Hi there! Welcome back.

Today I have four quick and easy things you can do today to make your marketing more effective for your acupuncture practice.

The way I teach marketing is all about connecting with your audience, creating genuine relationships, and sharing knowledge – all with the goal of helping you be more visible in your community.

So with that in mind, these are simple upgrades you can make to your marketing that will help you connect with potential patients and get your acupuncture clinic noticed in your community.

4 Things You Can Do Today to Improve Your Clinic Marketing:

1. Let your face be more visible on your social media and website.

I can’t overstate this fact: People will trust you more, and are therefore more likely to become your patients, if they see your face regularly.

It’s such a simple but powerful truth, and it’s rooted in our evolution as social creatures. People want to SEE the person who might be putting needles in them.

The more you share your face on your social media accounts and your website, the faster people will become comfortable with you.

Remember that we like to buy things from people we know, like and trust. If I can see your face or watch you speak on video, it builds that know-like-trust factor MUCH faster.

You wouldn’t believe the number of acupuncturist websites I visit where there’s no picture of the acupuncturist on the “About” page. If this is you, please fix it ASAP! You’re missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with potential patients if you don’t have your photo on your website. 

Even if you do already share your face on the “About” page of your website, I recommend adding it other places as well. The homepage and the “Contact Us” page are great options.

Where else can you share your beautiful, sunshiney face? 

I recommend sharing your face regularly on social media. For example, at least once a month (more often is great if you want!), write a post where you introduce yourself to your audience and share either your professional head shot or a selfie.

If you publish this as a post on Instagram, make sure you share it to your Instagram Story as well. Some people only look at Stories, and some people only pay attention to the posts in their feed. Sharing your face in both places helps to get your face in front of as many of your followers as possible.

2. Write a blog post about your specialty and how acupuncture can help.

Content about what you do best, that attracts your ideal patients, is considered “cornerstone content.” (Read more about “cornerstone content” here.)

It’s important to write blog posts about topics that relate to your specialty and to include keywords that your target market is searching for. (If you don’t have a “specialty” per se, no problem. Instead, focus on writing blog posts about the symptoms/conditions that you feel passionate about and REALLY want to treat.)

Why is this important? This kind of content informs Google of the focus of your website and business, so that it can show your website to the right people as a search result.

Every time you publish a blog post, it’s a new page on your website. And each post will naturally include keywords that your potential patients are searching for. The more often you include relevant keywords on your website, the higher you’ll be ranked in a Google search. If you need help figuring out what keywords to include in your blog posts, I recommend this article. 

What to write about? A great way to get started is to brainstorm a list of the FAQs you get about acupuncture for your specialty, and answer each one as a blog post.

Try to think about this from the perspective of your potential patients. What information are they wondering about? What do they need explained or clarified in order to become your patients? What kind of information would give them confidence that you can help them? Share your experience and expertise, answer their questions, and dispel doubts in your blog posts. 

Don’t overthink it. Whatever kinds of conditions you want to see more of, write blog posts about those topics. Easy peasy.

3. Review and update the language on your website.

As our practices grow and change, it’s important for our websites to change, too. Your website needs to reflect not just who you are and what your clinic offers, but also the kind of patients you want to serve.

Every couple of years, it’s a great idea to do a website audit to make sure it still reflects the unique way you practice and is speaking to the demographics you’re interested in treating.

To that end, all the text on your website should be written from the point of view of your ideal patients.

In other words:

A) Use words, phrases and language that your ideal patients would use, and

B) Make sure it’s clear to them how you’re going to solve a problem they have

You can also think of it like this:

When a potential patients lands on your website, do they understand instantly what you do and how you can help them, specifically? 

One of the best ways to do a website audit is to select a friend/family member who fits your ideal demographic and isn’t super familiar with acupuncture.

Ask them to go through your website – just a quick skim. They can click around as the mood strikes them. Once they’re done, ask them questions like:

• From this quick look at my website, kinds of patients do I want to treat? 
• Do my explanations of how acupuncture works make sense to you?
• Was anything a turn-off? 
• What section or page spoke to you the most? 
• How would you make an appointment with me? 
• Where’s my clinic located? 

Basically, you want to know if your website is easy to understand, easy to navigate, easy to make an appointment, etc.

Why ask them to take just a quick 5-minute glance over your website, instead of a deep dive into every page?

Because most potential patients are going to give your website a quick once-over before deciding if they’re interested. The average attention span online is less than 8 seconds, so you want to ensure that the messages on your website speak to your ideal audience quickly and effectively, before people get distracted.

4. Ask for Google reviews to boost your ranking in a local Google search

One of the most powerful ways to get attention for your acupuncture clinic is to have as many positive Google reviews as possible. (Or Yelp reviews, if that’s your preference.)

I know this is a no-brainer… But people always try to hide an eye roll when I bring it up 😝 And yet… how come no one makes a concerted effort to get more Google reviews?

It not only puts you at the top of the Google search listings for local businesses, but it also gives people a REALLY strong reason to pick your business over a similar acupuncturist down the road.

How do you do it?

Honestly, there isn’t anything fancy involved.

Just ask people. Really.

If you want to accumulate more reviews than your neighbors, all you have to do is include it as part of your regular marketing efforts.

Each week, take a look at your upcoming patients and pick the ones who are really happy with their results and loving acupuncture.

Make a note to ask them for a review after their appointment. As we all know, asking for a review is often not enough. Be sure to send them your Google review short link to make it SUPER EASY for them to leave a review. This short link takes them directly to the “Leave a review” section of your Google Business profile.

Don’t expect patients to do it on their own – they probably won’t! People mean well, but they simply forget.

You MUST make it easy for them by providing this one-click link.

Remember, the more positive Google reviews you have, the higher you’ll rank in a Google Maps listing for local acupuncturists.

This is probably the single most important reason new patients choose my clinic over neighboring clinics in my area – I simply have more Google reviews.

I hope these tips help!

As always, feel free to send me your questions! >> michelle@michellegrasek.com