going
on.
Or, oh, I had no idea youoffered that service.
And you're like, really?
Because I felt like I've yelledit from the top of the roof
(05:27):
really loud.
But yeah, I think that it'sreally important too to make
sure that your marketing isincluding, you know, all realms
and all places without feelingthe overwhelm that some people
can feel, feeling like they haveto, for instance, do video
(05:49):
marketing when they don't feelcomfortable doing video
marketing.
Or they're like, I'm not awriter, or completely on the
other end, they go and rely toomuch on AI.
I'm sure you've seen a lot ofthat floating around as well.
SPEAKER_01 (06:07):
Yeah, yes and no.
I think, you know, I mostly workwith acupuncturists, although I
certainly have likechiropractors and naturopaths
who are within my universe.
I love having them as well.
But I feel like a lot ofacupuncturists are still afraid
to use AI.
And partly because they'reafraid to produce that really
(06:28):
generic content that does nottend to do well, that gets
flagged by SEO.
But then we can have thesewonderful conversations about
like how can you use AI andteach it about your business and
your ideal patient and theoutcome you want?
Like, what's all the informationyou need to give it in the
prompt so that it can producesomething that actually sounds
(06:48):
like you that's relevant foryour target market?
So, yes, I mean, there's so manyquestions out there about AI,
but there's some people who areusing it, as you said, to
produce really kind of flatgeneric content that Google
knows is not authentic.
It doesn't include any of yourpersonal experience, et cetera.
(07:10):
Um, but yeah, there's certainlyways to use AI, better ways to
use AI, I guess I would say.
SPEAKER_00 (07:16):
Absolutely.
And I know on our website, andwe'll include it in the show
notes, we have a downloadspecific for that, like specific
for clinics where they candownload some of these prompts
to help make sure that they'renot going rogue and just asking
for this generic content.
But do you have any um specifictips when it comes to the way
(07:40):
that you suggest people use AIor your for marketing?
SPEAKER_01 (07:47):
My favorite approach to sort of walk my through
students through is to copy allof the text from the homepage of
their website and put it into Iuse Chat GPT.
I know there's there's so manyother different ones, but I'm
pretty basic.
I'm just using chat, which mymom has just started using
recently, and she calls itchatty for short.
(08:08):
I'd love that.
So just text me randomlythroughout the day and be like,
Chatty just wrote me a mealplan.
I'm like, it's so smart, isn'tit?
Make sure you're giving itdetails so it gives you a
reasonable meal plan.
But anyway, so Chatty shouldcopy all the text from your
homepage of your website and popit into Chatty and ask it, you
(08:28):
know, based on this informationfrom my website, I'm an I'm an
acupuncturist or chiropractor,you know, I practice here.
What can you tell me about mytarget market, about my ideal
patient, and about my tone ofvoice that I'm using, etc.?
And just see what it tells you.
And this can be a great litmustest to really to figure out is
(08:49):
your website reflecting yourtarget market?
Like if someone that you love totreat, like fertility, lands on
your website, are they gonnarecognize themselves in your
website copy?
And if not, then you probablywant to have some tweaks.
So you can kind of start there.
But once you have establishedwith chatty, and now I'm
remembering I have a friend whocalls his chat GPT Carl because
(09:13):
he likes to yell at it when itdoesn't do what he wants.
And I'm like, if it's not doingwhat you want, it's because
you're not using it properly.
You're not giving enoughinformation.
So go back and forth with it.
And when it when you'veexplained, like, okay, this is
actually the target market andmy ideal patient, and let me
describe it, this person to you.
(09:35):
Then you can start asking itquestions like, could you give
me a content calendar for blogposts for the year, right?
And it will give you, you know,12 months worth of blog posts.
And then you get to kind ofinteract with it and say, okay,
well, these ones are definiteyes for my target market.
(09:55):
And then these ones are notreally hitting the mark.
I don't want to treat thesethings, or my people aren't
worried about this.
And then you tell it that andsay, like, hey, I'd like to go
with, you know, numbers one,four, and six.
And then the others are not spoton.
We need to keep working on it.
Because what happens, I think,is people get really stuck when
they see information.
(10:16):
They're like, oh, that's notrelevant.
This is dumb.
It doesn't understand.
It's like, okay, it's becauseit's called chat because you're
supposed to have a conversationand tell it.
You're supposed to help itunderstand you.
I I interviewed an AI expert,uh, I think it was last year,
and he really had a, he gave mea light bulb moment where he
said, think of Chat GPT as areally almost like an over-eager
(10:41):
intern, because it's thisperson, this intern's so smart
and it really, really wants tohelp, but you need to teach it
exactly what you want it to do.
Otherwise, it's just gonna gooff the rails in your business
and it's gonna create all thisstuff for you that's not
relevant because it's so green,right?
Like an intern.
They just graduated, they don'treally know what they're doing.
(11:03):
It needs you to give itinstructions.
So then you can go through andyou can say, okay, let's create
the blog post that you mentionednumber four, about like how many
treatments do I need forfertility for someone who's, I
don't know, like they're 38 andthey've been trying for two
years, et cetera, et cetera.
And then ask it to give you likean outline.
(11:24):
And then you can go through theoutline and say, okay, this part
is important to include, but youforgot this, and don't include
this section here.
And then you can ask it to writeyou the blog post.
So you've kind of come a longway, right?
And it is time consuming.
One of my students recentlysaid, if I'm gonna spend this
much time creating specificprompts and teaching Chat GPT,
(11:47):
why don't I just write the blogpost?
SPEAKER_00 (11:49):
And I was like, girl, go for it.
Go for it.
Yeah, you can do that.
You know, I I I love what yousome of the things that you said
in there.
And I think too, like sometimesblog posts can have a little bit
of a different tone than maybeyour home page.
So if you do have another blogpost that you want to feed it,
(12:11):
be like to say, hey, this is ourstyle of writing, or you know,
you can the more information,obviously, you can give it the
better.
But also, you know, like yousaid, like what would be great
content for the next year?
Like, ask it for double thenumber of topics so that that
way when you start weeding stuffout, you don't feel like you're
(12:35):
weeding out that you still haveso much left over that you can
kind of pick and choose from.
But yeah, it's it's really it'scoming a long way, but I love
what you said that it is.
It's like that eager littleintern that just wants to please
you, but just needs enoughdirection.
(12:57):
Now, do you find that um a lotof your marketing students are
are they focusing more onblogging, social media, email
marketing, SEO, which I know youand I have obviously talked a
lot about before?
Love it, love it.
(13:17):
And we'll link some of theepisodes to your podcast where
we chatted about that in theshow notes as well.
But where do you think they arecurrently focusing and where
should they be focusing thatmaybe they're not focusing on?
SPEAKER_01 (13:34):
Well, so in my I have a big class called Wellness
Marketing School or AcupunctureMarketing School, and we cover
everything that you listed.
But I would say that people aremost interested in um email
marketing and social media.
And their, I mean, theirquestion for social media is
always how do I do this withoutburning out?
(13:56):
And how do I actually turnfollowers into patients?
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (14:00):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (14:00):
And so it becomes it's a lot of information for
social media.
It depends on the platform.
There's so many strategies.
Content creation is its ownthing.
Like, are you doing graphicdesign?
Are you creating reels?
Can you edit video?
So we almost always come back toemail marketing because it is
it's so much simpler in a lot ofways.
(14:22):
And I do find that I don't knowif if it's true that most
acupuncturists are introverts,or if it's just that most of the
acupuncturists in my orbit areintroverts, because I also am an
introvert and I talk about that.
But I find that most introvertsare good at writing or enjoy
writing as something you can dobehind the scenes in your
(14:43):
pajamas with your cat, right?
It doesn't involve like gettingdressed up and going to a
networking meeting and thenstanding there awkwardly because
you don't know anybody.
Right.
So email newsletters aresomething we talk about email
newsletters and also like emailfunnels and creating a lead
magnet.
So that becomes multi-layered aswell.
(15:03):
But the newsletter is such anice starting point to educate
people, to let them kind of likebuild your know-like trust
factor just from the way thatyou write something or teach
about your topic, likeacupuncture for knee pain or
herbal medicine for fertility,people get to know you and
(15:25):
really understand like what kindof provider are you?
Do you have shared values?
Can they relate to you, etcetera?
SPEAKER_00 (15:32):
I once heard somewhere where they said that
once you've heard somebody'svoice, whether like you've seen
them in a movie or on socialmedia, then it sticks with you.
So when you get an email fromthem, like when you read it, you
read it in their voice.
Yes.
And I'm sure I'm kind ofbutchering, butchering that a
(15:53):
little bit, but I do feel likeit's a way to be so personal,
like you're talking directly tothem without you having to talk
directly to them.
Yes.
And one thing that I love aboutemail too is once you kind of
have the formula down, and Iknow you've got some some email
templates on your website, but Ilove templates, whether it's
like, oh, here's a blog templateor a page template or an email
(16:16):
template or social mediatemplate, then you don't feel
like you're starting withnothing.
SPEAKER_01 (16:24):
Yes.
Yeah, the the blinking cursorsyndrome is real, right?
Where you're like, oh my God, Ihave no idea how I thought I was
gonna write this email,especially if you have like a
limited amount of time, you'retrying to write something in
between patients, and you'relike, I have 20 minutes and I
got nothing.
SPEAKER_00 (16:41):
Yeah.
And I also think it's nice thatyou know you can recycle that.
Like if there was an email thatperformed really well eight,
nine months ago, you can justpush it out again.
Nobody is gonna be offended thatyou already sent them that
specific an email about thatspecific topic.
SPEAKER_01 (17:00):
I send the same email about acupuncture for
osteoarthritis of the knee everysingle year, and it does so well
every single year.
It has great open rates, it hasgreat click-through rates, and
um that's one of the emailsthat's in.
I have a three groups oftemplates.
One is sort of generic like painmanagement, digestion, and
(17:25):
anxiety focus.
The other is for women's health,and then the last one is for
cosmetic acupuncture.
So the knee pain email is in thegeneric group.
SPEAKER_00 (17:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (17:36):
And sometimes my marketing clients will be like,
Can we really send that again?
Like, my patients are smart,they're gonna remember.
I'm like, maybe they'll rememberthat you sent them a knee pain
email, but like, why wouldanyone ever be like personally
offended?
I think that's what people arereally worried about is the
trolls are gonna come out andsomeone's gonna hit reply and be
(17:59):
like, I remember this researchfrom last year.
How dare you send it again?
Like, your emails are notruining anybody's day.
SPEAKER_00 (18:07):
The same goes for social media, right?
Like, I and to that point, I'mvery curious.
And I hate to put you on thespot.
And if you don't know theanswer, it's fine.
But let's say that that specifictopic, you you know that the
email blast performs really,really well.
My question then to you is doyou see the same results on that
(18:30):
topic with your blog post andsocial media post around that
topic, or is it just wow, thatreally does good as an email?
SPEAKER_01 (18:39):
Oh, that is such a great question.
I don't know.
I don't know if I've ever reallychased the analytics for the
social media for like knee painin the same way that I have
checked the the email.
Um, I will say that the thingsthat tend to do best on social
are including either my face ormy associate Melody's face, the
(19:05):
other acupuncturist.
Yeah, no matter what the topicis.
SPEAKER_00 (19:10):
Yeah.
And I mean, social media wholewhole nother animal.
Um but do you find with yourmarketing students that
Instagram is a better resourcethat they drive that Instagram
drives more leads versus YouTubeor Facebook?
(19:30):
Or does it just depend?
SPEAKER_01 (19:33):
I think it I think it depends, but I will I will
say that I see words, I seem tosee two groups.
There's like the Instagram camp,they're really into it and they
like it.
And then there's the Facebookcamp.
And I find that the people whohave the most success on
Facebooks are the ones who areactive in their local groups.
(19:54):
And that is like a totallydifferent animal than the person
who's creating reels with thealgorithm and their audience in
mind, right?
Because on Facebook, you're notyou're not doing any of that.
If you're just in the groups,kind of trolling for like
questions I can answer, wherecan I be a useful resource?
Right.
And then maybe eventually I'llhave the opportunity to drop in,
(20:17):
like, oh yeah, we do pediatricacupuncture for ear infections
at my office, right?
Like, here's the link if youwant to check it out.
It's just a very different typeof social media.
SPEAKER_00 (20:27):
It is.
And I think that sometimespeople try to just throw it all
together and they're like, we'rejust gonna do the same thing for
everything.
But the type that you're talkingabout, I call it other people's
audiences.
Like where it's like you'reyou're leveraging your
connections, your positioningstrategy, whether it's through
participating in events or evenputting back together a lead
(20:50):
magnet where you're jumping intosome of those local groups where
you've got value to add thatisn't saying, come and book an
appointment with me right thissecond.
Buy for me, buy from me, buy forme.
It's saying I add value in avery, you know, easy format.
SPEAKER_01 (21:11):
Yeah.
And I find that those people whoare successful in those local
Facebook groups, they areanswering lots of kinds of
questions that are notnecessarily related to their
practice all the time.
So if someone's like, hey, I'mnew and I need to get the roof
on my house done, who can yourecommend?
They're going into their mentalRolodex and saying, like, oh, I
(21:33):
know a roofing guy from theChamber of Commerce meeting, I'm
gonna pop their name in so thattheir clinic account is like
regularly visible.
And so they're seen as like aresource, yeah, yes, and a
connector.
So that when the opportunitycomes up for them to mention
their own business, it doesn'tfeel spammy because they're just
(21:55):
participating all the time.
I mean, it's the definition ofsocial media, right?
SPEAKER_00 (22:00):
But I think that also takes a personality.
Like I can think of in my pastyears of people that have come
and gone out of my life, and I'mlike, that is a connector
through that one person.
I'm at 87 people, or you know,I'm still going to the dentist
(23:14):
that I'm going to because theyrecommend it, like they're that
person.
So I think you also, when itcomes to marketing, outside of
SEO, which is, you know, andyour website that has to has to
represent your brand and makesure that your brand's findable
online, that you have theseother avenues where you can say
what fits our brand'spersonality.
(23:36):
Like, are we the ones that arejust gonna knock all these reels
out and just out of the park?
Or are we that connectorpersonality, or do we enjoy the
email blast that we are like 20minutes, did it really quick,
get it out there while alsotrying to make sure that you're
(23:57):
testing the waters and thentrying all these other, you
know, avenues.
And so when it comes to thiscontent, like how, because it
can just you can feel likeyou're on a hamster wheel where
you're like, let's go.
We gotta, we feel like we haveto do it all.
And you know, what do yousuggest to your marketing
(24:18):
students when it comes to how tomake the it not feel like a
hamster wheel?
SPEAKER_01 (24:25):
I think that repurposing content is
absolutely required in order tomaintain your sanity in the
digital age.
Like you can't, I don't thinkit's reasonable to not be
repurposing content anymore.
And I love, I think the clinicswho have the best success with
this are very strategic becausethey then they have a plan to
(24:48):
follow and it takes off some ofthe mental burden.
So they will, for example, startby writing a blog post about a
topic.
So they'll say, okay, this monthit's um carpal tunnel.
So they'll write their blog postand then they'll repurpose that
for an email newsletter, they'llrepurpose it into an Instagram
reel of some kind, or maybe acarousel post, and then and then
(25:10):
they'll make it into a Facebookpost.
And they'll also say tothemselves, like, okay, you
know, I wrote this content formy blog, and I'm not just gonna
share it once, but I'm alsogonna take a look at, you know,
I like later app, but there'slike Sprout Social and you can
use the um native apps insideMeta.
Like, how can I reshare thisblog post in the future?
(25:32):
So I'm gonna go out a month, twomonths, three months, and
reschedule these Facebook posts,for example, where I'm sharing
that I wrote this blog post onthis topic.
So you're getting so muchmileage out of this one thing,
and you're just kind of churningout that repurposed content
(25:53):
every month because you have aplan.
You're like okie dokie, I wrotea blog post.
Next is email, next is social.
So it's not so overwhelming.
SPEAKER_00 (26:02):
And it doesn't have to necessarily be done on that
order.
Like if you're a person thatloves video, like you can create
the video and then turn thevideo into the blog post and
this and that.
I just you don't want it to belike the cheese stands alone
where you spend all of yourenergy like just putting forth
social or just putting forthemail.
(26:23):
And then because I hear that allthe time where people are like,
oh, we have this one email blastthat does so well.
I'm like, well, why don't youturn it into a blog post?
And they're like, I've neverthought of that.
And one of the one of myfavorite tools, and I don't know
if you've played around with it,is repurposeio.
Oh, I have not.
Oh, okay.
(26:44):
We're gonna get down like acrazy rabbit hole here.
Um, so repurpose I.O.
You can use it to repurpose yoursocial media content.
So if you create a social media,like an Instagram reel, you can
take it and set up all thesefancy systems where you can take
your Instagram reel, post it toLinkedIn, post it to TikTok,
(27:07):
post it to all the other socialplatforms, YouTube short, all
the things, but then also make acopy of it.
So then you can go back andreschedule and repost it.
Love it.
So that that way it's like, oh,well, you know, if you've done
three months of content, you cango back to month one, some of
(27:28):
the early stuff, and startresprinkling it in because
again, people aren't gonnaremember that, especially if
it's if it's evergreen content,right?
Obviously, you wouldn't do thatwith like events happening this
week, but but for evergreenquality content, you can really
start to take your repurposingto the next level.
(27:50):
You can take then your blog postand the next year, update it and
give it a little once-over,improve some SEO, drop in some
new information, and you reallyit doesn't feel so overwhelming.
SPEAKER_01 (28:05):
Yes.
And I think people reallyunderestimate how useful
repurposing is across platformsbecause sometimes they're like,
Well, if somebody saw it onInstagram, do they really need
to see it again on Facebook?
So, two thoughts.
One is yes, it would be good forthem to see it again on
Facebook, maybe the next day orthe next week, it doesn't
(28:27):
matter, but it's reinforcingyour message.
Maybe they didn't have time towatch the whole reel on
Instagram, but when they see iton Facebook, they're you know
sitting in a stoplight, whichthey probably shouldn't be on
their phone, but we know theyare.
So they're gonna watch the wholething, right?
And then, second, a lot ofpeople are only on one platform,
or that's where they spend themost time.
(28:49):
And I have the best example ofthis recently, I think it was
last week.
I have a patient who's maybe 66or 68, like in that range.
And so she's really only onFacebook.
And I always reshare myInstagram reels on Facebook, but
I hadn't been doing it for awhile.
I think I just I really droppedthe ball.
(29:10):
So I started doing it again.
So she was like, I've beenseeing all of your videos, they
are so educational.
She's like, I didn't know thatyour associate Melody is a
doula.
And then she's like, What is adoula?
And I was like, Okay, well,we'll have to make a video about
that.
And she was like, I also didn'tknow that, you know, acupuncture
(29:34):
could help with XYZ.
She's like, So I have that, andI was wondering if we could work
on it today.
And then the best part was shewas like, Should I be on
Instagram?
Tell me why I should be onInstagram, Michelle.
And I was like, you know what?
I think if you're seeing stuffon Facebook, I think you're
good.
You don't unless you really havean interest, like you're all
(29:55):
set.
SPEAKER_00 (29:55):
You're all set, but I do think you're right.
Like people tend to favor oneplatform over another.
So if you're sending it outeverywhere, because I get people
the time that are like, oh, Isee your videos on LinkedIn.
Oh, I see your videos onYouTube.
Oh, I see your videos onInstagram.
They're never like on socialmedia, it's always one specific
(30:15):
their favorite, their favorite,or it's I read your email.
You know, it's it's usually justone avenue, or oh, the podcast,
which of course we're gonnarepurpose this.
It's gonna be a blog post, anemail blast, social media posts,
all the things.
So I I think that you reallyhave to have that overall kind
(30:39):
of omnipresence as we like totalk about it, because even if
you don't necessarily likeFacebook, it doesn't mean that
your audience doesn't likeFacebook.
SPEAKER_01 (30:51):
Yeah, yeah.
I saw a statistic, I think it'sa little out of date actually,
but there's roughly 8 billionpeople in the world, and about 3
billion of them are on Facebook.
So I always tell my students,your patience and your
competition are on Facebook.
SPEAKER_00 (31:08):
Yes, and you know, to that extent, it's also always
a great idea to make sure thatyou do have a couple reviews on
Facebook, even though that's notif that's not your primary
social media platform, itdoesn't matter because again,
it's other people's primarysocial media platform.
(31:29):
So I love all of that.
Now, um, what would you saywould be a tip that you would
give because somebody who iseither just getting started or
scared of technology that wouldhelp them take the right steps
(31:50):
without feeling overwhelmed?
SPEAKER_01 (31:53):
Oh, it's such a good question.
Cause in my mind, my firstquestion is do they have a
website?
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (32:00):
Like are we at that level where we're still we're
convincing them to m to have awebsite?
To have a website, okay.
Everybody listening, you have tohave A website full stop.
And please do.
Please.
And you have to have a GoogleBusiness Profile listing if you
have a physical location.
Let's say they have those twothings.
Then when it comes to contentand marketing, what would you
(32:23):
suggest would be how they shouldstart?
Should they start with email?
Should they start with socialmedia?
What do you feel is like theeasiest way?
SPEAKER_01 (32:36):
Gotcha.
It's like the lowest hangingfruit.
Yeah.
I would say go with emailbecause I think a lot of people
are actually collecting emailseither from the new patient
intake or they have a newsletteropt-in on their website that
they are ignoring.
SPEAKER_00 (32:55):
I see you are collecting emails.
You have to be.
unknown (32:58):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (32:59):
I see you out there, the people whose websites say we
send out a monthly email, joinus for recipes and seasonal
health tips.
And then they never send amonthly email, but they're
collecting those emails.
So that's great.
Right.
So dip your toe in the water andpick.
I mean, to be super simple, justpick either MailChimp or
Constant Contact.
(33:21):
Those are pretty basic.
I like constant contact.
I think MailChimp is a little,it's not intuitive to use.
It's not my favorite on the backend.
And then just use a pre-madetemplate inside one of those
platforms and don't overthink itand just introduce yourself,
even.
Like if you've never sent anemail before, you can probably
(33:44):
repurpose some of the contentfrom the about page of your
website.
unknown (33:48):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (33:49):
And just say, like, hi, I'm so and so.
Thank you for joining me.
I here's the symptoms that Ilove to treat.
I'm so glad you're here.
And here's how you book anappointment.
SPEAKER_00 (33:58):
I I think there's a couple of things there.
One, it's really important tomake sure that you always have
that call to action to drivethem to book an appointment.
Two, if you haven't, like, let'ssay started blogging, but you've
got specific conditions that youtreat, specific modalities,
anything specific that you cantake from your services page or
your conditions pages, that itdoesn't have to be a blog post
(34:23):
that you send via email.
Because I think that's kind ofwhere some people get hung up.
Same with social media, isthey're like, well, I don't have
a new blog post to share.
So I don't know what to do.
You know, there's still tons ofcontent.
SPEAKER_01 (34:39):
Yes.
I always tell people if you arestuck for content in on any
platform, go to your frequentlyasked questions page on your
website, which most people have,and just pick one and say, okay,
well, today's email is going tobe about why do I need so many
treatments for cosmeticacupuncture?
Or that's what today's real isgoing to be, or some your
(34:59):
carousel post.
SPEAKER_00 (35:00):
And if you don't have that FAQ, just start
noting.
Like this week, these were thequestions that kept coming up in
my appointments.
And even if it's just one personasking, and you're like, that's
a really great question.
Even if you have to say to them,that's not exactly the question
you should be asking, there'swhat you really should be
(35:20):
asking.
But then that gives you somecontent to start to develop your
content plan.
And of course, you can ask AI,but again, as we've said, use AI
as if it was your intern thatknows nothing, but just wants to
really provide you witheverything.
(35:42):
Yes.
And then um, because I think wecan kind of start to wrap things
up here.
SPEAKER_01 (35:48):
If you had just like one takeaway that you want
listeners to have when it comesto marketing, what would that be
well the way that I like toteach marketing is that
marketing is simply letting thepeople who need you know that
you exist.
And this includes teaching themthat your specialty, you know,
(36:13):
or your modality, acupuncture inthis case, can help with their
specific symptoms, right?
So educating them and alsoletting them know that your
clinic conveniently exists intheir community, right?
And if you don't do this, if youdon't share this basic
information, acupuncture canhelp you with X.
And here we are ready to helpyou choose us, then how how can
(36:38):
people know?
Like you can't help people whodon't know that you exist.
And so all marketing is doing isjust giving them this
information.
And I find that it's a huge helpfor people to remind them that
they can, once they releasetheir marketing into the world,
they can sort of let go of theoutcome.
Now I always want them to likereview your data, and it's like
(36:59):
that's always important, but itit's like if you if you don't
get an immediate response,that's okay, right?
You put the info out there,people process it in different
ways.
They might not be in a placewhere they're ready to use it,
but maybe they'll use it lateror share it with someone else,
but release your marketing intothe world and let it percolate
(37:23):
without um taking the resultpersonally.
So, and then I think that likerelieves some burden where like,
oh, I I don't know if I did itright, so I'm just not gonna do
it anymore.
It's like nope, nope.
You're teaching people, you'reputting it out there, you've got
your call to action.
Keep going, right?
SPEAKER_00 (37:42):
Do not give up.
Yeah, and I mean, I know thereare oftentimes when we send out
email blasts, and then likeweeks or a month later, somebody
opens up that email and clicksthrough.
So isn't that amazing?
So just because something, yeah,I I know, right?
Like just one, it's important tomake sure that you do have
(38:04):
tracking systems set up so thatyou know what's working.
Yep.
But yeah, don't take yourself soseriously, basically.
Right?
SPEAKER_01 (38:12):
Don't don't take the outcome personally.
Marketing should be anexperiment.
I'll be honest, I do marketingfor my clinic all the time.
I love trying random stuff.
Some of it does not work.
I think of myself as a madscientist.
Like if I'm a scientist, I knowthat some of my experiments are
just not gonna work out.
Something's gonna explode, andthen we'll have to clean it up
(38:32):
and be like, okay, okay, notthat one.
SPEAKER_00 (38:35):
Right.
And just no problem.
Now we know what to do in thefuture.
Yeah.
And just because something worksfor another company doesn't mean
it's necessarily right for yourclinic.
So, you know, and I know,especially with social media,
when you're starting to poststuff and you're like, we have
three followers, and two of themare my relatives.
Like, thanks, mom.
(38:55):
Thanks, mom.
That it can be like a littlelike nerve-wracking.
But if you, you know, one thing,and we will wrap this up, but
one thing we didn't necessarilygo into detail about is working
on batch content and batchingyour content.
So, like, if you are gonna do areel, instead of being like,
(39:17):
okay, I'm gonna do one reel,okay.
Next week now, I'm gonna recordanother one, setting like a
two-hour timer and saying, okay,let me record as many as
possible and just have themsaved and then ready to use when
you're ready.
SPEAKER_01 (39:30):
Yep.
That's so helpful.
SPEAKER_00 (39:32):
So helpful because otherwise you're like, oh, I
have to do it again.
I just did it yesterday.
SPEAKER_01 (39:40):
We we do a trade with a patient who's a small
business owner.
So we know that her Instagram isquite good and she knows what
she's doing.
And she comes and she recordsone treatment a month, and we
have the patient sign releasepaperwork, like we're gonna use
this in our marketing, and shejust records video for an hour,
(40:00):
and she does seven secondvideos, and then she uploads it
into a shared Google Drive, andthen I give her a treatment
that's the trade.
Okay, and then we just wheneverI'm going to make an Instagram
reel, I have an enormous amountof video that she has recorded.
So I just like pick something,yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (40:19):
And that super simple, super simple.
Like, don't try to be crazy,don't try to jump on all the
trends and all the cuts and allthe things that people try to do
to be fancy.
Just start, start with the easeand like it.
Well, thank you so much forjoining me today, and we will
(40:39):
include all of your informationon in the show notes on the
webpage.
Thank you so much for having me.
This is fun.
Absolutely.
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