Happy Fall! 🍂

Today I’m sharing 20 ideas to boost your marketing this season.

Fall is a refreshing season for so many reasons – the start of school, the shift in weather, upcoming holidays, and more.

It’s a great opportunity to roll out some new marketing to grab the attention of your community and increase patient numbers. Plus it’s also the perfect time to prep your audience for holiday sales and special events.

So break out the pumpkin spice and let’s get started!

>> Want to download this list in a single-page checklist? Go right ahead!

20 Fall-Themed Marketing Ideas for Your Acupuncture Practice:

1. Host a Canned Good Drive:
   • Ask patients to bring a canned good to their appointment in order to get a discount or a bonus, or just good karma 😊
2. Offer product discounts with coupon codes like PUMPKINSPICE or PECANPIE
3. Celebrate obscure Fall holidays as a reason to post on social media
   • Examples:
     • National Coffee Day – Oct. 1 ☕
     • National “No Bra Day” (Oct. 13) to celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness
     • National Chocolate Cupcake Day – Oct. 18 🧁
     • National Apple Day – Oct. 21 🍎
     • National Chocolate Day – Oct. 28 🍫
     • Check out even more lesser-known holidays here: https://nationaltoday.com/october-holidays/
4. Sell gift cards and remind your email subscribers and social media followers about them regularly, to prep them for the holiday season.
   • After Thanksgiving, consider offering a special holiday discount (for example, $10 off every $100 purchased), or a bonus (like extended cupping or add a small bottle of Po Sum On Oil).
5. Celebrate Acupuncture Medicine Day on Oct. 24^th
6. Write a blog post about how TCM can help with the transition from summer to fall (acupuncture, herbs, recipes, lifestyle, etc.).
   • Bonus points if you can relate the article to your specialty!
7. Get interviewed by another local wellness business owner, on their IG live, podcast, blog, etc., about how TCM can help patients live their best life in the fall season
8. Host a coat drive and collaborate with a  local coffee shop:
   • Ask them for ½ price coupons for a pumpkin spice (or other fall-themed) latte to give to every patient who brings a coat or mittens.
   • If they’re not down with this, ask them what they might be interested in. Brainstorm and I’m sure you can come up with a collaboration that works for both of you, and increases visibility for both businesses!
9. Prep people for the winter holiday season.
   • Lots of people buy gifts early, so if you have retail items that you can package up as gift boxes or offer a seasonal discount, get started in the fall by featuring these products on your email newsletter and social media. You can even say, “These will make great gifts for the holiday season!”
   • Get people thinking about it early. That way by the time gift-giving comes around and you’re offering specials, they’ll already be familiar with your products and have had time to think about the people those would make great gifts for.
   • I also recommend emphasizing “Shop Local” before and during the holiday shopping season. Supporting the local community matters more to people now (in 2020) than it ever has before.
   • The more you get people excited and aware in advance, the more successful your sales will be.
10. Celebrate Small Business Saturday on Nov. 29^th
11. Celebrate Black Friday through Cyber Monday on Nov. 27-30^th
12. Sponsor a sports team that plays in the fall, like little league or softball.
    • Even with COVID, many areas are still playing (very careful, socially distanced) kids’ sports. Getting your logo on hats, jerseys, or a big sign in the outfield is a great way to repeatedly get in front of your local audience and show support for your community.
13. Create a fall-themed service or product:
    • For example, if you offer cosmetic acupuncture you, could use specific skincare products that are ideal for the fall weather in your face massage, and advertise why it’s so fantastic for autumn.
14. Share fall-themed social media content to connect with your audience:
    • For example, if you’re going apple picking with your kids and making a pie, share on your Instagram story.
    • If you don’t have anything fall-themed to sell at your office, this is fun and generates excitement.
    • It also builds connection with your brand, which in turn builds trust and makes people more likely to make an appointment. It’s important to show up regularly and let your audience get to know you on social media.
    • Remember, people like to buy things from people they know, like, and trust.
15. Cross-promote fall specials with other local businesses.
    • Whatever specials you’re offering for fall, ask nearby local businesses if you can put flyers up in their space to help drive traffic to your business.
    • Even if you don’t want walk-ins (because of COVID), you can put your website and other info on the flyer, to direct people to your online shop, etc.
    • To sweeten the deal for the other business owners, ask if there’s anything you can help promote for them at your office.
    • If you prefer, you can ask for this kind of trade promotion on social media instead of a flyer at their physical location (or both!).
16. Decorate your office for fall to get into the spirit of the season and then use it as a reason to publish at least one post or Instagram story per week.
    • Invite people to come relax at your pretty office, and feature a corner that’s been decorated.
    • This kind of content does really well on Instagram stories! Don’t underestimate how much people enjoy festive content on social media… the Pumpkin Spice Latte wouldn’t’ be an obsession but for the power of social media.
    • Don’t forget to include a call to action (“Click the link in my bio to schedule today”) to get people to make a move. (If you need help with marketing on Instagram, check out my online course, Instagram Marketing for Acupuncturists.)
17. Host a fall-themed contest on social media.
    • This could be a fall photo contest, for example:
      • “How do you stay healthy and well as the seasons change/weather gets colder?”
      • Or, “Share your best fall-themed pet photo!” Tag us #brandedhashtag and you could win!
    • Offer a small but popular item from your retail store as a prize. Gua sha tools, jade rollers all do well at my office.
    • Or you could host a contest to build awareness and excitement around your account, and then have the prize be unrelated (this is okay!) to your business but fall themed, like a free pumpkin spice latte at the local coffee shop.
18. Host “Patient Appreciation Week” with a fall theme.
    • Decorate the office, serve hot apple cider, warming teas, and fall-themed sweets from the local coffee shop, offer a discount on retail items, etc.
    • The goal of any event like this is to generate buzz and enthusiasm around your business, and provide a VERY strong reason for you to post on social media frequently that week. This increases brand awareness and helps new people find you.
19. Update your Facebook cover photo with fall theme.
    • This is incredibly easy on the free graphic design website, Canva.com – view their fall-themed Facebook covers here.
20. Write a blog post about your “Fall Essentials” (scarf, tea, congee, PSL, whatever you like!) and relate it back to TCM.
    • Be sure to share this on social media and with your email newsletter subscribers! This is a fun topic that people enjoy reading.

Download these ideas as a quick and easy checklist! >> 🍂