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Hello, and welcome back!
Today I’m sharing my Top 5 Tips for Marketing Your Acupuncture Practice During the Coronavirus.
By far the most common questions I’ve been getting lately are: “I had to close my practice. Should I keep marketing? How do I keep marketing during this strange, uncertain time?”
YES you should keep marketing. You can’t afford to lose all the momentum you’ve built up for your practice. And today, we’ll talk about HOW to keep marketing now that things are so different.
I’ve actually given FOUR live webinars on this topic to over 1100 acupuncturists in the past couple of weeks 🤯 So I’ve boiled it down for you here in this article.
*If you love the info in this article and want more, I highly recommend watching this free webinar replay that covers each of these five topics in-depth.
And just a quick note before we begin –
Wherever you are in the world, I hope you’re safe and healthy.
Here in Central New York, things are relatively calm because it’s a rural area. I’m spending my self-isolation focusing on creating new webinars about marketing for you, as well as staying in touch with my patients via social media.
I’m overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and positivity I’m seeing in the acupuncture community, all over the world. Thank you to everyone who has shared messages of love and light with me via email and Instagram!
I always find it warming and uplifting, especially now. It’s good to know we have each other’s support across the miles. As always, I’m so proud to be a member of the acupuncture community.
Thank you for being here. 🙏🏽 Feel free to say hello anytime – via email at michelle@michellegrasek.com, or via Instagram @michellegrasek, my favorite place to spend time online 💖
Okay! On to the marketing tips.
My Top 5 Tips for Marketing Your Acupuncture Practice During the Coronavirus
Now, these tips are largely assuming you’re NOT marketing a telemedicine practice.
These tips are primarily for those of us who are waiting to go back into practice once the coronavirus curve has flattened and we’re given the all-clear.
I do have a separate article on how to market your telehealth or online wellness coaching practice! You can read it here: 3 Important Tips for Marketing Your Acupuncture Telemedicine Practice.
But for now, let’s focus on what you can do if your practice is closed and you’re waiting to return to your clinic:
1. Show Up Regularly Online
Digital marketing is all we have left, folks! Face-to-face contact and networking groups are (at least temporarily) a thing of the past. If you want to maintain a connection with your patients and build relationships with potential patients at this time, you’ve got to do it online.
And you’ve got to show up REGULARLY. This allows you to stay top of mind (don’t give people the chance to forget about you!) and also helps you build trust with your audience.
Because at the end of the day, marketing is all about building enough trust in potential patients that they decide to take the plunge and make an appointment with you.
And one way of building that trust to keep showing up like clockwork wherever your potential patients are. For example, if you chose Instagram, commit to publishing posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday (for example). Post Instagram stories everyday. If you choose to send an email newsletter, send it every Monday or Tuesday. But become reliable! Let your audience trust that you will make an appearance in their inbox or social media feed.
Marketing does not work as well if you if you show up once and then disappear for three weeks. People will forget about you. Whatever digital marketing approach you chose, commit to it and show up regularly.
Plus, the more often you show up online to share your thoughts and teach people about their health, you’re giving them the chance to get to know you. This is critical right now. Remember that we like to buy things from people we know, like and trust.
This is the perfect time to let your social media audience, newsletter list or blog audience get to know you even better, so that when life is back to normal, they’re ready to become your patients.
To do that, you’ve got to keep creating content, posting online, and showing up on a regular basis.
2. Pick ONE digital medium where you’re willing to show up regularly and stick with it.
What do I mean by digital medium?
This could be: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or any other social media platform. This could be: Email newsletters, writing blog posts, starting a podcast, publishing video, starting a YouTube channel, etc.
How do you chose? After reading that list, you probably know in your gut which of those ideas you love, and which you hate. 🤣 So I offer two suggestions for how to chose a digital medium to focus on right now:
- Pick a digital platform you like and preferably, that you use already. If you hate a certain social media platform, you’re not very likely to show up there regularly. So pick someplace online where you know you’re willing to spend your time.
- Pick a digital platform where your potential patients actually hang out.
Why do I recommend only choosing one digital platform right now?
I always tell me students inside Acupuncture Marketing School to pick no more than two social media platforms, because committing to too many marketing avenues quickly leads to burnout. It’s better to have a strong showing in ONE or TWO places online, than lackluster marketing across five different social media platforms.
And with life being so different right now, I’m recommending that people pick only ONE digital medium to commit to during coronavirus. Because our attention is divided, there are stressors in our lives that aren’t usually there, and basically, I want you to go easy on yourself.
Showing up regularly in one place online is spectacular. It will make a difference. It will allow you to connect with your audience. These are difficult times we’re living in. You don’t have to do ALL THE THINGS.
3. Pick New Marketing Goals
One of the first things I do with new Marketing Strategy Session clients and AMS marketing students is to ask them what their goals are for their marketing.
In other words, what do they want to happen as a result of their marketing efforts?
Typically, the answer is, “Get more patients right away!”
This is a perfectly normal and expected response – it doesn’t have to be complicated.
However, during coronavirus, it’s not really a marketing goal that makes sense. (If you’re doing telehealth, this doesn’t really apply, and you’ll want to read next week’s post about marketing a telehealth practice during coronavirus!)
So instead we need to choose new goals for our marketing efforts. Let me provide a few options, then I recommend picking one or two to focus your efforts on.
Potential New Marketing Goals During Coronavirus:
- Create more content (build up the blog posts on your website, stockpile social media posts, etc.)
- Get more social media followers
- Get more email subscribers
- Support and cheer up your audience (which builds trust and helps them get to know you)
Ultimately, the goal for each of these 👉🏽 is to prepare people to become your patients once life goes back to normal.
4. Change Your Calls to Action
Along with changing your marketing goals, your calls to action will also naturally need to change.
What exactly is a call to action?
It’s when you tell your audience exactly what you want them to do, and how to do it.
For example, a common call to action that we used to be able to use all the time is, “Click the link to schedule now!” or, “Call [this number] to set up your free consult today!”
Obviously those don’t quite work anymore if we’re not doing telemedicine.
So, new calls to action should reflect your new marketing goals:
- If your goal is to build your email list, your new call to action might be, “Submit your email to download your free PDF eBook!”
- If your goal is to grow your Instagram following, your call to action could be, “Follow me for more great tips on improving your fertility naturally!”
- If your goal is to build up your content library (of blog posts, for example), then your call to action might be, “Click the link to read the new article I’ve written about how to manage your back pain at home!”
You get the idea. But don’t leave out calls to action!
In my experience teaching and coaching acupuncturists over the past six years, I’ve found that one thing we don’t love doing is including a call to action.
We’re worried that if we do, our message will come across as pushy or salesy.
Honestly, this just isn’t the case.
Why? People don’t like feeling confused. They don’t like clicking around looking for something. They WANT to be told what to do! Really, they EXPECT to be told what to do in the digital world.
It’s totally normally and expected for you to include a call to action in your social media posts and email newsletters.
So please please please – don’t leave them out.
5. Show Your Face
Okay, my last tip might be the hardest one. I’m BEGGING you to show your audience your beautiful, sunshiney face.
This helps to build trust with your audience so quickly. And remember, our goal with any kind of marketing is to build enough trust with our audience that people feel comfortable making an appointment (when life is back to normal).
So the more you can let people get to know you, like you, and relate to you, the more likely they are to become your patients.
And sharing your face is one of the fastest possible ways you can build that trust. We’re social creatures, and people want to connect with you in this way. They want to put their eyeballs on your eyeballs! Weird, right? But true.
You wouldn’t believe the number of acupuncturist website and Instagram accounts I’ve visited that have NO PICTURES of the acupuncturist anywhere to be found. If you’re going to be sticking needles in me, I want to see your face first.
- So share your professional head shot (or a selfie!) and introduce yourself on social media and in your email newsletter
- Write a blog post about your personal health journey with acupuncture and share a photo of yourself
- Record a video for any social media platform to teach and say hello to your audience
Honestly, video is the most effective way to build this kind of trust. It’s not only sharing your face, but also your voice, the way you use your words, your mannerisms, etc. It’s hands-down the best way to build trust outside of meeting someone in person. And since we can’t meet in person right now, I highly recommend that you give video a try.
But if video is too much for you, then at least start regularly sharing photos of your face.
And let me emphasize – if you’re concerned about coming across as shallow or self-absorbed for sharing your own picture, don’t worry. Again, this is all about the fact that we are social creatures, and we bond through seeing someone’s face in a big way.
It’s so effective. Please try it. Just introduce yourself on Instagram account this week with your photo, and see what kind of supportive and positive response you get.
I hope these tips help you to really make the most of this strange times we’re living in right now.
Again, if you found this information helpful and want more, I highly recommend watching this free webinar replay: How to Keep Marketing Your Practice Even After You’ve Closed Your Doors. In this recent webinar, I cover each of these five topics in detail.
I miss my clinic and I know you miss yours, too 💗 I’m right here with you.
Feel free to reach out anytime with questions! 👉 michelle@michellegrasek.com
And don’t forget that my online courses, PDAs, and one-on-one marketing sessions are 30% off until April 31st with discount code WTFCORONA. Check out my courses and coaching right here.
Stay safe and well, my friends!
Until next time,
xo Michelle